Box Sets – Page 2 – Library Blog

March’s new music for Te Awe: Part 1

March 24, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

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.

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

February’s new music for Te Awe: Part 3

March 8, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

Here is part two of our new music picks for February. You can catch up with Part 1 here, and Part 2 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.

Turn the car around / Coombes, Gaz
Mark: Coombes is best known as a member of 90s band Supergrass. However he has had a fairly prolific solo career outside the band, and this is his 4th solo album over the last decade or so, the last being World’s strongest man from 2018. A highpoint in his solo output, this album is full of the kind of cerebral, yet catchy, guitar orientated music that was a staple of the 90s with early Radiohead or The Verve. Full of textured instrumentation, double tracked vocals, and muscular playing, it balances anthemic character studies, with soul-searching responses to the chaotic world we live in. An album that could perhaps only exist with the maturity and focus of middle age & family, and trying interpret it all in the best way.

Neil: It has been a long while since Gaz Coombes first burst into the public arena as the frontman of teen rock band Supergrass. A band whose debut album I should Coco entered the UK Albums Chart at number one. Since then, he has established himself as a gifted solo performer, gaining both critical and commercial success with albums like Matador and ‘World’s Strongest Man’. This, his fourth solo outing, builds musically on all his previous releases, and shows a mature and sophisticated songwriter in full flow not afraid to experiment when needed, but also happy to follow the flow of any given song if that is what is required. There are songs of studied sadness and regret, nuzzling side by side with heartfelt songs about his wife and children, not to mention songs about boxing champions and lizards. Arguably the best album he has released so far.

A reckoning / Kimbra
Mark: Kimbra returns with new album ‘A Reckoning’, following on from 2018’s Primal Heart. It’s a bit hard to get a handle on this. She pulls out all the stops, with big production numbers, alongside minimal electro-pop, shifting musical styles with each track. Lyrically the focus is on the mental health, spirituality, and feminism. There are some highpoint’s (‘LA Type’, ‘The way we were’, ‘New Habit’), but the jittery mix & production overpowers her voice to a large extent on a lot of the tracks. In a lot of ways this is the typical album an artist makes after splitting from a major label (Warners). Full of musical directions and open creativity, but a bit hit and miss overall.

Neil: New Zealand’s very own multi-Grammy award winning musician releases her fourth album. ‘A reckoning’ is basically a hybrid R&B outing, with strong elements of Alt pop, electronica, hip hop. Thrown into this heady mix there are also touches of art pop, and occasionally experimental moments that remind me of Bjork. The atmospheric, minimalist, melodic, electro pop is entwined with lyrics that are largely bittersweet and introspective in nature. An album that overall shows an artist expanding her wings, whilst not quite abandoning her more commercial roots.

Continue reading “February’s new music for Te Awe: Part 3” →

February’s new music for Te Awe: Part 2

February 20, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

Here is part two of our new music picks for February. 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.

Cazimi / Rose, Caitlin
Mark: Caitlin Rose is a Nashville-based singer-songwriter. Her father is a label executive and her mother is songwriter Liz Rose, best known for her numerous co-writes with Taylor Swift. Her 2010 album Own Side Now and 2013 follow-up The Stand-In made her a critical darling, with her blend of country and indie-pop. Perhaps the pressure of such acclaim led her to take a step back, as it has taken nearly 10 years for her to deliver another album. She has a sweet voice and a style that mixes traditional honky-tonk, with a Zooey Deschanel-esque indie-pop, and a relatable way with an acerbic lyric. Standout track ‘Getting it Right’ features Courtney Marie Andrews. Definitely worth the wait.
Neil: It’s been close to ten years since the release of Caitlin Rose’s most recent previous album . Her new release Cazimi is an album that is, in some senses a follow up, but one that deliberately likes to blur the edges between things. Sure, it still could be described in the loosest of senses as an alt-country album, but it is like a version of country music reinvented by Taylor Swift. The lyrical content is equally obtuse; the songs are largely about complex emotional situations where the protagonist is barely holding it together, sung in a honey-tinged world-weary voice. All of this is, of course, intentional and used to great effect. One reviewer described the songs as having an ‘impressionistic feeling’ and that summarizes the album well too.

Solo works 96-98 / Raymonde, Simon
Mark: If you have no idea who Simon Raymonde is, he was the bass guitarist and keyboard player with Cocteau Twins from 1983 to 1997 and now runs the famous indie record label, Bella Union. When he started work on his first solo album, Blame Someone Else, the Cocteau Twins were still together, and the other band members feature on some tracks. By the time it was released in 1997 the band were no more, so it became the first album to appear on his Bella Union label. It’s been out of print for 25 years, and is repackaged here (and renamed) with 3 extra bonus tracks. As you would expect, there is very much a dream-pop aspect to these tracks that fits in with the style of the later Cocteau Twins album. Raymonde has been apparently hesitant to re-release it, but it’s all very mellow and pleasant, without being particularly original or pushing any musical boundaries. Weirdly it probably fits in more with today’s music scene than it did when it was originally released, with it’s laid back bedroom-pop charm.
Neil: During 1997 the Cocteau Twins were falling apart, and during that time you could find band member Simon Raymonde in the studio working on material that might, or might not, end up being used on a potential future Cocteau Twins release. As history shows, it turned out that this material was destined to morph into his first solo outing which has taken twenty-five years to be re-released. And although there are some Cocteau Twins touches (indeed both his fellow band members added separate elements to the tracks) the majority of the music is a long way from the Cocteau Twins. Indeed, the album sounds like what more mainstream indie music sounded like in Britain in late nineties. Raymonde does the vocal honours and writes most of the songs, with the exception of Scott Walker and Television covers. The album is both fragile and lush, and has a highly polished sound.

Is it going to get any deeper than this / Soft Pink Truth
Mark: The Soft Pink Truth is a house music side-project from Drew Daniel, who is one-half of Matmos, and this is his 7th release overall. Lush, psychedelic, disco marathons, meets chamber jazz and ambient soundscapes, moving between relaxing vibes to dance floor disco, to moody introspection. Singer Angel Deradoorian adds vocals on some tracks. Plenty of throwbacks to late 70s/early 80s European disco sounds.
Neil: Is it going to get any deeper than this by Soft Pink Truth is a particularly well named album. It starts of interestingly enough, as a wonderful nostalgic exploration of deep house dance music, but it quickly expands into something much more expansive. In places it’s a sexy, camp and lush sonic bubble-bath of an album, but it also organically changes into a rich meditative piece that is inspired by the memories and emotions the musicians experienced during those times.

Billy Nomates / Nomates, Billy
Mark: Billy Nomates is the moniker of Bristol’s Tor Maries, whose music is a blend of post-punk & 80s synths. New album Cacti was out last month, but this is her 2020 debut, that led to her being signed to Invada Records, the label of Portishead’s Geoff Barrow. Spiky, catchy songs with clever, humourous, observational, lyrics take acerbic swipes at pretty much everything and everyone. A fun, caustic, critique of the banalities of modern culture, and the financial & political inequalities rampant in British life. Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods pops up on ‘Supermarket Sweep’. Entertaining.
Neil: Billy Nomates is the first self-titled album from Tor Maries, whose second album ‘Cacti’ has just hit the record shops to rave reviews. On its release this debut album also created waves and was widely acclaimed. The tracks are clever, and largely comprise of sharply observed commentaries about our times. The music can best be described as post punk, but there’s a lot of other genres to be found in the broad palette of styles she uses. She is a fiercely independent singer-songwriter, who has a great capacity to write caustic, and occasionally, funny punk-tinged songs. She describes herself as a “punk with a keyboard”.

Sod’s toastie / Cool Greenhouse
Mark: Cool Greenhouse are a post-punk London band, and this is their 2nd full-length album. Angular post punk, wonky riffs and deadpan non-sequiturs from vocalist Tom Greenhouse (for example “Thank f…. Christ if you can find the end of the Sellotape in under 15 minutes”). If it sounds a bit similar to Dry Cleaning, Yard Act, Black Country, New Road and the like, The Cool Greenhouse actually pre-date all those bands, having debuted as a solo project by Tom Greenhouse back in 2017. Blurring the everyday with the surreal, in a dead montone they chronicle the absurdist nature of the reality we are all trapped in.
Neil: Cool Greenhouse are uncompromising in their approach, a post-punk band that employs fractured, repetitive, rhythms and melodies, and surrealist, existential, hard to fathom lyrics with wry humour thrown it. It’s this dogged, self-imposed discipline and clarity of vision that makes the album work. Though it does take time to tune into their wavelength, it eventually pays dividends. Just for reference they reminded me at points of a modern version of Devo.

Lady for sale / Kirke, Lola
Mark: Lola Kirke is a British-American actress/singer, whose father is Bad Company’s Simon Kirke, and Lady For Sale is her sophomore full-length album. A deliberate attempt to create an 80s female-country album sound along the lines of: Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5’, Barbara Mandrell, Juice Newtown, Tanya Tucker or The Judds – the groundbreaking female artists that preceded the Shania Twain country-pop era. It’s somewhat campy and sparkly in places, with slightly dinky production, though that all may be entirely deliberate. It mostly succeeds as more than a nostalgia project, with strong, catchy, swinging, songs that focus on the balance between empowerment and love.
Neil: Just last year Lola Kirke was told that her age would count heavily against her chances of becoming a successful actor or pop musician. Furious at the situation, and undeterred, she turned her focus to country music to make her creative mark. What emerged is a classic 80’s era country pop album, with songs about broken down hearts and proud but damaged people struggling on through life. It reminded me in many aspects of Real Love era Dolly Parton, with heavily polished slick slide guitars and eighties synths to the fore. An album that fully embraces the glam and glitz of 80’s country.

Folksongs & ballads / Blake, Tia
Mark: This is a 2022 reissue of the only album by young American singer Christiana Elizabeth Wallman, recorded in Paris when she was only 19 years old under the stage name Tia Blake. Hailed as a lost classic, her pitch perfect, warm, emotive voice winds around a set of traditional Appalachian and British folk songs. Sparse arrangements and subtle guitar lines surround her darkly haunting and unaffected vocals. Other than 3 later tracks performed in 1976, she never recorded any further music, becoming a writer and eventually settled in North Carolina. She has been compared to many artists: Nico, Karen Dalton, Bridget St’ John and Nick Drake, so definitely worth a listen if you appreciate any of those artists.
Neil: This album definitely falls into the category of “Lost Classic”. It was originally released in 1972 and disappeared without trace. Even at that point in time, it was an album that was looking back into the past of the great American folk song tradition. Tia Blake made her own distinct mark on these legendary songs, recorded with minimal orchestration and largely just Tia’s superb smoky powerful voice and two guitars. It was to be her only recording indeed nearly every known recording by her is on this release.

Don’t give up on me / Burke, Solomon
Mark: Reissue of the 2002 Solomon Burke comeback album. Burke was one of the founders of 60’s R&B, scoring a string of hits for Atlantic in the early 60’s, melding gritty R&B, county and gospel. However, by the 90s, like a lot of the soul originators, he was recording on smaller labels and smaller budgets and was largely forgotten to the general public. His fortunes changed after signing to the Fat Possum label, where producer Joe Henry surrounded him with a series of original and previously unreleased compositions by top-rank songwriters: Tom Waits, Dan Penn, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Van Morrison and more. This delivered a comeback that would go on to critical acclaim, commercial success and win a Grammy. The close live-in-the-studio sound that Henry achieved, along with the sparse arrangements and instrumentation, free Burke’s voice to inhabit the stories in these songs, cutting straight to their emotional heart. Deep soul at its best.
Neil: The late great Solomon Burke is regarded as one of the founding fathers of R&B music. His output in the 60s was legendary, you can check out some of those recordings on the Atlantic R&B compilation series. He fared less well in the 80’s and 90’s, when tastes changed and he was given often poorer material to work with. However, this 2002 album is a revelation. Recorded live in the studio over four days with no overdubs, with sparse production that highlights his voice, it features new songs by some of the finest songwriter out there: Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Tom Waits and Brian Wilson to name but a few. The results are spectacular, and his vocal performance is stunning. The album went on to win best contemporary blues album at that years Grammys.

The Music Box Sets Of 2022: Part 2

February 16, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

Box Sets!!! 3 CDs. 4CDs. 5CDs. 6CDs. 7CDs. 8CDs… 8CDs!!.

Everything from overviews of Black Music, to British pop, to the avant-garde, to live collection’s, Psychedelica, artist overviews, classic album reissues, and back again.

But they’re all so expensive! The dollar is terrible. And now you get taxed for everything you want to buy on Amazon that your local Record Store doesn’t have. Assuming you even have a local Record Store! It doesn’t seem fair..

But don’t worry!!! We buy these, so you don’t have to…

Joe Strummer 002 : the Mescaleros years / Strummer, Joe
“2022 marks 20 years since the passing of the legendary Joe Strummer. While best known as the frontman for The Clash, between 1999-2002 Strummer produced some of his most exciting work alongside The Mescaleros. Joe Strummer 002: The Mescaleros Years is the first comprehensive collection highlighting this intense period of creativity and brings together the albums, a brand-new compilation of 15 B-sides and rarities, and early demos of some of the Mescaleros best-loved tracks, through to some of the original recordings from Joe’s last ever sessions..” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Waka/Wazoo / Zappa, Frank
“In 1972, Frank Zappa experimented with an “electric orchestra” concept which resulted in 2 albums: Waka/Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo. Celebrating the 50th-anniversary of this endeavor, Waka/Wazoo documents the recording sessions with outtakes and oddities on 4 CDs. Also included is a December 1972 live show from Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco and unreleased George Duke demos. A Blu-ray Audio disc features both albums with Dolby Atmos & 5.1 mixes + 96/24 hi-res stereo masters…” (Adapted from Amazon.com)

George Martin : a painter in sound : pre-Beatles productions and classical influences
“An anthology of George Martin’s sound productions before the advent of the Beatles. He re-defined the role of producer; pioneering the recording itself as an art form. These madcap sonic adventures, allied to his understanding of the workings of an orchestra, his contacts within the classical fraternity, his fascination with studio experimentation made George Martin uniquely able to realise what the ever-curious Beatles, or any artist, would ask of him…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

The Asylum albums (1972-1975) / Mitchell, Joni
“‘The Asylum Albums (1972-1975)’, the next instalment in the Joni Mitchell archive series, explores the beginning of that prolific era. The collection features newly remastered versions of ‘For the Roses’ (1972), ‘Court and Spark’ (1974), the double live album ‘Miles of Aisles’ (1974), and ‘The Hissing of Summer Lawns’ (1975). All four were remastered by Bernie Grundman…” (Adapted from Amazon.co.uk)

Continue reading “The Music Box Sets Of 2022: Part 2” →

February’s new music for Te Awe: Part 1

February 13, 2023February 7, 2024 Mark

via GIPHY

Loose future / Andrews, Courtney Marie
Mark: Courtney Marie Andrews is an American singer-songwriter and this is her 3rd album, following on from 2020’s Old Flowers. Our catalogue files her under ‘country’ but that is perhaps a bit misleading, as she incorporates a lot of indie pop stylings. She also folds folk into her Americana sound and, in a lot of ways, her music sits comfortably alongside indie artists like Phoebe Bridgers or Lucy Dacus. Her previous album focused on the psychological damage of a bad breakup, but this is a bit more positive. There are still songs about emotional upheavals, but also new found love and self renewal.
Neil: Andrews’ carefully strummed guitar forms a kind of heartbeat within these songs. This is her eighth album, and quite a long way from her emo background origins. This is a delicate country-folk rock album, with a singer-songwriter written large throughout each track. There are some lovely slide guitars in the mix, and Andrews’ vocals display a warmness about them, though the lyrical content is often sad or reflective. The songs are all set amongst a very smooth and crystal-clear production.

Hold the girl / Sawayama, Rina
Mark: Rina Sawayama is Japanese-British singer, melding her powerful voice with a multitude of different genres. Sophomore album ‘Hold the girl’ follows on from her 2020 debut Sawayama. If her debut had more elements and experimentation, this is a bit of a throwback to clubby 2000’s R&B, 90s Corrs era pop, and the country-pop of Shania Twain, Taylor Swift or Faith Hill, mixed with with elements of thumping nu-metal. Weirdly this all works really well, resulting in a series of hooky, melodic tracks with huge anthemic chorus’, but also a lyrical depth that her cross-cultural background brings. Edgy lyrics confront growth gained from extensive therapy, as the album exorcises the demons of her younger self. She has a massive range, a versatile voice, and this is a huge, if perhaps somewhat overly familiar musically, pop album.
Neil: There’s genre mashing galore at work in Rina Sawayama’s second album ‘Hold the girl’. In the mix there’s trance, anthemic stadium rock, pop-punk and power ballads, to name but a few. The lyrical message is just as dense. In a sense it is a message to her younger self to say it’s going to be alright. Some of the issues she touches on are her mother’s immigration experience, honouring her queer, Asian, first-generation British identity, and how she can try to open up and reach out emotionally to a global audience. However, ultimately, it is a modern pure pop album aimed at world mainstream music domination (in the same way that some Lady Gaga’s albums are) and as such it largely succeeds.

Gyedu-Blay Ambolley and hi-life jazz / Ambolley, Gyedu-Blay
Mark: Gyedu-Blay Ambolley is a Ghanaian highlife musician and bandleader, with ‘Highlife’ being a Ghanaian music genre that fuses African metre and western jazz melodies. This is his 35th album, and though he has previously toured the US and Europe he is still relatively unknown to Western audiences. This is just a fantastic album of breezy, swinging Jazz, as he reworks standards from John Coltrane (Love Supreme), Thelonius Monk (Round Midnight), Wayne Shorter (Footprints) and Miles Davis (All Blues) alongside some brand new compositions, performed in a classic highlife style. Driven by guitar and funky horns, he turns the familiar tracks inside out with a mix of Ghanian scatting, afro-soul & afro-Cuban rhythms until it’s like you’ve never heard them before, and the originals just drift by with a funky, danceable, vibe. Recommended.
Neil: This is the 35th album from the legendary Ghanaian musician, bandleader, singer and saxophonist Gyedu-Blay Ambolley. If you’ve not come across his work before, he is unique. To give you some reference points, imagine Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor and James Brown all rolled into one, doing funky African-jazz tracks with an underlying highlife groove. It’s uplifting, truly distinctive, and musically infectious. In this album, he takes on some of the greatest jazz standards of all time, such as John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and effortlessly reimagines then in his own unique musical style. Chill out sit back and enjoy. Continue reading “February’s new music for Te Awe: Part 1” →

Staff Picks: The Best CDs & Vinyl of 2022

February 1, 2023July 21, 2023 Mark

I’m Mark, the Music & Film Specialist at Wellington City Libraries. Every month this year my colleague Neil and I reviewed some new material for the music collection at Te Awe Brandon Street Library. The podcast below is a roundup of some the albums we enjoyed listening to most over the course of the year. Some of these titles featured on various critics’ Best of 2022 lists, but others are just albums that struck us as being unique and interesting. Click on the image links to reserve any of these items from the catalogue. Following on from our picks is a selection of titles that other staff members rated as their favourite listens of 2022.

Mark’s Picks: