Solar

In a recent Counting The Beat Episode I featured The Ponsonby DCs classic 'G'Day Mate'. Now, 22 years after their debut album the DCs have just been released a second long-player, "That's What All the Girls Say!". The band serve up another helping of quirky tongue-in-cheek pop but open the album on a more serious note with songwriter Gavin Buxton contemplating his place in the universe, citing 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the demise of the dinosaurs and Pluto's loss of planetary status. Taking 'Pluto's Not A Planet Anymore' as a starting point for this episode I've charted a musical course around our solar system.

Drone were active from 1988 to 1996 playing moody, atmospheric music that will probably appeal to fans of An Emerald City. Nowadays Darryl Hocking is playing in the electronic soul funk outfit Snake Salvador but I would recommend hunting down any of the Drone releases in particular the 1989 self titled LP that opens with 'Moonsong', sampling Kennedy's iconic speech, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard". You can download Drone's Land of The Free single courtesy of Kiwitapes.

Many years ago now I used to co-host a radio show on Radio One in Dunedin with Baden French. The name of the show, Bad Baden and Crazy Chris Wander the Industrial Wasteland, will give you a sense of the type of music we played. But baden also had a love of dub and electronic music and he went on to record two albums under the name Laughin' Gas. On 2003's The Red Sessions Baden brought in some guests, including Demarnia Lloyd of Cloudboy and Mink who adds her trademark wistful vocals to 'Sunset on Saturn'.

Like The Ponsonby DCs, The Terminals returned to recording after a long absence. The band boast a strong alternative and experimental music pedigree with members having played in the Victor Dimisch Band, A Handful of Dust, The Renderers and The Pin Group (who put the first ever release on Flying Nun). The music of The Terminal has been described as rough and tumble with tuneful yet dark songs with an undercurrent of buzz and fury. Their 2007 album Last Days of The Sun has been heralded as up with their best.

Of course there are many more kiwi songs about the planets of our solar system so keep an ear out for a solar sequel some time soon.

Download the Counting The Beat - Solar podcast

Kia Ora

Us New Zealanders generally like to think of ourselves as a pretty welcoming bunch. And music has played an important part in welcoming visitors round these parts for centuries with the karanga being the first part of the process of being called onto the marae.

The Maori phrase for welcome, Haere Mai was the title of a bilingual hit written by Sam Freedman and sung by Maori singer Daphne Walker in the 1950s. The song's now pretty familiar after being used on an TV ad campaign a few years back. It's anything but a traditional Maori song, with a Hawaiian guitar backing provided by Bill Wolfgramme and His Islanders, and if you check out the cover of the album that included the song, Maori Brown Eyes, you'll see a Hawaiian rather than a Maori scene.



Sometimes it's not what you say, but how you say it that convey the strongest message, even when what you say is as simple as "gidday". In the brilliant 'How You Doing?' the Front Lawn (Don McGlashan and Harry Sinclair)  use the clumsy greetings and small talk of a chance encounter between two old schoolmates to convey a sense of the disillusion and melancholy of a descent into a suburban work-home-tv-sleep routine. While around the same period in the 1980s The Ponsonby DCs released G'Day Mate, a jaunty little horn driven number that demonstrates just how hollow, or even menacing, a greeting and expression of frienship can be. The song can be found on a self titled album re-released a few years ago. Incidentally the Ponsonby DCs have recently got back together following a 20 year break to record a second album which should be out this year. There are an American interview with Keith Dion from the Ponsonby DCs and a great short film, Workshort from The Front Lawn on the video page.



In the late 90s Ben and Greta, formerly the rhythm section of Fying Nun act Superette, recorded a bunch of catchy pop songs for the Arch Hill Records label. Most were never released which is a great shame because on the strength of 'Hello Hello', one of two songs available on Amplifier ,this duo could have achieved big things.



In contrast, Wendyhouse were never destined for anything other than cult status with a prolific release sheet including an album where the two musicans recorded an album on one channel each, with the listener having to choose to listen to one of the completely seperate albums on channel left or right. In amongst all the weirdness Wendyhouse have produced a wealth of witty and worthy songs over the years. A great place to start is the 1994 compilation Hot Action Plastic, which alonside the puns such as 'Fuck The Mall' includes songs like 'Hello, Goodnight' which use the simplest of instrumentation (a Casio keyboard and an xylophone) and ends up as a touching and pretty song contemplating our place in the world. (There are a selection of free downloads of Wendyhouse songs on the website of  Skirted Records)



On the podcast you'll also hear excerpts from 'Welcome' by International Observer, 'Welcome, Haere Mai' by Dub Asylum and 'Welcome to Our World' from John Grenell (must see video on the video page).



Download the Counting The Beat - Kia Ora podcast