Culture

Welcome to the 2014 Critic music section. I’m Adrian Ng, a songwriter and producer based in Dunedin. What qualifies me to write about music, let alone curate a section around it? Not much, really. I’ve realised that when it comes to music, the person you should pay the most attention to is yourself; find what you love and enjoy it. There is no point listening to something that you hate. My aim is to aid you. You will find that this section has undergone a slight makeover; these pages should now be bursting with new, interesting things to check out. Below are some singles, a playlist of sorts, which will correlate with the Critic Morning Spectrum show on Radio One from 10am – 12pm every Monday. I hope you stumble upon something you like.

Cloud Nothings - I’m Not Part Of Me



Infectious garage-pop offering, dripping with angst and self-loathing. “I’m not telling you all I’m going through,” Dylan Baldi emotes over a brick wall of dry fuzzed-out guitars.

St. Vincent - Digital Witness



Retro-fusion, electro-funk madness. “I wanted to make a party record you could play at a funeral,” says songwriter Annie Clark. Which pretty much sums this track up perfectly.

CEO - Whorehouse



Mystical, melodic electro-pop, brimming with neon and technicolor. Sing-along inducing chorus, “baby I’m so lost inside a whorehouse.” Perhaps a magical whorehouse ... of drugs …

Yumi Zouma - The Brae



Dreamy track, conjuring visions of streamlined rivers, with masterful use of vocal melody, weaving around layers of rich bass and saccharine guitar lines.

Woods - Moving To The Left



Sweet, warm, and cradled with a coat of reverb. A cozy Sunday afternoon track which brings to mind the glory days of Elephant 6.