Mother, Pray of Me
by The Beths
The Beths as you’ve possibly never them before, on a ballad with just a single guitar and quiet organ underneath Liz Stokes’ voice as she laments the state of a relationship between a daughter and mother across a generational, cultural, and religious divide. There might not be much to it musically – apparently there was a full band arrangement done before they went back to the minimal original – but here is a whole lot of life packed into this sweetly affecting song. – Russell Baillie
Violence Voyager
by Pickle Darling
After two singles which came in at epic length for this miniaturist – Human Bean Instruction Manual at six and a half minutes, Massive Everything just a minute shorter – Lukas Mayo (Pickle Darling) reverts to type with this cute, whispery three minute piece of delicate, looped, bedroom pop with just enough disruptive elements (big bass, chimes) to keep things off-kilter and interesting. Album Battlebots out September 5 should be interesting if these left-field mood pieces are any indication. – Graham Reid
Be Here Now
by Mel Parsons
The phrase “be here now” can be traced back to the book by Ram Dass in the early 1970s, about enlightenment through connecting to your true self. George Harrison wrote a song of that title about being present in the moment, Oasis used the title for their album and a song that, naturally, had little to with spirituality or awareness. In the folksy sway and deliberately lethargic vocal of this new single, Mel Parsons adopts the meaning of being in the moment, aware of the pleasures of the ordinary, going slow and relaxing into the time out. With keyboards by Mitchell Froom, this is kind of “turn off, tune inward and shut down”. – Graham Reid
Another Day
by The Beatniks
If you weren’t told this first new music in two years from Dunedin’s Beatniks was a collage of contributions by its members, you’d probably guess that because it melds distinct parts. Opening in a throaty, hushed pop-lite manner it moves through a spoken word passage then it arrives – via a spare guitar solo echoing its appearance in part one – at assertive, grungy pop-rock. What binds these diverse units together into an artful song is the relentless and repeated backdrop of the rhythm section. The colourful video by Derek Morrison helps sell this too. Very clever and effective, quite a departure from their 2023 album Archetype. And so yes, we do like your new direction. - Graham Reid
Not So Sweet
by Pearly*
And talking about things Beatnik and Dunedin – there are definitely echoes of The Clean in the guitar department of this – especially at the midway point where it almost turns into Point That Thing Somewhere Else before going white-hot Bailterspace towards the end. And they’re produced by Nick Roughan (who recorded with the latter band) in a Dunedin studio made available by the departure of television production unit Natural History NZ from the city. There’s a debut album on the way via – yes, really – Flying Nun. While there’s plenty of echoes of ye olde Dunedin sound, Pearly* has in bassist singer Phaedra Love a compelling vocal presence with a great name. Wonder if she was named after that gal from Some Velvet Morning? – Russell Baillie
Hurricane
by Fiona and the Glow
This final instalment of a debut EP, and announcement of a new one being currently recorded, confirms that this band consistently hit a point between indie rock, classic Fleetwood Mac, stadium rock guitars and impending mainstream popularity (having opened for Jon Toogood and Tiki Taane). Recorded with Tom Healey (Marlon Williams, Tiny Ruins, the Chills etc) in Port Chalmers, that already ticks a few of the right boxes. But they confirm it with Fiona McMartin’s confident vocals – check the psychedelic drone of their debut single You Wouldn’t Know – and a band locked in with a coherent vision. We’ve acclaimed previous singles so it’s over to you now to discover these contenders. – Graham Reid
Fuck It
by Dick Move
Thrashy, yappy and angry punk over in little more than two minutes of furious rage about systems designed to oppress. With misogyny, racism and other agencies of political and corporate control in the crosshairs, Auckland band Dick Move is locked and loaded. And somewhat unhappy. – Graham Reid
Cannibal
by Pendulum ft. Wargasm
With a heavy boot on the accelerator and the clatter of a block rockin’ beat, electro-rockers Pendulum – from Perth, now London-based – return with this hyperactive single in the company of Britain’s punked-up duo Wargasm to warn of a new Pendulum album Inertia, their first in 15 years (due August 22). Stadia and outdoor festival promoters have been put on notice. – Graham Reid
Love Isn’t Always
by Echomatica
This ambitious and courageous debut single from an Auckland band sits somewhere between dream-pop, psychedelic folk and lying in bed watching raindrops run down the window. Atmospheric ambience with a sense of unease which draws a little from early Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees as much as dark and sensual soundtracks. Not a song which will leap out of radio but more a slow seduction which piques the interest for their self-titled debut due October 10. Give them five minutes and let this creep over you. – Graham Reid
Velvet Fuselage
by Marty Willson-Piper
The founder and former member of Australia’s The Church here heads back to 1987 to pick up this dreamy psychedelic song from his solo album’s back-catalogue. He then pulls it two decades further back to more consciously drop it somewhere around the Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever and Sgt Pepper. We’re in the world of pastoral Mellotron and folkadelic pop. It appeared on his Archaeological Dig Vol 1 collection of revisions of earlier material which appeared in May. Kids, this is what trippy hippies sounded like. – Graham Reid
Beethoven, Symphony No.5 in C min, Op.67: I. Allegro con brio
by London Classical Players, Roger Norrington conductor
With all the fuss around Ozzy Osbourne’s passing, I somehow missed that conductor Roger Norrington had died aged 91. Norrington was a brilliant but divisive figure, with interpretations that were equal parts breathless and breathtaking. It was his Beethoven - no vibrato, extreme tempi that he swore to the day he died were faithful to the composer’s wishes - that really made people sit up. Compare his fifth symphony with famous rivals. The first movement is 50 seconds quicker than Carlos Kleiber’s legendary recording and crosses the tape a full two minutes ahead of Bernstein’s (admittedly sluggish) 1960s take. Norrington wasn’t the first to record Beethoven in this way but his were the recordings that brought period-instrument Beethoven into public focus. – Richard Betts
