Beats + Pieces Vol. 76 & A Half
A bonus post featuring Ladi6, Mokomokai, Chaos In The CBD and more
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.
LADI6:
Karoline Park-Tamati and Brent Park-Tamati, the New Zealand husband and wife duo who perform as Ladi6, have just released a new single titled ‘Lightbulb’. Pre-release, their manager Audrey, asked me if I could write an early review of the track. You can read it below.
"Untethered from the mid-tempo drums that have underscored much of her catalogue, Ladi6 sings with a graceful melancholy over a rich bed of bubbling lead synths, woozy pads, triumphant stabs, and a g-funk indebted whistle. Sitting between the ‘60s/’70s modular synthesiser experimentation of Wendy Carlos and Mort Garson and the modern ambient/electronic R&B sound of Kelela, FKA Twigs, Solange and their peers, ‘Lightbulb’ feels like a needed moment of pause, a stylistic reset, and a glorious portent of things yet to come." - Martyn Pepperell
MOKOMOKAI
The Aotearoa rap trio Mokomokai, or as I like to call them, The Boyz From The Winterless North, have just unveiled a pre-order campaign for a Merlot Red vinyl pressing of their self-titled debut album via Holiday Records. As part of this project, I interviewed Dusty, Ghos and Manu for the LP liner notes. Here’s an excerpt.
On the 1st of January 2022, Manu, Dusty & Ghos, the Māori hip-hop group collectively known as MOKOMOKAI, released their self-titled debut album. By intermingling taonga pūoro with natural soundscapes, low-slung boom bap drum loops, cinematic jazz and soul samples and playfully braggadocious raps, they recontextualised the grimy, neo-noir sound of 2010s New York State hip-hop through a distinctive Māori lens. This is the story of how they came together to record this cult classic, as told to Martyn Pepperell over three separate interviews in October 2024.
You can pre-order a copy here.
CHAOS IN THE CBD:
Fifteen years ago, I interviewed the now Peckham-based New Zealand producer-DJ brother duo Ben & Louis Helliker-Hales aka Chaos In The CBD for the now defunct New Zealand music magazine, Rip It Up. A decade and a half later, they’ve finally released their long-awaited debut album, A Deeper Life. Some might say it’s the Chinese Democracy of Balearic House, but personally, I think it’s proof that, as the old geezer from the Mainland Cheese adverts used to say, GOOD THINGS TAKE TIME.
WHO’S NEXT: CHAOS IN THE CBD (2010)
Google 'Chaos In The CBD' and you'll find a first page of results absolutely riddled with mp3 placements on taste making international club music blogs such as discobelle.net. Funnily enough though tropical house maestro's Chaos In the CBD (otherwise known as brothers Ben & Louis Helliker-Hales, aged twenty and twenty two respectively) hail from little old New Zealand. Devonport, Auckland to be precise. Seated at Ponsonby Road's storied Santos Cafe following a family holiday in Fiji, Ben is quick to animate the back story behind Chaos In The CBD's fast rise within the international tropical house blogosphere.
Lifelong music lovers, Ben and Louis were raised by a father who works in insurance and a stay at home housewife mother. During their teenage years as Ben explains, "we were in a band together." Operating under the handle Dionysus, the brothers band was a mixture of what Ben defines as "indie rock and dance." Garnering an interest in the sounds of The Presets, Digitalism, Daft Punk and classic eighties Chicago house, the brothers found their focus shifting and moved into the worlds of DJing and electronic music production. With Ben having completed an audio engineering diploma at MAINZ, Chaos In The CBD's percussion heavy tropical house soundforms emerged fully formed and due to their savvy age appropriate approach to internet networking, quickly began popping up on noted music blogs such as the aforementioned discobelle.net, as well as cassettecouture.com, discodust and others.
Building tunes on Ableton Live, on a local level the brothers move within the same circles as the likes of unofficial Auckland house mafia affiliates Daniel Farley, Dick Johnson, Tim Richards and Maya and Vanya. Internationally they connect with French club figureheads French Fries (of Paris collective YounGunz) and their peers, seamlessly blending into the global club music landscape. Resultantly, their energetic DJ sets stay stacked with exclusives. As Ben puts it, "In terms of being [based] in New Zealand, I can say honestly that we are up to date with what is good overseas wise." Look out for some high profile overseas releases from the brothers in the new year.
To put a bow on things, I feverishly typed up a review of A Deeper Life earlier today over two coffees earlier. It’s live on Test Pressing here.
A REMINDER:
A collection of ten hypnotic guitar renditions that dive deeply into the traditional compositional musicality that underpins Harakami’s hallucinatory beatscapes before reconsidering them under a fresh, innovative and engaging new light. River: The Timbre of Guitar #2 Rei Harakami signals a new level of awareness and understanding of both Rei Harakami’s significance and Ayane Shino’s undeniable talent - Martyn Pepperell
READS:
If you take anything online seriously, the joke's on you: Some quick thoughts on bait, not getting it, and the new online divide. For her Substack, Madeleine Holden.
Rewind: Nazia Hassan - Disco Deewane: In 1981, this South Asian dance colossus rode an Indian disco craze to become the best-selling Asian pop album of the era. It sparked social liberation and even softened geopolitical tensions—not bad for a 15-year-old singer. For Resident Advisor, Nyshka Chandran.
FIN.