A round up of tracks compiled over a five year period, this collection is a largely ambient fusion of found sounds from the New Zealand environment combined with world music instruments, usually reversed for extra psychedelic appeal. The album drifts about with its own odd dream logic. Good for insomnia, but also quite puzzling
Group Five's Great Days collects, reworks and remasters tracks from his first two EPs. And if you download the full album, you get a free bonus album, containing five remixes (by Group Five, Jet Jaguar and Aquaboogie), and five original tracks. All this for NZ$10!
Aquaboogie ends a near 4 year absence in spectacularly strange style by releasing a double A-side musique concrete virtual single.
We close out 2009 with Retrenching, Group Five's third EP. Five tracks, showcasing a variety of summery moods, including the summery mood showcased on the cover. Available as a download, and offered for koha (for all you non-New Zealanders, that's Māori for "gift" or "donation", though here - and often elsewhere - it means "name your price, including no price").
The tracks:
This six-track EP from November 2009 is Jet Jaguar's first for Angry Rabbit, and his second free release after March 2008's 'Biddy Bids'. It's a collection of tracks written since returning to New Zealand from Tokyo at the end of 2007, with the exception of 'Gomennasai'. Which is a Tatu cover. Maybe.
The tracks:
Panoramica is Wellingtonian Dan Smith, who has performed with the Angry Rabbits numerous times over the past five years, and whose shimmering, wine-dark track Santorini Blue [*] graced our recent compilation CD, Apropos of Nothing.
We had a great time. Got a pretty good number of punters in. Andy set things off with that voodoo that he do, Malty Media got the crowd roaring with their Cadbury mashup, Jet Jaguar played a set of exquisite, shimmering beauty, and Panoramica gave us a weird, impressionistic montage of the sounds of Dunedin. Meanwhile, the ever reliable VJ Yetimon provided some truly psychedelic imagery, especially a surprisingly softporn Flake advert from the mid 1980s. Well done, that man. Honourable mentions too to Jay and Pete for providing sounds.
The Auckland gig went pretty well. First up went Bignificent D (aka our chum Dave), playing an eclectic selection of downbeat materials, plus our good friend Pierre Omaar, who is anything but downbeat.
This moved seamlessly into Group Five's set featuring old favourites and new material, the highlight of which featured the guitar 'bling!' from A Hard Day's Night.
Kirsten Johnstone from Radio National interviewed Jet Jaguar & Aquaboogie, collectively Malty Media, and two of the three organisers of the compilation.
The interview is going to air twice:
Apropos of Nothing is a compilation of New Zealand electronic music (with one US guest), released by Angry Rabbit. Let us tell you about it.
