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www.stack.net.nzMUSIC FEATURE
Graham Reid considers 10 acts at Laneway, and offers background listening tips.
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.
Nosleep ’til
Laneway
Future Islands
Synth-pop has made something of a
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
. . . 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