STACK NZ Jan-Feb #59

MUSIC FEATURE

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Graham Reid considers 10 acts at Laneway, and offers background listening tips. Nosleep ’til Laneway

T his year’s St Jerome’s Laneway Festival at Auckland’s Silo Park (Monday January 26, Auckland’s anniversary weekend) looks to have the most consistently strong line-up to date. Especially if you look back at the albums and artists many critics and civilians chose as their ‘best of 2014’. A considerable number of the Laneway acts – international and local – appeared in such lists. So, leaving aside any number of fine artists also on the bill, let’s just turn attention to 10 who could just the talk for some time after. High anticipation for the following then . . . Belle and Sebastian A decade ago this band – whose clever and literate pop songs quietly insinuate themselves into your brain and music collection – were voted Scotland’s best band by their countrymen. And since, they’ve just got better.You could start your listening as far back as The BoyWith the Arab Strap (their third album earned them a Best Newcomer Award at the Brits in 1998) or come more up to date with the fine The Life Pursuit (2006). But they have a new album out Girls in PeacetimeWant to Dance a week before Laneway, and with its danceable songs which nudge into electro-pop, expect quite a number from it on the day. Courtney Barnett This Melbourne singer-songwriter has already proved her popularity here in concert (Kings Arms in September), and it’s pretty easy to do your homework on her. She’s only released a couple of EPs which have been helpfully pushed together as The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas. Skirting the edges of indie-pop, alt-country and classic folk- influenced singer-songwriter styles, Barnett has a brace of great songs and a convincing delivery. She’ll impress if she’s new to you.

Future Islands Synth-pop has made something of a

. . . Laneway won’t have a mirrorball in the sky but that won’t stop you moving to this one.You’ll party like it’s . . . . 1977? Monday Night Fever anyone? Flying Lotus The only odd thing about this extraordinary artist is his most recent album You’re Dead ! appeared in many international best-of lists but very few – none that I could see – here in New Zealand. That’s strange, since his previous Cosmogramma (2010) and Until the Quiet Comes (2013) certainly did. And You’re Dead !Was a step up again. Maybe it was because it erred more towards innovative electro-jazz and had its reference

triumphant return in the past decade (more dance, less angst than in the ’80s) and this Baltimore-based trio are at a peak right now with their fourth album Singles ending up in numerous ‘best of 2014’ lists. Even the dad- rock magazines Mojo and Uncut magazines in Britain hailed this one. The lead-off track and single Seasons (Waiting On You) sets the tone for sweeping synth-pop. They’ll snuggle in neatly alongside Belle and Sebastian. And, in your record collection alongside Fine Young Cannibals, if you have a long memory. Jakob Not exactly eight years in the making – because much of that time saw them individually and as a group sidelined for various reasons – but the new album Sines from this Hawkes Bay instrumental trio (again, in every credible New Zealand ‘best of 2014’ list) is thrilling. Go back to their exceptional debut Subsets of Sets (2001) also to get the big picture of a band which paints on a massive sonic scale, but also deals with subtle details and nuance. Not to be missed on the day. Jungle Because the wheel doesn’t need reinventing, this

somewhat secretive London duo who head a collective of like minds, don’t even try. So on their self-titled debut album of last year (another on some of those lists) they simply bring together elements of smart disco

and dancefloor funk.There are Bee Gees-like falsettos, deep soul grooves, lots of loping bass

Courtney Barnett

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