It's A New Year (Allegedly)

And a Happy 2022 to all who celebrate (all good if not)

Kia ora,

After a surprisingly relaxing (mostly) few weeks of summer holidays, and some pretty decent travel around the country, I’m back in the saddle for 2022, the latest year in our ongoing string of unprecedented (thoroughly precedented?) times. I don’t have a huge amount to report back yet, but nevertheless, here we go. This week’s photos were shot on Kodak Portra 160 film with an Olympus MJU II point and shoot camera.

WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING/WHAT I HAVE COMING UP:

Late last year, the excellent (immaculate) UK-based publishing house Velocity Press interviewed me about that podcast project I’ll probably stop talking about for a bit soon, Aotearoa Hip-Hop: The Music, The History, The People. You can read the full feature over here.

Velocity Press was also kind enough to mail me a copy of a fascinating book they released last year called Tape Leaders. In short, it’s an encyclopedia-style compendium collecting up over one hundred British composers who were working with tape and electronics during the analogue recording era. I say all of that to say this; Tape Leaders is a secret (and not so secret) history of the pre-history of British electronic music.

Every entry asks more questions than it answers, which IMO is a good thing because whenever I find a book that opens up portals, I want to jump through all of them. However, to make entry easier, it comes with a CD containing fifteen mainly unreleased early British tape and synthesizer works. Take a closer look over here.

I’m hosting The Late Late Breakfast Show on Te Whanganui-a-Tara’s Radio Active 88.6 FM on Saturday afternoon. As per the theme of my recent DJ mixes, I’ll be continuing my global New Jack Swing exploration. If you wanna tune in online, tune in between 1-4 pm (New Zealand time) via streaming over here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

Riad Awwad, Hanan Awwad and Mahmoud Darwish, The Intifada 1987 (Majazz Project)

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Anna sent me the link to an article about a recently uncovered archive of Palestinian cassette tapes discovered in the West Bank of Jenin. One of those tapes was The Intifada 1987, recently reissued through London-based Palestinian actor and filmmaker Mo’min Swaitat’s new archival record label, Majazz project.

As the story goes, Riad Awwad and his sisters Hanan, Alia and Nariman recorded The Intifada 1987 in 1987 (d’oh) just one week after the outbreak of the First Intifada in 1987. Working in the family living room with equipment Riad had built himself and some prose assistance from the acclaimed Palestinian writer Mahmoud Darwish, they crafted a poetic synthesis of Arabic jazz and folk, with swirling future-forward (now, perhaps retrofuturistic) synthesisers and traces of lilting drum machine funk. It’s a fucking cool record. Give it a listen.

DJ Python, Club Sentimientos Vol 2 (Incienso)

The Queens-based genius DJ Python returns with a new release for a new year, Club Sentimientos Vol 2, dropping on Jan 21 through the New York label Incienso. ‘Angel’, the opening track on Club Sentimientos Vol 2, is ten minutes of sky-high, chrome-plated bliss. The synths and drum patterns make me feel like I’m levitating, and in that regard, the rest of the EP doesn’t disappoint either.

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:

Nina Mingya Powles, Small Bodies of Water (Canon Gate)

Small Bodies of Water is a collection of short essays by the award-winning London-based New Zealand writer, editor and publisher Nina Mingya Powles. The throughlines here are home, family and water, be it ponds, seas or swimming pools. Spanning a range of life experiences in London, New Zealand, Shanghai and Malaysia, Nina’s separate but interconnected essays (perhaps an archipelago of writing?) are rendered in a smooth, lyrical and poetic style (flowing like water?) and detailed by the sort of reference points that can transform a couple of paragraphs into an entire world to be explored. Beautiful stuff, really.

FIN.