Beats + Pieces Vol. 51

Samuel Forbes, Hi-Fi Sci-Fi, Test Pressing, etc

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 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:

Dubby breakbeat science and bass abstractions from a low-profile New Zealand producer: Based in Wellington, the capital city of New Zealand, Samuel Forbes grew up in the port town of Lyttelton, just outside of Christchurch. Raised on dub reggae, D.I.Y sound system culture, and freshly cut acetate dubplates, he was fascinated by UK-born hardcore continuum sounds of jungle/drum & bass, grime, and dubstep from a young age. After learning to DJ, he relocated to the capital, where he opened his ears to techno, house, footwork, ambient and jazz while honing his skills as a graphic designer, hardware-based music producer, and florist.

Last week, I helped Samuel put together some press material for his debut EP ‘Here/Walk,’ which features a remix by Cory Champion, aka Borrowed CS. As it turns out, his EP is getting a limited vinyl release in Japan. Check it all out here.

Love Injection, the New York record label/radio show/magazine and production duo of Barbie Bertisch and Paul Raffaele, have just lovingly assembled a three-track 12" EP focused around Jennifer Vanilla's hyper-joyful disco-pop track "Jennifer Pastoral". I wrote about it for Test Pressing here.

Seattle-born, Philadelphia-based DJ and producer ESTOC is representative of a generation of artists who see popular music club edits, techno, hardstyle, gabber, industrial, ambient and drone as different frequencies in the same waveform. Citing sci-fi and horror movies, video games and global culture as crucial influences, she’s a voracious, musically omnivorous listener who can dial up a stylistic allusion or reference at a moment's notice while delivering her messages and values with a refreshing combination of humour and sincerity.

As part of my neverending journey of writing things, I wrote some copy about ESTOC and their latest DJ mix, which is now available to stream on the New Zealand-based avant-garde fashion label HI-FI SCI-FI’s Soundcloud page. You can check it out here.

Over the last decade, the Chinese-Malaysian Australian experimental pop musician and performance artist Becky "Sui Zhen" Freeman has become emblematic for me of a generation of musicians who drink deeply from the rich musical histories of the mid-to-late 20th century while still finding ways to create work that marches forward into our 21st-century future. She’s just released a new song (it’s more than a single). I wrote about it over on Test Pressing here.

WHAT I’VE GOT COMING UP:

Every Thursday morning at 9:15 a.m., I take a call from Christchurch student radio station RDU 98.5’s breakfast show and talk about some new (or old) music with the host, Liam. I don’t plug this as much as I should, but if you’re keen, you can always listen online here.

PHOTOS:

This week’s photos were taken in February while I was on a family holiday on the upper South Island of New Zealand with a Nikon F80 camera and a range of film types. They were then developed and scanned by Splendid.

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:

Taiwan’s forgotten disco era and the singers who made it big with covers of Abba, New Order, and David Bowie: As Taiwan’s young generation dusts off retro disco records, scholars consider how the island came to embrace the Western music genre and its impact on Mandopop. David Frazier for South China Morning Post.

It's the Peaches Effect: For International Women's Day, Katie Thomas speaks to the singular artist for Resident Advisor about her era-spanning career, how she approaches costume and songs about self-pleasure.

My Anxiety: Is what’s wrong with me what’s wrong with everyone else? For The New Yorker, Lauren Oyler.

John Kennedy, starmaker and svengali: An expatriate New Zealander in the right place at the right time helped launch British rock’n’roll. In 1956, John Kennedy was a suave opportunist in his mid-twenties who would become a clever and shameless publicist-cum-PR operative in London showbiz circles. He had, as Nik Cohn wrote, “flair, invention and a fast mouth”. For Audio Culture, Graham Reid.

Moving in the dark: Tristan O'Neill's photography encapsulates the sweaty bliss of jungle's golden era: With his work featuring in London's move/003 exhibition, Tristan O'Neill describes his experiences capturing the raucous energy of '90s ravers. For Mixmag, Belle Richardson.

Constantly Hating: I still don’t get country: Country is possibly the biggest it’s ever been, even compared to the megastar 90s of Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson and Shania Twain, with Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, Lainey Wilson and Zach Bryan all landing multiple singles on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2023. In its adherence to traditionalism, it remains one of the few genres lots of people can agree on compared to the ever-fluctuating trends of pop and rap. For No Bells, Eli Schoop.

The Mixtape: Martin Kwok: Martin Kwok is an Emmy award-winning sound editor, DJ and music obsessive based in Pōneke Wellington. He worked on Peter Jackson's Beatles documentary Get Back and the soundtrack to the highly anticipated film Dune Part Two. Over on RNZ here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

Gaussian Curve (Gigi Masin, Jonny Nash and Marco Sterk) return with two outtakes from their 2016 Amsterdam recording sessions for The Distance. Revisited, rearranged and mixed in 2022, they represent, as Music From Memory has put it, “An important part of the Gaussian Curve story. On ‘Winter Sun’, they let the music boil slowly as their guitars, electronics, Rhodes and machine drums rise like water vapour forming clouds. Meanwhile, for ‘Fever Dream’, the Gaussian Curve add 303s and 808s to their rhythmic ambient soundworld. File under: Balearic Bliss.

Ōtautahi (Christchurch, New Zealand) production duo Mr Meaty Boy (Ngāti Porou, Ngāpuhi) and protectionspell hop onto the Echo Train Records hovercraft for their first release together. Opening with ‘Happiness & Intuition,’ they deconstruct the club at 137 beats per minute, folding hypnotic electro and techno elements around a multi-layered rhythm track. On ‘I Think You Would Fucking Hate It Here,’ they dial up squelchy bassline, glitch vocal snippets, stuttering percussion and industrial incidentals. The end product sounds straight out of a bass-bin ladden basement rave in a dungeon.

Here’s the scenario: A childhood classical musician makes the switch to playing in punk bands in her late teens before discovering the allure of DJ-led dancefloors, black metal, opera, Eurodance, and IDM. The end result is Eyes, the new album from the London-based French violinist, vocalist and composer. Vanessa Bedoret. Released through the immaculately curated Scenic Route label, Eyes feels like a snapshot of a major talent taken at the exact moment when they first stepped through the right doorway. One to watch.

INCOMING:

Here are a few interesting records that are coming out over the next few months. The text included is abstractions from their sales notes.

Four years after the remarkable The Lost Art of Wandering album, Portland, OR-based composer, producer and pedal steel guitar legend Raymond Richards returns to ESP Institute for a fitting follow-up album titled Sand Paintings. Hot, hot, hot.

For her sixth album (!), Something In The Room She Moves, low-key Los Angeles journeywoman Julia Holter steps away from memory and looks to water and the present moment. There’s a song on there that, for my money, is as good, if not better, than any of Julia’s existing cult classics.

ODDS + ENDS:

Dabrye’s Super Cassette is out now.

FIN.