Dance Therapy Records' 'Kanikani Therapy' & vying for local sustainability

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, along with some of what I’ve been listening to and reading, paired with film photographs I’ve taken, plus some bonuses. All of that said, sometimes it takes completely different forms.

Over the last year, Reuben Romanos, aka yourFlatmate, has emerged as one of the most active figures in the Te Whanganui-a-tara dance music scene. He’s accomplished this through several activities: playing floaty full-spectrum DJ sets at the free outdoor parties that sprung up across the city over summer, producing as yourFlatmate, and running Dance Therapy, a party, record label and mix series defined by a warm feeling that runs through his favourite trance, prog, disco, house, dub techno, acid, jungle, dubstep and drum & bass 12”s.

At Dance Therapy, a single selector plays a five-hour set. Romanos sees it as an opportunity to allow his guests and the dancefloor to embark on epic musical journeys. As an outgrowth of the momentum he’s built, Dance Therapy has also expanded to encompass a record label, Dance Therapy Records and a SoundCloud mix series, Dance Therapy’s Chronic Happiness.

In May, he launched the label with Fort Ballance, a 12” EP of progressive house and trance by his actual flatmate, Te Whanganui-a-tara producer Yendor. Over three expansive tracks, iridescent synthesiser pads, psychedelic melodies, rolling percussion, and otherworldly voices curl around driving machine beats and bouncy bass stabs. It’s confident, slowly-smouldering and deeply hypnotic.

Later this month, the Dance Therapy story continues with the label’s first Various Artists compilation, Kanikani Therapy, due on August 19 in CD and digital formats. Across pre-release tracks like ‘Nunuk’ by cellphii, ‘In Your Body’ by Yendor, and ‘David’s Fundamentals’ by Jamie Doesn’t Like Salad, a playful and dreamy sensibility emerges that effortlessly cuts across genre and style lines. Similarly, the rest of the compilation is an abundance of riches.

In this Q&A, Romanos talks about his background and the origins of the Dance Therapy party and label. He also explains why, rather than a commercial project, it made more sense to release Kanikani Therapy as a fundraiser for two conservation charities, Trees That Count and Forest & Bird.

You can read the full story here.

BeeHype: Sheep, Dog & Wolf, Ceiling Waves

In my latest for BeeHype, I wrote about Sheep, Dog & Wolf’s new album, Ceiling Waves.

“Ceiling Waves” trades in intricate compositional arrangements and unashamed emotional depth. An album for the good times, the bad, and everything in between.

Daniel McBride aka Sheep, Dog & Wolf is a New Zealand multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and composer who lives and works in London.

In August this year, they unveiled their third album “Ceiling Waves”. It’s a fitting title for a set of songs that rise and fall, often moving from maximal to minimal within a single movement. When beehype’s founder, Mariusz Herma, enthusiastically emailed about the album, he cited the art-rock and progressive folk figures Robert Wyatt, David Sylvian, and Joanna Newsom as reference points – comparisons that, perhaps unsurprisingly, all hold water.

You can read the full feature here.

What I’ve Been Listening To:

Any good shoegaze binge inevitably leads to spending some time with Malchicks.

I don’t Tik or Tok, but I love how TikTok and YouTube gave Duster a second life.

A Big Surprise indeed. Hi Hannah!

One for the Cyberpunk heads.

FIN.