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LP
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DR 032LP
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"A central figure of the New Zealand underground since his days in The Rip over three decades ago, Alastair Galbraith has worked alongside scores of Kiwi legends as a multi-instrumentalist and solo artist. Morse appeared in 1992, a Siltbreeze/Xpressway co-release, and despite Galbraith's centrality to the magical NZ mix, the record is an 'outsider' classic, a peerless piece of Antipodean collage, diverted folk, and minimal psychedelia. Galbraith plays almost everything on Morse, with periodic assists from Bruce Russell, Robbie Muir and others. Mutable, unfussy arrangements -- for acoustic and electric guitar, piano, violin, and some proper post-VU thudding--gather and crumble around obliquely phrased double-tracked vocals, sharing an enigmatic yet intuitive emotional quality with much NZ music of the period. And while his process might be homespun, don't call this lo-fi: listen close and hear microscopic layers of detail in Galbraith's plangent guitar work, the texture of amplified strings distinct from the notes they're sounding, melodies and sibilant murmurs swallowed as songs melt or careen into one another. Morse's fragmentary song suites conjure a post-70s in which Syd Barrett fucked off to Dunedin and started roadying for The Clean, or John Cale traded blow for tea and a Tascam. Untouchable in spirit and execution, Morse is a long-undersung gem of the international '90s underground by a bona fide NZ legend."
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LP
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MIE 017LP
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2013 release. Cry was recorded in a shed at Taieri Mouth between 1998 and 2000 and then released by Emperor Jones on CD in 2000. Alastair Galbraith has always been one of the most admired yet paradoxically ignored musicians from the New Zealand underground since he first started out in The Rip on Flying Nun Records in the early 1980s. Having already worked with the incredibly talented New Zealander otherwise known as Michael Morley, it seemed natural for MIE's next step to go on to work with Alastair on getting one of his finest records issued for the first time on vinyl. Listening to the immensely personal and intimate Cry is like looking directly into the furthest recesses of Galbraith's mind. Weaving the fabric of the record with guitar, violin, organ, and vulnerable murmurs, frequently reversing and inverting instruments through four-track manipulations, Cry is at once haunting and unsettling. Alastair creates an incredibly complex mindscape with tenebrous drones, hushed, lilted words and a sense of deep warmth, pulling you further and further into the innermost intricacies of his world. Submerged deep within this world you start to see the faint rays of light and hope which have earned this record its place in New Zealand's musical landscape. Issued on vinyl for the first time in a run of 500 LPs. Original artwork by Alastair Galbraith. Mastered by Craig Stewart.
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CD
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XER 104CD
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"Alastair Galbraith is the glue that binds the New Zealand underground. His work ranges from achingly lyrical violin from artists as disparate as Peter Jeffries and the Bats to the feedback squalls he conjures as a member of A Handful Of Dust. However, his greatest achievements are the otherworldly miniatures he crafts for his own solo albums. Although the music on this CD was originally released on the storied Siltbreeze label, it couldn't have come from anyone but Alastair Galbraith from anyplace beside Dunedin, New Zealand, or any time other than 1988-1992. Albraith's writing intimates an awareness of oblivion and a yearning to transcend it. These classic tracks -- including an amazing selection of bonus material -- prefigure a generation of raw song-smithing and offer a spellbinding glimpse into the world of one of rock's great unheralded talents."
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CD
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XER 105CD
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Originally released in 1997 on Galbraith's own Next Best Way label out of New Zealand, now reissued with 7 bonus tracks. "Even more fractured and strange, if that's possible, than his slightly higher-profile solo releases, Talisman finds Alastair Galbraith deep into sonic exploration of curious, dank corners via his own brand of rock & roll. As is usually the case with his work, there's next to no percussion and only the subtlest suggestion of recurring rhythms, while the only guests this time out contribute extra guitar and, on 'Black Flame,' horn. When Galbraith pulls out all the stops, the results balance neatly between relative accessibility and pure chaos -- 'Cemetery Raga,' featuring David Mitchell on extra guitar, is calm enough up front but has some just gone feedback backing everything up, sounding almost like metal being extruded forcibly." --Ned Raggett, All Music Guide
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