This week..

On Wednesday night I recorded most of a song from my "solo" album. I've finished 4 songs and this one is the 5th. The band consists of a some seriously high caliber musicians which makes each session a total joy..

Drums: Samdrub Dawa. This guy is a rhythm freak. Unfortunately he hasn't been captured on any significant (i use that word loosely, we are based in dunedin after all) releases which is a shame but will no doubt be remedied as time goes on and people discover how good he is.

Bass: Bugs (Chris Miller) of Tono and The Finance Company and Sex with Bowie. oh.. and The Verlaines!
. Bugs plays pretty much anything. Look out for his solo group The Something Quartet.

Vocals/Accoustic Guitars: Anthonie Tonnon aka Tono. A vocal genius. Able to do what I ask and so, so much more.

That forms the core of the group. I've had Ralph Miller from RFM play trumpet and Aidan Fraser, who also played in RFM, play some piano.

It's not finished; needs vocals and a few other things need to be over dubbed, but I thought I'd upload it as it is now anyways.. unmixed and all that.

Listen here.

Last night I had the pleasure of recording a track with Soulseller. About 9 months ago I recorded their debut EP with the most ghetto recording setup you could imagine. Last night we recorded in the atrium outside Radio One, a large glass and brick structure with incredible acoustics. Once I mix the track I'll post it. It was pretty huge. We were lucky enough to stumble on some really good mics for it as well. Always a sound engineer pleasure.

Straight after the session I had to boost over to the starters bar and run sound for Smashproof; a South Auckland Hip Hop group. That was totally bizarre. I couldn't help but think that Hip Hop in New Zealand has totally been and gone and is now dying a high volume, bass heavy death. From the clothes and behaviour of the image conscious performers I was also reminded of how 80s hair metal is looked by the mainstream now.

I wonder if hip hop we'll be seen as some kind of brief, sexualised cash cow that we're all embarrassed about 10 or 20 years from now?