The masters of minimal post-punk and street poetry return with their first album for Rough Trade, In the last four years the duo have gone from something of a curiosity to an established act with a cutting line in socio-political commentary and stark, primitive music. English Tapas continues the sound and content of its predecessors. On Divide & Exit (2014), Andrew Fearn concocted a sound … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Sleaford Mods – English Tapas
Moon Duo return with the first of two albums they plan to release in 2017, with both volumes rooted in balanced and oppositional ideas and textures. The conceptual approach of the double album is, in their words “an intricately woven hymn to the invisible structures found in the cycle of seasons and the journey of day into night, dark into light.” That Yin Yang format … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Moon Duo – Occult Architecture Vol. 1
Dylan Carlson (Earth) has once again teamed up with The Bug’s Kevin Martin (Techno Animal, Ice, God, Razor X, King Midas Sound), this time for a full-length LP called Concrete Desert. The album also features guest vocals from Justin Broadrick from Jesu/Godflesh etc on two tracks. Below you can hear the first taste of the album – ‘Snakes Vs Rats’. Martin says that the album is in some ways … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: The Bug Vs Earth – Snakes Vs Rats from their new LP Concrete Desert
My Disco, Marcus Whale, Hviske @ Newtown Social Club, 11 February 2017 Minimalism shaping grand emotion was the order of the night at NSC for My Disco’s last stop on their summer tour. From the headliners down through Marcus Whale and opening duo Hviske, there was a common thread of space, intensity and the blurring of technology and organic instrumentation to create dramatic musical pieces. Hviske are … Continue reading LIVE REVIEW: My Disco @ Newtown Social Club
This is Bic Runga’s fifth album in two decades and comes as she is inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame. A collection of covers and two originals, it finds her tipping her hat to some of her influences, from the obvious to the obscure. Both originals (the title track and Dream A Dream) are lush rhythmic pop songs with tropical noir textures while … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Bic Runga – Close Your Eyes
THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHEDELIA & BREAKBEATS The Laurels have re-emerged from the studio with an adventurous take on their brand of psych rock that takes influence from both Primal Scream and Public Enemy. Singer and guitarist Luke O’Farrell takes Chris Familton inside the creation of Sonicology. “I went a bit nuts, we all went a bit crazy in the studio working on these songs “ … Continue reading INTERVIEW: The Laurels
Scotsman Kenny Anderson has long dwelled on the fringes of indie and experimental pop music, releasing over forty albums that traverse a large expanse of creative terrain. His latest finds him exploring graceful and emotive music, drawing on electronic and organic instrumentation and positioned between the terrestrial and ethereal. The results are often moving and transportive, the unifying element being Anderson’s rich Scottish burr of … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: King Creosote – Astronaut Meets Appleman
Lambchop have been fairly quiet of late with their last LP (Mr. M) coming out in 2012. In the intervening years the band, among other things, performed their landmark album Nixon in full and head honcho Kurt Wagner released an electronic album (The Diet) under the name HeCTA with Lambchop members Ryan Norris and Scott Martin in 2015. They’ve now announced that a brand new Lambchop LP … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: Lambchop –The Hustle
In recent years there has been a wealth of composers that fall into the loosely-aligned world of modern-classical, post-ambient, avant-electronic and instrumental post-rock. They draw from all of those styles and explore their compositional meeting points. Locally, our leading light is Sophie Hutchings and on her third album she again finds new and fascinating ways to create cerebral and emotionally rich and ornate arrangements – led … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Sophie Hutchings – Wide Asleep
Marcus Whale (Collarbones) has made an impressive artistic statement with his debut solo album. Released digitally, with an accompanying physical book, Inland Sea explores queer and colonial Australian history through a dark and oblique gauze of minimal electronica. It veers between militant tech-heavy drums and glitchy whirs of atmospheric sounds that can draw a timeline back through artists such as Bjork and Photek. There’s an … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: Marcus Whale – Inland Sea
It took 16 years for them to follow-up their groundbreaking sampledelic debut LP Since I Left You but finally Sydney’s The Avalanches (Robbie Chater, Tony Di Blasi and James Dela Cruz) have released their first song and video from their forthcoming album Wildflower. Frankie Sinatra is built on a sample of Wilmots Houdini’s Bobby Sox Idol and features Danny Brown and Madlib with some tripped … Continue reading NEW MUSIC: The Avalanches – Frankie Sinatra
On The Drones last album, I See Seeweed (2013), there was a sense that the band had reached terminal velocity with their brand of dense, churning rock music and elegiac, snaking balladry. Where could they go from there without repeating the format they’d seemingly mastered? The answer is Feelin Kinda Free – the title alone signalling a breaking of the creative shackles. Between albums they also … Continue reading ALBUM REVIEW: The Drones – Feelin Kinda Free
Doubtful Sounds 