The Opinionated Diner

I guess I'm a bit remiss in not plugging the recent compilation I did for NZ Fashion Week 2004, Off The Cuff. The brief was fairly simple- to create an album of NZ music that fitted with the style of fashion week, and I was only limited by the necessity of having to include a few tracks owned by Antenna (who put out the resulting album)...but that was not a problem as I would've included a couple of those anyone. The idea was to try to create a flow, starting with the Nathan Haines & Joost Laneveld track "Avenue Dreams", recorded on a cassette in New York City in the mid nineties but overdubbed at Uptown by Alan Jansson, and only released briefly in NZ on a bonus disc; finishing with the extremely edgy but magnificent "Let it Go" from Concord Dawn, NZ's biggest selling electronic artist. In between you get exclusive tracks and remixes from the likes of Rob Salmon, Tomorrowpeople and Greg Churchill amongst others. I also threw in a few tracks I like which need more attention from the likes of Soane & Dub Asylum.

I was also keen to illustrate the music coming out of New Zealand that really is going around the world, and largely ignored by the mainstream media and the sad excuse for an electronica award that the Tuis present (I mean....Salmonella Dub? Best Dance album?...sorry but unwashed UB40 is not even eligible). There you go....shameless plug over