47 / 60
For more reviews, overviews and
interviews by Graham Reid see:
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MUSIC
FEATURE
points in Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis’s
stuttering cut-up funk? So perhaps a better
starting place on this electronic, hip-hop
experimentalist from LA – who is the nephew
of Alice Coltrane – are those earlier albums.
One of the most anticipated names on the
Laneway bill because he could present a set
that divides the audience into ‘genius’ and
‘what was the hell was that?’ factions.
St. Vincent
Four albums in to a career that was always very
impressive but never quite cracking it, the lady
born Annie Erin Clark really nailed it with her
self-titled album last year which was on nearly
every list imaginable. All the elements of edgy
pop and guitar-driven NewWave-references are
there but she too (isn’t this the prevailing trend of
the past five years) has moved firmly into fuzzy,
sometimes discordant electronica. But there’s
also real soul in what this gal from Oklahoma
andTexas (who got her start in the choral pop of
Polyphonic Spree and Glenn Branca’s 100-piece
guitar orchestra, two more different groups you
could hardly imagine) brings. Make the time to
check out her 2009
Actor
album also. Went past
far too many people, that one.
TinyRuins
The debut album by Hollie Fullbrook aka Tiny
Ruins
Some Were Meant For Sea
(2011) is
definitely worth buying, but it is very much
an at-home listening experience. She found
it hard to translate its intimacy to easily
distracted audiences. However last year’s
Brightly Painted One
broadened her musical
palette, brought in a band (Tiny Ruins are now
a group) and the songs should have greater
reach than the front few rows. It also won her
Best Alternative Album at the New Zealand
Music Awards. Both albums appeared in ‘best
of’ lists in their respective years so she’s got
a small but strong body of work – and some
solid international touring miles behind them –
to suggest this could be a highlight of the day.
FKA Twigs
Debut albums don’t come much more
impressive or consistent than
LP1
by Tahliah
Barnett (aka Twigs, and latterly FKA Twigs)
who brings erotica, r’n’b soul and a choral
sound (true) together with smart
beats, electro-soul and some redefining
of the possibilities of studio production.
Music this clever and innovative doesn’t
come often, but you do wonder how
it can be shaped on the day. That’s why
we have Laneway.
Little Dragon
Sweden is really pumping out the talent
from the hippie-trippy world music vibe
of Goat to Lykke Li and any number of
pop stars (Robyn). This electronica outfit
caught a lot of attention for their second
and third albums (
Machine Dreams
in 2008
and
Ritual Union
of 2011) but last year’s
Nabuma Rubberband
didn’t seem to get the
same traction here. Or indeed anywhere,
if you look at ‘those lists’. However it was
nominated for the Best Dance/Electronica
category at the Grammys. Expect them to
sideline some of their more home-listening
experimental stuff in favour of the banging
pop-electronica end of their spectrum.
That would be sensible.
FKA Twigs
Tiny Ruins
Flying Lotus
St Vincent