Kiwi brother act Chaos in the CBD blend nature sounds with dance music on their debut album
Plus TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe goes solo and a trio of heavy-hitters soundtrack a new anime
Tony Stamp reviews the latest album releases every week on The Sampler.
A Deeper Life by Chaos in the CBD
Expat dance duo Chaos in the CBD (Louis and Ben Helliker-Hales) blend tropical flavours with citified beats on their debut LP A Deeper Life.
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Louis and Ben Helliker-Hales left Aotearoa in 2012, and since then have achieved what many local musicians dream of: sustainable international careers.
Under the name Chaos in the CBD, the brothers produce and DJ dance floor-friendly house music, having drawn early inspiration from local exponents like Dick Johnson, Bevan Keys, Greg Churchill and Soane.
Despite becoming a fixture in the London dance scene, the Helliker-Hales haven't released a full-length album until now.
While their breakthrough EP Midnight in Peckham nodded to their new home, A Deeper Life is filled with tributes to Aotearoa.
NZ jazz maestro Nathan Haines features on ‘Tongariro Crossing’, and expat trumpet player Isaac Aesili contributes to the title track. Other names include ‘Marlboro Sounds’ and ‘Ōtaki’.
There’s a tropical feel to the music that may be a nod to New Zealand’s warmer climes, and a softness throughout. The Helliker-Hales have threaded sounds of water and birdsong recorded in NZ throughout A Deeper Life, merging nature with a broad range of citified beats.
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Thee Black Boltz by Tunde Adebimpe
The soundtrack to anime film Lazarus features heavy-hitters Kamasi Washington, Floating Points and Bonobo.
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When American band TV on the Radio emerged in the early 2000s, a ripple went through the indie music scene. The very rare band who genuinely sounded like no one else, they mixed doo-wop vocals with electronic loops and distortion, a proposition so exciting that a few albums later they had David Bowie offer to provide backing vocals.
Part of that originality stemmed from their most easily identifiable attribute, lead singer Tunde Adebimpe’s voice. Over ten years since TV on the Radio’s last album, he’s released his debut solo LP.
‘Magnetic’ aims for the lacerating glory of TV on the Radio’s ‘Wolf Like Me’, and while it doesn’t quite get there, it’s not far off. Elsewhere, ‘Someone New’ dabbles effectively in breathless synth pop, and ‘Streetlight Nuevo’ mixes sombre piano with busy digital percussion and Adebimpe’s trademark howl.
Shortly after he’d begun writing tragedy struck when his sister died of a heart attack. Initially unsure he’d ever finish, in the end he found “sparks of inspiration and motivation flash up in the midst of deep despair”.
The album's name 'Thee Black Boltz' is a reference to these small moments of joy that sprung from sadness.
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Lazarus soundtrack by Kamasi Washington, Floating Points, Bonobo
The soundtrack to anime film Lazarus features heavy-hitters Kamasi Washington, Floating Points and Bonobo.
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It was surprising to see this trio of new, full-length albums by three of the world’s most influential instrumental music-makers fly somewhat under the radar.
Kamasi Washington is a leading light in the jazz world, Bonobo a veteran of trip hop, and Floating Points has garnered huge praise for everything from orchestral arrangement to pulsing techno.
They’ve each composed an album-length collection of material to soundtrack a new animated series called Lazarus.
Washington provides dexterous jazz workouts with trademark touches like lush choral arrangement, while Floating Points wanders all over, from krautrock jams to futurist techno.
Of the three musicians, it’s safe to say Bonobo is the most innocuous, but perhaps the most inviting. He’s been outputting polite, clipped-beat music since 1999, and expertly invests it with quiet pathos.
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