Here is part 2 of our New Zealand Music Month Music picks for May. You can catch up with Part 1 here. This is a selection of some recent New Zealand material we acquired for our collection that is exclusive to vinyl only.
Pū whenua hautapu, eka mumura / Kingi, Troy
Mark: The Te Reo reworking of Troy Kingi’s award-winning 2020 album Holy Colony Burning Acres. Politically charged reggae of the finest order, reworking the album from a Māori world view, storytelling recreates the beginning of the journey out of darkness, and follows the challenges, struggles and hopes of numerous iwi from Aotearoa, and the larger world around us.
Neil: : Part of Troy Kingi’s hugely ambitious and so far, stunning ten albums in ten years in ten genres project. ‘Pū whenua hautapu, eka mumura’ is the Te Reo Māori version of the multi award winning ‘Holy Colony Burning Acres’, the third instalment of that project. It is an album that demonstrates a deep multi layered awareness of Aotearoa’s history and culture, a storytelling album that has sublime and subtle musicianship and production delivered with heart and passion.
Sweetheart / SJD
Mark: SJD (Aucklander Sean James Donnelly) returns with another slice of catchy electronic pop, his first since 2015’s Saint John Divine, full of bleeps and glitches beneath the warm melodies. An underrated, yet influential, figure within the NZ music scene, this is another album full of songs offering uplifting hope, optimism and sweet romanticism wrapped in shimmery art-pop, that reminded me a bit of some of the Lightning Seeds work.
Neil: SJD aka Sean John Donnelly’s post lock down album deals with the universal themes of loneliness, isolation and sadness, emotions and feelings that many experienced during this time. It’s called ‘Sweetheart’ after chocolate variety selection boxes that often employ that shape, and because the tracks feature a wide selection of guest contributions from some of NZ’s best-known musicians and singers such as Tami Neilson. It’s an accomplished work with elements of off kilter 70’s synth pop, and also traditional singer songwriter components.
Lone wolf / Melodownz
Mark: Melodownz’s debut album ‘Lone wolf’ mixes Hip-hop with R&B elements, crisp production, and tight flowing vocals. The album doesn’t pull punches and drops numerous F-bombs, but it’s full of biting political & social critiques that resonate within a local context, along with clever lines and put downs that display his focus on personal honesty and integrity in the way you treat others around you.
Neil: For a long time Melodownz has justifiably been one of the highest profile and prominent hip-hop artists on the New Zealand/Aotearoa scene. This, his debut full length album, has been a long time in creation, and reaches out from his West Auckland “Avondale “ roots into the international scene. It has already attracted considerable praise and attention from the likes of The Rolling Stone magazine. It employs a wide variety of hip-hop styles, including soulful slow jams, sparkling trap cuts, gangster raps and freestyles. An album with global ambitions and music.
Prayers be answered / Dance Exponents
Mark: Their classic 1983 debut album. More of a pure-pop sound than what was coming out of Dunedin, the Dance Exponents, along with The Mockers, were the peak of that jangly pop early 80s sound, full of melodic tunes and harmony vocals. The album would stay in the charts for nearly a year, go double platinum, and go on to win the Best Album award at the 1984 New Zealand Music Awards. Full of super catchy songs, but the standout has to be the classic ‘Victoria’, ranked #8 in the APRA Top 100 New Zealand Songs of All Time, the top 30 of which were used to create the famous Nature’s Best compilation.
Neil: ‘Prayers be answered’ is the reissue of the debut 1983 album from Dance Exponents. It was a huge commercial hit on its initial release, spending most of that year on the NZ album charts, going NZ platinum and being awarded best NZ album of 1984. To this day, in some circles, it is regarded as the finest NZ pop album ever. So, for anyone who hasn’t heard them, this is a very 80’s pop album featuring very carefully crafted, streamline pop songs that cut straight to the chase. Catchy songs about being a teenager in or out of love, very much an album of its time.
Trees / Avantdale Bowling Club
Mark: Avantdale Bowling Club is the ‘Jazz-Rap’ solo project of Tom Scott & Tress is his second album following 2018’s acclaimed Avantdale Bowling Club. Lyrical & poignant raps over a very minimal music backing, low-key, late-night, neo-Jazz beats. More rap than Jazz this time, the subtle music just draws the focus to Scott’s storytelling, focusing on the social & racial ills plaguing modern society for young people just trying to get by, the temptations of substances, the hard work of building a family & life and staying strong through personal hardships.
Neil: ‘Trees’ exists in that very fertile zone where modern rap and hip-hop fuse with Jazz and soul, and in the case of this album even some electronica. It won’t be a surprise to fans of Tom Scott who made his name with the Home Brew Hip Hop crew and is well known for his polyrhythmic rhymes. The albums lyrical content is forthright and personal, and often talks of the hardships of everyday life with a pointed emotional honesty.
The River Tethys / Wilcock, Ben
Mark: Great Jazz from pianist Ben Wilcock, along with drummer John Rae, violinist Tristan Carter and Dan Yeabsley on double bass. Original compositions based on the Hyperion Cantos series of SciFi novels by Dan Simmons, mix with 3 classic Jazz standards. In the novels, the river Tethys flows between different worlds, and for the album Wilcock fixed the loose structure of each composition to a specific place in the novels, and then let the tracks evolve via free improvisation all in one take. If it sounds like it’s some kind of avant ‘Space-Jazz’, the reality is in fact the opposite: a series of lovely, mellow, and searching pieces that draw you in. Recorded at local Wgtn studio Sandbox Studio, and you can see more about that in our feature length interview with them later this month.
Neil: Jazz pianist Ben Wilcock’s ‘The River Tethys’ is inspired by the classic series of Hyperion science fiction novels by Dan Simmons, which in turn are influenced by Greek mythology. As a work that has science fiction at its core, it musically and thematically flows between worlds in several senses. It is an expansive and, at times experimental, work but also carefully interweaves its several harmonic cores. At times his superb piano work is reminiscent of the Jazz giant Thelonious Monk.
Cold + liquid / Motte
Mark: Motte is the moniker of Violin virtuoso Anita Clark and ‘Cold + liquid’ is her second album, following on from 2017’s Strange Dreams. Ambient soundscapes evoke a huge cavernous spaces, while the ethereal vocals are juxtaposed with industrial sounds creating a finely balanced tension throughout. Less violin than her previous album, as she incorporates unusual samples from frequency sweeps, to field recordings from Oamaru Freezing Works, to drones and Purerehua puoro.
Neil: Motte’s album ‘Cold + Liquid’ is a beautiful relaxing, cinematic and otherworldly work. The Lyttleton based artist has released a dreamlike, translucent soundscape of ethereal and haunting sounds. As one reviewer very accurately stated it sounds like the musical equivalent of ‘sunlight reflecting off the ocean”.
Preservation of scenery / Ruha, Rob
Mark: 2021’s ‘Preservation of scenery’ is the 3rd solo album from Rob Ruha, and won the Best RnB Album at the Aotearoa Music Awards on its release. A beautiful sounding album that Ruha calls ‘haka-soul’, it melds old school R&B with Te Reo & pop elements. So melodic, mellow, laid back and full of great horn lines, it reminded me a lot of 80s smooth R&B like Freddie Jackson, but retooled to showcase his dedication and commitment to Maori, struggle & self-determination.
Neil: Rob Ruha’s third solo outing is a laid back funky neo-soul album. The tunes are summerly and upbeat, but the lyrics aren’t afraid to call out injustices, or emphasise strength and unity when they feel the need to. It’s an easy going and infectiously groovy listen. He himself describes the music as “haka-soul” which is a fabulous way to summarize this joy filled album.
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