A true drifter, Tim Guy has always enjoyed writing on the run. His previous two albums were written during moves to Melbourne (2004’s Blazey) and then Auckland (2007’s Hummabyes), and established him as a talented songwriter with a slanted and romantic perspective. As if he could only develop further by moving farther, a shift to Barcelona for five months remarkably inspired an improvement in his writing. Deep and dreamy, the songs from this period make up the bulk of Big World, which was recorded when Tim returned to Auckland and co-produced the album at home throughout 2009 with his then-housemate Jeremy Toy (Opensouls) on bass, keys, and additional guitars. Mixed by Jol Mulholland (the Checks, Motocade) and mastered by Dave Cooley (the Polyphonic Spree, Serge Gainsbourg), Big World’s foundation is solid: drums (Julien Dyne) and bass glow in the dusk with a countrified-R&B feel like Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac or Big Pink Band, a bliss-bath of woozy Wurlitzers and aqueous Rhodes conjure silvery nights and blue mornings, and guitars like satellites dart across darkling skies.

These primary parts give Big World the satisfyingly thick texture of classic rock, and are what’s most noticeable and familiar about the album’s sleek surfaces. But they don’t wholly account for the music’s deepness. Emotional complexity occurs where classic poptimistic weft is warped with distantly murmuring synth-storms and feedback-clouds that evoke an individual trying to measure his own (in-)significance. These moments, such as the stoic refrain of “holding on… holding on,” amid washes of dissonant feedback and cascading glockenspiel in ‘70 Angels’, hint at a swamping randomness in the world, but their musical expression is extremely controlled: adult composure never gives way to despairing emotionalism, and the balance is bewitching.

But for all its instinctual (and never intellectual) foraging for answers, Big World is an exquisitely tuneful pop album that simply urges singing-along to. With backing vocals by Ben King (Goldenhorse), the relaxed groove and four playful key changes of ‘Love Pie’ recall Tim’s own recent contribution of ‘Love Turns Wild’ to the Motown-inspired Open Souls record (Standing in the Rain), and in terms of heart-swelling excitement, the memory-rush of ‘Rhythm of the River’ is perhaps surpassed only by the whirling heights that ‘Beatle’ reaches.

Musically luscious and lyrically illuminating, ‘Beatle’ defines the artistic growth necessary to making this, Tim’s third and best album. Instead of being a worshipful hat-tip to the Fab Four, it is a sobering reproof to the idleness of too much dreaming, which only leaves one “stuck in the ground.” The seriousness of this challenge to shape up is illustrated by violins that elevate and redouble the wake-up call: “You could live your life a Beatle… walk in somebody’s footsteps; [but] it’s dangerous to.” Taken as a self-reproach to find his own voice, it’s remarkable that Tim achieves his aim by the first gorgeous chorus. With a sharper sense of identity, he gains the confidence to make an album that should surprise anyone paying attention. It’s also a way of looking at and moving on from the past, which explains why, despite its childlike openness and interest in the world, this is not a nostalgic album. Why go backwards when, as Tim says himself, “It just gets better… It’s coming up”?

Niko Ne Zna are New Zealand’s very own Balkan Gypsy brass extravaganza. Formed in Wellington five years ago, the band has been stunning audiences ever since with their exuberant, dynamic performances. Comprising trumpet, saxophone, accordion, trombone, sousaphone, drums and percussion, Niko Ne Zna are a truly authentic ensemble. They can roam while playing, and enchant the audience into dancing, singing, clapping and stomping all night long.

The band consists of some of Wellington’s finest instrumentalists who come from a wide array of musical backgrounds that unite together to produce a cocktail that will make your ears rise to attention and your feet move in a frenzy. Their music is high energy with dark undertones and sexy gypsy style. Niko Ne Zna are a world class act with exotic tunes, fantastic grooves and exciting solos.

The band have played extensively in Wellington with performances at The Wellington Fringe Festival, International Jazz Festival, Cuba Street Carnival, Wellington Summer City Festival to name a few and have been a staple of the Wellington music scene with regular performances all over city.

“It’s easy to forget where you are when you listen to these hypnotic melodies. It’s like being dropped amongst the hot and spicy lands of a country far away – to a place where you can free yourself with these infectious and wild beats that take their influence from the gypsy-soaked Balkan States.”  wellingtonlivemusic.com

In early 2008, The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band officially released their first ep, Danse Macabre. Since then they have been busy whipping audiences into frenzies with their crazed gypsy/east European sounds performing at Prana, Jambalaya, Parihaka, AK09, Cross St Carnival, Fleetwaters and Splore Festivals as well as undertaking three highly successful national tours which saw them playing to packed houses all over the country. During this time, the Benkas have also supported many popular NZ acts including The Hot Grits, The Mamaku Project, An Emerald City and The Jews Brothers and in March 2008 they had the honour of supporting international act Beirut in Auckland.

Polkapocalypse features four original songs, four traditionals and 2 covers by the Tiger Lillies and Dead Kennedys. Three of the tracks were recorded live by acclaimed engineer Andre Upston for Radio New Zealand at the Monkey Magic launch at Galatos, Auckland in May 2008. The other seven were recorded by Jamie Newman aka Cinema 90 at a remote studio north of Auckland over three hot steamy days in March this year.

Following release shows in Wellington and Auckland, the band are spreading the chaos further, heading Europe-wards to be based in Berlin from the end of May onwards… World Domination is just around the corner… The brothels shall be the parliament, the Graveyards the Houses of Commons…. a new era is upon us…

Review for Polkapocalypse

With a sound based around accordion, clarinet, electric guitar, and lashings of laughs (they do a beautifully inebriated cover of the Dead Kennedy’s Too Drunk To F***), Polkapocalypse is theatrical, rebellious and fun party music.
NZ Herald

Imagine Spike Milligan jamming with gypsies over a crate of vodka. That’s a vague approximation that really does the manic appeal of Polkapocalypse a disservice. The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band (from Auckland) marry whimsical traditional eastern European arrangements with the type of macabre, obscure and amusing lyricism that will either impress or repulse. Scare your neighbours, frighten the kids, and petrify the pets with a high-volume dose of Polkapocalypse. Bizarre Balkan beats, ruthless Russky rhythms and a Dead Kennedys cover.
Otago Daily Times

Cinema 90’s story begins in 1999, with Auckland based producer Jamie Newman creating electronic dance music on a basic tracker program on his home computer.  After having dj’d electronic dance music of every genre (house, techno, electro, breaks, trance, dnb, hip hop and downbeat) since 1996, his initial direction in writing music was very much four-to-the-floor focused.  In 2001, under the moniker ‘dj me’, he released an ep of tech-house and breaks entitled ‘Shake Your Shit’.

In 2003, after music equipment began to seriously dominate his apartment, Jamie set up a studio in central Auckland, under the fledgling community radio station Fleet FM.  With the constant thoroughfare of artists, musicians and creative types, Jamie fast began incorporating live recording into the mix.  With this change in process came a different style of music, heralding the beginnings of a sound now recognizable as Cinema 90.  Fusing elements of hip hop, electro, soul, electronica, house, downbeat and folk, Cinema 90’s focus is on quality music without the limitations of an umbrella genre.

Six years and three studios later, Cinema 90 is releasing his debut EP through Auckland based record label Monkey Records with distribution by Rhythm Method. The first single from the ep is the feel good summer song, Sunny Day Juice, featuring an outstanding main vocal/rap by T-Minus. Second single is ‘So Sweet’ featuring Karin Betley and Billy Fluid.

While references may be made to Massive Attack, Tricky and Moby and the ep exhibits an unabashed homage to 90’s trip hop (hence the 90 in the moniker perhaps), this is music for your heart, soul and ears and this release seems sure to mark Cinema 90 as an artist to watch.

Monkey Records is pleased to announce the release of a summery little gem from Auckland artist Bond Street Bridge.  The new song ‘Birds’ is the first single from Bond Street Bridge’s forthcoming sophomore album, due for release in early 2010 following on from the critically acclaimed The Mapmaker’s Art released last year.

In this catchy wee number, Bond Street Bridge, aka Sam Prebble, reflects on the mating habits of New Zealand’s paradise shelduck, Tadorna variegata.  These striking brown-and-white ducks  generally mate for life, and pairs are a common sight in open country in New Zealand.

Prebble says ‘I spend a lot of time driving around the country for shows and whatnot, and anthropomorphising the wildlife is a good way to pass the time.  I have to concede that the birds in this song are probably not really in love, but based on the way they tend to sort of sit next to each other and not really say much, they sure look like they are.’

Since their inception in late 2005, Auckland band An Emerald City have strived for musical experimentation and liberation. Organic instrumentation and sounds of the east meet psychedelia with guitars and violin are at the centre of this original and unique 6 piece.

The summer of 2007/2008 unleashed an array of summer performances that included the likes of: Soundsplash, Rhythm and Vines, bfm’s Summer Series and Shore Sounds. Womad saw An Emerald City perform to over 1200 people across their two performances. This is also where NZers and the world got their first opportunity to purchase a slice of An Emerald City – their debut self titled ep – if you missed out, never fear, now is your chance to get a piece of this truly original band.

The 4 track ep features two of the bnet favourites ‘Qing Song’ (also featured as Karen Walker’s opening track at New York Fashion Week this year) and ‘A Thousand Stars At Night’ recorded at Clockwork Studios in Auckland with Nick Taylor. The ep also includes 2 new songs ‘Mr. Finn’ and the new single ‘A Question’ recorded at Roundhead Studios with Liam Finn and Jol Mulholland. The sriking original artwork is by Mr. Will Handley.

An Emerald City is: Ede – lute/sitar; Reyahn – drums/tablas, Sam – guitars, Reuben – guitars, Felix – violin.

Reviews

“This extraordinary four-track EP by an Auckland band which is long on instrumental elegance and very short on pretention is a diamond, and like a precious gem you can turn it many ways and appreciate different refractions.
These swooning, grand and widescreen instrumentals have something in common with the great US band Explosions in the Sky but they also have a more exotic element through the presence of violin, cello and what sound like discreetly placed sitar and Chinese lute.
The pieces sway into each other, have a definite hypnotic and ambient quality, but also thoroughly engage the attention.
Astral, epic, allusive, soundtracks for imaginary movies . .
Say what you will, but don’t ignore it.”
Graham Reid, Elsewhere

An Emerald City’s epic, haunting sound is captured on the four tracks that this ep offers. The intense combination of guitars, drums, lute, sitar, violins, tablas, and some sand, cask wine and flying carpets, creates this instrumental music that makes you feel like you are sitting on a lotus blossom, watching Saraswati ride a giant swan, whilst massaging you with her spare hands. Oh, and there’s a bit of Celtic psychedelica thrown in there too, notably on ‘A Question.’ ‘A Thousand Stars at Night’ will take you to the desert, and ‘Mr Finn’ has a lullaby-like opening that will send you into a dream of kilted warriors riding bareback through fields of heather. With so many instruments one may wonder how this doesn’t sound like a brown stew. I don’t know but I assure you it does not! Each instrument is crisp and audible, one complementing the other. Overtop, the violin sings melodically. Why take illicit substances when you can listen to this?
**** (four stars) Susan Strongman, Groove Guide

One night during the recent WOMAD festival, I was sitting at a hotel bar tending a glass filled with ice, when I heard the most incredible sound – the violin is something else in the hands of Felix Lun, of An Emerald City. He was keeping up with the Romanian gypsies, which is saying something. Felix and his raggle-taggle bandmates have created quite something with this EP – intertwining the mysteries of the east with a Canadian apocalypse? What a debut!
Matt Crawley, Eavesdrop

An Emerald City radio interview

The artist, Meera Raghu, was spiritually inspired after listening to divine melodious songs called Arka Geetha, composed by Srinivas Arka, a renowned philosopher, author, inspirational speaker, developer of meditation method called Arka Dhyana and founder of global spiritual organisation Centre for Conscious Awareness. Being a musician and Veena artist, Meera, through her inspirational experience, selected some of the songs of Arka Geetha, which are based on Lord Ganesha and the Philosophy of Life, and created musical notation for rendering them on the Veena. Meera enthusiastically worked on the songs and recorded them with Tabla player Basant Madhur and Nigel Braddock of Monkey Records at his recording studio in Auckland in May 2005. To her amazement, the whole recording went off well, continuously and smoothly, without any obstacles like retake or editing. This was an extraordinarily unique experience for the artistes. This CD album is really special as the songs have been presented to this world by Divine guidance through the musical instruments of the artists.

The Artist: Meera RaghuMeera is a musician proficient in South Indian classical music called Carnatic Music, and in the art of Veena playing. Veena is a very ancient musical instrument and is used mainly in Carnatic Music. She has given many performances in India and overseas, mainly New Zealand, having lived in Auckland for more than a decade.Meera has a Masters’ degree in Physics and post-graduate diploma in Computer Science. She has been working in the computer field in the areas of training and software development in India & New Zealand.She had been imparting training in Veena playing to students and guiding them for music examinations conducted in Auckland. She was also invited to be an examiner for the Carnatic music examinations held in Auckland and Melbourne, conducted in affiliation with Academy of Fine Arts, London. Meera has obtained training in Arka Dhyana, a fine-tuned intuitive meditation method and specialized in it through workshops in the UK and India. She also imparts training in Arka Dhyana. Please visit the following websites for more information: www.srinivasarka.org, www.arkadhyana.org, www.centreforconsciousawareness.org, www.srinivasarka.com/store.

Bond Street Bridge is the creation of Auckland-based multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Sam Prebble.  Sam has been playing music for as long as he can remember, and ‘probably before that as well,’ as he puts it. Bond Street Bridge is currently a solo project, but Sam has always played in bands, orchestras and choirs.  For the past few years he has been playing in the Broken Heartbreakers and Reb Fountain’s Bandits, and has recently guested on releases by White Swan Black Swan, Dylan Storey and Andy Gibson, playing fiddle and writing string arrangements.  Sam’s experience in bands and orchestras has developed the strong sense for arrangement and orchestration he brings to his debut album, ‘The Mapmaker’s Art.’  Listening to the lush soundscapes and cunningly interleaved parts on this record, it is hard to believe that it was recorded on a laptop with one microphone, in a falling-down villa next to a motorway.

Working by himself, Sam had the luxuries of time and creative free rein, which he used to craft a unique and original record. The result is an often surprising collection of songs dealing with what Sam describes as ‘the details of daily life – extinct giant birds, storms at sea, pointless wanderings in the desert, demonic temptation and the like.’ This is imaginative and refined songwriting which achieves both honesty and enigma; slightly detached but never cynical, concise but never terse.

The record uses a sonic palette consisting of guitars, violin, mandolin, piano, organs, percussion and vocals, all played by Sam, with double bass on two tracks provided by Wellington-based artist Kate Whelen.  These organic and acoustic elements are complemented and supported by glitchy beats, warm reverbs and washed-out tape echoes, producing an overall sound which is at once nostalgic and innovative.  Jangly mandolins ride comfortably on top of rolling basslines, and fiddle lines trace paths through a forest of computerised beats.

This album, while fresh and original, pays homage to the artists whose work has influenced Sam over the years.  The influence of New Zealand artists such as Demarnia Lloyd and Cloudboy, Bachelorette and SJD, as well as international artists such as Bjork, Beck, New Buffalo, Neko Case, Thom Yorke, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen is audible on this record.  In creating this work, Sam also drew inspiration from writers, painters and filmmakers, among them Ursula Le Guin, Hone Tuwhare, Bill Hammond, Kurt Vonnegut, Christine Jeffs and Carol Ann Duffy.

The title of the record, ‘The Mapmaker’s Art,’ is a reflection of the fact that most of the songs are about movement, getting from on place to another.  Sam says ‘we draw a map to describe a place we’ve been, a place that existed before us and continues to exist without us.  The art of the mapmaker is to describe a place to someone else so they can get there and back with a minimum of fuss.  Needless to say, most of the places I describe on this album are not really real, but I invite you to come and visit them just the same.’

The Mapmaker’s Art was recently included in the list of Top Albums of 2008 on Elsewhere.

Reviews

“The debut album from Aucklander Sam Prebble is one of the finest collections of new homegrown music to cross this desk in a while.The Mapmaker’s Art is an album of wistful, pensive stories spread coyly over a bed of introspective indie folk, string arrangements, subtle electronic flourishes and dreamy mandolins.  Fans of SJD and the story-telling style of Don McGLashan will find favourite elements of those two esteemed artists entwined on the Mapmaker’s Art as Prebble weaves his engaging and curious narrative.  The salient track is the bnet single ‘black market soul transplant,’ a sparse yetyet delicately textured track driven by brooding steel guitar – a great song that laments the “stitches down my side where my soul used to be.” The swampy and melodic bluegrass of ‘the nature of the blues’ is another highlight from Prebble, who might be known to music fans through his work with White Swan Black Swan and Reb Fountain’s band the Bandits.  The Mapmaker’s Art is an album that commands attention and will reward the listener with a joyously cinematic listening experience.”
**** (four stars).  Phil Reed, Real Groove

Elsewhere
Otago Daily Times
Cheese on Toast
Bullet Magazine

Articles

Lumiere

Renee-Louise Carafice is a dark-folk-pop songstress born in New Zealand based in Chicago. With a bitingly honest and brutally fragile voice, she sings of her “messy rollercoaster ride” of a life, over rich and complex melodic structures.

Carafice sings with an alarming openness about desperation, love, loss, homelessness and longing, all the while maintaining a sense of glorious hope at the end of the road.

Some of the songs on “Renee Louise Carafice Tells You to Fight” hark back to Carafice’s experience with mental illness, and ultimately, institutionalization on her twenty-second birthday. But, states Groove Guide, “far from causing the album to be pigeon-holed by ‘context’, the music’s initial catalyst gives it a layer of heavy-lidded clarity – love, wisdom and longing by way of the addled brain.”
“Renee-Louise Carafice Tells You to Fight” was recorded in November of 2005 at Steve Albini’s elite Electrical Audio in Chicago. Engineer Nick Abbott (Finn Brothers, Goldenhorse, Datsuns) and Renee-Louise Carafice chose this famous analog studio because of a mutual admiration for the work of Steve Albini and the music to come out of there. The album was recorded to tape, a method which eliminates the temptation to chop up, edit and punch in… instead what you hear are the unchanged, full takes of each musician. No effects or eq were used.

Carafice teamed up with Angel Ledezma on drums (Defender, Alla) and Matt Lux on bass (Iron & Wine, Smog), without the two Chicago session musicians ever having met her or practiced the songs. The magic chemistry of the three artists, who on some tracks would record live in the room together, was undeniable, and Ledezma and Lux now act as her permanent backing band.

Ben King from Goldenhorse acted as producer and also personal chef while he, Abbott and Carafice stayed for 14 days in the building at Electrical Audio. During this two weeks in Chicago, Renee-Louise fell in love with the city and permanently relocated there soon afterwards, where she now performs and records. Since her move, she has opened for extremely popular US acts Xiu Xiu and Casiotone for the Painfully Alone.

In New Zealand she has performed alongside Goldenhorse, Anika Moa, Pluto and Goodshirt, as well as US acts David Pajo, Micah P Hinson, Band of Horses and Crooked Fingers.

2008 Alternatui ALBUM OF THE YEAR.

“Musically stunning”
- New Zealand Listener.

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NZ Listener
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House on Fire

The sensational Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band have just released their first ep, Danse Macabre. Please buy it so that they can send money some back to their poor families in the old country.

Hailing from the slums and ghettos of Auckland (the Prague of the South), The Benka Boradovsky Bordello band is a highly theatrical musical group specialising in music of Eastern European, Gypsy and Jewish flavour, along with some Western European influences. With music ranging from old to new, originals to standards, vocal to instrumental; they are remarkable in their ability to get everyone up and dancing, regardless of age, musical taste, or level of drunkenness. Benka’s globetrotting voice sings in a wide variety of languages, with lyrics in Russian, Greek, Serbian, Romani, Arabic, Hebrew, Spanish, English and more. If references are necessary, they sound like Tom Waits, Shane McGowan and Franz Kafka drunk too much vodka and thought they were in 1950’s Yugoslavia.

HISTORY:
After first emerging from an alleyway behind Auckland’s Wine Cellar sometime in the May of 2006, under the guise of Kapitan Shakirov’s Krazy Klezmerim; there has been a vague aroma in the air… a sprinkle of klezmer and a lingering hint of the Eastern Europeanesque with an exhalation of the Romani, well disguised behind the scent of whiskey and sweat. But when the Kapitan himself, Mr Daniel Dumnov, embarked on a trip back to his native Russia, the band had to reform, and Benka furtively grabbed the reins. Through other tribulations, such as The Blackbird winging off to the Bourne of Mel, Benka Boradovsky brought several new players under his bearded wings and the band is now ready to continue spreading its lingering and addictive scent across the country. Since then, the Butterfly has flown off to the Ton of Welling. Benka Boradovsky has since stopped hiring virtuosos named after winged creatures. With the capture and assimilation of Anna Rehkitz, the deer, on the flute, the band is now ready to put into motion its plans for domination…

“Got to be the best gypsy band I’ve ever heard. And I just got back from two years travelling around Europe!”
- random punter

BAND MEMBERS:
Benka Boradovsky – Clarinet, Vocals and licentious flirtations.
Anna Rehkitz (The Deer)- Flute and coy glances.
Philka Cherbyakov (The Worm) – Lead Guitar and devilish grins.
Senka Senyaglaze (Blue Eyes) – Bass Guitar and hats at jaunty angles.
Yelyena Yareiach (The Moon) – Percussion and feminine wiles.
Sometimes: Mauritz Pappillon (The Butterfly) – Violin and unnecessary puns. (Wellington based)

Reviews

The Benka Boradovsky Bordello Band is the most un-kiwi sounding kiwi band imaginable. While the title Danse Macabre comes from the French translation of The Dance Of Death, the EP sounds more like it hails from around the campfire of an Eastern European gypsy camp. Although four of the five tracks are traditional compositions it is still no mean feat that they have all the essence of another time and place. The band justifies this cultural discrepancy by calling their hometown Auckland “the Prague of the South”. Emanating seemingly unlimited passion and desire, the group’s charm is also rooted in their playfulness. This spills right down into the fact that after the instruments are credited, their band roles are allocated from licentious flirtations to coy glances and devilish grins. Best served with a generous helping of alcohol, preferably vodka, to get in the generously lubricated spirit of the recording.

***** Sharyn Croft, Groove Guide

Listen: Benka Boradovsky Uncharted Interview