8th Feb, 2023
What I've been doing lately + listening and reading updates
Selected Works is a regular newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell. Yes, that’s me. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.
WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:
In 2013, I helped DJ Marek, aka Mazdef compile a scene snapshot mixtape of the New Zealand hip-hop scene of the era. Due to some miscommunication, the mixtape went unrealised at the time. Ten years on, we decided to upload it on SoundCloud. You can listen to it here. You can also read some reflections I wrote on the era for Audio Culture here.
Steve Weichert (1975) is the self-titled debut album from the late American singer-songwriter Steve Weichert and the Five Dollar Band. Over twelve poetically poised songs, Steve’s voice, with its deep sense of yearning, intertwines with sunkissed guitar figures, sometimes accompanied by cello, harp, harmonica, electric piano and shakers, sometimes stripped bare, but always arranged in service of the spirit of the song. Rendered in a style equal parts folk, soul, country, jazz, psych, and lounge, which Steve described as “Oklahoma Bossa Nova”, the album unfolds like a series of summertime daydreams about young love, loss, reflection, and the land. I was lucky enough to write the listening/liner notes for the first official digital issue of this brilliant release, which you can purchase now via Frederiksberg Records here.
Created between the dry freeways of Palm Springs, California and lush coastlines and Hilo, Hawai’i, V is the definitive Unknown Mortal Orchestra record. Led by Hawaiian-New Zealand artist Ruban Nielson, V draws from the rich traditions of West Coast AOR, classic hits, weirdo pop and Hawaiian Hapa-haole music. With his sharpest-ever ear for “making it UMO”, Ruban evokes blue skies, beachside cocktail bars and hotel pools without ever turning a blind eye to the darkness that lurks below perfect, pristine surfaces. Once again, I was lucky enough to be enlisted to write the release notes for this brilliant album. Thanks again to Ruban and Nick. You can pre-order V here.
This Thursday, I restart my weekly Pepps Picks segment on RDU 98.5 FM in Christchurch, New Zealand. Every Thursday at 9 am New Zealand Time, I present some music from an album or EP I’ve been listening to and talk about it. Thanks to the RDU team for being so supportive.
WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:
He was paralysed in a surfing accident, now academic has dream job: Dr Johnny Bourke was five days into a trip around Southeast Asia when he broke his neck. It was June 2005, and the plan was to travel for three months, visiting the best surf beaches. He wanted to catch “one last wave”. Lee Kenny interviews Dr Johnny Bourke for Stuff.
"You never know what's gonna happen": Kerri Chandler on the 'Spaces and Places' that made him: Gemma Ross talks to one of dance music's most enduring figures following the release of his first full-length LP in 14 years. For Mixmag.
QRTR’s life between two worlds: In the space between EDM and esoteric dance music, the Brooklyn DJ is carving out her own path. Arielle Lana LeJarde for The Fader.
Meet Charly Gynn & Tempvs Music, the Future of Mexican Reggaeton: It’s a quiet afternoon in Mexico City’s picturesque Santa María la Ribera neighborhood when suddenly, the boom of perreo intenso erupts from above a local hardware store. Within the building is a loft-style dance studio where the entirety of Tempvs Music’s talent and management roster is in dress rehearsal ahead of their performance at the latest edition of Coca-Cola Flow Fest, Mexico’s first major reggaeton music festival. Richard Villegas for Remezcula.
How E-girl influencers are trying to get Gen Z into the military: Cosplay commandos are posting nationalist thirst traps to mobilise the SIMPs – but why? Günseli Yalcinkaya for Dazed.
Exploring the Scottish Highlands' blossoming dance music scene: Inverness and the surrounding Highlands have steadily cultivated a vital space in Scotland’s dance music scene. Claire Francis explores a thriving network of intimate venues, passionate promoters, inclusive club nights, and upcoming DJs and producers putting the area on the map. For DJ Mag.
David Crosby Understood the Sharpness of Despair: The musician was gifted, irascible, often disliked by his bandmates, free-flowing on Twitter, and possessed of a singular voice. Amanda Petrusich for The New Yorker.
A History of Bloghouse in Ten Tracks: How did this brief yet intense internet phenomenon become one of electronic's most maligned scenes? Resident Advisor unpacks its history and key records with help from author Lina Abascal.
The Secret Life, House Arrest And Rebirth Of Youngboy Never Broke Again: Despite spurning traditional models of success, the iconoclast became one of the planet's most popular and prolific rappers. Now he's atoning for his past — and contemplating what's next. Meaghan Garvey for Billboard.
WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
I know this is going against the proverbs, but I’m very much a fan of judging a book (or album) by its cover. After all, if you’re not going to take the time to give your work a proper visual representation, what else have you skipped out on along the way. As such, Auckland-based musician Kraus’s new album Seahorse Wedding (Music for Float Tanks) caught my eye straight away. As the story goes, he wrote and recorded it as a commission for the Pyramid Club in Wellington. If you live here, you can listen to it on request in the float tanks at Float Well. Expect a glossy blend of EBM, VGM, IDM, and perhaps another couple of genres you can express with acronyms - rendered in a lush rhythmic ambient style. RIYL: Seaquest DSV, Ecco The Dolphin, Emerald Web, Spending time in the ocean.
Seven tracks of early 2000s dance-punk by way of early 80s post-punk and proto-house/techno with a dash of lo-fi Dunedin and a little bit of now. Mosaics is Vanessa Worm’s second album. If you enjoyed Vanessa 77, you’ll want to dig in here. And if you enjoy Mosaics and haven’t heard Vanessa 77, you’ll want to dig back as well.
Wellington wunderkind Benny Salvador, the youngest old head in the local scene, serves up a syncopated three-tracker of exploratory dance cuts inspired by the rhythms and natural beauty of Aitutaki, Rarotonga. He’s called it an electronic interpretation of Pacific Island Logg drums and underwater soundscapes, and that just makes sense.
Once again, John Kingston, aka Box of Hammers, has recorded an epic odyssey through the soundworlds of ambient drone guitar. He loves his dreamscapes and his rich textures, and if for a headphone stroll on a humid summer night, you could do a lot worse than ‘Summer Haze’.
FIN.