SJD's Elastic Wasteland is always inviting and intriguing. Photo / Supplied
With past whimsical electronic pop classics like Southern Lights and Lost Soul Music, SJD sure is a unique Kiwi music-maker. You might remember the magical Superman, You're Crying and the cruisy ad jingle-like mantra of Tree People from those respective records?
On his sixth album - the follow-up to the
punchy and sometimes funky Dayglo Spectres from 2008 - he goes back to his solo electronic knob-twiddling roots, similar to his self-released debut, 3, from 1999. Elastic Wasteland, though, is a more refined and regal set of songs conjured up with just synthesizers, drum machines and his calming voice.
As the man himself, real name Sean James Donnelly, says, "no acoustic instruments were harmed, or even used, in the making of Elastic Wasteland".
It's been a longer wait than usual between albums because since Dayglo he has been laid low with a bout of ill health, and musically he has also co-produced and played keyboards in Neil Finn's Pajama Club, formed the Bellbirds with Don McGlashan, and recorded an all-star cover of Chris Knox's Not Given Lightly for the Breast Cancer Foundation.
The thing about Elastic Wasteland is that it's often melancholic in mood and frosty sounding, but somehow always inviting and intriguing.
