Beats + Pieces Vol. 64

Dazed, Audio Culture, Mazes, All The Usual Beats. Semi MCs – Image credit: Simon Grigg, Rip It Up/Back2Basics archive Selected Works is a weekly (usually) newsletter by the Te Whanganui-a-Tara, Aotearoa (Wellington, New Zealand) based freelance music journalist, broadcaster, copywriter and sometimes DJ Martyn Pepperell, aka Yours Truly. Most weeks, Selected Works consists of a recap of what I’ve been doing lately and some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken + some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms. WHAT I’VE BEEN DOING / WHAT I’VE GOT COMING UP: Four times a year, I write a recap of ten great and sometimes underappreciated music releases from the previous three months for Dazed & Confused: EPs, albums, mixtape-style records, you name it. I say all of that to say this: the latest edition of my column – featuring Private Joy’s Manchester soul music, De Schuurman’s cybernetic bubbling house and Total Blue’s oceanic ambient jazz – is live on the site now. Check it out here. As the 1990s dawned, the influence of British and American fashion and music, particularly hip-hop, R&B, and house music, rang out across Aotearoa. Up...