Recent Vinyl #14

Rock'n'Reo

This episode features songs that include the indigenous language of New Zealand - Te Reo Maori.

In the 1950s and 60s Hawaiian music was a big influence on many NZ musicians, most notably some of the Maori show bands who were bringing together waiata and rock'n'roll. One of the first songs in this mode to hit the big time was 'Haka Boogie', written by Lee Westbrook and sung by Morgan Clarke with The Benny's Five in 1955. The song was recently covered by Labretta Suede and the Motel Six on an EP of covers of the band's favourite New Zealand songs, Loon-A-Tiki.

There seems to have been an increase in recent times of the number of songs featuring the Maori language. Jess Chambers' Silver Scroll nominated song 'Island' is one of a bunch I've noticed that feature Te Reo. Chambers has a Kiwi father but an American mother and lived in California until 2002, so it's nice to hear her embrace her NZ roots. 'Island' comes from Jess Chambers and The Firefly Orchestra, an excellent album that has perhaps been overshadowed by her contribution to The Woolshed Sessions.

The Ruby Suns are another kiwi band featuring a Californian, Ryan McPhun, who moved to New Zealand in 2004. The Ruby Suns song 'Tane Mahuta', arguably has taken Te Reo to more listeners around the world than any song other than the National Anthem sung before rugby tests. The song was a big hit in the music blogosphere last year, featuring on many many sites around the world. The version of the song I play in the podcast is recorded live, literally in the streets of Paris, and comes from The Blogotheque, a site featuring videos of bands playing in the French capital. They said of the Ruby Suns, "they came from a land of beaches and barbecues, sandy hair, and old, patch-colored pickups. They were bound to engulf Paris with sunlight". I highly recommend checking out the clips posted on the video page.

Everyone in New Zealand knows Poi-e, the massive hit 1984 hit from The Patea Maori Club. This was a rare occurrence of a Maori language song topping the charts, sitting at number one for four weeks. The song was written by linguist Ngoi Pewhairangi with music by Dalvanius Prime who intended the song to be a way of instilling pride in young Maori. After initially not being able to secure a release Prime eventually formed his own label to get it out - and it went on to be a true kiwi classic. There are a number of remixes of the song about including a live version by 4-Corners and P-Money, a house mix by Soulforce and the one I feature in the podcast by The Beatworms, which you can download here. The original video is on the video page.

To close I have another early amalgamation of Maori music and rock'n'roll. 'Poi Poi Twist was released by Rim D. Paul and The Quin-Tikis in 1964. Rimini Paul was a leading light in the Maori show band scene on the 1960s working with The Quin-tikis, The Hi-Quins, Howard Morrsion and Kiri Te Kanawa. Paul contributed the title track to the 1966 NZ movie Runaway. You can see him perform an excerpt of that on the films trailer which is available on the video page.

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Free and Legal

You know, not all music downloading is stealing - and Radiohead aren't the only band to give away music for free.

Daytrotter is a fantastic American site based in Illinois site that records and posts sessions by upcoming and indie bands - their mission is to post "exclusive, re-worked, alternate versions of old songs and unreleased tracks by some of your favorite bands and by a lot of your next favorite bands". Earlier this year The Brunettes stopped by for a session and just recently The Ruby Suns recorded three songs including reworkings of early tracks and 'Kenya Dig It?' from the newalbum Sea Lion. The session also gives the opportunity to hear what the Ruby Suns sound like now that they are down to a two piece live unit. (Their is a video for the original song on the video page along with some great live clips recorded on the streets of Paris.)

Jet Jaguar is just one of the many electronic musical projects of Michael Upton from Wellington. On his site nonwrestler.com he has tracks available from Jet Jaguar, Malty Media, Montano, and Monkey Shuffle. Especially nice are four Jet Jaguar remixes of the Phoenix Foundation.

The Enright House have become a bit of a Counting the Beat favourite of late and they have just released two free online albums, one of remixes and collaborations, and the other - my current favourite of the two - a collection of acoustic versions of previously released songs. The best songs of The Enright House have a feeling of epic grandeur that is retained in both of these new releases despite the different treatments of the songs. The Enright House are associated with A Low Hum, a label with a track record of releaseing fine alternative and underground music from NZ, much of it for free. Check out their site for free downloadable EPs from Secret Knives, Mount Pleasant, and Red Steers. There are two The Enright House clips on the video page and also check out their National Radio live session (stream).


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New & Recent Release Oct 08

It's been a little while since I caught up with new releases, in fact some of the songs in this episode don't even feel that new any more, so it's catch up time.

Cat and Bird is a limited edition lathe cut 7" single featuring two cuts each from The Enright House and Break Mission Kills. Both Break Mission Kills and The Enright House offer up moody, evocative electronic based songs perfect for late night listening. I'm a particular fan of the Enright House whose music, despite being recorded in a bedroom, seems to have a real sense of quiet grandeur. Mark Roberts, who records as the Enright House is a much under-rated musician and an artisan. His music is always thoughfully and beautifully packaged and presented. This single is a plastic lathe cut by King records, with a stunning picture sleeve. The single is available as a free download but I would recommend the single itself which also comes with access to high quality .wav files of the songs. The Enright House is currently working on a second album. (His first, A Maze and Amazement,is highly recommended), while Sarah Kelleher of Break Mission Kills is now in the UK recording and performing as Misfitmod. You should also take a listen to an intriquing The Enright House performance (stream) on National Radio.

Also electronic based, but much more upbeat, are Little Pictures, a duo with a synthesiser and a pop knack. On first hearing their album Owl + Owl didn't do it for me, I just found the cheesy keyboard too much, but with repeated listens the songs have hooked me. Little Pictures emerged from a four piece band and personally I'd like to hear some of these songs in that setting, but there's no denying that these two write songs that are catchy as hell.

On the same label as Little Pictures, (Lil' Chief Records) are the Ruby Suns, who took te reo to the world earlier this year when their song 'Tane Mahuta' became a runaway blogosphere hit. The album from earlier this year that featured that song, Sea Lions, was astounding - The Ruby Suns moving on from a heavy Beach Boys influence into a unique pop talent. New material now emerging indicates that the band are going from strength to strength. 'Don't Trust The Dirty Fruit' sounds a bit like a mix beween Graceland era Paul Simon and Talking Heads. The song features on an upcoming charity abum but this with a number of covers that are doing the rounds on the internet have me hanging out already for album number three.

Indie pop-folk duo The Gladeyes recently featured in a Counting The Beat covers special with their cover of Die Die Die's 'Shyness Will Get You Nowhere'. That song features on a self released 9 track CD The Prospect Palace Practice Tapes, which is available by contacting the duo through their blog. I don't know if The Gladeyes have heard of Look Blue Go Purple, but I bet if they have they really like them. They share the same kind of "strum pop" 80s Flying Nun sound. Nice.

Download the Counting The Beat - October 08 New Releases podcast

NZ @ SXSW

Liam Finn live at SXSW

Every year the New Zealand Music Commission makes a big fuss about the kiwi bands making an appearance at the auspicious South by Southwest (SXSW) music conference in Austin, Texas. I've always been a little cynical about this. The way it's been spun makes it sound like even getting on the bill is a sign of making it when in fact thousands of bands appear and I've yet to hear about an NZ act that made it big as result of making the trip. However, this year I've been following the conference on-line and it does sound like one hell of a good party. My plan now is to find some way of getting someone to pay for me to go to the next one.

There are a host of Counting The Beat favourites in this year's line up and this podcast episode will feature some of them including The Ruby Suns and former Alternatui winners The Mint Chicks. Also included are Rodney Fisher of Goodshirt and, the highlight, a couple of spectacular tracks from Liam Finn recorded live by America's National Public Radio at his show at this year's SXSW (you can hear his whole show here). Not featured is Wing, making an appearance this year as part of the NZ contingent.

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Image: Joel Didriksen of kingpinphoto.com

New & Recent Releases - Feb 08

This episode features a bunch of new and recent releases. I think I'll try and do one of these at least once a month from here-on-in. First up are Minisnap, a band that started off as an offshoot of The Bats. They essentially are The Bats, but without Robert Scott. Featuring the songwriting and vocals of Kaye Woodward, Minisnap have previously released two EPs but now they have put out their debut album Bounce Around. The opening track New Broom features on the podcast and you can check out a video for the song on the video page.

White Swan Black Swan is based around the songs of Ben Howe (Black Swan) and Sonya Waters (White Swan). Their second EP Castle of Useless Junk was mixed in Nashville and is intended to be coupled with their first, self titled, EP to make up a overseas taster for an album release. Until recently it has only been available at WSBS gigs and on the band's Myspace page but it has now had a digital release and is available through Amplifier or Emusic. Orange and Brown is from Castle of Useless Junk, the song title describing the colour scheme of the Counting the Beat blog, the EP title describing the room where I record the podcast.

I've long been a fan of country outfit The Broken Heartbreakers. Their recent self titled album is an early contender for my best of the year list. Hot on the heels of that release comes a series of limited edition CD singles (sedingles?) available for sale only at Broken Heartbreaker gigs. The first of the singles is Wake Up Monday. Sign up to the Heartbreakers email list on their site to get advance warning of shows and be in quick to get one of the limited to 100 CDs.

Finally, a track from the second Ruby Suns album, Sea Lion. This is a great CD that is much less in debt to the sound of The Beach Boys than their self titled debut but retains complexity and whimsy in the songwriting and instrumentation. The main songwriter, Ryan McPhun is a very clever chap who seems destined for considerable success. A good taster of what the album offers is the song Tane Mahuta which is included in the podcast. I highly recommend you also watch the clip for this and two other Ruby Suns songs on the video page. They are recorded live on the streets of Paris by a great French video podcast site La Blogotheque.

Download the Counting The Beat - New & Recent Releases Feb 08 podcast