This week’s hot local tracks are brought to you by 95bFM’s Charlie Winn! You can listen to more of Charlie’s selections on ‘The two to Four with Adel & Charlie’ every Friday.
Editor’s note: This is the last week of New Zealand Music Month!! And it’s been 20 years since this event started. However Aotearoa has always had a rich history of waitata and kapa haka. Some of my favourite songs in te reo include Wairua Tapu, Pokarekare Ana, and Pōtere Ana by Sons of Zion. If you have any recommendations too, feel free to send through to lifestyle@craccum.co.nz For now, check out below, some of Charlie’s selections of some new local tracks spinning!
Sad and Lonely (feat. Junny) – Amamelia
Amelia Berry knows how to write a damn good pop song. Her most recent creation comes under her electronic dance alias ‘Amamelia’, and is the second single from her upcoming debut album WOW. Sad and Lonely is an anthem for those who just want someone to hold them while they cry and sway on the dance floor. With the skittering percussion falling over itself, the synths lamenting for something out of reach, and Junny’s repeated vocal “If you’re feeling sad and lonely”, we are lifted into the cosmic realm, and somehow feel a little less isolated in our loneliness by the time the whole thing’s over.
PLAZTIQUE (feat. Georgie Kirton) – Hybrid Rose
On this track Hybrid Rose really gets hyper-pop down to a tee. The song is constantly evolving into another organism, speeding through dystopian soundscapes at an alarming pace. We’re greeted by a low-end voice growling something inaudible at us, before acidic beats come flying from left, right and centre, and Hybrid Rose’s voice emerges from behind a metallic sound shield with the kind of attitude that makes it clear she isn’t gonna be fucked with. This is part of another isolation compilation album called Artists In Residence, containing tracks predominantly from New Zealand artists. 100% of the earnings for this album on Bandcamp go directly towards Women’s Refuge, so spend a couple dollars and give it a spin!
Golden Hour – T. G. Shand
Sometimes it’s the more simple arrangements that are the most comforting. That’s certainly true when listening to Golden Hour by T. G. Shand, best described as guitar-driven dream pop with a hint of shoegaze. This is great road trip music, and as the title suggests, most appropriately played as the sun sinks into the horizon. Vocals and guitar lines are layered throughout the song, fading in and out unobtrusively, like characters joining you for a ride.
In the Sunshine – Jonathan Bree
When I listen to Jonathan Bree’s music I like to imagine that many years ago a kooky man accidentally walked into a time machine and ended up in present day Aotearoa, writing songs, his work connecting the past to the future in a seamless fashion. The instrumentals of ‘In the Sunshine’ are wistful for the glamour of a bygone era, so much so that if Wes Anderson directed The Great Gatsby, I’m sure this would be on the soundtrack. In just two verses Bree describes the doubt he and his lover once felt about the future of their relationship, though swiftly concluding that “…all it took was time/ To see us both come right”.
