Christoph El Truento - Dubs From The Neighbourhood

Aotearoa roots-reggae-dub is the best genre in music and the latest offering from Christoph El Truento not only provides another example of this, it puts him in rare air of Aotearoa's musical acts. Dubs From The Neighbourhood feels like it is straight out of your local kiwi suburb with an authenic Aotearoa flavour and El Truento brings together a mix of artists to handle various instruments, while adding his own excellence to the project. These 11 tracks are highly repeatable and are bound to invigorate your winter, with 'Ghost Rhythm' being a personal favourite.

Mdou Moctar – Funeral For Justice

As far as funerals go, this one is pretty raucous. Mdou Moctar has built up a reputation for shredding electric guitar mixed with traditional Niger/Tuareg influences. This is righteous music, much of it written about the post-colonial struggles in his native country, with his strings slashing and searing, but at the same time there’s an irrepressible joyfulness about this bloke’s music that cannot be suppressed (just like the native spirit of man). The fact that he sings in Tamasheq hides the rebelliousness of his lyrics from the uncurious of western listeners... so it’s lucky that great music works on multiple levels. You can rise up with the message or you can rise up with the irrepressible rhythms and dazzling guitar solos or you can rise up with both at the same time. You will be rising up though. Mdou Moctar just took it to a whole new level.

Kamasi Washington – Fearless Movement

He is the crossover Jazz Man of the moment and Fearless Movement is his latest epic. Like most KW albums, it’s epicness is first of all related to its length because this one runs almost a full ninety minutes. Skip the half-time break and you could keep it as the soundtrack to a footy game... which makes this the shortest of KW’s three albums so far. Washington is one of those dudes who has a reverence for the legends of the genre and also a willingness to take things into the future. He’s already been associated with hip hop from his various features (most notably on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly) and here he even brings in a few MCs to lay down some bars. No big names... although George Clinton and Andre 3000 do pop up elsewhere instrumentally. Musically this is brighter, less stately, than his previous two records and is probably the weakest of the trilogy as a result. The party-time experiments just aren’t as enjoyable as when he’s playing straight jazz. But they’re still worthy experiments and Washington and his band are so damn tight that his lower points would be career highs for most mere mortals.

Big Hit, Hit-Boy, The Alchemist - Black and Whites

Usually the old man raps get tiresome, but Big Hit's street wisdom and precise poetry on top of production from Hit-Boy and The Alchemist has delivered one of the best projects of the year. Big Hit is Hit-Boy's father and, after a few stints in jail, Big Hit has delivered a buffet of bangers over the past year which led to this collaboration with Al. As one would expect with Hit-Boy and Alchemist driving the production, the beats bang and the combination of Hit-Boy's booming style with Alchemist's sample-heavy style sounds wonderful. Big Hit is the sneaky star here though as he leaves no pocket wasted, hammering down rhymes and insights that many younger artists will envy. If you need a dose of hardcore, gang-banging hip-hop then don't go past Black and Whites.

Matt Joe Gow & Kerryn Fields – I Remember You

Here we have a combining of forces between two of Aotearoa’s finest country/folk voices. Matt Joe Gow put out an excellent album last year (Between Tonight & Tomorrow) that showcased his Springsteen-tinted tunes. Kerryn Fields is a few years removed 2021’s Water, which offered a shimmering glimpse of KF’s particular brand of folk wisdom. Gow hails from Dunedin while Fields is from Te Kuiti yet both have advanced their careers over in Australia. There’s a shared journey there, an overlapping vision, so it barely needs clarifying that the duet album feels as natural as the sunlight through the clouds. No Trace was a standout from the moment it was released as a single, a darkened minor-key ballad in which Fields’ voice reaches into haunting places. Black Sand and Here I’ll Be are also slower, stormier efforts (supplying the album title) and it’s in this mode that MJG & KF are at their most powerful. But they’re also able to switch gears with brighter stompy jams such as Love Ya Like I Can and Whirlwind. They often call this style of music ‘Americana’ yet a pair of Aussie-based Kiwis are doing it as well as anyone.

Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee

In an age of algorithms, short attention spans, and branded content... Cindy Lee’s Diamond Jubilee is a celebration of what art is supposed to be about. Cindy Lee is the alter ego of Patrick Flegel, who performs in drag, and that’s only the beginning of the story. You won’t find this album on streaming services – though you can purchase the album in WAV format from a Geocities website. It’s two hours and 32 tracks long. There’s been basically no promotion for it except for word of mouth, great reviews, and some tour dates. And the tunes themselves even sound like they’re from a bygone era. Lots of lo-fi indie production. Walking guitar and bass lines. Part sixties pop, part Velvet Underground, part Twin Peaks Roadhouse Bar Band. It’s a fascinating record given just how much it shuns established behaviour in 2024, although that wouldn’t mean nearly as much if it wasn’t also stacked with excellent tunes. That it is. Baby Blue, Wild One, Darling of the Diskoteque, and Kingdom Come all stand out if you need a simpler entry point into the album. Yeah, to be honest, two hours of tunes is too much for one single album... but that is kind of the point here. Diamond Jubilee is to be discovered, it was not made to pander.

Rosali – Bite Down

So... if you dug that Waxahatchee album the other month (and by gawd you ought to have) then it’s a pleasure to report that this one will be right up your alley too. In fact, there was also that banger of a David Nance & Mowed Sound album earlier this year and many of those same musicians feature on this record hence Bite Down is a bit of a combination of the two. Which, needless to say, is fantastic. Rosali Middleman writes songs that walk bravely into the eye of the storm, often surprising just how deep they get given how groovy the jams are. Mid-tempo rockers, bit of a Crazy Horse vibe (that’s Mowed Sound for ya). Check out On Tonight, My Kind, and Slow Pain for an idea of what’s up. This one’s growing in estimation with every listen.

Lilly Carron - And The Clouds Came Undone

The soft sound of Lilly Carron explores fresh sounds in her latest project 'And The Clouds Came Undone'. The six tracks of ATCCU feel like a wave of lovely comfort starting with the pristine Apricot Sun, before moving into a wider mix of sounds such as drums of Ease. Carron is at her best when singing over minimal production but the range of music in these six songs ensures that each track is a new adventure, while maintain the threat of Carron's delicate vocals. Hailing from Muriwai, Carron delivers a project that sounds like Muriwai with a grounded nature that even opens up to a slightly more upbeat/chaotic final track Call Me Over which resembles the west coast waves Muriwai is known for.

Sam Evian – Plunge

Some albums are just all about great vibes. This is one of them. It’s Evian’s fourth solo release and for sure his most confident, as his 70s inspired grooves are given room to flow. The drums are a little heavier. The guitars a little sharper (the guitars sound superb on this thing, mate). He recorded the album live to tape while hanging out in upstate New York state, plunging (hence the title) for dips in the icy lakes to get the mornings started and letting the days roll by from there on. Once again: Great Vibes. If you’re keen on the post-Beatles solo albums or some good old Harry Nilsson and probably some Big Star as well then you’re in the ballpark for what to expect from Plunge. Probably why it feels so instantly warm and familiar.

Charley Crockett - $10 Cowboy

Every year, ol’ Charley Crockett puts out a couple of new albums of sharp country tunes that call back to the work ethic of the classic artists of the genre. Sometimes he’s doing covers. Sometimes he’s re-recording his own stuff. Always with a few originals in there, of course. He’ll switch up the sound (he’s as sharp with blues/R&B as he is with country so that’s no worry). But you always get consistent quality from this absolute professional. There is nothing different here. He’s a little more on the soul-side of country in this case, though he still gets you feeling like you’re sitting by the fireplace. Lots of tunes about being almost-but-not-quite-down-and-out. This dude’s as real as they come.

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