Midweek Beats + Pieces Vol. 50

Fuemana, Test Pressing, Bits + Pieces

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.

FUEMANA, NEW URBAN POLYNESIAN:

Thirty years after it was released on CD and cassette by Deepgrooves Entertainment, Fuemana’s cult classic New Urban Polynesian album will finally be available on vinyl at the end of the month. Born from the blood, sweat and tears of the late great Polynesian renaissance man Phil Fuemana and his family and friends, Fuemana’s music transports the listener back to the autumn and winter days of 1994 in the antipodes, where they turned love, loss, grief and acceptance into the finest R&B/street soul album ever recorded in Aotearoa New Zealand. [Pre-order here]

If you follow me on social media, chances are you might already know that I spent a couple of months helping Gazebo Records and the Fuemana family out with this project last year. Expect more details soon.

TEST PRESSING:

For those unfamiliar, Test Pressing is the essential online Balearic Beat web resource. They’re so deep in the sunset/sunrise sound of the isles that they’ve even sell Chris Rea-related merchandise. Amazingly, I’ve contributed to the site since March 2019, and although I’ve been a bit quiet on there lately, last week I uploaded a couple of reviews. Check them out below.

Burns & Tubbs, ‘Burns & Tubbs Vol.III’, (Public Possession)

Elaine Vassell / 3rd Zone, ‘Never Give Up / You Stole My Heart’, (Heels & Souls Recordings)

WHAT I’VE BEEN READING:

Inside the World of TikTok Spammers and the AI Tools That Enable Them: TikTokers say they're making $10,000 a month by using AI to create tons of viral TikTok pages, using stolen celebrity clips next to Minecraft gameplay and much more. "A complex ecosystem of content parasitism.” Jason Koebler for 404 Media.

Tone Glow 129: Jlin: An interview with the Indiana-based composer and producer about HBCU drumlines, collaborating with Philip Glass and Björk, and her new album 'Akoma'. For Tone Glow, Joshua Minsoo Kim.

Mixmaster Morris, Jonah Sharp, Haruomi Hosono, Quiet Logic: The 1998 collaborative album brought together a trio of legends from the worlds of ambient and chillout. It’s a placid but playful collection that is like nothing else in their repertoires. For Pitchfork, Shy Thompson.

An employer is always an employer: A public statement on my current relationship to Nowadays. Kristin Malossi for The Kingdom of The Fool.

Roy Ayers & Fela Kuti: Music Of Many Colours: Roy Ayers and Fela Kuti each explored Pan-Africanism and diasporic solidarity their own way before their meeting in 1979, which represented a crystallisation of ideas. For The Wire, John Morrison.

Herb Sundays 107: Ian Anderson (The Designers Republic): The influential designer shares a 6 day, 2000+ song studio playlist. Sam Valenti IV goes long here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

The great Laurel Halo goes long with Octavia, a piece for piano and electronics that explores the relationship between melodic motifs and textures in a singular way, intermittent moments of melody, harmony and sound materials connecting and disconnecting to indicate a series of nets or webs, swaying in and out of one another.

Tuareg guitar gets the electronic treatment with a Sahel Sounds reissue of the cassette by legendary Nigerien composer Abdallah Oumbadougou. Produced in Benin in 1995, Anou Malane is one of the first studio recordings of Tuareg guitar. The genre, known for minimal folk ballads performed on acoustic guitar, is transformed with a full-on 90s swinging groove. There are some absolutely unbelievable, life-affirming songs on here, loaded to the brim with grooves that keep on giving.

It’s always a good time to revisit (or discover) the absolute bass weight of the Skull Disco sound. This compilation from 2020 is jam-packed with songs that will literally massage your brain. Special stuff.

RA.926 FAUZIA: A poignant journey through experimental jazz, aqueous downtempo and lush ballads from a one-of-a-kind producer. Listen here.

INCOMING:

wav.world is live now.

Available to pre-order through Contingent Sounds on March 3rd, Switched On: The Dawn of Electronic Sound by Latin American Women spotlights a wide range of composers and sound artists, including Alicia Urreta, Beatriz Ferreyra, Elsa Justel and Eulalia Bernard. It was edited by Buh Records founder Luis Alvarado and Peruvian artist Alejandra Cárdenas, AKA Ale Hop, who runs Contingent Sounds.

FIN.