March’s new music for Te Awe: Part 1


via GIPHY

Statler: Well, it was good.
Waldorf: Ah, it was very bad.
Statler: Well, it was average.
Waldorf: Ah, it was in the middle there.
Statler: Ah, it wasn’t that great.
Waldorf: I kind of liked it.”
-‘The Muppet Show’.

I’m Mark, the Music & Film Specialist at Wellington City Libraries (I also run the Libraries’ Wellington Music Facebook page). Every month my colleague Neil and I cast our eye over the new material we have been buying for the Music collection at our CBD Te Awe library. We pick out some interesting titles across a range of music genres, and try to limit our reviews to a few lines only. Can we encapsulate an entire album in just a couple of lines? [Ed. This is probably unlikely at this point]. Do we actually know anything about new music? Or, are we just too old to understand what most of this is banging on about? [Ed. This is more than likely]. Read on to find out…

Pollen / Tennis (Musical group)
Mark: Tennis are a husband-and-wife indie duo, Patrick Riley and Alaina Moore, who make vintage, classicist, AOR pop and this is their 6th album, following 2020s Swimmer. Beginning as very much a lo-fi bedroom pop meets the 60s, their albums became increasingly slicker with Black Key producer Patrick Carney. They went back to basics on 2017s serious Yours Conditionally then expanded their sound again on ‘Swimmer’, finding a new groove and atmosphere. 2023’s Pollen is a similar efort, distilling their woozy mid-tempo sound, a synthy recreation of 70s soft rock, polite beats and melodic vibes. There’s nothing musically ambitious happening, but you’re left with the impression that that is exactly the kind of music they want to make: comforting, retro romantic escapism.

Neil: ‘Pollen’ is the sixth outing from indie pop rock duo Tennis . This self-produced and recorded album displays all the hallmarks of their singular sound, which is in essence an elusive sweet point where the music is both slightly exciting but also comforting. There’s a soft focus to their tracks, a gentle sense of charming romantic adventure.

Guerrilla girls! : she-punks & beyond 1975-2016
Mark: Great Ace Records compilation that tracks this female music subculture from punk’s mid-70s origins, to left-field post-punk groups, jangly 80s combos, grunge bands & 90s Riot Grrrls, to the she-punk bands of recent years, taking the music’s development in chronological order focusing on album tracks & lesser-known singles. It’s a refreshing change to see this, and 2022’s Vivien Goldman inspired Revenge of the She-Punks compilation, shift the focus to the creative expression of women making music in a male dominated period. Some of these artists went on to greater commercial success while others burnt out, but all flipped the music’s conventions to focus on personal & political female stories.

Neil: This compilation is a thrilling musical journey that charts female punk music, from its origins in the mid-seventies right up to 2016. The earlier tracks show how these musical pioneers challenged the macho musical hegemony of the time, while the later tracks display how later musicians developed and reimagined this musical form into new varied shapes and forms. There is a broad mix of artists and music on display, from well-known legends like Patti Smith to lesser-known musicians like San Francisco street punk Mary Monday. A great introduction, or reminder, of the incredible creative and diverse energies displayed by these artists.

Ghost riders
Mark: ‘Ghost Riders’ is billed as a Garage compilation, but it’s a different kind of Garage Rock, in that all the songs are ballads. Put out by Australian label Efficient Space & curated by Lausanne-based graphic designer & record collector Ivan Leichti, it’s described by the label as ‘A North American road trip of coming of age garage soul…’. It certainly delivers that over 17 obscure tracks, curated from dusty crate dug B-Sides from bands whose entire output consisted of 1 or 2 moody singles. Full of melancholy, spare woozy instrumentation, ghostly psyche, & plenty of reverb. A ‘narrative’ styled compilation full of songs that seem to be imbued with a haunting sense of sadness, resignation & loss, even before the last notes fade away.

Neil: With some compilations the tracks included are so rare, and with such limited initial releases, that they might as well be a new release. So, it is with ‘Ghost Rider’ a collection of ultra-rare tracks originating mainly from small town America and dating from the mid-sixties to the mid-seventies. It is a very carefully curated project in overall feel, full of teenage songs of love and loss, with most of the tracks having an underground music vibe to them. The tracks sound like the musicians involved are aware of what is going on in that underground scene of the time, but are so far away from it that they take those musical trends in their own direction. Imagine a teenager listening to the Velvet Underground, going out to record their one and only single in a remote American Small town, a single which is properly released sixty plus years later.

Raven / Kelela
Mark: The second studio album by this Ethiopian-American songwriter via Warp Records, six years after the release of debut album Take Me Apart, which was lauded by critics as one of the best albums of 2017. A mix of sensory R&B, ambient, dancehall, and gorgeous layered vocals, as slinky dance-floor beats meet floaty gossamer ballads. A rich, lush, meditative, atmospheric album that details love & relationships with a black queer focus. It all sounds amazing, though perhaps at over 60 minutes it needs a more varied songwriting dimension to be a truly great album.

Neil: Kelela’s debut album ‘Take Me Apart’, featured heavily on many critics best of 2017’s lists. Six years later ‘Raven’, her latest release, sounds like she has taken the intervening time to very carefully and meticulously construct the follow up. In some senses it really is an extension to the first album, though Kelela has also very deliberately pushed herself artistically into new territories. The album itself is a joyous celebration of black womanhood at core, R&B in essence, but when needed it moves effortlessly into jungle, dancehall and even passages of sensuous unwinding ambient music. Another album I expect to see in best of 2023 lists.

The songs of Bacharach & Costello / Bacharach, Burt
Mark: Burt Bacharach passed away in February, so it’s somewhat fitting that the following month saw the re-release of one of his most acclaimed collaborations, and the celebration of a 30 year songwriting partnership with Elvis Costello. Disc 1 of this set is a newly remastered version of the 1998 album Painted From Memory, while the previously unreleased Disc 2, called ‘Taken From Life’, is from the unrealized musical adaptation of ‘Painted From Memory’, which includes artists other than Costello performing the tracks, along with three newly recorded compositions. The original album was a huge success on its release, the track “I Still Have That Other Girl” earned them the Grammy Award for Best Pop Collaboration, and listening to it again makes you realise just what a great album it was. Costello always wanted to make classicist pop music with this type of emotional depth. It’s a style he attempted many times on various tracks, albums, & phases in his career (Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom etc), but his execution wasn’t able to match the ambition until this collaboration. This is the album that people who don’t like Elvis Costello actually like, and a great tribute to the enduring & timeless legacy of Burt Bacharach.

Neil: Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello are both rightly regarded as amongst the most talented songwriters of their generations. However, it is safe to say that some eyebrows were raised when they announced a collaboration in the late nineties. However, listeners needn’t have feared, it turned out that the duo were perfectly matched. This release is compiled mainly from their 1998 outing ‘Painting from Memory’. Like a lot of Bacharach’s work, the songs move from happy to sad and back again and really swing, but in a very controlled and thoughtful way. The balance lyrically, between order and chaos, light and dark, doubt and optimism, is carefully maintained throughout. It is safe to say that the songs have grown in statue since the albums initial release. A fitting tribute to the recently departed Burt Bacharach, working in tandem with his friend Elvis Costello.

Perú selv​á​tico : sonic expedition into the Peruvian Amazon 1972​-​1986
Mark: Germany’s Analogue Africa label brings you this compilation of vintage Cumbia, the music of Colombia and Peru. Focusing on the upper Amazon in the 1970s, they round up some truly unique music from these sheltered locals, who would catch radio broadcasts from Lima, and then reinterpret that sound in their own way. Funky, swaying dance music, full of distorted electric guitar, fuzzy organs, and reverb, celebrate life in the jungle. A handful of pioneering record producers ventured over the mountain passes to the cities, some only reachable by boat or plane – and lured dozens of bands to the recording studios of the capital to lay down their best tracks. Although many became local hits, few were ever heard outside the Amazonian region… until now. A psychedelic surfin safari of sound, soundtracking a beach party on the shores of the Amazon!

Neil: This album was a revelation for me. I had no idea what to expect from the eighteen tracks, most of which have never been heard outside the Amazonian region where they were recorded. So, on a close listen, the tracks are distant and unique cousins of psychedelic surf music, but all heavily underpinned with fast paced Latin American feel and tone rhythmic structures. There are also early electronic organs and jangly treble heavy guitars, but all built round rhythm. The aim of the tracks is basically to keep the party going. And what a party it is: a Peruvian jungle music celebration, that sounds like it’s been held on an imaginary Beach somewhere close to the Amazon

Wāhine / Griffin, Hannah
Mark: ‘Wāhine’ is an album of poetry by New Zealand women set to music. Our catalogue files it under vocalist Hannah Griffin, but like a lot of Rattle Records projects it’s really a collaborative effort by Griffin, pianist Norman Meehan, and Thomas Voyce (ex-Rhombus) on everything else. Blair Latham (bass clarinet) and Nick van Dijk (flugelhorn) provide some additional coloring on some tracks. The poems are from Hinemoana Baker, Cilla McQueen, and Janet Frame, all re-framed into an amalgam of Electronic textures, processed elements & vocals, & Jazz stylings and phrasing. The arrangements are quite varied, moving from moody and minimal to larger soundscapes, and often quite funky in places.

Neil: ‘Wāhine’ by Hannah Griffin is an album of exceptional New Zealand Aotearoa poems by the likes of Hinemoana Baker, Cilla McQueen, and Janet Frame set to music and released on the outstanding Rattle Label. It is notoriously difficult to set poems convincingly to music, perhaps because they contain their own rhythmic structure, but this collection stunningly avoids any pitfalls, largely because the musicians treat the poems as lyrics. This might seem like a small point but it makes a world of difference, allowing the songs to flow. The end result is very beautiful, atmospheric, mellow, melodic and often melancholic work, with minimalist slightly Jazz undercurrents .

The Waeve / Waeve
Mark: The Waeve are Blur’s Graham Coxon and ex-Pipettes Rose Elinor Dougall, and this is their debut full-length release. The duo met at a gig in 2020 and exchanged playlists. Later bonding over a shared love of English folk, they decided to collaborate musically which, in turn, led to their real life partnership. Dougall has released 3 solo albums, and Coxon numerous solo projects and soundtracks, so they have a lot to draw from for this. Dual vocals, Dougall’s smoky voice and modular synths meet Coxon’s squalling multi-tracked Sax and laconic singing, seeing them verge into art-rock territory, as well as a Jazzy Bacharach electronic vibe, and droning post-punk. Influences seem to range from Bowie to Pink Floyd, to Goldfrapp & Everything But The Girl. All a bit abstract & hard to fathom, but that was probably the point.

Neil: ‘The Waeve’ is a collaborative project between Blur’s Graham Coxon and Rose Elinor Dougall, but it’s a long way from anything Blur has released. It’s an album inspired by the quiet unease to be found in sources such as the British folkloric horror film The Wicker Man, and uses as wide palette of musical elements, such as post punk and folk music to achieve this uneasy effect. A list of some of the instruments used will give you an idea of the atmosphere it evokes: vintage modular synths, saxophones and a medieval lute. The bands Coxon cited as an influence on the album also give you another pointer: Talk Talk, King Crimson, Gong and Penguin Cafe Orchestra. A modern unquiet and eerie take on British pastoral, that utilises a whole host of musical genres and sources to achieve its effect.