Chaos in the CBD pay tribute to Aotearoa in new album

Louis and Ben Helliker-Hales left Aotearoa in 2012, and in the time since have achieved what many local musicians dream of: a sustainable international career. Under the name Chaos in the CBD the brothers produce and DJ dancefloor-friendly house music, having drawn early inspiration from local exponents like Soane, Dick Johnson, Bevan Keys and Greg Churchill.

Despite becoming a fixture in the London dance scene, the Helliker-Hales have never released a full-length album until now. While their breakthrough EP Midnight in Peckham nodded to their new home, A Deeper Life is filled with tributes to Aotearoa.

NZ jazz maestro Nathan Haines features on ‘Tongariro Crossing’, and expat trumpet player Isaac Aesili contributes to the title track. Other names include ‘Marlboro Sounds’ and ‘Ōtaki’.

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There’s a tropical feel to the music that may be a nod to Aotearoa’s warmer climes, and a softness throughout. The Helliker-Hales have threaded sounds of water and birdsong recorded in NZ throughout the album, merging nature with a broad range of citified beats.

When American band TV on the Radio emerged in the early 2000s, a ripple went through the indie music scene. The very rare band who genuinely sounded like no one else, they mixed doo-wop vocals with electronic loops and distortion, a proposition so exciting that a few albums later they had David Bowie offer to provide backing vocals.

Part of that originality stemmed from their most easily identifiable attribute, lead singer Tunde Adebimpe’s voice. Over ten years since TV on the Radio’s last album, he’s released his debut solo LP.

‘Magnetic’ aims for the lacerating glory of TV on the Radio’s ‘Wolf Like Me’, and while it doesn’t quite get there, it’s not far off. Elsewhere ‘Someone New’ dabbles effectively in breathless synth pop, and ‘Streetlight Nuevo’ mixes sombre piano with busy digital percussion and Adebimpe’s trademark howl.

Shortly after he’d begun writing tragedy struck when his sister died of a heart attack. Initially unsure he’d ever finish, in the end he found “sparks of inspiration and motivation flash up in the midst of deep despair”.

The album’s name, Thee Black Boltz, is a reference to these small moments of joy that sprung from sadness.

It was surprising to see this trio of new, full length albums by three of the world’s most influential instrumental music-makers fly somewhat under the radar. Kamasi Washington is a leading light in the jazz world, Bonobo a veteran of trip hop, and Floating Points has garnered huge praise for everything from orchestral arrangement to pulsing techno.

They’ve each released a full length collection of material, composed to soundtrack a new animated series called Lazarus.

Washington provides dexterous jazz workouts with trademark touches like lush choral arrangement, while Floating Points wanders all over, from krautrock jams to futurist techno. Of the three musicians, it’s safe to say Bonobo is the most innocuous, but perhaps the most inviting. He’s been outputting polite, clipped beat music since 1999, and expertly invests it with quiet pathos.

Tony Stamp reviews the latest album releases every week on The Sampler.