1+1=11
By Peggy Gou
South Korean-born, Berlin-based electronica artist Peggy Gou has been dubbed by Rolling Stone as the “coolest DJ in the world”. High praise and aptly worded. Her new single 1+1=11 from her upcoming debut album I Hear You feels just that – cool. It’s not trying to force an emotional pinnacle that isn’t there, instead it settles on a delicate, focused melody. It’s deep and moody but not intimidating. – Alana Rae
Very Special Feelings
by Luke Buda
Glistening, astral, dream pop from the solo Phoenix Foundation singer-guitarist Luke Buda who says of this polished-up version of a song he found in his vaults: “As usual the fun is tinged with gloom and the simplicity is not as simple as it seems. That’s just how I roll”. True dat. – Graham Reid
Cowboys Are Frequently Secretly Fond of Each Other
By Orville Peck and Willie Nelson
First “Cowboy Carter” now a revival of the hilarious terrific ode to rawhide gay pride from Orville Peck and Willie Nelson. They sure are messin’ with Texas. The song was originally written in the 1980s by Ned Sublette and was previously covered by Nelson in 2006 in the wake of Brokeback Mountain. It was only a matter of time before Orville Peck made it his own and doing it with Great Uncle Willie is very sweet. – Russell Baillie
Dream State
By Kamasi Washington and André 3000
Having had the saxophonist guest on his 2023 ambient album New Blue, André 3000 returns the favour on this near nine-minute instrumental from Washington’s forthcoming album Fearless Movement due out next month. The Outkast guy is here mostly on flute-loop duty on a number which eschews Washington’s big-band approach for something that wafts along pleasantly as its title suggests. – Russell Baillie
Labour – the Cacophony
by Paris Paloma
Interesting. Artists constantly look for new ways to draw attention to themselves in a crowded marketplace, but this seems unique, a new version of Paris Paloma’s enormously popular, year-old Labour single with vocals by a “choir” chosen from fans’ submissions of their vocals. It works too and announces the British star’s forthcoming album entitled … you guessed it, Cacophony. – Graham Reid
Two Pairs of Hands
by Mark Knopfler
Singer-guitarist Knopfler has released four times as many albums outside of Dire Straits than he did with that band which broke up almost 30 years ago. Some very good too. That said, this single doesn’t stray far from the swampy, J.J. Cale sound which comes so easily to him. The impending album One Deep River won’t challenge loyalists. - Graham Reid
If It Makes You Happy
By Gabrielle Aplin
British singer Gabrielle Aplin has released an EP of 90s covers, a collection of her favourite songs from the decade she was born in. Her take on one of Sheryl Crow’s biggest hits leans into the fact that the originally up-tempo song is more melancholic than it lets on. It’s nice to hear the lyrics in a stripped back context and Aplin’s vocals hold their own. – Alana Rae
Down Under
By Tones And I
And talking of covers remember Men at Work’s big hit Down Under? Quite a funny song in its day, wasn’t it? Star Aussie singer-producer Tones & I certainly doesn’t think it’s funny. Oh no. Not even the vegemite sandwich bit. Still, if she carried on being this epically earnest with other once-amusing Ocker hits – can we suggest Shaddap You Face, Howzat and Tie Me Kangaroo Down? – that might have the makings of quite an album. – Russell Baillie
Brahms, Academic Festival Overture
By the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt conductor.
Opinion is divided. Some believe Brahms’s Academic Festival Overture - written to commemorate the composer’s honorary doctorate from Breslau University – to be a masterpiece. Others consider it to be a massive piss-take. Both things can, of course, be true at once. For his part, Brahms described it as “a very boisterous potpourri of student songs,” and the result of this stitching of existing tunes is the composer’s most joyous piece. (Happy birthday to NZ’s oldest state school, Nelson College, which turns 168 on April 7.)
