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This week your host Tony Stamp is celebrating Mātariki with new music from up-and-coming Māori artists.
12:23 p.m. Rising Star of Mātariki: Bic Runga nominates Theia (4′46″)
To celebrate Mātariki we asked some of Aotearoa’s top musicians to shine a light on the next generation of Māori talent. Bic Runga has chosen Waikato-Tainui pop musician Theia and the traditional Māori hymn she wrote for Christmas 'Te Kai Whakaora O Te Ao'.
12:29 p.m. Fijian-Kiwi musician Lepani on his new EP and touring with Stan Walker (13′37″)
Auckland pop musician Lepani started out making music in his bedroom. Within a few years he was signed to Sony and, off the back of his single 'Pocket Full of Love', was invited to go on tour with Stan Walker.
Lepani has just released his first EP In The Moment. Tony Stamp caught up with him to talk about touring with Stan, finding time to keep coaching and playing rugby, and writing songs about his friend’s breakups.
So how did he get to where he is today?
Lepani moved to New Zealand from Fiji aged 4 with his family. And it happens that music runs in the family.
"My whole family sings. My sister is the best, then my mum, then me, then my dad. Once you hear my sister you'll understand why... she studied vocal performance."
As for Lepani, he learned by watching Youtube videos - in fact, that's how he got into making music while he was in high school.
His mother had given him a disc with music making software.
"I was just trying make beats and stuff. That's where it started. I think I was about 14, 15. They were really bad back then."
Singing was a family thing - at home, at church. "Everywhere, we'd sing. At every family gathering, there was singing with my aunties, uncles, cousins.
"It's just a Fijian thing - when we get together there's always at least half the house that's singing so I was just surrounded by singing and music my whole life."
About the same time - when he was in his mid-teens - Lepani's singing was noticed.
"It started at my mates place, I was playing his guitar... we hung out there every Friday and then a couple of my friends heard me [and] told me I should audition for the glee club they were just starting."
But at his school, he was the only Pacific Island student among white and asian pupils, and he wanted to come across as tough.
"They caught me out there. And then made me go audition for glee. That was embarrassing at first but then my music teacher heard me and he was like 'you need ... to make music'."
Lepani got signed to a label after a friend - now his manager - was told about Lepani's music about two years ago and asked to be sent some.
"And here we are."
His first single was good enough that Stan Walker got him on tour for five weeks.
1:15 p.m. Rising stars of Mātariki: Troy Kingi on Neko - “She’s going to blow up” (8’17″)
To celebrate Mātariki we asked some of Aotearoa’s top musicians to shine a light on the next generation of Māori talent. Award-winning Northland musician Troy Kingi has chosen up-and-coming vocalist Neko Newman.
Neko Newman is a Fijian Māori musician wih a breathtakingly good voice.
“I was just blown away by her voice,” Troy Kingi says, “It’s a voice I’ve never heard in this country before.”
Neko shows off her talents on her growing Instagram account, but hasn’t released any music of her own yet.
She’s collaborated with Aukland hop hop duo Church & AP on their track ‘War Outside’, which has just been included in the top 20 for this year’s Silver Scroll songwriting award.
She’s also set to feature on Troy Kingi’s upcoming album The Ghost of Freddie Cesar.
He knew he wanted her on the album, and says, “[The track she’s on] feels like one of the best songs I’ve ever been a part of to be honest. She just killed it.”
“She’s something special, she’s going to blow up.”
Troy discovered Neko through a chance encounter at his in-laws' house. Neko’s grandfather – a cousin of Troy’s father-in-law – asked if his granddaughter could come to Troy for advice on getting into the music industry.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, yeah sure,’” Troy says, “I was thinking y’know, what’s this gunna be like...” Until he actually looked into some of her music on Soundcloud.
“I think she’s only just turned 18, so she’s super young, but just her style, fashion sense and her voice are super unique.”
1:30 p.m. Kora return with secret lovers and new band members (11′21″)
It's been eight years since Kora's last album. Founding members Fran Kora and Dan McGruer talk to Yadana Saw and explain why it's been a while.
It might have been a while since the album was released but they never stopped making music.
"The new lineup we have is super exciting and it's a fresh injection of what direction we want to go in ... we're a lot older and wiser and we've crafted our direction in terms of sound.
"Still heavy, still funky, still very much our sound."
The latest collection of songs have been a while in the making.
"People ask 'Album, album, when is the album coming out'... if you watch the trend of music and I asked you when was the last time you bought an album - most people would be like 'I don't buy albums'."
So instead, the band is releasing singles and an EP - it's giving them time to put love into the music - and it's fun.
They're about to get back on stage too, and are looking forward to playing live music to an audience again.
"As hōhā as the Covid-19 has been, its been a blessing for the local music industry because there are a lot of international acts that come in and steal our thunder you know.
"So now they can't come in, everyone is just hungry to listen to music, and New Zealand music is awesome."
The band's new single, 'Secret Lover', is a story about being unfaithful - you can watch it at the top of this story.
1:48 p.m. The Sampler: Nick Bollinger reviews the latest from Swedish duo I Break Horses
Warnings, by I Break Horses
I Break Horses is a Swedish duo who have been around for the better part of a decade, though with six-year gaps between albums it’s not hard to forget they exist, or to be surprised that they still do.
They are essentially a vehicle for the voice, the tunes and the resplendent synth-scapes of Maria Linden, though one shouldn’t overlook the contributions of percussionist and programmer Fredric Balck. At first their music sounded to me like a collision between two genres that were both crashing around in the 80s and, somewhere along the line, fused together: that loud and swirly British phenomenon known as shoegaze and the self-descriptive synth pop. And in tracks like these, I can hear elements of both.
Linden is largely concerned with atmosphere, but she writes tunes too, and the best of her songs have well developed, unexpected chord patterns, over which she sings in an alluring half-whisper. On first heading it can sound quite pleasant, even romantic, but that’s really a ruse. ‘I’ll Be the Death of You’ is the threat she gently whispers in that song, while in ‘Baby You Have Travelled For Miles..’ she sings of shooting beauty ‘right in its broken eye’.
She’s called the album Warnings and that is precisely how these songs come across: a set of cautions that, however sweet things may seem on the surface, something sour is bound to be lurking underneath. The tone is set by the nine-minute opening track, ‘Turn’, in which swelling chords and tinkling bells belie a lyric that basically delivers a sexual rejection.
Linden isn’t averse to playing the villain, in fact she seems to revel in it. And in a way it is the most interesting thing about her songs, though it’s not always entirely clear what she’s on about. In one she casts herself in the role of prophet, a false one - ‘you will get down on your knees and listen to me’, she demands - while big fat chords rumble and warp, as though she’s hijacked one of Gothenburg’s church organs for her own nefarious purposes.
Cathedral-like reverbs, lugubrious tempos and spooky lyrics: that’s I Break Horses’ default setting, and there’s ultimately more of that on Warnings that I need. Still, Warnings is an interesting record. There’s an intriguingly untrustworthy narrator lurking in Maria Linden’s sweetly whispered lyrics. And there are musical moments I wish would last longer, even if a few songs grind on after they have run out of things to say.
‘I’m just a tourist in your depression’ she sings in the final track. In the end I guess it’s just a question of deciding whether you want to be a tourist in hers.
2:04 p.m. Live Concert Series - Nadia Reid live at 2016 The Other's Way festival
Nadia Reid, an accomplished songwriter of sad songs performs a live set at The Others Way Festival in Auckland.
It's been a busy couple of years for Port Chalmers born songwriter Nadia Reid. She's toured around Europe and the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, and her 2014 album Listen To Formation, Look For The Signs has been critically praised locally and internationally.
She's also been writing and recording a new album, Preservation due for release March 3rd 2017. “Preservation’ is about the point I started to love myself again. It is about strength, observation and sobriety,” Nadia says. “It’s about when I could see the future again. When the world was good again. When music was realised as my longest standing comfort.” Read an interview with Nadia Reid on The Wireless.
In this set at Auckland festival The Others Way in September 2016 Nadia and guitarist Sam Taylor play a mix of old and new songs to a respectful crowd at Galatos, including her single 'The Arrow and The Aim'.
Music Details:
Runway (video)
Track Of Time
Holy Low
The Arrow & The Aim
Preservation
Call The Days
All songs written by Nadia Reid, performed by Nadia Reid and Sam Taylor, and recorded/produced by Andre Upston for RNZ Music.
2:24 p.m. French Concession on new album dedicated to Hong Kong (8′58″)
A few years ago a musician called Ella Chau was invited by Bic Runga to perform at the prestigious Silver Scroll songwriting awards. It was the first time many people had heard of Ella, who makes music under the name French Concession.
Ella grew up in Hong Kong, and her new album The Garden of Synthetic Sentiments is a tribute to the territory, which is now a very different place to the one she remembers.
2:36 p.m. Rising Stars of Mātariki: Theia nominates Oh Boy (6′08″)
To celebrate Mātariki we asked some of Aotearoa’s top musicians to shine a light on the next generation of Māori talent. Auckland pop musician Theia has chosen Sydney-based experimental pop producer Oh Boy.
3:13 p.m. Introducing: Schofield Strangelove (5′29″)
Schofield Strangelove is the music-making moniker of Auckland-based artist Navakatoa Tekela-Pule. Nava is part of adventurous local label NOA Records which celebrates lo-fi experimental music from Maori and Pacifika artists. He introduces his song 'Playing It By Ear'.
3:20 Song Crush: new music from Wax Chattels, Christine and the Queens and more (26′43″)
This week Tony is joined by Jana Te Nahu Owen and Rob Kelly to review new tunes from locals Wax Chattels and Team Dynamite, as well as Christine and The Queens and more.
4:06 p.m. The Mixtape: Mark Kneebone (53′23″)
Mark Kneebone works global touring company Live Nation as their head of promotions in Australasia. He's worked on shows including Adele, Laneway Festival and Childish Gambino's Pharos festival. He joins Yadana Saw to select songs for the Mixtape.
Music details
Artist: Intro
Song: The XX
Composer: Qureshi, Romy Madley Croft
Album: XX
Label: Young Turks
Artist: IDLES
Song: Danny Nedelko
Composer: Joseph Talbot, Lee Kiernan, Mark Bowen, Adam Devonshire, Jonathan Beavis & Paul Frazer
Album: Joy as an Act of Resistance
Label: Partisan
Artist: Jon Hopkins
Song: Collider
Composer: Hopkins
Album: Immunity
Label: Domino
Artist: Run The Jewels
Song: Oh My Darling Don’t Cry
Composer: Meline,Render
Album: Run The Jewels 2
Label: Fool’s Gold
Artist: Anderson.Paak
Song: Come Down
Composer: Paak
Album: Malibu
Label: Steel Wool
Artist: Orville Peck
Song: Buffalo Run
Composer: Unknown
Album: Pony
Label: Sub Pop
Songs played on this week's show:
12-1 p.m.
Romare - The River
Norma Tanega - You're Dead
Sharon Jones - Better Things
Bic Runga - Close Your Eyes
Theia - Te Kaiwhakaora O Te Ao
K M T P - Acting Out
Lepani - Breathe, Wait To Wake Me Up, Debby & Anne
The Beths - Jump Rope Gazers
The Jam - That's Entertainment
Underworld - Ova Nova
Tony Allen & Hugh Masekela - We've Landed
1-2 p.m.
The Beach Boys - Slip On Through
Troy Kingi - Mighty invader
Church & AP - War Outside
The Phoenix Foundation - Tranquility (with Hollie Fullbrook)
Badly Drawn Boy - Once Around The Block
Kora - Secret Lover
JARV IS - Save The Whale
I Break Horses - Silence, I’ll Be The Death Of You, Baby You Have Traveled For Miles, Turn
LA Priest - What Moves (Soulwax Remix)
2-3 p.m.
Nadia Reid - Runway, Track of Time, Holy Low, The Arrow & The Aim (live @ The Others Way 2016)
Sonic Youth - Bull In The Heather
French Concession - 2 x 4, Again, End of Time, Far Away, Tower Lisa, Waves
Theia - Celebrity
Oh Boy - I Never Cried So Much In My Whole Life
Michael Kiwanuka - Final Days (Bonobo Remix)
Mannfred Mann - One Way Glass
The Isley Brothers - It's Your Thing
Wye Oak - AEIOU (with Brooklyn Youth Choir)
Four Tet - Daughter
3-4 p.m.
Emily Edrosa - Drinking During The Day
Sleepy Brown - You're My Lady
Scholfield Strangelove - Playing It By Ear
Remi Wolf - Down The Line
Kate NV - Plans
Wax Chattels - No Ties
Christine & The Queens - Eyes of a Child
Team Dynamite - Dragon Fruit
Fontaines DC - Televised Mind
The Dixie Chicks - Landslide
Brother Ali - Uncle Sam Goddamn
DJ Python - Chalet
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/music101/20200718