Lithonia
By Childish Gambino
Predictably, Bando Stone and the New World, the fifth and final album by “Childish Gambino” – US entertainment all-rounder Donald Glover who is retiring the moniker – is musically highly unpredictable. Perhaps the oddest touch in the grab-bag of hip-hop, soul-funk, electro-punk is Lithonia, a very Weezer-ish slow-surging slab of fuzz-pop which should inspire some mass phone-waving when he comes to Auckland in January. There’s a movie of the album (trailer below) which is apparently about a musician finding himself a post-apocalyptic survivor, but as yet no word on availability. – Russell Baillie
Coast
by Kim Deal
Recorded by the late Steve Albini and with her twin sister Kelley on guitar, the former Pixie bassist and Breeders’ leader steps out with her first solo single in a decade with this relaxed slice of folk cum indie pop. A delightful slacker feel for the northern summer but can warm the cooler days here in the south. – Graham Reid
Fools Expectation
By Louis Baker
Fresh from singing over the end of movie Ka Whawhai Tonu, Louis Baker heads back into his vintage soul comfort zone with a song that could definitely attend a fancy dress party as Sam Cooke and win a prize. – Russell Baillie
Gravity
by Jon Toogood
Currently touring with the Come Together mob as they resurrect Led Zeppelin IV live on stage, Toogood releases the title song from his forthcoming solo album, a chugging straight acoustic-goes-rock number with anthemic ambitions and with rather a high whoah-whoah quota to the outro. – Russell Baillie
High for This
by Parisi
Gimmicky, memorable and slightly bonkers electronica is in safe hands with this Italian duo who sound like they planned the light show at the same time as this bang-and-release instrumental which goes nowhere other than the dancefloor. Grab your light-sticks. – Graham Reid
Grin
by Baynk
LA-based NZ electronic whiz Baynk offers more evidence that his forthcoming Senescence album might be an early contender for soundtrack of the summer, both with Grin in which some might hear distant echoes of Everything But the Girl’s 1990s output and Mr. Jocko, built around a singing sample of local kids Baynk (Jock Nowell-Usticke) encountered and recorded while on a holiday in Zambia some years back.
Didn’t I
by Dasha
This Californian sounds like a dozen other contemporary country artists so needed the interesting banjo and beat arrangement of this song – about back-slidin’ to a man – to lift her above the crowd. Something of a sequel to her hugely successful previous single Austin (Boots Stop Working) – which came in sped-up and slowed-down versions – about that loser man. Interesting. – Graham Reid
Shade of Black
by Miranda Easten
Ōtautahi Christchurch singer-songwriter here delivers an intelligent piece about anxiety and self-doubt which follows her more rocking Kip Moore Smile. It doesn’t have the same immediate appeal but shows another side of her in advance of her debut album Concrete and Honey out this week. – Graham Reid
John Psathas, Leviathan: III. Soon We’ll All Walk on Water.
By Alexej Gerassimez percussion, Orchestra Wellington, Marc Taddei conductor.
Audiophiles take note: Orchestra Wellington has a new album featuring the music of Kiwi composer John Psathas. OW music director and audio buff Marc Taddei told the Listener: “The album sounds fabulous, and the production is as good as anything I’ve seen.” This track, Soon We’ll All Walk On Water, comes from the percussion concerto Leviathan (also the name of the album). The solo instrument here is a plastic water bottle and, says Psathas in the album notes, expresses “the madness of polluting our world with so much plastic”. You can read the full notes and buy a copy of the CD here. – Richard Betts
