Listen | All things musical

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Nadia Reid - Listen to formation, look for the signs

Earlier this month Auckland-based singer-songwriter Nadia Reid released her second album 'Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs'. Funded from contributions through the crowdfunding platform PledgeMe, the album was recorded in Lyttleton with Ben Edwards, co-founder of Lyttleton Records.

These are beautifully crafted modern folk songs, buoyed by Nadia's self-assured, lilting delivery and an evocative sonic palette that is at once propulsive and sympathetic. Nadia's tales of love and loss are deftly illustrated by her precise and delicate songwriting. This is an intimate and transportive record from an emerging yet fully-formed talent.

To listen/buy visit: nadiareid.bandcamp.com.

Written by: Anna C

Interview: Lumm

Written by: Richard Giles

New Zealand often produces incredible music with a sense of individuality and freshness, which comes straight from the woodwork. We have found yet another gem in Lumm, aka Lucian Manetto-Munro an Auckland based ambient-indietronica artist. Lumm's sounds are unlike anything else in the music industry, they are elaborate, vibrant and overall works of art. To support Lumm check out Lumm on SoundCloud or Lumm on Facebook. His music is currently free to check out and share!

We caught up with Lumm to understand just where the inspiration for his music comes from:

What are the inspirations for your tracks?

If anything inspires my music it would be the things around me; my friends, family, and general life.

I try not to be inspired by other peoples music, as I then tend to make songs that I am not happy with in the long run. It's important to stay true to yourself, and to not be sidetracked by phases or fads that generally end up being short-lived.

Listen: Matthew Young

Matthew Young is an Auckland artist producing new school R&B jams. With production and songwriting collaboration from Djeisan Suskov of Cool Rainbows, it's fresh and futuristic music that'll appeal to fans of Frank Ocean, Miguel and The Weeknd. Check it out via the Soundcloud widget above.

Listen: Emily Edrosa EP

Emily Littler of Street Chant has been working on solo material under the name of Emily Edrosa. With drum machine beats and sparse backing, her lyrical style comes more to the fore over six stunning tracks. It's being released digitally and on a run of 50 cassette tapes via her own Pasta Tapes label. Check it via the Soundcloud widget above.

Via Noisey.

Listen: Chelsea Jade - Nightswimmer

Dream pop savant Chelsea Jade (Watercolours, Teacups) has released a brand new single. With her usual blend of poetic lyricism and ethereal production, the track marks her first release under the new name of Chelsea Jade after performing as Watercolours in recent years. Listen/buy it via the Bandcamp widget below, and if you get a hankering to hear some of her back catalogue you can borrow the Teacups album Forest Fiction or the Watercolours EP Portals via Auckland Libraries.

Listen: Promised Miracles presents a mixtape by Shocking Pinks

Here's a bit of a treat. I've always been a big Shocking Pinks fan, and this week Melbourne based label Promised Miracles has released a mixtape curated by Nick Harte. As well as one of his own tracks, it includes a new track by Scott Mannion from the Tokey Tones (which is reportedly the first new music he's released in ten years), Emily Edrosa's brilliant song Give Your Body to Science, and a fantastically weird Dragon remix by Pikachunes. It's a dreamy, beautiful collection of tracks and it's available as a free download from the Promised Miracles Bandcamp (which you can stream or download from the widget below). Get onto it.

For more from the Shocking Pinks, CDs of Mathematical Warfare and Shocking Pinks are in the library catalogue and available to borrow.

Listen: Glass Owls - Out From the Darkness

Auckland's Glass Owls have just released their new album on Bandcamp. Recorded, produced and mastered by Djeisan Suskov (Cool Rainbows) at Revolver Studios in Waiuku, Out From the Darkness is the follow up to their EP Dead Love from 2010.

The band has recently toured the UK, putting in appearances at The Great Escape and KOKO Camden's Club NME. Check out the new album via the Bandcamp widget below.

Listen: NZMM playlist #3

It's the last day of New Zealand Music Month. Hope you've had a great one. Here's one last playlist of some of All Things Musical's favourite local tracks. Don't forget that Auckland Libraries has a great array of CDs, music DVDs, musical scores, music theory books and music biographies to suit all tastes. Head over to www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz and get requesting!

Listen: NZMM playlist #2

Here's a few more of our favourites to listen to in the month of May. Here are some thoughts:

this acoustic version of Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark) shows just how good of a guitarist Ruban Nielsen is. He's very, very good, right?

Listen: NZMM playlist #1

New Zealand Music Month is great a reminder to discover new local music and revisit some old favourites. So with that in mind, we'll be uploading some Spotify playlists of our favourite tracks. Some of the songs are recent discoveries, while others have been around for quite some time. There's not really a theme, they're just tracks that I hold very dear! Click play on the Spotify widget below to listen, hope you enjoy.

Listen: Tiny Ruins - Me at the Museum, You in the Wintergardens

Originally the solo project of Hollie Fullbrook, Tiny Ruins has now expanded to be a full band with the addition of a stunning rhythm section consisting of bassist Cass Basil and drummer Alexander Freer (Artisan Guns/Cool Rainbows/The Eversons).

On Me at the Museum, You at the Wintergardens (which you can hear via the Soundcloud widget above), Tiny Ruins delivers her trademark delicately mannered and poetic vocals over intricate finger picking. But now that sound is fleshed out subtly, with percussion, brass and strings. Listen to the shimmering, echoing background sounds fade in at 0.49”. They’re ghostly and low in the mix, and all the more haunting for it. Having recorded with engineer Tom Healy over several months in Auckland studio The Lab, the song is the lead single from her forthcoming album Brightly Painted One. Now signed to the UK label Bella Union, Tiny Ruins have joined a stable consisting of Beach House, the Flaming Lips and Fleet Foxes. Pretty amazing company, nice one Hollie!

Listen: Yumi Zouma - The Brae

Yumi Zouma are a New Zealand trio with former Bang! Bang! Eche! guitarist Charlie Ryder in their ranks. 'The Brae' is their second single and they're set to release a self titled debut EP next month via Cascine. The song's a dreamy bed of synthesiser and angelic vocals, and if it takes your fancy, you can preorder the EP via the link on their Soundcloud widget below.

Listen: Shocking Pinks - St Louis

It's been a six year hiatus for the notoriously prolific Nick Harte of the Shocking Pinks, but the former Flying Nun and DFA artist is set to release a forthcoming triple (!) LP titled Guilt Mirrors.

Featuring Gemma Syme (Holiday With Friends, 47 Diamantes) on guest vocals, hear 'St Louis' from the forthcoming record via the Soundcloud widget below. The album comes out on February 18 on the Brooklyn based record label Stars & Letters.

Listen: Clap Clap Riot (produced by Kody Nielson)

Auckland rockers Clap Clap Riot have been working away on a new record set to come out in February. Produced by Kody Nielson of the Mint Chicks, the early returns on Nobody/Everybody show a different sonic palette and a welcome 1960s flavour. Check out Sweet Patricia via the Soundcloud widget.

Head over to their Bandcamp page for pre-order details and another preview.

Anthonie Tonnon new song and tour

Anthonie Tonnon (formerly known as Tono and the Finance Company) is heading out on his most extensive New Zealand tour in support of US artist Shenandoah Davis. To coincide with the tour he's premiered the first song from his upcoming album over at Undertheradar.co.nz

Shenandoah Davis is an outstanding performer that has been hand-picked to play sold-out solo shows in Seattle with Laura Marling, Mirah, and Martha Wainwright. She's also toured the US with Tonnon, which you can hear about in Tonnon's tour diary for Radio New Zealand over here. Check below the jump for the full tour dates.

Listen: Athuzela Brown - A Cliff at Dawn

Wellington sibling duo Athuzela Brown have just released a five song EP called A Cliff at Dawn. Made up of Haz and Charlotte Forrester they craft haunting and atmospheric folk songs that drift along over sparse, fog-shrouded arrangements. The duo have been making music together for years but told Under the Radar that "it all came together about two years ago when we worked on a cover of 'Tiger Mountain Peasant Song' by Fleet Foxes for a school performance. Then we made the song 'Chasing Ghosts' and it kind of flowed from there into our first EP". From there they went on to release an album efficiently titled Songs from 2010-2012 on Sonorous Circle (record label home to the excellent Glass Vaults and Seth Frightening).

Their new EP A Cliff at Dawn is available for a pay-what-you-like price on their Bandcamp site now.

Listen: Hula Hope - Lamp

<a href="http://hulahope.bandcamp.com/album/lamp">Lamp by Hula Hope</a>

The appropriate response to Hula Hope's charming debut album is this.

Formerly of the excellent, maximalist Wellington all-girl troupe St Rupertsberg and long-serving folksters UrbanTramper, Hula Hope has been playing solo for a few years alongside those projects and has finally released the above solo record all of her own.

Enlisting the help of two different young producers - Lehmann B. Smith (listen to his 40-deep record of his extremely short, extremely good indie pop songs on his bandcamp) of Melbourne and Dave Parker of West Auckland (download his lushly produced, all New Zealand collection of original Christmas songs here), Lamp is blessed with a cohesive amalgamation of 60s girl pop, modern indie pop and alt country. She sings with an unashamed local accent, trades quips with Steve Abel's powerful baritone pipes, and has epiphanies that a boy's refusal to wait for the bus with her is one of those minor details that sounds innocuous but should maybe be a dealbreaker. It's well worth a listen and if she charms you like she did me, you can buy it straight from her bandcamp site (or straight from the bandcamp streaming widget above).

Listen: She's So Rad - Last Dance EP

Auckland shoegazers She's So Rad are taking a different tack on a new EP for Japanese label Wonderful Noise. The Last Dance EP sees songwriter/producer Jeremy Toy (Sommerset, Open Souls) taking an analogue dominated walk down the path of disco and boogie, finding itself somewhere between ESG and Talking Heads' funkier productions. It was recorded in 24bit and at 88.2khz (for you non-sound nerds out there, they're measurements of sound resolution - similar to how a photo can be taken in a high resolution) to give it the highest fidelity possible, so that the vinyl pressing will be drawing its reproduction from the highest quality source material.

While the full EP isn't up online, here's a digest of it via Wonderful Noise's Soundcloud.

Listen: The Naked and Famous - Hearts Like Ours

About to release a follow-up to their highly successful record Passive Me, Aggressive You, The Naked and Famous have released a single from the forthcoming In Rolling Ways. After releasing a series of EPs (and first appearing on Awesome Feeling - see our post on the 2007 compilation here), the band made it big in 2010, with their youth anthem Young Blood hitting #1 on the NZ singles chart and going on to chart in various places worldwide.

Hearts Like Ours isn't the immediate rush of Young Blood, but that would be asking a lot. It's still a dreamy, cinematic track that oozes youthful nostalgia. Pre-orders of the album are available on iTunes and the song was premiered by Zane Lowe at BBC Radio 1 in the UK last night. Check it out via the Soundcloud widget below.

Via Under The Radar

Listen: Unknown Mortal Orchestra cover Otis Redding's (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay

Check out Unknown Mortal Orchestra's flawless cover of (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay. The band is on tour this month and the Auckland show is reportedly just a few tickets away from selling out, so get in quick and grab tickets at Under The Radar.

Thursday July 18 - ReFuel, Dunedin
Friday July 19 - Kings Arms, Auckland
Saturday July 20th – Bodega, Wellington