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Independents’ Day

Your track-by-track guide to 16 slices of prime, independent New Zealand music, as chosen by the editors of Idealog. The Independents' Day CD is free with Idealog #1—check out our feature on independent music labels in the same issue.

Idealog would like to thank the sponsors who made the Independents' Day CD possible. We're grateful also to the staff and members of Independent Music New Zealand.

1 | THE CHECKS What You Heard

Taken from the Eel Pie Records EP and 7” single
A primal blast of rock’n’roll mayhem, guaranteed to loosen your fillings and send you careening around the dance floor like a loon.

2 | THE DUKES Mornin’

Taken from the Elite album Lil’ Sunshine
If Christchurch collective The Dukes were a radio, their dial would be stuck firmly on an A.M. station playing nothing but the best of 70s country rock and soul.

3 | MISFITS OF SCIENCE Shift

Taken from the Sidhe Interactive game GripShift
‘Shift’ was written for Sidhe Interactive’s PSP game GripShift, which is being released worldwide with Sony Online Entertainment.

4 | THE BOXCAR GUITARS This Heat, This Heat

Taken from the Arch Hill EP Lamp Light
The Boxcar Guitars bring their twangsome country to the American roots sound, influenced by “country music from the late 40s, blues from the depression era, rock’n’roll from the 50s”.

5 | SJD Southern Lights (Kid Loco’s Shadow Catcher Remix)

Taken from the Round Trip Mars double album Southern Lights Pick’n’Mix Edition
As if Southern Lights wasn’t gorgeous enough, the recent pick’n’mix edition adds a second disc featuring remixes and videos. Parisian Kid Loco shines a celestial light on the hymnal title track.

6 | HEAVY JONES TRIO Best Laid Plans

Taken from the Flaming Pearl album Nobody Town
The Heavy Jones Trio — actually a quartet — can catch you unawares, but once tuned in, lyrical turns and backyard philosophies brighten any day.

7 | GAHU Outta Circle

Taken from the Dougal album Shell Money
Seven musicians have combined Kiwi and African influences to create an original groove style called Afro-Kiwi. The talking drum leads trumpet, sax and guitars into a Gahu celebration.

8 | GHOSTPLANE Flash Photography

Taken from the Arch Hill album Beneath The Sleepy Lagoon
Beneath The Sleepy Lagoon was described by the New Zealand Herald as “art-rock — with alt-country trappings — that does
imaginative things with its many spaces”.

9 | THE DOWNLOW Up In Here

Taken from the Disruptiv compilation Up In Here Mixtape
The single from the Up in Here Mixtape compilation, the first release from hip-hop label Disruptiv. The Downlow consists of MCs Loki and Slopemist, producer Zone1 and DJ Thug Fresh.

10 | DAMIEN BINDER Anytime

Taken from the Muse album Til Now
Combining the elegiac melancholy of Mark Eitzel with the melodic prowess of Neil Finn, Binder remains one of New Zealand’s most talented and under-rated songwriters.

11 | THE ACCELERANTS X Girl X

Taken from the Wildside album Blood and Bones
Says the Sunday Star Times: “The Accelerants’ sound is heavily influenced by 60s English R&B, in turn influenced by Memphis and Chicago soul and blues, with an overlay of Stooges punk and Bowie glam.”

12 | SUBSTAX Drifter

Taken from the Sugarlicks album Electro Soul Plane
Anyone with respect for 70s disco/funk cult movies might just develop an obsessive taste for Substax: deep production and drums with up-tempo breaks to moody down-tempo slices of electronic soul.

13 | DAVID KILGOUR G Major 7th

Taken from the Arch Hill album Frozen Orange
Recorded almost entirely in Nashville, Tennessee, Frozen Orange features contributions from members of alt.country heavyweights Lambchop, adding a twist of country twang and a bit of R&B and soul to the trademark Kilgour sound.

14 | TRIP (TO THE MOON) FEATURING NIGEL GAVIN Nigel’s Groove

Taken from the forthcoming Antenna album The Number One International Million Seller
Trip To The Moon sum up their approach to jazz and electronica as ‘You have to go as far as you can see in order to see a little further.’

15 | GRAMSCI All The Time In The World

Taken from the Mach(i)ne album Like Stray Voltage
‘All The Time In The World’ finds the band in a plaintive mood and features a chorus that Bono would swap his last pint of Guinness to have written.

16 | WHIRIMAKO BLACK Engari Ti Titi

Taken from the Mai Music album Te Kura Huna
Te Kura Huna is an inspired collection of very old waiata and chant, all originating from the Mataatua region — the landfall site of one of the first waka to arrive in New Zealand.

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