Puce Mary’s noise abstractions range from piercing moments of minimalist sonic terror to frightening, seizure-inducing industrial noise packed with layers of distorted obscured guttural vocals, hammering drums and violent percussion.
It’s some of the most unsettling music you’ll hear: abstract, forward-thinking and plain inexplicable all at once.
Her third solo LP, The Spiral, seems like a great place to start your journey down the noise rabbit hole.
For this local show, Richard Maybe’s Passion For Nature, bleak noise/drone artists Children of the Greyscale Rainbow and Auckland-based Futurians member Ducklingmonster will perform in support.
A KIND OF HOMECOMING
Byron Bay psych/Krautrock instrumentalists Chesta Hedron is making the trip across The Ditch next week, on its first New Zealand tour.
The duo, comprised of drummer Eli Kalaitzides and ex-Dunedin guitarist Matthew Armitage (Bunnies on Ponies, Odessa), plays a droning and complex fuzzy pop, drawing on psychedelic experimentalism and the heavy, doomy riffs of stoner and desert rock.
They’ll be joined by local jazzy noise punks the Rothmans, whose live album Obscured by Vape: Live at the Common Room I’ve just discovered and have been turning to whenever I need a kick in the face.
GOOD EXCUSE TO PUT DOWN THE BOOKS
As part of the excellent New Zealand Young Writers Festival Dunedin programme, the team behind the festival is hosting The Electric Salon Social, a night of eclectic DJs and live electronic artists, as the perfect break from having your head buried in the books.
Featuring the hypnotic, swoony synth-pop of Stef Animal, long-running legacy noise act Murdabike, and the dancehall, jungle and space electro prophecy of Totems, it is the perfect excuse to shelve the books and be swept away in the loving embrace of dancing.
It’s at newish cafe spot Wolf at the Door, somewhere I’d love to see putting on more shows in the future.
Get along and support this fabulous festival and make sure you discover its full scope of events, including workshops, performances, panel discussions and bookish social festivities online.
GEM JUST WAITING TO BE DISCOVERED
Dunedin low-key ambient musician Kairi, government name Rassani Tolovaa, has released another gem on Bandcamp this week.
Driven by a stop-start three-chord piano melody and crisp drum combo, Dropped gets under your skin with its quiet dignity and cascading instrumentation.
The piece of placid pretty pop is now available on Kairi’s Bandcamp with a cool 30-second intro track as a bonus.
Hear it, see it
• Altmusic presents: Puce Mary (Denmark), Friday, September 2, at None Gallery. Support from Richard Maybe’s Passion For Nature, Ducklingmonster and Children of the Greyscale Rainbow. $25 on the door, $17.50 presales from UTR.co.nz
• Chesta Hedron (Australia) with the Rothmans, Wednesday, August 31, at Re:Fuel. Free Entry from 9pm.
• The Electric Salon Social (as part of the New Zealand Young Writers Festival 2016) with Stef Animal, Murdabike, and Totems (Auckland), Saturday, September 3, at Wolf at the Door (corner of Princes and Carroll Sts) 8.30pm.
• Download Kairi’s Dropped as part of the name your price scheme at kairi8.bandcamp.com
