The Very Good Agency

Electric Wire Hustle drop some thoughts

(Aotearoarepresent)

Miss P and bs caught up with Electric Wire Hustle‘s Taay and Myele recently in the lead up to the release of their self titled debut album.

Released on EWH‘s independent label ‘Every Waking Hour’ 9.9.09 in NZ, we wanted to know what the plan is now…

What’s in a name like Electric Wire Hustle?
T – A glimpse into what’s to come, a glimpse of what we want to achieve through our music.

So what is typical of EWH? and how do you feel that you contribute to the NZ music scene?
T – Our own take on soul music and how it can be expressed through the myriad of different influences we have collectively. Hopefully for NZ our own voice offers something different.

Your sound goes from very sultry and seductive D’Angelo styles to electro funk Kanye style. Is this intentional to create a new flavour for NZ or does it just flow naturally?
T – We’re just following what comes naturally to us now. There will always be influences that form the basis of what we create but hopefully it will continue to progress as we do.

Electric Wire Hustle – SHOWREEL

Are there any artists in Australian or Aotearoa music scene would you guys want to collaborate with? or maybe you are already?
T – In time more collaborations will happen. We’ve got a lot to explore between the 3 of us  – although we have started to scratch the surface having the opportunity to work with one of our local heroes Warren Maxwell – stay tuned.

Your Myspace currently has 2 tracks on it…less is more? or busy little boys?
M – We’re finishing our album – more tunes are coming! there are 3 now. Don’t you love the anticipation!?

What’s on the horizon for EWH? When can we expect you down under in Australia again?
T- soon. We’ve been honing our craft in the studio post summer and now that’s set for release it’s back to honing the live show for the real.

Your music kind of has the feel of one of hip hops best albums “Do You Want More” from The Roots released back in ’93. Would you say that you guys are more representative of the old school styles?
T – Thank you. I think we can only hope to make music that is timeless.

M – Dizzy Gillespie said you always gotta have one foot in the past, one in the present and the other in the future.

O.G. told us to look out for you guys in an interview he did a while back… so how bout we pay it forward… who are you telling us to keep an eye out for in Australasia next?

T-Julien Dyne. His music is reaching, next level ish that you should be plugged into!!!

nice one guys… can’t wait to hear the 4th track on myspace… and 5th, and the 6th…

Aotearoa Represent!

You can check out more of Electric Wire Hustle at:

www.myspace.com/electricwirehustle

miss P

&

…bs

Tags: hip hop, New Zealand Artists, Soul

Pete Philly and Perquisite update

Yes yes y’all, it’s been too long since we’ve last hit you up. We wanted to send you this earlier but in light of our hero passing away last month we did some proper soul searching and MJ listening sessions first.
So here goes:

Stuff we’ve been doing:

– We’ve played at a couple of European festivals last month. We were at ‘Flow.Er’ in Catania, Sicily on June 27th. Next came ‘Rheinkultur’, Germany’s biggest free open air festival, which was great. Check out the short video on our website. The week after we’ve played at ‘Frauenfeld Open Air’ in Switzerland alongside The Game, 50 cent, Gentleman, N.E.R.D, Sammy Deluxe and many others.

– Perq has been composing the score for Dutch movie “Carmen van het Noorden” which will see it’s theatrical release this autumn. The movie which features Tygo Gernandt and Sanguita Akkrum in the lead rolls will have it’s premiere on September 24th at the Dutch Film Festival. The soundtrack, which will entirely be produced by Perquisite, features the cream of the crop of Dutch hip hop including GMB, Typhoon, Sticks, Jiggy Djé, Turk and Duvel and will be released the same day through ‘Unexpected Records’. For more news on this check out www.myspace.com/perquisite.

– Pete produced the remix for and featured on Jiggy Djé’s song “Ik heb je”. A video has been shot last week to accompany the single. Check out the song over here.

– Pete also featured on Candy Dulfer’s new album “My Funk” and The Kindred Spirits Ensemble’s song “Shining Liberation feat. Pete Philly”.

– Perq has made remixes for De Staat, Voicst and Kim Hoorweg. Check them out by clicking on the links:

De Staat – Wait For Evolution (Perquisite remix) (free download)

Voicst – A Year and a Bit (Perquisite remix)

Kim Hoorweg – The Moment I Open My Eyes (Perquisite remix)

– Pete has been playing the lead in the play “Man From Nowhere” and is currently writing new songs. Follow him on twitter to know what’s up:  www.twitter.com/petephilly

– Perq has won the prestigious ‘Duiveltje’ award for best producer of The Netherlands.

Pete Philly and Perquisite – Empire

Stuff we’re gonna do:

– After this summer, we’ll be doing our last tour for an undefined period, which we’ve called the ‘Final Celebration Tour’. It’ll be a reprise of the theater tour that we tried out last year. In this tour we will present our material in the most musical and intimate way possible. We’ve enlarged our live-formation to 13 people including a horn section, a drummer and a string quartet and we will play songs that we usually don’t perfrom in our normal live setup, like ‘Believer’, ‘Amazed’, ‘Mellow’ and ‘Grateful’. This tour will be a celebration of all that we, as a group, have accomplished in the last 5 years. Check our website for the dates. Don’t miss out on this one!

And an announcement:

– After 3 years of touring with us, a couple of months ago our saxophone player Remco Keijzer has decided to leave our live formation to pursue his other musical ambitions and move to Australia. We’ve enjoyed playing with Remco a lot and wish him lot’s of luck with his solo career! Keep an eye out for Remco‘s quintet! At the same time we welcome Floris van der Vlugt as our new saxophone player. Check out his website right here.

Stay blessed and stay safe,
… Pete & Perq

Tags: hip hop, Jazz, Soul, World Music

Oakley Grenell – Between the sheets

[audio:og-featuring-mark-vanilau_between-the-sheets.mp3]

Kia Ora people!

If you didn’t already know, Kia ora is the Maori (New Zealand native) greeting, like saying hello.

And if you didn’t already know, 2 cats from New Zealand; OG and Mark Vanilau have been raising the bar with a few projects they have teamed up for that are putting some soul back on the radio.  Kia ora Oakley and Mark.

I’m not suggesting that soul and blues music are not represented in Australasia, but it’s been some time since a pairing like this has come along. The first time I came accross this pairing of artists was when we interviewed Oakley not too long ago

The live video for ‘Moving On’ has a rawness and yet subtlety that just isn’t apparent in many artists work at this time. I guess only in a place like New Zealand could such a peaceful sound be created by a bunch of young fellas. mean

So a few months on, and Oakley Grenell is set to release his new album in October of 2009 “Departure Lounge in Session” with the first single again having the two paired. Perhaps the press release explains it best: “Once again Grenell joins forces with Mark Vanilau continuing on from the nu jazz soul liaison that started with last years ‘Moving On’. The achingly seductive  ‘Between The Sheets’ gives a nod to the lust and passion reminiscent of D’Angelo’s ‘Voodoo’ album and aims to evoke similar stirrings”.

Funnily enough, I had already made the D’angelo comment before reading this, as i’m sure many others have. Not a lot of people can be compared to D’angelo sitting so far ahead of the game in his area. Mark however has a certain softness and delicacy that sets him apart from others including D’angelo, that can only begin to be described in my mind as the sound innocence and selflessness would have if they were audible.

‘Between the Sheets’ (streaming at the top of the article) is a real fusion of styles and genres which hints at Oakleys incredibly diverse career so far. A patchwork quilt of blues, funk, soul, rock, hip hop, jazz, & ragga, with incredibly simplistic and pre-mediated musicianship, tied together by Marks innocence and realness.

“Once again Grenell has collected some of Christchurch’s most talented and accomplished musicians to make up the
Departure Lounge band – the stalwarts – Johnny Lawrence (Bass), Cameron Pearce (Trumpet), Chris Burke (Sax), Nick Gaffaney (Drums), Sum Suraweera and Kurt Dyer (Percussion), guest vocalists Mara TK (Electric Wire Hustle, Fly My Pretties), MC KP (Sunshine Soundsystem) and the exceptional soulful talent Mark Vanilau alongside new additions Darren Pickering on keys and guest vocalist Roz Langdon.”

Kia ora boys and girls… Kia ora.

You can check out more from Oakley and his band at:

www.myspace.com/centralrecords

www.centralrecords.co.nz

…bs

Tags: Blues, Funk, hip hop, Jazz, New Zealand Artists, Soul

Fisherking Interview

Fisherking, are who we caught up with this week from Sydney, to find out a little bit about where this sweet new sound is coming from, and where it’s going…

I came across your music on Triple J’s ‘Unearthed’ sight and it took me as a standout group amongst all of the newcomers to Australia’s music scene. Are you guys newcomers?

We’ve been together as FisherKing since about March 2008 so I’m not sure if that qualifies us as new comers or not! We all feel really comfy on a stage now, but we definitely feel pretty new when it comes to being in front of a video camera. We started work on our first music vid a few weeks ago and ended up with a truckload of footage of us looking especially awkward. But these last six months since winning the Triple J ‘Unearthed’ ‘FUSE Festival’ comp have been such an amazing experience for us and things have moved along so quickly, we’re always trying to keep up with it.

So who makes up FisherKing, and how did you come to be together in Sydney?

FisherKing is Sam Stephenson (vocals and guitar), Paul Hanna (guitar and BVs) Josh Leong (Bass and BVs) and Luke Robertson (drums). We’ve all grown up in Sydney’s south and known each other for most of those years. Josh and I used to get together and play music and we would work on songs and FisherKing just grew from there. It was a pretty organic experience; Paul and Luke were quickly added to the mix to make FisherKing.

Fisherking EP Release Video

How would you describe your music to people who haven’t heard it… and where does the name FisherKing come into that description?

The name FisherKing has some meaning, it comes from the old Arthurian legend of the Fisher King or the wounded king who was the keeper of the Holy Grail. But really the name just sounds fresh and coastal in itself which kind of captures the feel of what we do. I usually tell people that our music has the rootsy-ness of Ben Harper with the rock of Coldplay, and that generally makes the most sense.

Where do you find inspiration in the Australian and New Zealand music scene at the moment? anyone or anything stand out?

I’ve always looked up to Lior as a song writer so he’s a definite stand out to me and I’ve loved Empire of the Sun and Van She too. But our good mates from Bonjah (from Melbourne) have been a huge inspiration and help to us over the last year. They’ve lent us a hand negotiating our way along our journey- and they’re also an amazing band.

Your music is very suited to summer days… What’s the plan for you guys this summer?

We’re playing at a few festivals over summer and the New Year and we’re really excited about that. But after we come home from our East Oz tour over July & August, we’ll be jumping back into the studio with Genevieve Maynard (who recorded and produced our EP) to record our first album. So come summer, we’ll have a whole bunch of fresh songs to share with everyone.

What’s it been like trying to bust onto the scene in Australia so far?

It’s been hard work so far but we’ve loved every second of it! We feel we’ve been really lucky to make it as far as we have and we think things could’ve been a lot harder for us. We’re so stoked on the support we’ve been given from all over the place, including Triple J Unearthed but especially from our fans. We’re looking forward to people hearing our new tracks because we’re all so excited about them!

It’d be great to see you guys live with the spread of styles you cover… I imagine you would take the crowd from a slow waltz to bouncing. What can we expect from your live show, and when can we expect to see it go around Australia next?

Yeah, we do have the variety in our show, we love it that way! We really try to balance out the softer ones with the higher energy stuff. Plus, we’ll taking it around Oz this month! Our East coast tour starts in Newcastle on the 17th of July. We go as far north as Brisbane and then back down to coast through Sydney & head down to Melbourne and Adelaide by the middle of August. You can see all the dates and towns we’ll be playing in on our website (fisherking.com.au). We can’t get to the west this time, but we’re definitely gonna get there really soon.

You can check out more of Fisherking at:

www.fisherking.com.au

…bs

Tags: Australian Artists, Blues, gigs, Roots, Soul

Mihirangi

Maya Angelou – Phenomenal Women
“…it’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
‘Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s….

“mihi – to greet, pay tribute, acknowledge, thank
rangi – day, sky, heavens, heavenly realm, heaven, weather, tenor, drift, tune, air, melody”

What would you expect at a poetry evening at the State Museum of Victoria? Wine?  Sure. Couches?  Possibly but only one at the front. A loop pedal?  Oh hell no, wait!  Is this the right room? How about the introduction to “the maori princess of funk” who’s rocking a diamond shape tãmoko in the centre of her forehead? I shit you not, this is what they call a ‘poetry evening’ these days and I lapped it ALL up.

Through hypnotic live looping, Mihirangi opened this particular poetry night with diversity and roots based flavor, with an original song, “No War”. Infusing Te Reo Maori and English languages effortlessly throughout her performance, Mihirangi’s infectious joy oozes from her very being, and captured our hearts at the answer to “how did you come about all of this?” “Oh, because I couldn’t get the band motivated to tour so I left them behind.”

Mihirangi’s mix of beat boxing, vocal harmonies, percussion, acoustic guitar and flute combined with potent lyrics addressing indigenous and environmental issues have ensured her place as one of the most exciting, original and conscious solo performers of Australasia. Her one woman show has been mesmerizing audiences all over the world, and she has quickly become a favourite at world festivals performing with the likes of K’Naan, Public Enemy, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Lee Scratch Perry, Blue King Brown, The Resin Dogs, Salmonella Dub and Ladi6.  This girl has got so much raw talent and enthusiasm it is an honour to watch her perform.

Mihirangi – Live at Womad

Performances at “Power to The Peaceful” Festival in support of social justice, non-violence, and environmental sustainability in San Francisco, to an audience of 60,000 people and to an audience of globally active artists including The Dixie Chicks, the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Pierce Brosnan and Martin Sheen at their 30th Anniversary Benefit concert in LA.
Mihirangi’s credibility comes down to the fact she is so fucking honest.  With her music, her audience and herself and she sends a clear message to all that hear her…

“He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata,     he tangata, he tangata”
(-Sir Apirana Ngata)

“What is the greatest thing in the world? It is people. It is people, it is people”

I have been a bit biased to show so much love to our sisters of soul; however I’ve found solace within her Kulcha Nation lyrics.
Maybe you will too.

“You ignore your own responsibility
towards the world and your community.
Because you think that your life
has no guarantee
So this is a message from me to you and you to me…
No more repeats of boring warring histories.
Man that’s old school, education’s to blame.
We’ve gotta teach our kids about truth, compassion and change.
Don’t forget to mention our leaders redemption,
jubilation of cultural nations
with ritual and spiritual celebration”

You can check out more of Mihirangi at:

www.myspace.com/kulchanation

www.mihirangi.com
Right on!

miss P.

Tags: Funk, hip hop, New Zealand Artists, Poetry, Soul