Beats + Pieces Vol. 100
Remembering Wellington’s Incredible 2000s Jazz Scene & other such topics
Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately, along with some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken, plus some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes, it takes completely different forms.
Today’s edition of Selected Works marks the 100th edition of my semi-regular beats and pieces column. Big thanks to everyone who has subscribed to, or read, my newsletter over the last five years. Bigger bigger thanks to the people who have gone above and beyond and subscribed via the paid tier along the way. I’ve never had any expectation that people would pay to subscribe to this newsletter, so being able to pay for the odd coffee or bill as a result has been absolutely lovely.
My main talking point this week is a restrospective feature article I’ve just published through Rolling Stone Australia/New Zealand about Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington’s vibrant 2000s jazz scene. The call to action for this was Crayon Records’ recent reissue of Jonathan Crayford and Riki Gooch’s cult classic, Big Foot. Read on below.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: ‘The Weekend Used to Start on Wednesday’: Remembering Wellington’s Incredible 2000s Jazz Scene
With cheap rent and the influence of the local jazz school, the late 1990s and early 2000s culminated in a golden moment for Wellington musicians.
In the 1990s, the celebrated New Zealand pianist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Jonathan Crayford immersed himself in New York’s storied jazz, funk, and Latin music scenes, performing and recording with Kurt Rosenwinkel, David Binney, Jay Rodriguez, Bill Ware, Groove Collective, and Mambo Macoco. At the end of the decade, he returned home to Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington with a songbook shaped by the energy of the Big Apple.
“There was a feeling I got in New York that wasn’t to do with being from one culture or another; it was about being with every culture,” he said, speaking with Rolling Stone AU/NZ on a video call from his apartment in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland. “I’d be sitting on the subway next to an African princess in traditional dress, and a homeless man would come past asking for a dollar. Everyone’s together in New York. I got the idea that we’re all just people on a planet. We’ve got our hustles, our cultures, and our rights and wrongs. My music became a playful romp through an imaginative journey.”
Back in Wellington, Crayford continued refining his songs, performing them with different ensembles. In 2007, he entered Trident Studios with drummer, composer, and producer Riki Gooch-Pirihi, vocalists Emma Paki, Lisa Tomlins, and Hollie Smith, and a violin group led by Donald Armstrong. The result was Jonathan Crayford & Riki Gooch’s Big Foot, an expansive jazz-fusion album released as a short-run CD.
Opening with the squelchy synth-funk of its title track, Big Foot unfolds with a breezy, seaside disposition. Moving from the swinging, ecosystem-minded jazz fusion of “Can You Hear the Birds” to the smooth city-pop glide of “Jewel City” and the rubbery abstraction of “Phantom”, the songs reveals new depths and details with every playback.
Crayford and Gooch-Pirihi freely admit the album didn’t sell many copies. Regardless, it reached the right ears. Today Big Foot is considered a cult classic that documents the creativity surging through Wellington’s nocturnal jazz scene during the 2000s. In late May, it was reissued on vinyl by the newly established Auckland-based label Crayon Records.
You can read my full feature story here.
One More Song: Stories and Live Performance With Hun Lynch
I know I’ve gone on about this a bit, but sometimes when you have something to promote, you’ve got to blow you own horn a bit. This weekend, I’m hosting a live performance from, and conversation with, the avant-pop singer-songwriter and producer Hun Lynch at Auckland’s Central Library. If you wanna come along, grab and RSVP over here.
Join award-winning journalist Martyn Pepperell and multi-disciplinary artist Hun Lynch as they discuss the themes of the Auckland Libraries Publication One More Song: Stories From The Stage. Hun will also perform selected works from her debut album Sycophant which was released on April 24 via alternative Pasifika label NOA Records.
Martyn has been published internationally by Dazed, DJ Mag, i-D, Mixmag, Resident Advisor, Rolling Stone, The Bluegrass Situation, The Wire, Vice, and Wax Poetics. He also contributes to Audio Culture Iwi Waiata - The Noisy Library of New Zealand Music. Martyn was chosen as the editor of the Encore exhibition companion publication One More Song: Stories From The Stage.
In this publication, he interviewed five local musicians (Bic Runga, LEAO, Half Queen, Miho Wada and Julie Park) about significant experiences on stages and in venues. A free copy of this publication will be available to all people attending this talk.
Hun Lynch’s work spans music, film, theatre, and writing. Her practice is expansive and deeply personal with the sound fluctuating between moments of spiritual grandeur and existential fragility. Sycophant her 2026 self-produced album was mixed at Auckland’s Roundhead Studios with engineer Paddy Hill and distils her creative vocabulary into a sound that is as theatrical and poetic as it is intimate.
This talk is part of Encore! One More Song: a day celebrating the exhibition with free events for everyone. Come for the music, leave with the memories.
Extra Soul Perception: Paddy Fred, ‘Together’
Thanks to Paddy Fred for inviting me to write the sales copy for his forthcoming new album Changes and it’s accompanying singles. If you are in Te Whanganui-a-tara Wellington keep your eyes peeled. We will be doing a listening party later this year.
Paddy Fred is a guitarist, beatmaker, singer-songwriter and producer based on Wellington’s rugged south coast in Aotearoa New Zealand.
This single offers a taste of his forthcoming self-produced album Changes. Sharing the same spirit as his cult 2022 EP Spells, blending shuffling programmed beats with the lush textures and hazy guitars of chillwave, dream-pop, and experimental rock.
A longstanding musician, Paddy began in rock, soul and funk bands in the 2000s. He turned his hand towards beatmaking after visiting Los Angeles, crossing paths with Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder collective, and attending the storied Low End Theory party. In 2013, he produced his debut EP, Laminate, and became a father. “Before having kids, I was so wrapped up in my own stuff,” he says. “The first few years of parenting were honestly the happiest. My priorities were so clear…”
Over ten vivid tracks, he reflects on parenting, the shared life he’s built with his partner, and his search for balance amid chaos. Written with guitars, keyboards, recording hardware and software, the album traverses joy, loss, gratitude and grief, understanding emotion as a healing force, as rendered through a mixture of analogue warmth and digital clarity.
On Changes’ lead single, ‘Together’, Paddy leans all the way into unconditional love, reminding his children he’ll be there in the good times and bad, while giving himself grace in every moment.
Fittingly, Changes brought Paddy full circle while opening new doors. “Before this album, there wasn’t much guitar or any singing in my beatmaking,” he says. “Beatmaking started as an escape from the live bands I was playing in. Here I reconnected with the guitar—the instrument I know best—and started singing for the first time. It felt like a mainline to my subconscious. ‘Changes’ was a very therapeutic process. It gave me perspective, helped me see what I was grateful for and what I was missing.”
Beats + Pieces:
Techno Has Landed in Ōtautahi: Chapter One of a Four-Part Series: ‘Techno Has Landed in Ōtautahi’ is a four-part series on Techno and its taste-makers who are leading the charge in the 03. This first edition features Ella’s article on Techno’s journey to Christchurch alongside an interview with Keepsakes and Marie Celeste from HAVEN. Next on the lineup, we have interviews with Hunter, The Rat, Keanu Raves, Mr Meaty Boy, Tikka, Chole, Jordun, and Aquilla, in the upcoming chapters.
Thanks to Ella Gibson from Gremlins for citing me in her new article series on techno in Ōtautahi Christchurch. You can read part one here.
Now that’s what I call Dubstep Techno Psy Trance!
Staggeringly nice Chinese shoegaze/dream-pop.
Dubstep in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu is doing okay.
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The Music Video Showcase 2026 submissions are officially open!
Submit your video and be in the running to make the showcase lineup, where your video will be presented to a live audience on the big screen, followed by a lively Q+A.
Locally-made * videos of all music genres, budgets and release dates are welcome and we encourage all experience levels to take part.
Whether your video was made in the 90’s or last month, we want to see it! We also accept unreleased videos that would premiere at the event.
Submit for the chance watch your video on the big screen and answer questions from fellow video enthusiasts about your mahi – big wins, funny fails, unusual props, tricky locations, your favourite camera…the topics are endless.
Let’s celebrate the world of music and film, together.
Submissions are free and close Sunday 23 August at midnight.
You can enter as many videos as you like.
*see submission form for more details
For questions, email Lily at themusicvideoshowcase@gmail.com
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