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 buy music for the CD & Vinyl collections, and also run the Libraries’ Wellington Music Facebook page). My Music Specialist colleague Sam, and Fiction Specialist (and avid music fan) Neil, join me every month to cast an 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…
Funeral for justice / Moctar, Mdou
Sam Says: Nigerien guitarist, singer and songwriter Mahamadou Souleymane (professionally known as Mdou Moctar) has been making waves internationally for over a decade with his blend of Tuareg guitar stylings and psychedelic rock music. Following a string of increasingly celebrated releases, sixth full-length album Funeral for justice takes things up a notch, with Moctar sounding fierier and more impassioned than ever. The music positively bursts with energy, with Moctar’s virtuosic guitar lines and Tamasheq-sung vocals soaring over the tight arrangements provided by his band. Spanning 39 minutes across 9 tracks, Funeral for justice grabs your attention from the get-go and doesn’t let up until it’s over. This is a powerfully invigorating musical experience and an essential listen to those with an interest in desert blues or psychedelic rock music.
Neil Says: Assouf or “desert blues” is a musical form that has always been deeply connected to political expression and Mdou Moctar’s album Funeral for justice is an album where the Tuareg guitarist gives full vent to his anger at the political situation in Niger, highlighting the many political injustices to be found there. The righteous fury he feels is expressed both lyrically and in the searing, blistering, guitar solos he unleashes. The album itself is constructed from improvised sessions; most of the tracks build slowly and solidly from the start, ending in pyrotechnic spellbinding guitar riff climaxes. This music is the sound of rebellion where music still has power; it’s politics, fury and passion are inextricably linked.
Stick season (we’ll all be here forever) / Kahan, Noah
Mark Says: Kahan is an American singer-songwriter, whose third album Stick Season (originally released in 2022) was a mainstream commercial breakthrough and led to his nomination in 2023 for the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. This 2023 reissue features 7 additional bonus tracks. His earlier albums were apparently more indie-pop focused, but with Stick season he’s crafted a more folk-centric set of songs; a self-professed love letter to New England, a region of six states in the northeastern United States. Full of lyrics recalling small town life, stories of growth, and emotional struggles; the key to the album’s success is that he marries this lyrical specificity with tracks that, while having a basis in acoustic folk-country, all build into soaring choruses and anthems clearly aimed at a stadium rock sound. It’s a juxtaposition that seems disparate but really works on this album, which aims for the intimate nostalgia you feel after you have grown and moved on from people or places.
Perceive its beauty, acknowledge its grace / Shabaka
Neil Says: At certain moments in music, and culture in general, certain genres and artistic directions arise to meet the spiritual demands of that age. This seems to be happening at the moment in the current jazz scene, specifically the spiritual jazz of the 60’s and 70’s, full of beauty and aimed at creating an air of tranquillity and meditation. There have been numerous modern jazz releases recently that fit this bill, for example New Blue Sun by André 3000 or Promises by Floating Points, the London Symphony Orchestra and Pharoah Sanders. This music is aimed at soothing our collective troubled brows and creating a new better world through deep spiritual sonic connections. Modern jazz legend and multi-instrumentalists Shabaka Hutchings’ latest release certainly fits into this bill and is a potent new entry into this newly reimagined genre.
Playing favorites / Sheer Mag
Mark Says: Third album from these Philadelphia rockers is a slab of lo-fi retro rock merging classic rock, NYC garage punk and early ‘Runaways’ styled vocals and riffs from singer Tina Halladay. They are not reinventing the wheel here, but what they deliver is fun, rambunctious, rock’n’roll. This album is like tuning into to an old radio broadcast from a trashy club in the 70s.
Sam Says: Formed a decade ago, Philadephia rockers Sheer Mag have forged an illustrious career over the space of three albums so far. Latest effort Playing Favorites comes five years following their previous release A Distant Call. However, despite the lengthy gap between releases the band doesn’t miss a beat, showcasing some of the most infectious and immediate work of their career. The music sounds simultaneously retroactive and contemporary, with the vintage-styled production work complementing the classic power-pop, punk and hard-rock tendencies to great effect. Bouncy arrangements with crafty guitar licks and Tina Halliday’s soulful, raspy vocals come together to great effect. Playing Favorites is an irresistible and positively melodious listening experience.
Just something / Lee, Dee C.
Mark Says: UK soul singer Dee C. Lee is best known as a backing singer for Wham, and for working with everyone from the Style Council to The Blow Monkeys, and Gang Starr Guru, all the while releasing a handful of solo albums. This surprising late period album, her first since 1998, takes its cue from lead track ‘Back In Time’ to deliver a breezy set of 80’s/90’s tinged soulful and smooth sophisti-pop tracks. There’s such a classy effortless style to her singing, and the album overall, that adds a sense of timeless-ness to the whole endeavour.
Neil Says: Dee C Lee has worked with artists such as Wham and the Style Council. After a two-decade absence from recording she has returned with a big, bright, and breezy nostalgic soul album; evoking the late 80’s and 90’s British soul scene. It’s an album that effortlessly takes the listener to a sun-drenched disco-soul universe, with a tiny hint of acid jazz thrown in. There’s lots of cool style and sophisticated late-night swagger on display here. A work that will delight fans of that scene, or her earlier work.
Edifice / Heresiarch
Sam Says: Having been on the scene for over fifteen years, Heresiarch have long established themselves as one of the most ferocious forces in New Zealand death and black metal. Coming seven years after their debut Death Ordinance, sophomore full-length Edifice shows Heresiarch stepping things up considerably, resulting in a truly brutal listening experience. Relentlessly frenetic guitar work and pummeling drums carve the way, with ferocious guttural vocals adding to the aural frenzy. Amongst the chaos lies a harrowing atmosphere, with a few moments of dark ambience weaved into the cacophonic sonic tapestry to great effect. This is further aided by the excellent production work, which makes everything sound both powerful and clear whilst retaining that essential sense of rawness. Edifice is sure to go down as one of the most brutal New Zealand metal releases of our time.
A chaos of flowers / Big Brave
Sam Says: Known for their blindingly expansive sound, Big Brave have been making cathartically heavy yet potently hypnotic rock music for over a decade now. Ever prolific, A Chaos of Flowers stands as their eighth full-length release and shows the band moving into interesting new territory. Whilst the massive-minimalism aesthetic remains as pervasive as ever, there is a bold sense of restraint at play, allowing the more subtle sonic elements space to breathe. The songs are also shorter here than usual, with the longest clocking in at just over six minutes as opposed to some of the more epic structures on previous albums. Despite this, Big Brave’s distinctive sense of epic grandeur is as compelling as ever. A Chaos of Flowers is a fine addition to an impressive body of work.
Neil Says: Big Brave’s 2021 album Vital was one of our top picks for that year. An album that was a tidal wave of raw power and sound that engulfed its listeners, with emotional lyrical content to match. A Chaos of Flowers is a very different proposition and relates more back to the band’s dark folk roots. Sure, the mighty distorted power chords are still there, but this time they are either sparingly used or much lower in the mix. This gives Big Brave a much more expansive pallet of sonics and atmospheres to explore. Among the bone shattering drone metal there are many delicate exquisite acoustic moments; the tracks are full of original lyrics and poetry content that effortlessly spans cultures, countries, and times. It is a majestic multi-listen release with depths that will amply reward listeners, sure to make it onto this year’s best of 2024 list.
This could be Texas / English Teacher (Musical group)
Mark Says: The UK throws up ‘next big thing’ bands every few months, and English Teacher are the next in line following The Last Dinner Party, with whom they share the same major label. Not quite as ‘arty’, the Leeds quartet add in touches of dream-pop and psychedelica into what is now somewhat of a post-rock-London-indie-band template of deadpan spoken vocals and wry lyrics. However, lead singer Lily Fontaine actually has a larger vocal range than these touchpoints, and a lot of tracks hark back to pure pop and the soaring choruses of female fronted Britpop of the 90s.
Neil Says: This could be Texas is the confident first L.P. release from the band English Teacher. The resultant album is a melting pot of their various influences which include, amongst others: post punk, indie prog, and folk electronica. It does have many of the trademark features of a debut release; the band works stoically at creating their own sonic identity, whilst also throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at everything like children gone crazy in a sweet shop. It’s a strong outing nonetheless that hints a future greatness. Well worth checking out.
Flying on Abraham / Birch, Diane
Mark Says: Birch is an American singer-songwriter who has been active since the late 2000’s, with two full length albums and a mini-EP. Her diverse musical history has wound through as many countries, and musical personas, from jamming with Prince to opening for Stevie Wonder. On her first two albums (for the label S-Curve) she worked with Betty Wright and producer Steve Greenberg, who had helped launch Joss Stone’s career several years prior, but her albums of original material never clicked commercially the way the Stone’s debut did. Flying on Abraham is her first full-length album in over 10 years, after a proposed third album fell victim to the collapse of the PledgeMusic platform. A really nice set of bluesy soul, pop, and 70s singer-songwriter classicism that has already garnered strong reviews. One of those truly underrated artists who has been compared to everyone: from Joni Mitchell to Laura Nyro, Stevie Nicks, Carly Simon and Carole King, but still remains unknown to a larger audience.
