CDs – Page 6 – Library Blog

Songs and colours of water and earth: Mahler, Schoenberg, and Orchestra Wellington

July 22, 2023July 31, 2023 Corrina

Continuing the series of posts that explore links between the WCL music collection and Orchestra Wellington’s 2023 Inner Visions season, today’s blog investigates the connections between their July concert ‘Three Colours‘ and books about Arnold Schoenberg (Five Pieces for Orchestra) and Gustav Mahler (Das Lied von der Erde) whose music frames the programme. In between these pieces, sits Richard Strauss’s Burleske for piano and orchestra, an exuberant work of the composer’s youth.

Burleske, which will feature Jian Liu playing the mercurial solo part, dates from 1885-1886 when Strauss was 21 years old. At the time of Burleske‘s genesis, Strauss had completed his tenure as Hans von Bülow’s assistant with the Meiningen Court Orchestra, and was deep in the phase of his ‘Brahms Adoration’. Burleske offers some unabashedly Brahmsian moments, but Strauss’s musical identity — which would be realized more fully in a few years, with Don Juan — is entirely clear. In fact, by the time Burleske had its premiere in Eisenach in 1890, the public had already been introduced to Don Juan in Weimar, a performance that cemented Strauss’s reputation as a leader of the avant-garde.

Strauss wrote Burleske for Hans von Bülow to perform as soloist, but the veteran pianist and conductor did not warm to the piece, writing to Brahms in January 1891 that ‘Strauss’s Burleske decidedly has some genius in it, but in other respects, it is horrifying.’ Strauss himself came to view the piece as something of an aberration, but despite his doubts, Burleske endured: in 1947, a festival dedicated to Strauss and his music was held in London, and the 83-year-old composer conducted a performance by the Philharmonia Orchestra, the programme consisting of Burleske, Don Juan, and Symphonia Domestica. You can read more about Strauss’s life and music in an earlier blog post.

The first performance of Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra also took place in London, at one of Sir Henry Wood’s Promenade Concerts in the Queen’s Hall. The orchestra had never encountered such music, and Wood devoted an almost unprecedented amount of rehearsal to the Five Pieces, ‘three consecutive rehearsals of an hour each,’ as Eugene Goossens (then a violinist in the Queen’s Hall Orchestra) remembered:

Wood, cutting, thrusting, parrying, and dissecting with that long white baton, fighting down the thing that all conductors have to fight sooner or later in varying degrees – the hostility of an orchestra that has fatally prejudged a novelty – eventually secured order out of chaos.” Eugene Goossens, The New York Times, 3 September 1944

Despite Wood’s meticulous preparation, the audience at the premiere on 3 September 1912 was hostile, derisive, and baffled. Undeterred, Wood invited Schoenberg to come to London in January 1914 to conduct a second performance, and this received a far better reception: a note included in the programme stated that ‘Herr ARNOLD SCHOENBERG has promised his cooperation at today’s concert on condition that during the performance of his Orchestral Pieces perfect silence is maintained.’ Any hostile elements in the audience were drowned out by substantial applause.

It is from Schoenberg’s Five Pieces that the title for this week’s concert, ‘Colours’ is at least partially derived. The third of the pieces, unnamed at the time of composition in 1909, and even in the first edition of the score in 1912, later acquired the title ‘Farben’, possibly shortened from Akkordfaerbungen (‘chord hues’). When Schoenberg conducted a performance of the Five Pieces at Salzburg in 1920, this central piece was subtitled ‘Der Traunsee am Morgen,’ reflecting Schoenberg’s initial idea for the piece, seeing the colours of dawn on the waters of the Traunsee through the eye of an accomplished painter.

Evocations of light, liquid, and colour are also central to the poetic texts in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). This symphony or song cycle was completed in 1909, making the work contemporaneous with Schoenberg’s Five Pieces. After Mahler read Die chinesische Flöte (The Chinese Flute), a collection of free translations (‘Nachdichtungen’) by Hans Bethge of existing translations of Tang dynasty poetry into German and French, he was moved by their expression and imagery, choosing poems by Li Bai, Quian Qui, Men Haoran, and Wang Wei to set to music. In the first poem, ‘Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde’ (‘The Drinking Song of the Earth’s Sorrow’), we hear of cellars full of golden wines (‘Dein Keller birgt die Fülle des goldenen Weins!’) and the eternal blue of the heavens (‘Das Firmament blaut ewig’). The second movement, ‘Der Einsame im Herbst’ (‘The Solitary One in Autumn’ begins with images of bluish mists creeping over a lake, while the frosty grass seems sprinkled with jade dust.’ Another image of colour and water occurs in the fourth movement, ‘Von der Schönheit’ (‘Of beauty’) where the poet describes girls picking lotus flowers at a river bank, as ‘Golden sun plays about their form/Reflecting them in the clear water.’ (Gold’ne Sonne webt um die Gestalten/Spiegelt sie im blanken Wasser wider’).

Detailed discussion and contextualization of Das Lied von der Erde can be found in three excellent books in the Wellington City Libraries collection, each written from a different perspective, and with a different intention in the author’s mind:

Gustav Mahler : songs and symphonies of life and death : interpretations and annotations / Mitchell, Donald
Donald Mitchell (1925-2017) was a pioneering Mahler scholar, his research and writing on his subject spanned many decades, and was frequently revised and updated. Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death (1985) followed on the heels of two groundbreaking studies, Gustav Mahler: the Early Years (1958) and Gustav Mahler: The Wunderhorn Years (1975). Mitchell’s Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death focuses on Mahler’s vocal music, with a deep discussion of Das Lied von der Erde that illuminates the composer’s sketches and process, his interpretation of the poetic texts, and the personal significance of this monumental work.

Continue reading “Songs and colours of water and earth: Mahler, Schoenberg, and Orchestra Wellington” →

June’s New Music for Te Awe: Part 2

July 7, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

Here is part two of our new music picks for June. You can catch up with Part 1 here. Do we actually know anything about new music? Or, are we just too old to understand what most of this is banging on about? Read on to find out.

[Note: We welcome a new addition to our review team, with Sam who is the new other half of the WCL Music Customer Specialist team].

Tubular bells : 50th anniversary edition / Oldfield, Mike
Sam says: When ‘Tubular Bells’ was released in 1973, it left a sizeable impact on the field of popular music. It was a tremendous artistic achievement, with the entirety of the writing process and majority of the vast instrumental performances undertaken by Oldfield himself, who was a mere teenager at the time! The compositions are colourful and endlessly inventive, driven by an epic, odyssey-like structure weaving through many varied musical movements. Over the decades since its release, it has played a significant role within numerous pieces of media (such as its iconic usage in the legendary horror film ‘The Exorcist’). It has also seen numerous reissues, and it has even garnered a number of musical sequels created by Mike Oldfield himself. Needless to say, 50 years later, the impact of this monumental piece of music is still clearly apparent.

Neil says: ‘Tubular bells’ was the first ever release on the Virgin label. It’s creator, the then, 19-year-old musician Mike Oldfield, incredibly plays every instrument on the album. Much of Virgin’s fate depended on the success or otherwise of the release, as no expense had been spared on the recording, and at the time Virgin enterprises was in its infancy. Initially the albums sales were sluggish, but the use of music from the album in William Friedkin’s visceral horror classic The Exorcist changed that and propelled it high into the charts. The rest, as they say, is history. It is a pastoral, progressive rock album with folk and classical elements, and one of the most iconic and popular albums of the 70’s. This 50th anniversary release features a new master of the original album “the gem in this rerelease” plus music recorded by Oldfield for the London Olympics and excerpts from an abandoned Tubular Bells 4 project. Arguably Oldfield would never quite reach the heights he reached in his first outing.

O monolith / Squid (Musical group)
Mark says: More post-punk, Krautrock, and post-rock aesthetics from this London based band, following on from 2021’s acclaimed Bright Green Field. Squid are definitely a band at the forefront of the ‘post genre’ style of music that is the template for many young bands now. Cool grooves and intense tracks, where it seems that anything could happen at any musical moment. Produced by Dan Carey (who also produced everyone from Black Midi to Fontaines D.C, Wet Leg and Goat Girl). There’s a maximalist/Minimalist juxtaposition at play, as tracks surge with a synthy, distorted noise before collapsing back into softer aesthetics. Radiohead seem a stronger influence than on their debut album, with more obtuse melodies and esoteric lyrics.

Neil says: Squid’s second album sees them building, and carefully expanding, on their critically acclaimed first album Bright Green Field. There is a new spectral, spacey opened ended sound to much of this latest release. Their core sound is still present, but they let the structure of the songs slowly evolve, rather than go for the previous ‘short-sharp-shock’ angular approach of Bright Green Field. The lyrics again are dense and multi-layered touching on many themes, and it is sure to win them even more fans and, one suspects, a lot of attention and nominations to feature on best of 2023 lists. I, for one, can’t wait to hear where they head to next.

Sam says: Hailing from Brighton, England, Squid burst onto the scene a couple of years back with Bright Green Field, which of itself was an impressive debut that, while not particularly original, displayed a highly developed level of musicianship for such a young act. With their sophomore effort ‘O Monolith’, they have stepped their game up notably. All the aspects that were so impressive on the previous album have been articulated in a stronger and more compelling way. The progressive elements that creeped through before are now much more fully-formed and confidently executed, whereas the more aggressive post-punk tendencies, whilst perhaps a little more sparse in their utilisation, are just as powerful as ever when they do come through. Most notably, the songs themselves feel more potent and memorable, making for a consistently engaging and rewarding listen. Similarly-minded new British groups such as Black Midi and Black Country, New Road really hit their stride with their respective follow-up albums over the past couple of years, with O Monolith it feels like Squid’s turn to show the world what they are really capable of.

Continue reading “June’s New Music for Te Awe: Part 2” →

Operatic Highlights at WCL

June 28, 2023June 26, 2023 Corrina

NZ Opera’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte at the St James Theatre (14—18 June) seemed like the perfect time to display some of WCL’s collection of operatic treasurers at Te Awe Library. Across our branches, and at Te Pātaka, there are many books, CDs, and DVDs concerned with the art form that Samuel Johnson famously called an ‘exotic and irrational entertainment’. This blog introduces some well-known, and some less familiar, highlights that formed part of the Te Awe display.

Mozart and the enlightenment : truth, virtue, and beauty in Mozart’s operas / Till, Nicholas
Nicholas Till examines Mozart’s operas through the lens of Enlightenment sensibility, drawing together the strands of history, theology, sociology, literary theory, and even some psychology to anatomize the motivation and vision behind Mozart’s operas. Mozart’s collaborations with librettist Lorenzo da Ponte —Le nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787) and Così fan tutte (1790) — each receive detailed contextual and musical analysis that considers Mozart’s own intellectual stance on philosophy and politics in that revolutionary decade. Till’s provocative hypotheses and detailed reasoning, combined with his clear fascination with Mozart’s operas, result in a stimulating and highly satisfying exploration of the significance of Mozart’s operas in the eighteenth century and in society today.

The young Kiri : the early recordings, 1964-70 / Te Kanawa, Kiri
This two-disc set of Dame Kiri te Kanawa’s early recordings offers a compelling aural portrait of the young singer, at the start of an extraordinary career. CD 1 is devoted to arias and art song, with Puccini especially well-represented in extracts from La bohème, Tosca, and Turandot, as well as showpiece arias from Johann Strauss’s Die Federmaus and Gounoud’s Faust among other treasures. CD 2 turns to musical theatre and popular song, demonstrating te Kanawa’s versatility in different styles of singing. A number of ensembles and collaborating musicians also make an appearance: the NZBC Orchestra, organist Peter Averi, singer Hohepa Mutu, and harpist Dorothea Franchi.

Fashion designers at the opera / Matheopoulos, Helena
Gianni Versace created a stunning dress for Kiri te Kanawa in Strauss’s Capriccio at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 1990; Zandra Rhodes has designed costumes for Verdi’s Aida, Mozart’s Magic Flute, and Bizet’s Pearl Fishers; the bejeweled gown worn by Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt transformed the character into a source of golden light in a world of sinister, oppressive darkness. These are just a few examples of the work that leading fashion designers have produced for opera productions around the world, responding to the challenge of creating costumes in which performers can move and sing. Helena Matheopoulos profiles many many figures from the world in this collection of interviews, sketches, and resplendent full-color illustrations of the costumes in production.

Hänsel und Gretel : opera in three acts
When Richard Strauss conducted the premiere of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel at Weimar in 1893, he declared the piece a ‘masterpiece of the highest quality’. This 2011 production is a musical and visual feast, the action shifted from the terror-ridden Ilsenstein forest to a modern urban setting. Gretel and her brother live in a house of cardboard boxes, which they share with their loving but poverty-stricken parents. Rather than finding a gingerbread cottage, the habitation of Rosine Leckermaul (the witch) is amid the aisles of a supermarket offering every alluring and mass-produced confection. This production is superbly cast, every singer inhabiting the style with energy. Of special note is Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke’s turn as a matriarchal yet terrifying witch. Humperdink’s music is a captivating fusion of orchestral opulence and gemütlich spirit that draws on more than a century of German Romanticism, from Schubert and Weber to Wagner and Mahler.

The only way is up : reflections on a life in opera / McIntyre, Donald
It is impossible to summarise the career of Donald McIntyre in a paragraph, but fortunately The Only Way is Up more than compensates. A page-turning memoir of life as an aspirant All Black, and then as one of the foremost exponents of Wagner’s music, The Only Way is Up charts the successes and surprises of working on the stages of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the Festspielhaus at Bayreuth. McIntyre’s stories include appearances by leading conductors, directors, and fellow singers too numerous to mention here, but a particular highlight is McIntyre’s role in Patrice Chereau’s extraordinary ‘Centennial’ Ring Cycle at Bayreuth, a series of productions that revolutionized the staging of Wagner’s music dramas.

Dido and Aeneas : opera in three acts
Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas brings together opera and dance in a collaboration between the Royal Opera, and Royal Ballet at Covent Garden, with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment conducted by John Eliot Gardiner. A musical and visual spectacle, Wayne McGregor’s contemporary choreography fuses with Purcell’s music, realising in the dancers’ movement many of the intricacies in the score. Sarah Connolly (Dido) and Lucas Meachum (Aeneas) imbue their roles with magnificence befitting their royal status, Dido’s descent into despair truly wrenches the heart as she is undone by the witches’ cruelty. Although this production met with mixed responses in 2009, mainly to do with the size of the stage in relation to the intimacy of Purcell’s opera, McGregor’s seems vision is more successful on screen, where the cameras bring us closer to the action.

The partnership : Brecht, Weill, three women, and Germany on the brink / Katz, Pamela
Although the partnership between Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht is well-documented, Pamela Katz is the first author to bring to the fore the roles played by Lotte Lenya, Helene Weigel, and Elizabeth Hauptmann in the creation and performance of Weill and Brecht’s operas. Brech and Weill’s deconstruction and subversion of operatic conventions in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny and The Threepenny Opera have been the subject of much research and discussion, but the significant involvement and influence of Weigel, Hauptmann, and Lenya in the creative process have never been adequately examined. This book does so, charting the development and early performance history of the operas in the tumultuous years of the Weimar Republic, as well as their creators’ flight from Germany in 1933.

Southern voices : international opera singers of New Zealand / Simpson, Adrienne
Adrienne Simpson and Peter Downes dedicated this book to the singers it profiles. Southern Voices is a trove of insights into the careers and reflections of a succession of truly great artists. The singers reflect on their early training and the formative experiences in local choirs and competitions that set them on the path to the most august heights of their profession. Malvina Major’s recollections of her triumph as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the 1968 Salzburg Festival, working with Claudio Abbado; Inia te Wiata’s creation of roles in operas by Benjamin Britten; Patricia Payne overcame homesickness and uncertainty at the Opera Centre in London to find musical fulfilment on the concert platform before becoming a soloist with Covent Garden’s permanent company, and a guest soloist in productions all over Europe and the USA; Barry Mora’s successes in many roles over several seasons at Gelsenkirchen, before joining the permanent ensemble at the Frankfurt Opera, where experimental and provocative productions made the company a provocative centre of Regietheater in the 1980s. These stories, and many more, make Southern Voices a fascinating source of history, reinforcing the remarkable achievements of New Zealand singers on the international scene.

The birth of an opera : fifteen masterpieces from Poppea to Wozzeck / Rose, Michael
Michael Rose slices through centuries of myth-making and romanticising to document the creation of fifteen operas, from Monteverdi’s Poppea (first performed in 1643) to Berg’s Wozzeck (1925). Rose examines the manifold complexities of making operas, including the composers’ selection of libretti and collaboration with librettists (for example, the partnerships between Mozart and Lorenzo da Ponte, and Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal), the challenges and benefits of aristocratic patronage, grappling with censors, and parrying hostile critics and cabals. A rich array of primary sources, including exchanges of letters between composers and their collaborators, treatise extracts, and aesthetic manifesti, illuminate the making of Fidelio, Otello, Turandot among other works.

Pene Pati
Tenor Pene Pati is equally well-known here as an outstanding operatic tenor, and one-third of Sol3Mio.In the last five years, Pati’s career has been spectacularly ascendent. Currently performing the role of Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris — a role he will reprise in Toronto with the Canadian Opera Company later this year — Pati’s recent schedule has seen him perform in Monte Carlo, Naples, Prague, and Berlin. In 2021, Pati signed an exclusive recording contract with Warner Classics, and this, his debut album, includes extracts from some of the operas in which his recent performances have earned particular acclaim: Verdi’s Rigoletto, Gounoud’s Romeo et Juliette, and Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore.

Opera, or, The undoing of women / Clement, Catherine
A foundational text in feminist musicology, Opera, or, The Undoing of Women (originally published in French as L’Opéra ou la Défaite des femmes in 1979) was contentious when it was first published in French 1979, and remains controversial today. As one of the first critical studies to apply feminist theory to the plots and texts of operas, considering specifically the situation of opera’s female characters, Clément unpicks the fates of Turandot, Cio-Cio San, Lucia, Tatiana, Violetta, Tosca, Isolde. Her analysis identifies several plot and character archetypes, to demonstrate how ’19th-century opera perpetuates a social order which requires either the death or the domestication of the female protagonist.’ Although Clément’s musical analyses are unsophisticated, her poetic language remains compelling, while her arguments remain relevant and provocative nearly 45 years after the book’s first appearance.

June’s new music for Te Awe: Part 1

June 26, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

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…

Savoy / Mahal, Taj
Mark: Blues legend Taj Mahal’s new album delivers a funky personal take on the Classic American Jazz songbook. On the opening track, ‘Stompin at the Savoy’, he recounts how his parents met at an Ella Fitzgerald/Chick Webb gig at the Savoy Ballroom, and how Jazz was the sound of his upbringing. He livens up these swing-jazz-Big Band era standards with a warm bluesy phrasing and energy that is sure to bring a smile to your face. Iconic folk-Blues singer Maria Muldaur duets on a fun take of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.
Neil: Taj Mahal, the American blues legend, releases an album of covers of 20’s, 30’s and 40’s classic old-school swing dance covers. Featuring tracks originally made famous by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Louis Jordan. Taj Mahal’s distinctive, elegant, smooth and smoky voice gives the tracks a new feel, and the resulting release is both very reverential to the original source material whilst also breathing new life and vitality into them.

Linger awhile / Samara Joy
Mark: More Jazz, if somewhat more traditional interpretations, with this 2022 album (reissued in 2023 with bonus tracks). A winner of the 2019 Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Jazz Competition ‘Linger awhile’, her sophomore album, won her a double Grammy in 2022 for Best Jazz Vocal Album and Best New Artist. An amazing voice with a timbre compared to Sarah Vaughan & Dinah Washington, and a huge TikTok following, she brings classic Jazz to zoomers with these tasteful and classy interpretations of well known and obscure standards. A great acoustic band backs her and she mixes things up with the alternate lyrics to the classic ‘Round Midnight’, a vocalese take on trumpeter Fats Navarro’s “Nostalgia – for which she wrote the lyrics, and a lovely closing duet with guitarist Pasquale Grasso. Definitely the next big Jazz star.
Neil: This is the second studio release from the American jazz singer Samara Joy, who already has two Grammy’s to her name at the age of twenty-two. Her vocal stylings and phrasings, as well as her song selections remind the listener of jazz legends like Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald and their works. A pitch perfect homage to the timeless golden age of jazz.

Aperture / Jadagu, Hannah
Mark: Hannah Jadagu is a Texan indie-pop singer clearly destined for big success. She gained attention for a series of singles released while she was at high school, which led to her being signed to Sub Pop and a 2021 EP recorded entirely on her iPhone 7 with GarageBand iOS, an iRig, a microphone, and a guitar. Her full length debut has a crisper and cleaner productions, but still retains that casual air of fizzy bedroom pop. A set of super catchy, warm, synthy, indie-shoegaze songs showcase her gift of hooky melodies and bouncy instrumentation, while the later half of the album captures a more reflective take on emerging adulthood. A really impressive debut.
Neil: Hannah Jadagu’s debut album ‘Aperture’ is a assured hybrid outing, mashing up indie-alternative pop & R&B, and there’s even a touch of punk in the mix. It’s a spectacular debut, made even more impressive by the fact that Hannah created it whilst still studying at college. And, despite its largely D.I.Y. roots, the production is sleek and highly polished. The songs are liberally sprinkled with memorable riffs and catchy hooks and often build up to warm and crisp multi layered crescendos. For reference it reminded me in parts of Arlo Parks. A confident and assured debut.

Continue reading “June’s new music for Te Awe: Part 1” →

May’s New Music for Te Awe

June 14, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

via GIPHY

[Note: We focused on reviewing Wellington & NZ Material from our collection for New Zealand Music Month, so this is an abbreviated round-up of the new music titles added to the catalogue across May.]

Synthetic hearts / Msaki
Mark: A collaboration between Msaki, South Africa’s top singer-songwriter, and Tubatsi Mpho Moloi, a multi-instrumentalist from Soweto’s Urban Village. Lead track ‘Subaleka’ may give the impression that this is more World-Music, but most of the tracks are in English, and overall it has more in common with the smooth tones of a Sade album than anything else. Folk touches blend with with electronic elements & French cellist Clément Petit, to create slinky R&B that reimagines classic 60s soul duets through a future afrobeat lens.
Neil: ‘Synthetic Hearts’ is a rare and beautiful musical creature. An Afrofuturist album, with prominent electronica elements and many other components fused in, such as African House, Hip Hop, traditional Zulu music, Jazz and even cello. The lyrical content is largely in the form of romantic Duets. The result is a widescreen album that revels in a kind of sonic warmth and processes many creative layers that point to a beautiful, alternative African utopian future. Uplifting.

September November / Long Ryders
Mark: The 5th studio album, and first in four years from this 1980s LA band who helped invent alt-country with their 1984 debut Native Sons. 2019’s Psychedelic Country Soul was their first album in 32 years, and this follow up is just as strong with its Byrds/Flying Burrito Brothers/Tom Petty nexus of classicist country rock, with themes of loss and friendship paramount following the passing of their bassist in 2021. Plenty of social & political commentary also.
Neil: The Long Ryders originally formed in the 80’s, and have been sporadically in action on and off from that time onwards. ‘September November’ sees the Alt- country and Western outfit in reflective mood. Mortality and the passing of time is clearly on their minds, prompted no doubt by the passing of their long-time bassist Tom Stevens and their long lineage. That said, the album isn’t melancholic or down. This accomplished Americana album has elements of folk rock, country blues and soul, and reminded me at points of Buffalo Springfield or The Byrd’s during their country rock phase.

Fuse / Everything But The Girl
Mark: EBTG return with their first album in 24 years. If you were expecting it to sound like a combination of the respective recent solo albums from members Ben Watt & Tracey Thorn you would be wrong, as the album picks up where 1999’s Temperamental left off and heads on from there. More glitchy, contemporary club beats, woven around lyrical imagery and melancholy songs of weary aged protagonists and hangdog losers, aiming for last chance as the world closes in on them and the music fades. Good to have them back.
Neil: It’s been 24 years since Everything But the Girl last operated as an outfit. In the intervening years they have brought up a family, and also released other projects under various musical incarnations. This album pretty much picks up the baton from where they left off. Melodic, romantic, introspective electronic pop. Like a lot of their work, it is a very personal album, the lyrics are often about people desperately looking for connection and reflect some of the difficult times they’ve come through. The downbeat and sparse club-culture influenced beats leave plenty of space for Tracey Thorn’s vocals to soar. Fans old and new will love it.

Continue reading “May’s New Music for Te Awe” →

May’s NZMM Reviews: Part 3 – Wellington CD/Vinyl Mix

May 30, 2023 Mark

Here is part 3 of our New Zealand Music Month Music picks for May. You can catch up with Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. This is a mix of some recent, and some older, Wellington releases and reissues on CD & Vinyl.

I’ll hum the first few bars / Long, David
Mark: The new David Long is a quasi-classical/experimental album of commissioned pieces. The title track for chamber orchestra, electric guitar and mechatronics was commissioned by Orchestra Wellington and recorded with Stroma. The rest of the tracks were composed for Douglas Wright’s dance work, ‘Rapt’, and are performed by David Long and Jeff Henderson. The orchestral track explores the collision of structured string parts with punk rhythm’s and instrumentation, while the unusual instrumentation of the ‘Rapt’ tracks feature feedback, banjos, toy percussion, accordion, making the music a character in the larger drama of the choreography.
Neil: Just last year David Long released Ash and Bone, a gorgeously suite of pieces that defy easy generic categorisation, which David described as a work that makes “a constellation of musical styles but never quite rests in any one of them”. The same holds true for ‘I’ll Hum the First Few Bars’, a recording as texturally rich and sonically expressive as we have come to expect from this bold and inventive composer.

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 .

Apart / Bergman, Teresa
Mark: Teresa Bergman is a musician originally from Lower Hutt, who finished fifth on New Zealand Idol in 2005. She moved to Berlin a few years later and found success there as a street busker before being signed to a local label. She has just released her third solo album 33 Single & Broke, which has gotten great reviews. This is her 2nd album, ‘Apart’, which was released in 2019 on the German label Jazzhaus Records. She has a distinctive, rich, jazzy voice that merges Jazz stylings and rhythms, with sophisticated contemporary singer-songwriting, to dig into the knotty subtexts and contradictions of modern relationships.
Neil: Teresa Bergman’s rich, powerful and versatile neo soul jazz voice is at the centre of this album about separation. It is a very impressive, and at points intense, pop-soul outing with strong jazz elements and some folk and experimental moments. And definitely displays a deep emotional honesty in its lyrics.

Swings & roundabouts / Lockett, Mark
Mark: Local drummer Mark Lockett took this set of compositions for his 7th album, composed during lockdown, to New York once the travel restrictions lifted. Employing NY heavyweights David Binney, Duane Eubanks, and expat Kiwi Matt Penman, he eschews a pianist to focus on the chord-less playing that he prefers. Harks back to the late 50s/Early 60s Atlantic albums of Ornette Coleman’s classic quartet with Don Cherry, Charlie Haden, and Ed Blackwell. But this is structured rather than free-form playing, with this engaging set of twisty rhythmically complex tunes.
Neil: ‘Swings and Roundabouts’ is a straight down the line jazz album by New Zealand drummer Mark Lockett . It’s his seventh release and can be described as an adventurous and fresh free-form jazz album, which avoids the more discordant places some free form jazz albums explore. It displays a very high level of musicianship and creativity and should have a great appeal for fans of this particular musical genre.

Heroine : the Wild Poppies complete collection (1986-1989) / Wild Poppies
Mark: Formed in 1986, local band The Wild Poppies quickly released a debut album, then relocated to the UK and made a name for themselves in the fledgling Oxford music scene, touring with Ride and Swervedriver, before the advent of rave culture came to dominate the UK scene, and eclipsed their sound. This release compiles, for the first time, their long out-of-print “Heroine” LP on Poppie Records, the “Stare at the Sun” 7”, the “Out of Time” EP as well as some later day demos. An interesting slice of local jangle pop history, from a band that made a lot of local headlines at the time. They had a sound that still resonates locally, and perhaps would have lasted longer in NZ, rather than the ever evolving nature of UK music at that fertile late 80s/early 90s period.
Neil: This rerelease covers pretty much the entire catalogue of mid 80’s jangle pop maestros The Wild Poppies . Sadly, fate wasn’t to be on their side, as their jangly pop sound much beloved in the early eighties was soon to be commercially eclipsed and swept aside by dance culture. The band split soon after the release of their swan song EP. Their trademark ‘warm wall of sound’ is very much on display and the album is a must listen for fans of Neo-Psychedelic pop, 80’s indie pop, and especially jangle-pop with its distinctive guitar sound.

Questions in red / Lavën, Oscar
Mark: More local Jazz from go-to local tenor sax man Oscar Lavën, who is part of numerous local ensembles and guested on numerous projects from The Roger Fox Big Band, to the Wellington Shake-Em-On-Downers. The band includes local players Mike Taylor on trumpet, John Rae on drums, Patrick Bleakley on bass & Ayrton Foote on piano. All the compositions are by Lavën, who embraces elements of the old and the contemporary in his playing. These guys have played so many Jazz Festivals and gigs together that you can feel the simpatico musical sense between, resulting in a set of expertly performed Jazz. Improvisational in places, but mostly just a swinging set that lets his sax playing shine in various contexts that are always engaging, with their different musical shades and colours.
Neil: Oscar Lavën’s ‘Questions in red’ is one of those oh so cool late night café Jazz offerings. it oozes mellow, chilled and romantic tones. Superbly executed cool Jazz boasting topflight musicianship with touches of Monk and Mingus, which isn’t surprising as he covers some of their work. Oscar also displays his own joyful exploration of his own jazz musicianship throughout.

Haunted / Mina’s Veil
Mark: Mina’s veil are a neoclassical dark-wave band, so there are a lot of soaring soprano lines backed up with rich orchestral accompaniment. They’re inspired by Victorian Gothic novels, fairy tales, myths & legends and have just released their 2nd album ‘Haunted’. Ethereal meets classical, gothic bells and sweeping orchestrations that have a rich, cinematic feel of dramatic crescendos and interludes.
Neil: ‘Haunted’ by Mina’s Veil is a rich gothic melodramatic work, with strong romantic classical overtones, with lyrics sung in soaring soprano heavily inspired by Victorian novels and fairy tales. It is very cinematic in feel and structure. Music that evokes mist-soaked moors, decaying castles and doomed lovers in flock coats.

Ego death / Bryant, Danica
Mark: Danica Bryant, a singer-songwriter who grew up in Hawke’s Bay, and is now based in Wgtn. We are big fans of hers and actually filmed her gig at Gardens Magic in 2021, which you can find on our YouTube channel. ‘Ego Death’ is her sophomore EP, and moves away from the acoustic folky feel of her debut, for a brighter pop-banger focus. Every track here is just super catchy and melodic, while the biting lyrics reveal a caustic juxtaposition of the bitter & the sweet.
Neil: Danica Bryant is one most exciting and rising stars in the Aotearoa / New Zealand pop World. ‘Ego Death’, her sophomore EP, amply displays why, with thoughtful and carefully crafted pop songs which encompasses catchy sugary pop hooks coupled with her memorable lyrics. This is just her second release but you can hear an artist growing in confidence and musical artistry not to mention skill. Danica is already a major artist whose work seems destined to reach a huge mainstream international audience sooner or later.

Melanchole / Johann, Daniel [Also on VINYL]
Mark: ‘Melanchole’ is a set of lo-fi pop songs recorded by the enigmatic Daniel Johann in 2012 when he was 15 years old, and originally self-released in 2013 digitally on Bandcamp under the moniker Salvia Palth. The album went on to become a viral internet sensation, garnering over 100 million streams on Spotify and a large TikTok following, which is only growing. The track “I was all over her” alone now has nearly a quarter of a billion streams on Spotify. In 2016, Melanchole was remastered and released on vinyl with a new track listing. The first pressing sold out within the first 24 hours it was released and this is, I believe, now the 3rd pressing, and it’s 10th Anniversary. Sludgy reverb and crackly production define this atmospheric bedroom pop that has become a beloved cult piece, with its (many) musical imperfections somehow coming to define the messy angst of teenage awkwardness & alienation.
Neil: Daniel Johann aka Salvia Palth aka Adore is an artist well worth checking out, as he has adopted a variety of different musical styles and guises over the years. This his 2013 album was released under the moniker of Salvia Palth and it’s a lo fi melancholic, dream pop slow burner, with heavy duty shoegaze and emo influences. It reminded me a little of the iconic Loveless by My Bloody Valentine. The lyrics are about longing, alienation with a dense nocturnal feel to them. The music has that dreamy, bittersweet hypnotic quality to it. If this is your scene, it’s well worth a listen.

The band from Wellington, New Zealand / Dartz [Also on VINYL]
Mark: DARTZ bring their party-pop-punk aesthetic to life in Wellington in a series of short punchy songs that seem to focus on beers, shitty flats, house parties, bad dealers, Toyota corollas, and getting high. However, if the titles of these songs imply a somewhat shallow sense of fun, that is definitely not the case. Beneath the tongue-in-cheek references, the adopted personas, video antics, and seemingly mundane takes of life in NZ, are tracks with reflective and insightful lines that elevate the material, using the genre to touch on social issues around housing, anxiety, politicians, religious figures, colonisation, mental health and more. A funny and clever album, whose success lies in just the right balance of goofy fun and serious intent.
Neil: Wellington party punk band the Dartz started life as a dare. When they went for a support slot for one of their favourite bands the mullet heavy The Chats. Problem was, at that point in time, they were a totally fictitious outfit – not a band at all, just the idea of a band. But after a frenetic couple of weeks actually putting together and creating a band, they did play that support slot and to their surprise had a rapturous crowd, and the rest as they say is history. Their songs are fast, raucous, often laced with sly humour and mainly about drinking, drugging and having wild party times and fun. “Twenty-four beers and only two free hands” indeed.

Unholy rapture / Dark Divinity [Also on VINYL]
Mark: After 4 singles, a debut EP, and numerous personnel changes, including the departure of vocalist Jolene Tempest, Dark Divinity serve up their debut album. Chunky riffs and precise playing highlight the melodic strain of Death Metal on display here. The return to male vocals with Jesse Wheeler and new guitarist Jiji Aligno add different dimensions to the sound. To non-Metaler’s it may sound a bit samey, but within each track they offer up plenty of technical nuances, shifts in speed and textures to satisfy any Metal fan.
Neil: ‘Unholy rapture’ is Dark Divinity’s debut release, but from the sophistication and confidence of the tracks you would never know. There are elements of black Metal and Death metal, but Dark Divinity has higher aspirations than just being a genre follower. Instead they are out to forge and create their own unique sound. If you like your music dark, fast, furious and brutal, but with an inner melodic core then this should suit you.

Te oranga / Little Bushman [Also on CD]
Mark: Little Bushman were a 2000s group with members who had prominent roles in other local bands. Comprised of Warren Maxwell (Trinity Roots), Rick Cranson, and brothers Joe & Tom Callwood, ‘Te oranga’ was the bands 3rd album, now pressed on Vinyl for the first time. Their mix of proggy, psych 60s & 70s influences, with a moody deep roots-rock folk sound, gave their albums a dynamic sprawling feel, full of space for the music to roam. ‘Te oranga’ is a more more mellow, than the heavier Pendulum that preceded it, with a more soulful keys vibe, Te Reo elements and social commentary. Though this often runs up against the ponderous ‘cosmic’ searching that typifies any ‘prog’ influenced music, the juxtaposition of styles works more often than not, giving their a music a unique energy.
Neil: ‘Te oranga’ is the third album by the legendary local band Little Bushman originally released in 2011. This very welcome Vinyl reissue demonstrates their stunning haunting, blues and 60s psychedelic folk rock trademark sound perfectly. The lyrics, as well as having a space rock vibe, also deal with big issues such as the negative influence of technology in the 21st century. The musicianship on show is exceptional and the vocal delivery of Warren Maxwell points the way towards the other hugely acclaimed band he is part of, Trinity Roots.

The Pacifier album / Shihad [Also on CD]
Mark: 2022 Vinyl reissue of Shihad’s fifth studio album. The 2002 album was a bid for the American market with the band’s name changed to ‘Pacifier’ to avoid associations with the word ‘Jihad’. Derided by fans, and not much liked by the band itself, the music from this period is certainly more commercial, much cleaner sounding, and obviously an attempt at a more commercial sound. Indeed Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland and DJ Lethal (Limp Bizkit) both feature on the track ‘Coming Down’. Listening to it again today it has actually aged better than you might think, and while it is somewhat generic in places, it has quite a bit in common with that mid-period ‘Foo Fighters’ sound, which itself has achieved an almost classicist position with American rock music. Over polished but worthy of reevaluation.
Neil: Shihad’s trademark interpretation nu-metal, post grunge hard rock (not to mention some excellent albums) had led the band to the top of the rock scene in Aotearoa. All they needed to do now was conquer the American market, but like many bands before them it didn’t quite work out as they expected. Indeed, the band nearly split for good whilst recording and touring this album. It’s a testament to their resilience as a band that they released an album at all. In short, the pressure to release a huge, bestselling album led to conflict and division all round. The resulting album divides opinion both within their fan base and the band itself with one reviewer scathingly calling it a “12 track green card application”. It’s not that bad; just too smoothed out and polished for it to be one of their best releases or play to the bands many strengths.

They seek my head / End Boss [VINYL only]
Mark: The debut album, following 2019 single Feral, and 2020 two song EP Heart of the Sky. Stoner/doom/sludge metal 4 piece that features Nathan Hickey from Beastwars, and guitarists Greg Broadmore and Christian Pearce from Ghidoragh. The key weapon, though, is vocalist E.J. Thorpe, who really shows how much difference in textures and stylings a female vocalist can have on heavy oriented music. Big distorted riffs combine with a darkly symphonic sound, occult vibes and hard-rock/bluesy vocals, filtering in unexpected influences from shoegaze to alt-rock, to create a unique blues-metal kind of sound.
Neil: The debut release from heavy rock, sludge metal band End Boss ‘They Seek my Head’ is a powerful, dark stoner release. The tunes are built round a solid bedrock of relentless pounding drums, heavy duty riffs and truly impressive vocals delivered by EJ Thorpe, which are very carefully incorporated into the mix so as not to get lost. They also sound like the kind of band that would peel the paint of the walls live.

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Category: CDs