Midweek Beats + Pieces Vol. 46

Recent work, reading and listening recommendations, and some Ebony Lamb videos.

Selected Works is a regular newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter, and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell. Yes, that’s me. 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:

In recent years, Stari Grad, a historic seaside town on the northern side of the Croatian island of Hvar, has served as a wellspring of inspiration for Mary Lattimore. For Resident Advisor, I wrote about the American harpist and composer’s new album, Goodbye, Hotel Arkada. Read here.

If you spent any time in some of Auckland, New Zealand’s more fringe and subcultural bars, nightclubs and live music venues over the last 40 years, chances are you’ve been part of a late-night dancefloor with Patrick Waller, aka DJ Dubhead. This week, Audio Culture has published my sprawling 2-part overview of Waller’s story. Read here.

After the warm response to my Here For You (UK Street Soul) DJ mix, I decided to record a follow-up and upload it on Mixcloud. You can listen to Street Soul 2 here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:

Every member of Bandcamp union bargaining team was laid off in huge cuts at Oakland firm: The massive layoff that gutted Oakland-based music service Bandcamp hit one group at the company particularly hard: leaders of its nascent union. For SFGATE, Stephen Council. Read here.

Vinyl Destination: Tale Of Bus: Have you ever dreamed of packing in your day job and hitting the open road in a campervan? Dutch DJ, booker and collector Daan Donk got that same itch and made it a reality. For The Vinyl Factory, Kelly Doherty. Read here.

Asha Puthli - Disco Mystic: Select Remixes Volume 1: Sensuous disco-jazz fusion from the '70s gets a four-on-the-floor makeover from Maurice Fulton, Psychemagik and others. For Resident Advisor, Nyshka Chandran. Read here.

Tone Glow 108: Matana Roberts: An interview with the American saxophonist and composer about incorporating humor into their works, the toxicity of the gender binary, the late Greg Tate, and 'Coin Coin Chapter Five: in the garden…' For Tone Glow, Joshua Minsoo Kim. Read here.

ENTHUSIASMS Issue #03: 92 pages covering Aotearoa DIY folk proliferator Maxine Funke, the vocal magick of Cucina Povera, Australian devotional jazz mystery Singing Dust, Osaka portal EM Records, unsung dub specialist Sheriff Lindo and the living practice of e fishpool. View post-punk trailblazers through the lens of Rotterdam polaroid photographer Peter Graute, while Swiss artist Elise Gagnebin-de Bons exhibits her series of collages purposed for Ghost Riders. The issue also boasts imaginary mixtapes from Gavsborg, Greg Davis and Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Mikey Young, Sonic Boom and Troth. Order here.

Hiroshi Yoshimura, Surround: Commissioned as the soundtrack to a line of prefab homes, this 1986 ambient masterpiece doubles as a frame for the smallest, most quotidian sounds. It’s a testament to the act of listening itself. For Pitchfork, Joshua Minsoo Kim. Read here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

Here’s a spectacular reimagination of some early 80s New York bashment/ragga from Brooklyn cult legend DJ Trebor. On the A-side, Dubquake Records Rico O.B.F revisits and re-tools one of Trebor’s true classics, 1983’s ‘Beggarman’. Fittingly, on the flip side, he gives it a dub twist as well. If you know, you know. And if you didn’t, now you do.

The lovely lads at London’s Heels & Souls Recordings collective head to the South African township music scene circa 1991 with a well-curated four-track collection of heaters from Tashif Kente’s cult A Boy And A Dream album. This one is for the DJs and the dancers. RIYL: R&B, boogie, proto-house, new jack swing.

Strangelove Music regular soFa and a cast of unknown and familiar beat manglers tap in with the children in their lives for the second instalment of soFa’s elsewhere junior compilation series. Three songs in, Empress of Nature & t-woc team up for an Astro-boogie cover of ‘Rappers Delight’ from The Sugarhill Gang and as the fifteen-track compilation keeps rolling, the vibes do not stop. This isn’t kids music; it’s music made by adults and kids.

This one is a pre-order, but when Melbourne’s Efficient Space comes through with a compilation album, they’re always the sort of thing you want to try to hype up if you can. Searchlight Moonbeam is the new narrative compilation from London-based NTS Radio duo Time Is Away (Jack Rollo and Elaine Tierney). Following on from Ballads, a remarkable driftwerk released on A Colourful Storm in 2022, Searchlight Moonbeam brings together a very special set of songs.

In the words of Apiento from Test Pressing: “The music held within this compilation is a slow burn... But like most slow burns, these are the things you really learn to love and keep close to you for a long time.” I couldn’t agree any more.

More mutated Latin cyberpunk beatscapes from Lila Tirando a Violeta and Sin Maldita, this time coming to us live and direct via Kode9’s Hyperdub Records. Absolutely dripping in detail, energy and depth, Accela is one of those avant-club albums that absolutely turned my brain inside out before putting it back together. Post-deconstructionist dance music for the new actual millennium, as expressed with the logic of dreams, pixelated internet realities and the private language (or Idioglossia) that Lila and Sin have developed while working together.

EBONY LAMB:

On Friday, the 20th of October, the Wellington-based singer-songwriter and bandleader Ebony Lamb (formerly of the Eb & Sparrow Band) is releasing her self-titled debut solo album through Nadia Reid’s Slow Time Records. For the album, her producers were two genuine legends of modern New Zealand, Bic Runga and Kody Nielson (Silicon, Oppossum, UMO, The Mint Chicks, etc), who also kindly helped out with the playing, as did Ebony’s partner Gram Antler.

Earlier in the year, Ebony asked me to help out with the copywriting for her backstory, the album, and the singles and their accompanying music videos, which was a real pleasure. Here’s some of the text I helped out with.

Ebony Lamb writes with a poetic voice and a vivid, surrealistic intimacy. The New Zealand singer-songwriter and photographer turns the minutiae of everyday life and the defining memories that stay with us into a rich melange of folk, jazz, soul, and ambient pop. The Wellington-based artist spent her formative years as a traveller, mother, and worker, eventually co-founding the alt-country band Eb & Sparrow in 2010. Drawing comparisons to Gillian Welch, Cat Power and Neko Case, Ebony released three critically acclaimed albums with the band before embarking on a solo career under her own name. Played and produced with two of New Zealand’s most celebrated modern musicians, Bic Runga and Kody Nielson (UMO, Opossom, Silicon), The album’s first single ‘Take My Hands at Night’ is nominated for the 2023 APRA Silver Scroll Award. Ebony has supported international and national acts such as Tiny Ruins, Nadia Reid, Marlon Williams, Beth Orton, Rodriguez, Bic Runga, Tami Neilson, Lawrence Arabia and more.

“...one of the country’s coolest, most sultry voices" - The NZ Listener

Since the album coming out this week, I thought I’d collect up some of her music videos for you below.

Ebony Lamb: “This song has been recorded in so many ways. This version came out of a demo session with Dave Khan (Reb Fountain), Gram Antler (Eb & Sparrow) and myself in 2019. It’s about noticing human behavior and the potential power of art to influence it. It's extending an invitation to participate in a shared moment - "Come, put a record on."

‘Drive Me Around’ is an ode to friendship and the unvarnished realities, positive and negative, of living and working as an artist. Lounging against a spare marching drum rhythm, cinematic guitars and a haunting Mellotron flute, Ebony sings in a sultry and nostalgic style, remembering teenage years spent driving through Hawkes Bay with a dear, old friend and the highs and lows of the creative life.

Ebony reflects, “I'm thinking about one of my oldest best friends. We grew up together in Hawkes Bay, and he really looked out for me in my formative years, driving us all over the place, spending time together, experimenting, and experiencing life. We don't see each other anymore, but I still think about him that way.”

The accompanying music video, directed by Shyam Patel and Jacob Munro, visually captures Ebony’s emotions through a series of physically expressive black-and-white scenes set in Wellington’s central business district. Locations include the brutalist architecture of Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa - The National Library of New Zealand, the Woodward Street pedestrian tunnel, and the Aurora Terrace Motorway overbridge.

‘Salt Sand Sea’ pulsated with a raw, elemental energy that moves between tight sonic spaces and sparse open vistas. Ebony’s delicately soaring vocals create a captivating contrast against persistent rhythmic tension, making it a surefire hit for live shows. “It evokes ideas and values that carry a similar weight to the natural world,” says Lamb. “The line “Give me some more” is about wanting depth of character. While we sway about in popular culture, the elements - the salt, the sand, the sea - remain steadfast.”

Unfolding with the logic of a dream, ‘My Daughter My Sister My Son’ is underscored by a shuffling, nocturnal rhythm with nostalgic music-box melodies and sweeping synthesisers. Ebony sings with a husky, honey-soaked croon, reflecting on the importance of close personal connections and dreams amidst the shared impermanence of the world around us. ‘My Daughter My Sister My Son’ was played and produced with two of New Zealand’s most celebrated musicians, Bic Runga and Kody Nielson (Opossom, Silicon, UMO), who bring a distinctive edge. Ebony reflects on the song, saying: “This track says the things I’d been trying to say at a time when we were all grappling with the unknown in 2020.”

FIN.