Lawrence Arabia is the creative outlet for multi-instrumentalist musician, James Milne, one of New Zealand's most well-known indie musicians. His trajectory is somewhat similar to that of Don McGlashan - another musician who is known for the strength of his songwriting and willingness to try new things. In Lawrence Arabia's case, his drive to break new ground has meant playing in unusual venues such as art galleries and libraries or writing/performing music that was played live alongside a silent film (as he did at last year's film festival) or for live plays.

This month Lawrence Arabia has released a new album - Absolute Truth (out now through Flying Nun and available via bandcamp) and his first album fronting the band, The Reduction Agents, is being re-released on vinyl along with a tribute album with each track covered by other artists. Therefore it seems like a good time to take a look back through his career and have a listen to some of his finest tunes.

Before he became Lawrence Arabia, James Milne was the guitarist/keyboardist/bassist in indie pop group, The Brunettes. During this time, he wrote one track for the band, 'You Beautiful Militant', which was sung by their singer Heather Mansfield on The Brunettes' second album, Mars Loves Venus (2004). However, the original demo of this tune has recently appeared on Lawrence Arabia's soundcloud page and gives an early indication of his skill at writing a hooky chorus melody...



Next up, Milne decided to form his own band, The Reduction Agents, drawing in the Brunettes' drummer, Ryan McPhun (who has his own group, The Ruby Suns) along with Jol Mulholland (Gasoline Cowboy, Mulholland) and Ben Eldridge (from Heavy Jones). The band produced only one album, The Dance Reduction Agents (2006). However they also featured on the soundtrack of the Taika Waititi movie, Eagle Versus Shark - the film used both "80s Celebration" and the catchy rock number, "The Pool." The latter also happens to have a great video of Milne swimming at Pt Erin Pools at night...




Simultaneous with the release of the Reduction Agents album, Milne also released the first self-titled Lawrence Arabia (2006) album. This album lacked the raw energy and drive of the Reduction Agents, but made up for it with some quirky production and super sharp lyrics. His new approach is most apparent on the track, "Talk About Good Times", which features this witty run of lines: “You’d always condescend to take us back to your boxy-shaped apartment/ you showed us that we’re poorer than you are/ and you’re an undiscovered star/ but now you’re at the bottom of the ocean you’re forgiven and we talk about the good times..."

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It's New Zealand Music Month, so it seems like a good time to run through some of the acts that seems likely to make a big splash in the local scene this year. There's everything from folk to garage rock to rap/EDM on this list, so hopefully there's something that'll strike your interest, though do feel free to add more recommendations in the comments if you wish.

Aldous Harding

Last year, it was the turn of Marlon Williams to be hyped as the latest, greatest artist out of the Lyttleton folk scene. Though this year it seems likely that the spotlight will return to his partner, Aldous Harding. She has a new album coming out later this year, which seems like it might add a gothic edge to the dark-folk sound of her debut self-titled album. It certainly sounds like there is a bit of PJ Harvey in the delivery of this live recording of new track, 'Horizon,' and the result is creepy and beautiful!

Lawrence Arabia

Lawrence Arabia has released very little new material since his last album, The Sparrow, came out in 2012. However he's been very busy on the live scene - playing at unusual venues such as art galleries and libraries, as well as scoring a silent film for the NZFF last year. Now there are stirrings that his new album is not too far away and a new single has emerged, which has all the playful lyricism we've come to expect from this sharp songwriter. I notice that the Youtube description mentions Flying Nun, which shows more signs of a slow return to prominence of the label over the past few years (they released Princess Chelsea's album, The great cybernetic depression, in the US and UK last year so they may again become synonymous overseas with great music from our shores).

Tiny Ruins

Hollie Fulbrook (the singer/songwriter behind Tiny Ruins) has been very busy since the release of her last full-length album, Brightly Painted One. She's currently touring through the UK and Europe as I write this, but has also been busy on the home front, mainly through her collaborations with an impressive list of highly-respected local musicians. She has toured with Bic Runga, which saw them forming a super-group from their two backing bands and playing a spread of covers and originals. She also contributed vocals to a song by Robert Scott (from The Clean) and recorded a whole EP with former Clean-drummer, Hamish Kilgour - Hurtling through. If that wasn't enough, she started this year by releasing a song that was produced by cult filmmaker, David Lynch (after Lorde recommended her music to him). Who knows what is coming next, but it's sure to be impressive. Here's the Lynch-produced track for you to check out...

Raw Nerves

The Raw Nerves are part of a recent revival of Auckland garage rock that has been instigated by the arrival of a new, vinyl-only record label, 1:12 Records. Others on the roster include: The Conjurors, Roy Irwin, and The Cavemen. Another band on the label, The Situations, will be known to many for acting as the backing band for Wanda Jackson on a recent visit to our shores, as well as working with Shaft and Ray Columbus in previous years. Nick Bollinger spoke at length about 1:12 Records on one of his recent sessions on National Radio and Grant Smithies was equally enthusiastic in his recent review of Roy Irwin - he's about to go overseas to tour from July-December, so no doubt he'll be known as NZ's answer to Kurt Vile by the end of the year (we have Irwin's first album if you want to hear how he got started).

However, my favourite among the label's band is The Raw Nerves, who seem to be bubbly with catchy hooks and gritty guitar sounds. This video also shows you how to make gourmet sausages, so hopefully that adds a bit of value for some viewers too!

Young tapz

The local hip hop scene has been bursting with talent over the last year, with Loui the Zu re-emerging as Mzwetwo and Tom Scott (from Homebrew/@Peace) starting a new group, Average Rap Band, whose focus on tongue twisting verbal dexterity has put his skills into true focus. Arriving hot on their heels has been Raiza Biza, a rapper from Hamilton who burst into the scene in 2014 with the fast-paced release of his first two albums. However the artist we're focusing on today - Young tapz - is even newer to the scene and is already looking to push out front.

Young Tapz works regularly along Mzwetwo as part of the Gallantino crew and their early achievements (along with those of Raiza Biza) led to an article on the Australian Vice website about the sudden emergence of NZ rappers originally born in Africa (and/or the Middle East). Their work is definitely worth searching out if you're interested, though be ready for some serious coarse language! (don't say I didn't warn you...)

So let's rewind the clock back slightly and look at the biggest breakthrough that Young Tapz has managed so far - dropping rhymes for "Buzz" by Aussie group, Hermitude (off their album Dark night sweet light), and thereby ending up in the Top Twenty of the Australian charts! Here's Young Tapz performing alongside Hermititude at the Australian Music Awards last year. He's sure got a lot of swagga for a twenty-year old!

In this episode of the All Things Musical podcast we play some live recordings from The Conjurors' performance at Auckland Libraries in May, we talk to Gareth Shute from the band about where he buys his socks, plus we listen to tracks from Scott Mannion, The Cosbys, Lawrence Arabia and the Ruby Suns. As well as being a multi-instrumentalist, Gareth has written five books which you can find in our catalogue. Head to our podcasts page to listen to the podcast via a web player, or right click and 'save as' here to download it to your computer.

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.

Boycrush is the project of Alistair Deverick. Alistair is a very good drummer and a nice dude, which can put you in pretty high demand. Accordingly he's been in such bands as The Sami Sisters, The Hot Grits, Bannerman, Lisa Crawley, The Shades, Watercolours, Panther and The Zoo, Lawrence Arabia, Haunted Love, Lucid 3, and The Ruby Suns. Whewsh, that's quite a list. Blessed with this minimal, dreamy pulse, Secrets shows his own work is up there with the best of his musical collaborations.

Last night's NZ Music Awards were predictably dominated by our favourite teenaged, world beating pop star Lorde. Although her album was released too late to qualify for this year's awards, she took away Single of the Year for Royals, Breakthrough Artist of the Year, the International Achievement Award and the fan-voted People's Choice Award, not to mention her video for Royals won famed designer/director Joel Kefali another Best Video award. Being a library blog, special mention goes to one of her acceptance speeches, where she said:

"Thank you to my management, without whom I probably would have become a librarian, or something equally nerdy," 

Awesome. It's not a diss, she's spoken in interviews about the crucial role of books in her life, but lucky for us all she's found her true calling. Other highlights included the charming Lawrence Arabia winning Best Male Solo Artist, Aaradhna winning the Album of the Year (as well as Best Urban/Hip Hop Album and Female Solo Artist of the Year) for her soulful Treble & Reverb.

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