Midweek Beats + Pieces

Noa Records, Mixcloud, New Music + mixes, etc

Hi there,

My thanks to everyone who read yesterday’s archival interview with Ruban Nielson from Unknown Mortal Orchestra. I’m trying to get an old hard drive up and running at the moment. Hopefully I’ll be able to dig up some more bits and pieces like that for you. Today however, we’re dealing with contemporary things and forthcoming things. So, without further adieu, let the newsletter begin.

WHAT I’VE GOT COMING UP:

On Saturday afternoon, I’m hosting a three-hour radio show on Radio Active 88.6 FM in Wellington with the good people from Auckland’s Noa Records (and friends). Noa are one of my favourite emerging arts collectives in New Zealand and I can’t speak highly enough of the albums they’ve been recording and the performances they’ve been making. So, if you’re interested in finding out more, we’ll be on air from 1-4pm NZT on Saturday the 26th of June. If you want to listen online, you’ll be able to stream the show here.

While they’re in town, Noa are also taking part in a three-night residency at The Pyramid Club on Taranaki Street. The three night series of events (Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday) will showcase performances by collective members WhyFi. (Larsen Tito-Taylor), Leao (David Feauai-Afaese) and Strangelove (Navakatoa Tekela-Pule), along with collaborations with taongo pūoro players Ruby Solly & Alistair Fraser, synth duo Oghum (Nell Thomas & Jonny Marks), and a group session including Riki Gooch, Cory Champion and Daniel Beban.

On the opening evening, Wednesday night (tonight), Noa Records will also host a wānanga / talanoa - "sharing the whakapapa of their label / collective, exploring observations amassed during their creative journeys, and opening up conversations around creative sustainability from an indigenised perspective, looking to tools for strengthening our creative communities, and exploring new depths as yet unknown." You can purchase tickets for these events over here.

MIXCLOUD:

Over the last year, I’ve spent a bit of time watching a bunch of movies that were created in the 1980s and early 1990s as part of a French film movement dubbed Cinéma du look. Some of the key directors include Luc Besson, Jean-Jacques Beineix and Leos Carax. Cinéma du look is a reference to how these directors favored style over substance and spectacle over narrative. Not everything about these movies has dated well (actually, a lot about them has dated terribly), but the use of light, shot framing and soundtracks are exceptional. One of the main OST composers in the Cinéma du look scene was Éric Serra. At some point this year, I decided it would be a good idea to record a mix of his music and upload it on Mixcloud. Éric’s work spans a wide range of styles, but his work always feels like his, and his alone. You can listen to the mix over here.

GAMEBOY CAMERA:

After I put yesterday’s newsletter together, I decided it would be a good idea to reshoot a recent photo of Ruban Nielson through the Nintendo Gameboy Pocket Camera. You can view it above. Also, if you missed yesterday, you can revisit the post here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:

Last week I wrote a short entry about Roland Ray’s recently unearthed Hot, Cold & Blue album for Test Pressing. If you like the idea of 80s psych-pop with 808s, look no further. You can read it here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

Time Cow & Giark, Glory

Top-tier tweeter Jordan “Time Cow” Chung of the Jamaican production collective Equiknoxx Music teams up with his fellow countryman Craig “Giark” Dixon, son of Bobby “Digital B” Dixon for Glory, a seven-song exploration of alternative possibilities in reggae, punk, dancehall, steppers, funk, rock, jazz, and blues, or as they call it, J Punk. From the first notes of opening track ‘Honey’, Glory sent me through a wormhole that brought back memories of attending improvised live jazz-blues-hip-hop gigs in the early 2000s, before riddling me with flashbacks to numerous moments from the last twenty odd years of open-eared UK music. Time Cow and Giark have created something really special and immersive here. Spend some time in their zone and witness the glory that personal artistic growth and development can deliver.

The Fuzzy Robes, Night Prayers

With Night Prayers, Christchurch, New Zealand based psychedelic-folk sextet The Fuzzy Robes comfortably slot into a set of local traditions that connect them back to the acid-soaked transcendentalism of the legendary 70s Canterbury band Serenity. Serenity’s 1972 album Piece of Mind is a cult masterpiece of the genre and Night Prayers moves forward in the same spirit in very fine form. I’m excited to see The Fuzzy Robes play live. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later.

Nothing in Moderation w/ DJ Voices @ The Lot Radio 06 - 02 - 2021

This one is a few weeks old, which I know is centuries in internet time, but I really enjoyed it the first time I listened to it, and have returned to it several times since - which really says something. Brooklyn, New York’s Kristin Malossi aka DJ Voices is one of those DJ’s who has a real way with pacing and a style I think she’d describe as energy & drama over genre. Her Nothing in Moderation mixshow, broadcast online via The Lot Radio is always worth a listen, but this one just really caught me - probably because she opened with ‘River’ by the Australian singer-songwriter and producer Johanna Pigott's 80s dream-pop project, Scribble. That said, while this edition is dreamy, it’s action-packed as well. Voices also runs a bookclub on Instagram, which you can tap in with over here.

BONUS:

If a unique fusion of Indian devotional song, the jazz piano styles of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, English folk and Debussey’s tonal impressions sounds intriguing to you, you’re going to want to check out Singing Dust over here.

bela’s remarkable Guidelines EP is out now.

Producers, SHERELLE is coming for you. And no games are being played; at all.

I thought I knew a thing or two about Julius Eastman, but chapter by chapter, We Have Delivered Ourselves from the Tonal — Of, Towards, On, For Julius Eastman keeps taking my head off. What an outstanding collection.