New video from Crystal Chen

 

Cool new video from local soul singer Crystal Chen for her recent single Kiss it better, album out later this year. 

Pre-order Limited Edition Vinyl of Crystal Chen's debut album "You Can Call Me CC" from 28.06.2025 on https://crystal-chen.com

Chinatown punk wars doco

Watched this cool doco on the rise of LA punk bands playing in Chinese restaurants, once all the regular venues had banned them. Wild.

"In the late 1970s, two Chinese restaurants became the unlikely epicenter of L.A.’s burgeoning punk scene. The emerging music form featured fast-paced songs and hard-edged melodies with anti-capitalist messaging. As told through interviews with John Doe (X), Alice Bag (The Bags), Keith Morris (Circle Jerks, Black Flag, OFF!), and Martin Wong (Save Music in Chinatown), and featuring music from current performers such as The Linda Lindas and more."

Unzipped - Prime Sex original soundtrack from 1992

Unzipped - Prime Sex was a NZ TV documentary that decided to get some fresh local talent to record some originals to use. Ive digitised my CD copy and made a wee playlist. 

The lineup featured Supergroove in the same year they released their debut single, Shihad before they had made their first album, Ngaire, These Wilding Ways (ex Screaming Meemees) and a wicked hiphop crew from Wellington called Rough Opinion. Rappers were K.O.S. 163, who later helmed Footsouljahs, and RIQ, who changed his name to The Field Style Orator, then Tha Feelstyle.  

This track is their only released recording, but they toured with Supergroove and made their name known on the live front. I remember them opening a few times for my band Hallelujah Picassos, and absolutely ripping up there stage. They were awesome and hard as hell. 

New Sola Rosa EP out now

Well worth a listen, out on vinyl and digital. 

Sly and the Family Stone album cuts mixtape

You know all of Sly and the Family Stone's big hits, they are timeless classics. Their albums also offer up a magnificently groovy deep dive into what it is to be funky. I have been thinking about doing this mix for a while - I've remember picking up 5 of their albums on CD plus their Greatest Hits from Borders Books back in the late 90s when Borders arrived here in New Zealand, think they were all like $10 each, absolute bargain.

Much respect to Sly Stone. Go watch Questlove's amazing doco on Sly Stone. Here's some background on it from one of the producers, Joseph Patel.

Also there's a great interview by Jay Mumford with their drummer Greg Errico - Mumford did a series of interviews in 2019 with drummers for Red Bull, so if you ever wondered about the drummers for Funkadelic, War, Tower of Power, Ohio Players or BT Express, go have a read, it's an incredible archive.  Questlove gets interviewed too if you want his backstory.

Errico had a cool career post-Sly as a session musician and producer, on albums by The Pointer Sisters, Betty Davis, and  Lee Oskar (harmonica player for War). He also toured as drummer for David Bowie, Weather Report, and collaborated with Santana, and Larry Graham. 

My favourite Lee Oskar tune is Haunted House, one that Cian (Conch/Ulo) put me onto. Oskar's self-titled solo debut came out in 1976 and featured a number of members of War backing him, plus Greg Errico on several tracks. Errico also produced most of the album and co-wrote several tunes, and held down the producer's seat for Oskar's second solo effort, Before The Rain (1978), which features Haunted House. Errico produced some of Oskar's later records too. 

Oskar left his native Denmark at 18, landing in New York to make it big, with his harmonica in his pocket. Following his success with War (out in LA), he later developed his own line of harmonicas.

My copy of Lee Oskar's debut album has still got the price sticker on it from the record store I got it from, Open Mind Music in San Francisco, a store Cian worked in when he lived there in the early 2000s.

Tracks: Trip to your heart / Dynamite / Soul clappin’ / Love City / Colour me true / Plastic Jim / Are you ready / I cannot make it / I’m an animal / Chicken / Into my own thing / Advice / Higher / Only one way out of this mess / Don’t burn baby / Harmony / Underdog / Turn me loose / If this room could talk / Loose booty / The same thing (makes you laugh, makes you cry) / Thankful n’ thoughtful

Bill's Records (short documentary)

 

This is a lovely watch... "74 year old Bill Wisener had owned Bills Records in Dallas, Texas for 46 years. His shop was once the largest independent record store in the country. 

Director Chuck Przybyl and his crew had filmed with Bill from 2014 to 2019. This short film was created from 2015 to 2017. Bill passed away in January of 2020 as we were filming the yet to be released documentary Love and Records about Bill, his life and his legacy. Featuring music by the band Michelles, from the album Dark as a Daisy.

New tunes from Pains People

 Some beautiful, bleepy, bouncy electronic from Pains People, take a listen.

New Dub Asylum EP out now

Here's a new EP from me, some uptempo reggae dancehall, cumbia vibes with a mad dash of electronica. Made a wee video for it below...

Latest single from Brenda (aka Hudson Whitlock of Surprise Chef, Karate Boogaloo)

"College Of Knowledge Records present new signing Brenda, making their College Of Knowledge debut with two heartbreaking sweet soul ballads ‘Where Did I Go Wrong?’ and ‘Family’.

Brenda is the solo project of prolific drummer / multi-instrumentalist Hudson Whitlock. Known for his indefatigable creative output across multitudinous projects including Surprise Chef, Karate Boogaloo, The Pro-Teens and The Cactus Channel, Whitlock uses the Brenda moniker for his vocal music; as Brenda, Whitlock emerges as singer, in addition to composer, arranger and drummer.

Brenda encompasses the left-field soul sensibilities for which Whitlock has come to be recognised and revered, alongside heartfelt, introspective lyricism delivered in a sincere, delicate falsetto. Stylistically, lines can be drawn to the 1960s sweet soul ballads of The Delfonics, Jean-Claude Vannier’s vivid arrangements for Serge Gainsbourg, and, of course, the unmistakable flavour of Melbourne’s cinematic soul movement à la other Whitlock exploits Surprise Chef and Karate Boogaloo.

True to his modest vagabond nature, Whitlock has released SIX Brenda albums to date, each uploaded exclusively to Bandcamp, gladly resigning the music to the underground. These albums display Whitlock’s indefatigable creativity; he creates every component of the project in total independence, playing every instrument, carrying recording and mixing duties and creating the artwork.

In this new material, Whitlock relinquishes the isolationism of previous works in favour of including his trusted inner circle of friends and collaborators: Surprise Chef’s Lachlan Stuckey and Jethro Curtin on guitar and keyboard respectively, Karate Boogaloo’s Darvid Thor on bass, and production from Henry Jenkins (Surprise Chef, Karate Boogaloo, Frollen Music Library).

‘Where Did I Go Wrong’ and ‘Family’ are the first of many tunes from Brenda to come in 2025.

Out on 7" vinyl/digital on 2 May 2025.

Cinema Royal album drops

"Stones Throw alumni Rejoicer joins forces with longtime collaborator, fellow Apifera band member and renowned pianist Nitai Hershkovits to present a new moniker and concept piece Cinema Royal - a delicate yet audacious album that quietly commands attention. Having previously collaborated on works for Raw Tapes and beyond, this body of work exists more on the modern classical plain with splices of ambient and jazz woven into the musical fabric of the compositions.

Led by piano, the album features a dizzying array of orchestral, percussive and traditional string instruments from around the world- flawlessly combined in a way that might sound contrived, but just fits effortlessly.

Synthesisers cozy up to Afro beat indebted drums , East Asian zithers swim amongst classical string arrangements whilst Ethio-jazz keys dance atop restrained but irresistibly funky drum machine patterns. Inspired to create a cinematic energy they saw the essence of Fellini in their album cover choice, striving to create an album that could exist as a film score.

Speaking on the process, Nitai remarks, “Cinema Royal emerges from years of collaborative writing and recording. Our initial experience with a complete one piano take on a drum loop was in Flying’ Bamboo, a collaboration with MNDSGN and animator Felix Colgrave that garnered millions of views on YouTube. Nearly a decade later, we revisited this unique method of improvising a single piano take throughout the album. We love Emahoy Tzegue, Ennio Morricone, Nino Rota, Lalo Schifrin and lots of music from the ECM catalog. There’s a lot of Africa, too - from Ebo Taylor, Pat Thomas, Felt Kuti, and Ghana high-life, to more niche stuff from the Awesome Tapes from Africa’s catalog “

Rejoicer and Nitai have a rare synergy and have channeled it to create something that speaks without words, or rather - whispers, and in this quiet exclamation we are drawn in to listen closer and closer." 

Out now on LP/digital, on Rhythm Section International.