Saturday Sounds (and sights)

Radio Rea, Audio Culture, Test Pressing, etc

Turns out 2021 is the year I come to terms with how much of an influence Penguin Cafe Orchestra’s self-titled album had on me as a kid. On reflection, the amount of time I spent listening to that record between the ages of five and ten is unreal. Last week, I ordered a copy of the Japanese pressing. It arrived in the mail yesterday and wow, it just looks and sounds so beautiful. A moment of refuge and calm in increasingly bizarre times. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a newsletter out this week or not, but here we are. This week’s photos are nighttime shots I took around Wellington earlier the week on 35mm Portra 800 film with the Nikon F60.

WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING:

At the start of this week, Buenos Aires’ excellent online radio station Radio Rea broadcast a two-hour mixshow I recorded for them as part of their Rea Global series. It’s a sweeping personal history of popular and underground music recorded in Aotearoa New Zealand between 1970 and 2001. I say personal history, because I presented things as I see them, which means plenty of obvious choices didn’t make the cut. But that’s okay, cause it opens up space for us to look at our musical history through a different lens. You can stream it on Mixcloud here.

It’s not live yet, but sometime soon, Audio Culture - The Noisy Library of New Zealand Music will be hosting a very extensive two-part feature I wrote about Wellington computer music composer Luke Rowell, known best for his work as Disasteradio and Eyeliner. Within the context of 21st Century New Zealand music, Luke is a fascinating figure and equally, his cultural footprint offshore is nothing to be disregarded. More details soon.

Over on Test Pressing, I’ve recently written up reviews of Jomon by Tokyo-based producer and DJ Hoshina Anniversary and Play, a compilation album of material recorded by Amsterdam post-punk outfit Electric Party back in the eighties. You can read them here and here.

WHAT I’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:

Fatima Al Qadiri, Medieval Femme (Hyperdub)

Fatima Al Qadiri, one of the titans of her generation, delivers yet another album that contains worlds within worlds. Building on the distinctive UK grime/VGM-meets-devotional music sonics she’s mapped over several releases, Medieval Femme sees Fatima expanding on compositional and conceptual ideas she explored through her soundtrack for film director Mati Diop’s masterwork 2019 Atlantics. This time around the theme of the album is the state of melancholic longing exemplified in the poetry of Arab women from the medieval period. A mournful yet beautiful and deeply moving work.

bela, Guidelines, (Éditions Appærent)

This one isn’t out yet, but the unlocked tracks should give you enough of an idea of what’s going on here. I listened through Guidelines earlier today and what bela is doing almost knocked me over. A lot of people like to invoke the idea of ancient futurism in music, but very few really deliver. Between their singular integration of Nongak (a traditional form of Korean folk music) and the visceral body music wing of contemporary club music, bela is delivering exactly that. Believe the hype.

Kaishandao, Homeland (Self-released)

Chengdu-based, Wellington-born, producer Kaishandao aka Kristen Ng delivers her debut EP, Homeland. Over the course of six songs, Kaishandao delivers a personal read of house, techno, jungle and breakbeat, as explored through a D.I.Y home recording frame and a deep appreciation and love for Ashanti, Destiny’s Child, Congo Natty, Womack, Chen Sijiang, Mariah Carey, Uygur in China, Alice Schwarzer, Patti Smith, and Karis Boyd. I’m going to see if I can interview Kaishandao for this newsletter, fingers crossed.

BONUS:

In the last two weeks, I’ve come across two great articles about burnout. Burnout: Modern Affliction or Human Condition?, by Jill Lepore for The New Yorker, and Young Workers In New Zealand Are Three Times More Burnt Out Than Others, by Anna Harcourt for Re: News. Both of them are worth reading and thinking about.

My old mate Grant Smithies, has a regular music review section on Radio New Zealand. This week he talked to them about Al "Man" Muntzie, Waldir Calmon, Black Country, New Road, and DJ Black Low. You can listen to him here.

London producer and DJ K.G has a new single out now and DJ Mag premiered it. Afrobeat, gqom, hard drum and R&B, all brought together as only K.G can. Read more and listen here.

The Fluxus legend Yoshi Wada has passed from this realm to the next. My thoughts are with his son Tashi and the rest of Yoshi’s family and friends. The Quietus has more details here.

FINALLY.

Abuse of power comes as no surprise. That’s word to Jenny Holzer.