First exhibited as part of the ‘Music From Her’ Sound Art Exhibition at Thistle Hall, Wellingon “to celebrate, support and encourage diverse voices of women working in music in New Zealand, in the year of the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.” Curated by Emi Pogoni.
WFLS#18: Summer, 2019!
We are currently taking submissions for the next WFLS! More info here
We are very excited to announce that A DEAD FOREST INDEX are returning to New Zealand for two shows in Auckland and Wellington this coming February!
The expat brothers, Adam and Sam Sherry, perform starkly refined yet richly atmospheric arrangements of guitar, drums and voice – music aptly described as ‘potent’ and ‘compelling… an exercise in restraint and severity’.
Currently based in London, the duo have earned considerable international success in recent years. Extensive touring and collaborations with SAVAGES and CHELSEA WOLFE culminated in the 2016 release of their exemplary debut album, ‘In All That Drifts From Summit Down’. Released on the Sargent House label, the album sits comfortably alongside those of stalwart heavyweights like EARTH and BORIS.
Don’t miss these rare and intimate shows including two very special guests, I.E.CRAZY and WOMB!
I.E.CRAZY:
Claire Duncan sings captivating and cathartic, electric folk tales to tease the raw nerves of our national psyche and tell stories about ‘the neurotic horror of the banal… our repressed emotions and postcolonial amnesia’.
WOMB:
Sibling dream-folk trio from Wellington. “…the womb is the most sacred, safe place. It is warm, it is floating. Then the womb is also totally sexual, and red, and passionate. And finally, in some ways it is raw and frightening, this eerie zone of amniotic fluid, and then you’re pushed out, bloody, into the world.”
AUCKLAND – Whammy Bar – February 4th
WELLINGTON – Meow – February 11th
This new video from I.E.Crazy features footage of the New Zealand housing industry in vibrant colour, with the dark tones of Maggie Magee in stark contrast. “Dedicated to health, happiness and housing.”
“A nation’s prosperity isn’t measured in exports and show and false fronts. It’s in the way people live and how much sun they get… where the kids grow up and how sanitation works.” – Public Works Department Film Unit, 1945.
ORCHESTRA OF SPHERES – TRAPDOORS
The dreamteam of Georgette Brown & Dan Harris have made a kaleidoscopic wondervid for Orchestra of Spheres!
(Side note: Georgette & Dan are currently working on a new vid for All Seeing Hand in collaboration with Erica Sklenars (Lady Lazer Light) & Nathan Taare! Stay tuned.)
GPOGP – LAND OF THE LONG WHITE STAIN
Girls Pissing on Girls Pissing have made an alternative national anthem with a video to suit, featuring a classic kiwi scene of a sheep corpse burial:
As if making amazing, intricate music isn’t enough of a mission, Zach Webber (of Paperghost) has been chipping away at the colossal task of animating & scoring a lofi mini-series! Here’s the latest wacky installment, Ep2: The Geese:
TO SPEND MORE TIME LOOKING AT THE GROUND THAN AT THE SKY – AN INTERVIEW W/ I.E.CRAZY
“Maybe if I was a happier person and the world were less fucked up, or if I could just stomach the putrid bullet of being a good capitalist and expressed myself through home renovations and new curtains, I wouldn’t feel the need to write music at all.”
– Claire Duncan
Read the full interview by Charlotte Forrester (of Womb) thanks to Salient > here <
More: iecrazy.tumblr.com
MOTTE – SONGS FOR MOVIES
And for your general listening pleasure, here’s some cinematic violin by Lyttelton’s Motte, aka Anita Clark:
Seth Frightening has released a pained & blood-stained new video/ live rendition of his song, Shoulder Blade, from his latest album, BWLOBAS.
The clip was filmed by Claire Duncan who also joins Sean for live performances – as pictured here playing the Newtown Festival on Sunday:
The duo also joined Lyttelton’s rising folkstar, Aldous Harding, on Saturday night and Sean will continue on with her tour to play in Sydney and Melbourne this week!
+++ SYDNEY & MELBOURNE can check out Seth Frightening & I.E.Crazy at SAD BY SADWEST FESTIVAL in April!!! +++
I don’t know what the lambs get up to but this lovely pair of humans had a productive 2015!
Sean Kelly (Seth Frightening) and Claire Duncan (I.E.Crazy) with Midnight and Lamb #2.
Thanks Veronica CP and Joseph Griffen for the photo!
It began with Seth Frightening‘s release of But We Love Our Brothers And Sisters – his sixth in as many years & the latest in a back catalogue of unrelenting brilliance. Direct and personal while still poetic, haunting, beautiful and always in that unmistakeable Seth Frightening style.
BWLOBAS FEATURE/ REVIEW
‘…his music is full of ugly emotions. Themes include, but are not limited to; death, sex, abortion, loneliness and existential frustration, told through layers of self-deprecation and home recorded charm. It’s heavy stuff, but far from being intimidated by such subject matters, Kelly finds writing about them therapeutic’.
“I write sad songs, but I don’t write them for you to feel sorry for me. I write them because it empowers me.” – Sean Kelly
In November, Sean and his equally talented and radical accomplice Claire Duncan (I.E.Crazy / Dear Time’s Waste) toured the country to empathise with folks and promote his vinyl that had not yet arrived. Alas, it soon after came – fashionably late in beautiful bone tone – and has since been dispatched via a network of couriers. Email sethfrightening@gmail.com if you want one!
I.E CRAZY EMERGES FROM SHELL WITH #1 HIT
“To celebrate having lapped the sun 28 times without yet flying directly into it, I’m loosing this limping beast of a song into the world.” So wrote Claire on her birthday as she released her first track under the name I.E.Crazy:
Lastly (but not leastly) check out this incredible Seth & I.E cover of the Shocking Pinks song, Nostalgia, released as part of a collection by A Low Hum in November:
What will 2016 bring from these talented two? Keep your ears & eyes pinned & pealed!
“While the songs themselves are the heroes of the story, behind-the-scenes footage permits a glimpse into the processes and world-views of a group of fiercely creative individuals whose work falls outside the ever-constrictive paradigms of popular music in New Zealand.” – Claire Duncan, writer & director.
Zac Arnold of RNZ’s Music 101 spoke with Claire to discuss the difficulties of capturing the essence of live performance and what it means to be a musician on the margins:
Also, keep your eye out for more in Lumiere’s web-series covering pockets of New Zealand’s underground print and cinema scenes > http://video.lumiere.net.nz
Huge thanks to everyone who contributed to or attended these events! And to the Wellington City Council creative communities fund for the financial assistance that allowed us the use of such great venues. These were prob the last of our shows for the year but look forward to future good times!
Gamelan Padhang Moncar
Sean Kelly / Seth Frightening (Visuals by Beth Hilton. Photo by Tristan Brooks)
Claire Duncan / I.E.Crazy
Zach Webber / Paperghost (Photo by Tristan Brooks)