CD Releases: July / August 2003 updated:10/12/2003
Just in case you have missed this stunning album…..
CONRAY Mefasolate CD
(Turbine)
File under: Electronica / NZ Music
TURBINE002
"…is a very good album, hypnotic in mood, but rich enough in detail to keep you enchanted and awake in case you miss anything." 4/5 Russell Ballie NZ Herald
"the overall mood, is one of seamless cool.....the album is full of sonic events, and keeps challenging your ears for all of it's 44 relaxed and pleasurable minutes" Nick Bollinger - The Sampler
Album Of The Week 4 1/2 stars. Otago Daily Times
Dale Cotton, the producer/engineer behind HDU, Dimmer, The Subliminals, Cloudboy, Sola Rosa and others has offered up his own project in the form Conray. About bloody time too we might add! In his role of producer/engineer Dale has made something like 40 records, a healthy portion of which are critically acclaimed as some of the best to come out of New Zealand. As well as the ears, Dale is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter – his touches appear anonymously on most the records he works on – (you’d be surprised at some of the hooks he’s responsible for). He straddles all musical forms. His credits to date include the popular and acclaimed Dimmer and Sola Rosa, and of course, his ground breaking work with the group HDU. It’s a discography that includes anyone from Mink and Cloudboy to Mestar and The Subliminals. All of which have earned him critical accolades from the press, and the likes of super-producer Steve Albini. Add recording gigs spanning from a sheep shed up North, to a world class studio in Chicago; a couple of B-net Producer of the Year Awards, and a mighty list of "way too many" shows as live engineer for countless acts – and you’ll still only get part of the picture. Dale just likes making music, and over the past six months, he finally sat down and made his own album, drawing on anything Dale's into from house and jazz to hip hop and dub, the result is a truly stunning debut album.
MY MORNING JACKET Sweatbees CD
(Darla Records / Spunk)
File Under:
URA097
Dave Grohl was so excited when he heard My Morning Jacket that he met with the executives of BMG and told them unless you sign this band I am leaving. That's the type of excitement you feel when you hear My Morning Jacket for the first time. From Louisville, Kentucky, My Morning Jacket are based around songwriter, vocalist and guitarist Jim James. The Sweatbees EP was originally released in the UK by Witchita in December of 2000. It went on to sell 25,000 copies. The Sweatbees LP is an extended Australasian only version. Simply put it is a so called 'Best Of' of My Morning Jacket. It includes all of the tracks from 20021s split with Songs Ohia as well as the standout tracks from last years Chocolate and Ice. Also included are tracks from the band's phenomenal record At Dawn. My Morning Jacket might be one of the new cool band's on the block but there music is miles away from the 'Nu Rock' revolution. MMJ's music makes you want to listen to AM soul. It is slow, enthralling and invigorating.
ST THOMAS Hey Harmony CD
(Racing Junior / Spunk)
URA094
Thomas Hansen aka St Thomas wonders whether maybe he should have been a rap artist. Watching 8 Mile recently, he couldn't help but be reminded of his childhood in a working class suburb of Oslo. It might seem faintly ridiculous to the more cynical that a 26 year old former postman from Norway, who also played football for one of Norway's leading football team's junior and reserve sides, might see himself as a potential Eminem, but no more so than the idea that he might see himself as the missing link between country music, Norwegian folk and pop. And we say our cowboy loving Scandinavian is a sinner running away to find redemption in the cinematic wild west. He has the soul of an ageing cowboy and the inquisitiveness of an irresponsible teen. His songs wrap subtle Norwegian melodies in warm Nashville chords and new-fangled keyboards, a sweet simplicity fighting against his depressive tendencies, the on-the-road fantasies masking his confining reality. These are great pop tunes, adorned by a delicate falsetto recalling Neil Young at his most affecting and Morten Harket at his most comforting. A Long Long Time, with its wheezy melodica and gentle pop rhythm, questions the personal cost of freedom. Everything Was Up For Romance has fingers slipping lustily over an acoustic guitar as Hansen sings about a cowgirl at a dance, imbuing an innocent moment with significance. The sugary melodies are too gentle to provide a rush, but the keyboard swirls tie the country genre in uncomfortable knots. It's the numbness of Institution, however, that bursts the John Wayne bubble. Crickets scream, two children are abandoned by their parents and Hansen reveals life beyond the lens.
THE BIGGER LOVERS Honey In The Hive CD
(Yep Roc Records / Spunk)
File Under: Rock / Power Pop
URA093
The Bigger Lovers couldn't hit power pop's nail on the head any better than on their sophomore album, Honey In The Hive. Consisting of worthy nods to the classics like Cheap Trick, Big Star and Teenage Fanclub, The Bigger Lovers' sound is simple pop music done without any catches. The Bigger Lovers seem to have a bit more going for them than a lot of power pop upstarts and the Philadelphia group is able to sublimate their cheeky Anglo-pop influences into something wholly their own. Most importantly, there's a surfeit of sugarcoated, prickly skin-inducing hooks on the aptly named Honey in the Hive. The tag team vocals of Bret Tobias and Scott Jefferson have a sweetness that even bees couldn't resist (which may have to do something with the album's title) interchanging without any real notice. Everything seems to be in check with how they write their songs as well. They have the slower Emanuelle, the pick-me-up anthem Ivy Grows, a strong opening tune announcing what they're all about Half Richard's and a soothing closer to signify the end Minivan Blues. Honey In The Hive doesn't go wrong in any of its moments, making it an easy listen all the way through.
NINA NASTASIA Run To Ruin CD
(Touch & Go/Spunk)
URA099
Run to Ruin is Nina Nastasia’s third record. It was recorded at Iain Burgess’s Black Box studio in France, located in a 300 year old farmhouse in Noyante La Gravoyere, just north of the Loire Valley. Steve Albini produced this record, as well as her previous two. Players on the record include Jim White of the Dirty Three, and Gerry Leonard, who is currently playing with David Bowie. Her last record, The Blackened Air, received such high praise as "Music that is intricate, dreamlike, and inspired." (Village Voice), and "Nastasia is a rare artist who creates a new form which others will copy,"(Interview Magazine). John Peel liked her so much she has recorded three Peel sessions. Nastasia appeared at the Shellac curated All Tomorrows Parties alongside our own HDU. A generation-plus of young troubadour’s pine for things they never had to lose, as if sadness and depression were inevitable consequences of being alive. Nastasia's music is an antidote to all of that. Run to Ruin is a darkish record not just in title, but by examining everything without caving in to decadence or solipsism, it's a rejuvenating experience. It's informed, without affect, unique, and succinct. Above all, it's beautiful to hear and a pleasure to have in one's home. Run to Ruin will appeal to fans of Francoise Breut, Catpower and Mazzy Star.
DIZZY Doubledown Under CD
(Doubledown / Red Light District)
File Under: House / Dance / Mix CD
DDRCD001
Doubledown Recordings (USA) is a well established house/tek house label with over 23 releases to date from many established artists that include, Inland Knights, Swirl People, H Foundation, Natural Rhythm, LHK & Alex Moran, Johhny Fiasco to name but a few. This debut compilation release for Doubledown Recordings comprising of past, present and unreleased favorites mixed exclusively by label owner, DJ and Producer Dizzy. The label has featured and regularly features in most of the world’s leading dance music magazines and the releases played by the majority of today’s big house DJs. Featuring tracks by Inland Knights, Johnny Fiasco, LHK & Alex Moran, Natural Rhythm and Hipp-E & Dizzy found in da mix. The perfect warm up for Dizzy’s forthcoming NZ tour….
THE KILLS Fried My Little Brains CDS
(Liberation)
File Unde: the Kills / Rock
LIBSP5073.2
Riding in the obliterating wake of The White Stripes - who've made it thrillingly obvious how much mind-blasting sound two people can unload - come The Kills. Out-of-control in an ablaze truck and lighting their production line of cigarettes on the inferno, Hotel and VV - their admirable rock monikers - have taken the Jon Spencer and Royal Trux template and unleashed a subversive, seedy concoction of juddering, propulsive blues riffing, screwed choruses, sexual tension and fags. Fried My Little Brains is entirely regressive, whilst also being utterly of its time - like, now - and has an edgy, deviant appeal, much like the two protagonists, whose live electricity is fuelled by the thought that at any moment they could start licking, and, just maybe, eating each other. And that, I think you'll agree, is worth a few dollars of anyone's money.
in music releases are available at all good record stores nation-wide