MDOU MOCTAR <PLAYING WOMAD NZ> 17-19 March, New Plymouth
NIGER EP VOL.1 12″ + NIGER EP VOL.2 12″
“In 2021, we started the Mdou Moctar mixtape series. These releases compiled field recordings, cell phone voice memos, interview clips, conversations captured in the tour van, and blown-out board recordings from shows all over the world. As a continuation of those mixtapes, we present the Niger EPs, which examine the roots of the Mdou Moctar band. Early Mdou recordings were contained on cassettes, though the humble tape was soon replaced by the quick and easy facility of cell phone technology.
Long bus rides are common in West Africa. On one of these rides, you might be seated next to a stranger and ask ‘what are you listening to?’, then a song exchange would begin over Bluetooth. This is a very real way artists found their music distributed far from home. In that vein, the Niger EP series features solely recordings taped in Mdou Moctar’s home country of Niger. Volume 1 begins the series with a mix of recordings from 2017- 2020, documenting the band at weddings, picnics, rehearsals, and even impromptu house concerts. A must have for any Mdou Moctar fan!”
Part two of the Niger EP series features live and alternate versions of songs spanning the band’s discography recorded in their native Niger.
“Ibitlan is a love song,” says producer and bassist Mikey Coltun. “Mdou sings about his love for a woman, comparing her to a beautiful valley with a stream running through it, how her skin is a yellow flower and her smile is like lightning. This particular recording was done in Agadez in 2017 at a wedding. Mdou and I had played three weddings a day for about a month and a half on that trip. It was like bootcamp. I loved it. Ibitlan is one of Mdou’s oldest songs and is covered by pretty much every Tuareg guitarist. We’ve played versions of this song lasting over 20 minutes. It’s definitely one of my favorites to play!”
PART 1: 01. Imouhar (Drum Machine Version) / 02. Chismiten (Drum Machine Version) / 03.
Sibidoul (Live) / 04. Afelen (Live) / 05. Layla (Live) / 06. Afrique Victime (Live)
PART 2: 01. Iblis Amghar / 02. Ibitilan / 03. Nakanegh Dich / 04. Chimoumounim / 05. Asdikte Akal / 06. Azawad
Label: MATADOR
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SLEAFORD MODS
UK GRIM
Sleaford Mods return in 2023 with new album UK GRIM.
Throughout their music the duo’s poetic protest and electronic resistance has seen them consistency chart and call out their times with an eloquence and attitude that has made them one of the most urgent and unique voices in modern music. Hailed by the likes of Liam Gallagher, Seth Myers, Iggy Pop, Amyl & The Sniffers and a legion of loyal fans whose devotion for the band would rival most sports supporters.
Continuing this sonic vocation on their new album, Jason Williamson and Andrew Fearn’s creative evolution now finds them capturing the atmosphere of their era too. Though no strangers to the dancefloor, the minimal yet immersive beats and grooves of UK GRIM’s tracks – which include collaborations with Dry Cleaning’s Florence Shaw and Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell and Dave Navarro among them – add a new, physical dimension to Sleaford Mod’s sound that makes their words more vital than ever. Music for body AND mind.
Available on limited silver vinyl, standard vinyl & CD
NZ Tour
Powerstation, Auckland – Friday 26 May
Hunter Lounge, Wellington – Sunday 28 May
Tickets: HERE
- UK GRIM / 02. D.I.Why / 03. Force 10 From Navarone / 04. Tilldipper / 05. On The Ground / 06. Right Wing Beast / 07. Smash Each Other Up / 08. Don / 09. So Trendy / 10. I Claudius / 11. Pit 2 Pit / 12. Apart From You / 13. Tory Kong / 14. Rhythms Of Class
Label: ROUGH TRADE
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LONNIE HOLLEY
OH ME OH MY
Some years ago, there was a magazine piece wherein the writer meditated on the concept of the “Cosmic Southerner”: the late Pharoah Sanders, André 3000 and Col. Bruce Hampton (on whom the piece was ultimately focused) were all mentioned. Somehow, Alabama-born, Atlanta-based self-taught artist Lonnie Holley was left out of the piece. But Holley, 72, has improvised — nay, conjured! — ecstatic, baffling and heavy moments that can often only be described as “cosmic.” In a mere two lines of a song, Holley can zoom in on the pores of one’s skin and pull back to encompass the whole of the Milky Way.
‘Oh Me Oh My’ is both elegant and ferocious, sharpening the work contained on his 2018 Jagjaguwar debut ‘MITH’. It is stirring in one moment and a balm the next. It details histories both global and personal. Holley’s harrowing youth and young manhood in the Jim Crow South are well-told at this point — his sale into a different home as a child for just a bottle of whiskey; his abuse at the infamous Mount Meigs correctional facility for boys; the destruction of his art environment by the Birmingham airport expansion. But, as mentioned, Holley’s music is less a performance of pain endured and more a display of perseverance, of relentless hope, of Thumbs Up For Mother Universe. Intricately and lovingly produced by LA’s Jacknife Lee (The Cure, REM, Modest Mouse), ‘Oh Me Oh My’ features both kinetic, shortwave funk that calls to mind Brian Eno’s ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ and the deep space satellite sounds of Eno’s ambient works. There are also elements of Laurie Anderson’s meditations, elements of Gil Scott-Heron’s profound longform soul, elements of John Lurie’s grabbag jazz, and yes, elements of Sun Ra’s bold afrofuturism. But ‘Oh Me Oh My’ is a triumphant sonic achievement of its own.
Acclaimed collaborators like Michael Stipe (“Oh Me, Oh My”), Sharon Van Etten (“None of Us Will Have But a Little While”), Moor Mother (“I Am Part of the Wonder,” “Earth Will Be There”), Justin Vernon of Bon Iver (“Kindness Will Follow Your Tears”) and Rokia Koné (“If We Get Lost They Will Find Us”) serve as choirs of angels and co-pilots, giving Lonnie’s message flight, and reaffirming him as a galvanizing, iconoclastic force across the music community.
Available on limited clear blue coloured vinyl, standard vinyl & CD
- Testing / 02. I Am A Part Of The Wonder feat. Moor Mother / 03. Oh Me, Oh My / 04. Earth Will Be There / 05. Mount Meigs / 06. Better Get The Crop In Soon / 07. Kindness Will Follow Your Tears / 08. None Of Us Have But A Little While / 09. If We Get Lost They Will Find Us / 10. I Can’t Hush / 11. Future Children
Label: JAGJAGUWAR
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THE SMILE
EUROPEAN LIVE RECORDINGS 2022 12″
True to its title, the EP is comprised of live recordings of fan favourites from The Smile’s widely acclaimed debut album, A Light For Attracting Attention, as well as the band’s rendition of Thom’s 2009 solo track FeelingPulledApartByHorses.
Europe: Live Recordings 2022 was recorded in various cities over the course of The Smile’s first ever tour.
- Iblis Amghar / 02. Ibitilan / 03. Nakanegh Dich / 04. Chimoumounim / 05. Asdikte Akal / 06. Azawad
Label: XL RECORDINGS
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ANDY SHAUF
NORM
Norm, the eighth album from singer-songwriter Andy Shauf, is a shimmering arc with unsettling silences that complete its story, the pop and hiss of a needle on a turntable after the song ends, emptiness like a trap door into something tender and terrifying. The Saskatchewan-born performer has already made a name for himself with television appearances and enviable reviews for his prior work, including his 2016 outing The Party, which The Sunday Times praised for “killer lyrics in music of extraordinary beauty,” and the night-at-a-bar drama of 2020’s The Neon Skyline, which Pitchfork called “a wistful, funny, and heartbreaking world.”
With Norm, he’s upended his songwriting methods, creating a deeply haunting and unpredictable universe. It’s a classic Shauf premise to wonder whether we’re destined for disappointment and pain when people don’t love us the way we want them to. But he’s taking the question further this time. Many tracks on Norm start out delicate and forlorn, with the feel of classic torch songs. In the middle of a line, Shauf’s vocals shift unexpectedly to a higher, plaintive register. He sounds as if he’s sitting next to you, singing quietly in your ear, with the persuasive pining of Chet Baker, if Chet Baker sang in round Canadian vowels.
But listen closely, and deep in the music, a shift happens as the world goes sideways. The tempo slows, vertigo slips in, or a discordant note appears. An uneasy clarinet phrase devolves into a busy signal. A lyric veers from a bird’s-eye-view to intimate thoughts. The result is a recognizable Shauf production, but with a flowing landscape of suppressed grooves propelling the songs toward uncertain destinations. He’s driving us out to a wild and dangerous place. The story takes shape through little epiphanies, accumulating like debris from a series of implosions.
- Wasted On You / 02. Catch Your Eye / 03. Telephone / 04. You Didn’t See / 05. Paradise Cinema / 06. Norm / 07. Halloween Store / 08. Sunset / 09. Daylight Dreaming / 10. Long Throw / 11. Don’t Let It Get To You / 12. All Of My Love
Label: ANTI-
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