Moment By
by Nadia Reid
British-based Reid’s recent album Enter Now Brightness indicated a confident shift away from folk into something more complex in emotional depth and arrangements. This magnetic single – from the opening piano chords and the steady build with percussion – confirms her vocal assurance on a song that was left off the LP which takes the listener on a journey from “tell me something I don’t already know” to the swirling currents at the end then a holy silence for “was it you who dreamed me?”. Something beyond folk-rock going on here, and it’s damn good. – Graham Reid
No Joy
by The Beths
It begins with frontwoman Liz Stokes delivering a deep sigh as the rattling beat – shades of The Flying Lizards’ Money – starts to power this amusingly glum song along through its many happy hooks. After the earlier Metal, it’s the Auckland band’s second single from the new album Straight Line Was a Lie due at the end of August. – Russell Baillie
Sailing the Seas
by Teenager, Ladyhawke
This collaboration between Aussie electro-pop veteran Nick Littlemore (PNAU, Empire of the Sun) and Ladyhawke/ Pip Brown started back in 2006 when as “Teenager”, the duo released a guest-heavy album entitled 13, before their respective solo careers took off.
The second single of their reunion, Sailing the Seas is an airy indie-disco track with nagging playground melody that might have come out the year they started. The song began as a commercial jingle project before the pair reclaimed it. You might wonder what it was going to be selling in the first place. Ocean cruises? – Russell Baillie
Julia
by Georgia Lines
The ridiculously talented Lines takes a left turn into slightly funky, lightly powered-up folk-pop which doesn’t go very far but has a good time as it outlines strange dreams (Keystone Cops?) and manages a little Beatles 1968 in the background on what also nods to Carole King. Clever second single in advance of an EP (The Guest House, due August 29). – Graham Reid
Glass Souls
by Erase Everything
The voices of Pluto and the Bleeders have joined forces as the frontline of Erase Everything, a five-piece mostly Auckland band delivering scorching shoegaze-y guitars, bass, and drums on this power-surge of a debut single. The lyrics, by Milan Borich and Angelo Munro, are reportedly inspired by a friend of their respective kids who took his own life after being bullied at school and online.
Says Munro, whose day job is a probation officer: “It reminded us of ourselves at that age: sensitive, creative, slightly outside the lines. And when someone like that disappears, especially so young, it leaves a hole that feels impossible to fill.” High-volume Dad-rock with heart. – Russell Baillie
Brighter Day
by Sadsmiles
Sadsmiles – whose name encapsulates something of their wistful folk-pop sound – are Auckland singer-songwriter Mahoney Harris and Wayne Bell, drummer to the stars like Dave Dobbyn, The Bads, Bic Runga as well as being a noted producer and composer. This dreamy and somewhat lethargic song marries a downbeat pessimism with a measure of hopefulness (“hold my breath and wait for change”), which perhaps captures exactly what many people are feeling right now: “Hoping for a brighter day”. – Graham Reid
Moth Song
by Folk Bitch Trio
The third single from the forthcoming debut album by the harmony-heavy Melbourne threesome of Gracie Sinclair, Jeanie Pilkington and Heide Peverelle’s is a dreamy swirl of voices and a single slow-jangled electric guitar, all – judging by the video – recorded at Auckland’s Roundhead Studios after a breezy walk on the sands of Piha. They’re back here to play in September. – Russell Baillie
Outside
by Cardi B
Before we get to the song, let’s hear from the promotions department: “Her announcement post [about Outside] has earned 410k+ likes, 12K+ comments, and 39k+ shares since Tuesday, with her more than 163M Instagram followers”. Which suggests no matter what you think or say about this energetic, explicit-language put-down of “low-down good-for-nothing dirty dogs” and elevation of her sexual appetites and abilities, it’s going to be unstoppable. Three producers and seven co-writers on a track – already described as “an anthem”– aimed at her estranged husband Offset, some say. As we say: unstoppable. – Graham Reid
Unravelling
by Muse
Respect to Britain’s Muse for being a rock band that didn’t stick to a winning formula but has constantly shifted its ground over the past quarter of a century. They’ve brought prog, electronica and more into their stadium rock while keeping a loyal audience. This scoured-up, disruptive electro-rock single pulls in a soaring chorus and low Gothic menace to create high drama and different sonic shapes. No album signalled and if this isn’t exactly “hope you like our new direction” it’s certainly an amalgam of previous missiles from their armoury. – Graham Reid
Stay
by The Hara
Dramatic metal from Manchester which starts deceptively quiet, and Gothic then hits a pace and explodes in furious noise and throat-abusing screams (“you’re suffocating me!”) as it deals with a toxic relationship. It certainly sounds like something singer Josh Taylor should get out of but … “just stay, you’re still a part of me”. Two-and-a-half minutes of open-heart surgery on the emotions for rock radio. – Graham Reid
Schoenberg, Piano Concerto, Op.42: III. Adagio
by Mitsuko Uchida piano, The Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez conductor
What is it about Schoenberg that, almost 75 years after his death, people find so difficult? Is it really the music? Or is it the idea of the music? Schoenberg is no more discordant or shocking than a Picasso painting or a Beckett play or a Public Enemy siren blare, and yet whenever Schoenberg is programmed, people stay away. His Piano Concerto is one of his most beguiling works, mysterious and a bit weird, but also clearly the offspring of Mahler. I know which composer I prefer. – Richard Betts
