A revolving cast of contributors from the Music 101 and Wireless teams showcase some of the best new music releases from the past week.
Princess Chelsea. Photo: Brad Fafejta
Princess Chelsea – ‘Too Many People’
‘Too Many People’ is Princess Chelsea’s ethereal release from her new album The Great Cybernetic Depression.
All the elements in the track work together well to produce a catchy, buoyant song full of charisma yet ever so slightly touched by melancholy. The slight naïvety of the lyrics and the shy vocal performance is charming and contrasts with the band’s mature musicianship.
The song's excellent hook sounds like it’s been stitched across a digital soundscape brimming with imagination, while Jonathan Bree’s distorted vocals, which are purposefully buried beneath production layers, punctuate the delicate layers of sound sporadically, which adds an interesting dynamic to the song.
The musical arc works well, brimming and ebbing as a tinny keyboard sparkles across the track. Each element works cohesively to deliver just one of many strong tracks on the album. - Elizabeth Beattie
Villette – ‘Yen’
Auckland-based creative wonder woman Villette Dasha aka Villette is an artist, DJ, producer, songwriter and singer. Her newest single ‘Yen’ is self-produced and features MeloDownz from Third3ye.
The New Zealand music scene is certainly producing some goods of late; the track is mature and a step towards the type of RnB that existed before autotune took over. With a just-rolled-out-of-bed-in-a-cloud-of-smoke type ambience, the beat lulls you straight into the groove. MeloDownz eases into his verse with the same sensuality Villette uses to catch you with. It’s an excellent tune. – Aleyna Martinez
Markdown – Boneman EP
Markdown’s Boneman EP breaks down the lies that were sold to you in films like High Fidelity and Empire Records. If the five retail anthems are to be believed, working in a record store is an eight-hour day of short breaks, long eftpos transactions, dropped calls, and people singing half-arse versions of obscure French melodies just so you can import a record that they don’t even know the name of. In classic hXc punk style no track breaks the minute mark, and that is a good thing - if they did, the joke might start to wear thin. – Zac Arnold
Tamaryn – ‘Hands All Over Me’
Tamaryn’s latest single ‘Hands All Over Me’, from the yet to be released album Crane Kiss, highlights the duo’s movement from dark velvety shoegaze to a style where the soundbed becomes much more solid.
Yes, there is still the airy vocal style and reverb-heavy instrumentation is still present, but the rhythm is much more pronounced with vocals that are laid well and truly in the front of the mix. It’s pop in the vein of Missing Persons and those shifty, spindling, slightly dingy synth sounds only add to that feeling.
There is a lot to like in ‘Hands All Over Me’ and it will be interesting to see what direction the group takes, but if this is an indicator of what the rest of Crane Kiss may sound like then the album may be a step away from their earlier output. While not instantly loveable it is a good tease of what could potentially be an excellent release. – Luke Jacobs
Knxwledge – ‘letuleave.[geekdop]’
Knxwledge produces music at an alarming rate, having released around 10 mixtapes a year since his first in 2009. Now, with a production credit on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly and the release of his first ‘proper’ album via Stones Throw Records, he is finally starting to garner the respect that he deserves and becoming more than just a credit in the liner notes of someone else’s song.
Although his new album Hud Dreems is released through a highly respected record label and available on vinyl, it still has the feel of one of his numerous Bandcamp-released beat collections, and is all the better for keeping this lo-fi, sketchbook style format. The 26-year-old LA resident is clearly a man who overflows with creativity, who struggles to finish one idea before ten more sprawl out of his brain and into the beautiful labyrinth of his MPC.
‘letuleave.[geekdop]’ is a perfect example of Knxwledge’s production purgatory; hip hop from a half-sleep that drifts between realms and states of consciousness. Booming bass kicks suck you up into golden afternoon vocals, dropping and catching you a hundred times over whilst you nod your head with halcyon ghetto fairies. But before you get too comfortable the dream is cut short, as creativity marches on and the alarm clock chimes to the rhythm of the next dope beat. – Luke Owen Smith
Self Defense Family – ‘Talia’
Post-hardcore collective Self Defense Family (formerly End of a Year) have been creating music together for over a decade now as a group of rotating members, with a catalogue spanning nearly 40 releases, including 16 splits and four full-length LPs, an achievement which seems momentous. Equally as amazing, is their consistency in producing fantastically honest, poignant music.
‘Talia’, from their upcoming fifth studio album Heaven Is Earth, shows that Self Defense Family are still hitting their mark. A slow punk groove takes place, in an almost wild-west aesthetic, with the notable sounds of harmonica, piano and slide guitar all accumulating to a crescendo of finesse, all the while vocalist Patrick Kindlon paints a narrative overtop, oozing Fugazi-like style.
With the album being recorded over four different studios with four different producers, the results could be interesting to say the least. However, Self Defense Family have never been afraid to break the mould and I can’t see why Heaven Is Earth will be any different. – Joshua Thomas
Future Islands - 'The Chase'
To coincide with the release of 'The Chase', Future Islands revisited the television show that gave them a mainstream attention. This performance was similar to the one given last year, passionate chest beatings and better-than-you dance moves. Samuel Herring can overcomes corniness because he has that reputation as a genuine dude. Anybody who was lucky enough to see them at Laneway can testify that.
'The Chase' fits into that mould because obviously the hook is one based on honesty. He's admitting or at least considering that his relationship was built on ego. That he had to prove himself as a lover preferring that to the relationship itself. I love that about Future Islands, they're not afraid to belt out the strongest of cliches.
This and another new release, 'Haunted By You', don't indicate that a new album is on the way. Rather it is an afterthought to last year's Singles. And for somebody who loved that album, that's not a bad thing at all. - Alex Lyall
What's your pick? Tell us about it in the comments section.
