Monthly Feature by Tim Gruar, Bridget Herlihy & Doug Peters.
Crikey, whanau, it’s June already! Where has the year gone? We’ll be writing our Christmas lists before you know it. So, it looks like the new normal is upon us all, and live gigs are ramping back up. Our musicians are heading back overseas and big players like G’N’R, Pixies, and Harry Styles are organising tickets and boarding planes to come here. The world is coming back to Aotearoa! Internationals are on the bill again. Lucy Dacus and Cate Le Bon are in town and plenty more are on their way. The time for isolation is over. Heck, even our own PM is travelling again, sans mask and broken-down Airforce plane. I wonder what’s on her playlist? Did she get any good recommendations form Joe Biden during her recent korero at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? My guess is a bit of Springsteen or Emmy Lou. Maybe Dolly, too. Anyway, enough blah-blah, people. Time to rev up your turntables…
Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Spitting Off The Edge Of The World
Can you believe it? Their first new music in nine years! Karen O, Nick Zinner and Brian Chase are officially back with a new album, their fifth studio effort, ‘Cool It Down’, due to drop on September 30, and featuring some sexy-as-fuck photography from Alex Prager.
The first single is the Dave Sitek produced ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World‘. The haunting and powerful song is cocooned by the interplay of the immediately recognizable vocals of Karen O and Michael Alden Hadreas (aka Perfume Genius). The lyrics reflect on the state of the environment, and the need for honesty about the damage we’re doing to the Earth. Karen O explains in her publicity, “I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiance,” she says. “It’s galvanizing, and there’s hope there.”
Beth Orton – Weather Alive
Also rising from the ashes of silence is Beth Orton, whose new single ‘Weather Alive’ has just surfaced. It’s a return to the ethereal 90’s techno-folk style that made her career in the early days and the title track from her next album, due on 23 September. It’s seven minutes of dreamy, atmospheric winter darkness that both showcases her distinguishable, fragile vocal and light touch production. Like a brewing storm, it silently engulfs you. Previous collabs have been with production heavyweights such as Chemical Brothers and Andy Weatherall. But this time it’s Beth herself on the desk of this home studio creation.
Orton has left a crack open for players like The Smile’s drummer Tom Skinner, Mancunian jazz star Alabaster dePlume, multi-instrumentalist/composed Shahzad Ismaily, and The Invisible’s bassist Tom Herbert to sneak in and lay down some channel. The song collates memories and experiences spanning a lifetime. Stories of struggles, healing and beauty, written on a decrepit old piano, rescued from Camden Markets. It’s a doozy of a tune, up there were other greats like ‘Central Reservation’ and ‘She Calls Your Name’.
Lucy Dacus – Kissing Lessons
Currently touring, the Virginian singer-songwriter and producer has been turning heads since debut album ‘No Burden’ appeared in 2016. Her second album, ‘Historian’, furthered her status and now she’s the darling of the stage with her latest ‘Home Video’, released last year. Rolling Stone added her to their top 5 best albums of the year – “[On ‘Home Video’] Dacus takes us through park benches, basements, and bunk beds, crafting gems about teenage heartbreak and friendship that make for the greatest songwriting of her career.”
This cut will no doubt create a bit of FOMO for anyone too slow to snap up tix to her Põneke and Tāmaki Makaurau shows. The video, made by Mara Palena, accompanies a perfect slice of 13 year old girl bedroom pop angst and optimistic story telling.
Angel Olsen – Big Time
Angel Olsen is, I confess, a bit of a personal favourite. So, I’m stoked that she’s about to put out another new disc. The publicity around this one is just simply gushing: “Big Time’ was forged in a whiplash; the rare, fertile moments when both fresh grief and fresh love occur, when mourning and limerence heighten, complicate and explain each other.” This, the title track, sums up the new album perfectly.
‘All Mirrors’, was full on drama. But the new album is simplicity by comparison, and proves her a writer now more clearly rooted in a place of clarity. As the publicity says “These are songs not just about transformational mourning, but of finding freedom and joy in the privations as they come.”
Emma Ruth Rundle – In The Cave Of The Cailleach’s Death-Birth
If Dark Music is your thing, then check out Portland, Oregon based singer-songwriter, guitarist and visual artist Emma Ruth Rundle. Formerly of the Nocturnes and Marriages and current member of Sparowes. Rundle has notched up five solo albums of challenging music. Her work could be best described a modern gothic, confronting what she refers to as “the ugliness of things”.
This new track and deeply disturbing video comes from the new E.P ‘EG2: Dowsing Voice’, which is accompanied by some equally bewitching artwork on her site. In Gaelic, the ‘Cailleach’ is a divine hag and ancestor, connected in legend to the creation of the landscape and with the weather, especially storms and winter. They are common mythological and folkloric figures found across Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. In modern Irish folklore studies, she is also known as The Hag of Beara, while in Scotland she is also known as Beira, Queen of Winter.
Pacific Heights – Back To You (Feat. Louis Baker)
‘Back To You’ is the third single to drop from Pacific Heights’ forthcoming album ‘The Waters Between’, scheduled for release on July 15. Featuring the distinctive soulful vocals of Louis Baker, ‘Back to You’ is an modern power ballad that defies genres, and by all accounts encapsulates Abrams’ endeavours to create a “beautiful alchemy of all of the worlds that I have inhabited so far; electronic music, ambient music and progressive pop music”.
Tali – My Remedy (Feat. Ruth Royall)
Renowned drum & bass vocalist/MC, producer and composer Tali is back with a vengeance with ‘My Remedy’. The first track from her new album ‘Future Dwellers’, due to drop on July 29th, ‘My Remedy’ begins as an ethereal melodic composition featuring stings and piano that steadily builds in momentum as synths and drums kick in. Featuring Ruth Royall on accompanying vocals, this track is a love letter to the joy and solace that can be found in music, and the how it facilitates connection in times of isolation and uncertainty.
Tami Neilson – Careless Woman
Award-winning country soul singer-songwriter Tami Neilson has just dropped “Careless Woman”, the third single off the upcoming album “Kingmaker”. This rebellious empowering anthem is accompanied by a spectacular official music video – co-starring New Zealand-based actress Olivia Tennet (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Power Rangers RPM) and Ling Zhang of Parris Goebel’s esteemed Royal Family Dance Crew. The Band of Careless Women are: Skye Hine, Davidda, Vanessa Abernethy.
“Careless Woman” was inspired by a 1938 collection of ‘Dating Tips’ in Parade Magazine,” says Neilson, “one of which read, ‘Careless Women never appeal to gentlemen. Don’t talk while dancing, for when a man dances, he wants to dance.’ Director Abe Mora was inspired to bring this era to life and built an amazing coin-operated music box for me and my band of Careless Women to perform in, like a human jukebox. As the song plays, the women in the bar are empowered and begin to dance and throw off the oppressive rules of propriety.”
They Hate Change – Blatant Localism
Lorde called out the extreme excesses of pop and rap culture videos in her song ‘Loyals’ a few years back. Since then, the culture in Hip-Hop calling for ‘Real’ seems to have become more visible again. You get that in spades on Blatant Localism’, the new track by They Hate Change, the Tampa Bay production/rap duo who are truly embracing the post-genre musical landscape. Their debut ‘New’ is a construct that comes from creatures best described as elite ‘sonic omnivores’, obsessive vinyl deep-divers, purveyors of rare and radical sounds from the past, “amassing a shared sonic knowledge so deep that “encyclopedic” barely begins to cover it”. On this cut the duo rip into the artistic monogamy of their genre and challenge every cliché and trope, over a backbeat that sounds of old soul, familiar but fresh-as all at once.
The Libertines – What A Waster
Another anniversary release. This time from Pete Doherty’s fabulous fracas, the Libertines, the indie press’s favourite darlings of the noughties. To celebrate the 20th Anniversary of their ‘iconic’ first single (isn’t everything iconic nowadays?) their label Rough Trade has pressed up a replica 7” of the original release. It’s still full of the same drunken Lad-swagger the band built their reputation on.
Amon Amarth – Get In The Ring
And speaking of testosterone overload, Swedish melodic death metal band outfit go full ‘Mad Max’ on their latest single. There’s nothing particularly poignant or philosophical about this video. No insightful messages. Just a good old fashioned post apocalyptical ‘Game Of Thrones’ smack down. However, you’ve got to admire the very splendid cinematography. The band, which formed back in 1992 have a huge following in their native Scandinavia. They take their name from the Sindarin name of Mount Doom, the volcano in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. Their shows are theatrical masterpieces with fire, stage sets and many explosions to offset their songs, which are mostly written around Viking mythology themes and history. Some journalists have dared to call them ‘Viking metal’, although the band insist they play ‘melodic death metal’. You be the judge.
Hans – TT
Kiwi-Korean rapper Hans has unveiled new track ‘TT’. This is the second of a a trilogy of videos that Hans has produced for his seven track EP KIMYUNTAK. Whereas the tongue-in-cheek video first single ‘Be Grateful’ was more playful, ‘TT’ reveals a darker and more sombre side to Hans. Stepping outside of his “comfort zone” and shifting away from expectations, “TT’ features rapping over trap beats; a more blunt and raw track of rapping with no chorus. Further evidence that Hans is one to watch.
Pongo – Começa
The Angolan-born, Lisbon-based rapper Pongo already become a world music favourite with high powered beats and rhymes, collaborating with Buraka Som Sistema, a much beloved electronic dance music project from Portugal specializing in a fusion of techno beats with the African zouk and kuduro.
After a string of eps and singles she’s finally managed to put together an album, called ‘Sakidila’, which mines the heavy beats of the kuduro club and mixes with more traditional western R&B, along riffs from Brazil and the Caribbean. The first half of the album is pretty laid back and cruisy, but it kicks up a notch or three when this selected cut, ‘Começa’, comes up. The bass gets dark and almost menacing, the beats are harder and the vocals have real venom behind the tongue.
In other words don’t take her for granted. She means business. It’s a memorable moment and a showcase for what you might catch in one of her frenetic live performances. She’s one to watch. And if she ever comes down under for WOMAD, then make sure you go.
Good Morning Bedlam – Lulu
In 2021, high energy folk outfit Good Morning Bedlam ran a crowd sourcing campaign for their third album. And fans around the world responded, chipping in over $34K for the cause. The result was ‘Lulu’ (of which we present the title track here for your listening pleasure). You could call their music shiny, happy, acoustic roots music, predominated by ethereal three-part harmonies guided by themes of romance and personal introspections. These are optimistic murder ballads for the ne’er do well.
The core trio, Isaak Elker (guitar, piano, vocals), Sophia Mae Beyer (violin, vocals) and Tori Elker (bass, vocals) are lifelong friends from Rochester, Minnesota, who’ve performed together since they were teens. They are joined by Dawson Redenius (trumpet, keys) to make this track, ‘Lulu’, an extra special experience. Its charming and mesmerizing. It has a naïve quality that just wins you over with its charm. No magic here, really. Just old-world grace and posture. The clip moves from the everyday to an EM Forster ballroom scene. A dream sequence of sorts, and a love story that’s as old as the hills.
Erin Buku – Humble (Kaidi Tatham Remix)
‘Humble’ the debut single from Adelaide based vocalist Erin Buku, on Melbourne boutique label Hopestreet Recordings, introduces to the world her signature blend of synth heavy hip-hop soul. This particular remix featured remixing by UK broken beat luminary Kaidi Tatham. It’s a satisfying chunky boom bap jam matched up by Buku’s soulful vocals outlining her policy for a good life: humility, kindness, honesty and love in one’s actions being the perfect recipe for a good night’s sleep.
Kaidi Tatham’s remix gives the track a more gentle, jazz feel to the original, which features on Buku’s debut ep ‘Lessons In Love’.
Jenny Mitchell – Snakes In The Grass
Southland-born, now Poneke based, Country artist Jenny Mitchell has just released another single from her upcoming album ‘Tug Of War’, due to hit platforms on July 22, and on actual cool-as white vinyl by mid October. ‘Snakes in the Grass’ exhibits a darker, more alluring Americana sound. Jenny calls it a “love-warning”, a cautionary tale, a ‘beware’ moment. To help out her sisters Maegan & Nicola add some classy and understated harmonies, with Australian country music legend Rod McCormack on banjo and Michael Muchow on electric guitar providing extra ambience. Like many of her songs, it began as a Songclub exercise (run by Sam Hawkley), then recorded as a demo in her bedroom, worked on remotely by Sydney based producer Matt Fell and eventually completed at Loho Studios in Christchurch.
So, whanau, there we have it. The fifth Singles Club for the year. We’ve tried to add a bit of everything. But, as is the way, we always seem to miss something, so we’d be keen to hear your thoughts and suggestions. Have you heard a new track this month that needs to be bought to our attention? Tell us all about it in the comments below, and we’ll see you all with another instalment next month!
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