50:50:50 - days 21-30
50 discs, 50 brews, 50 spins around the sun
We’re over half way through now - listening to 50 albums that Radio New Zealand have deemed worthy enough to be in a list, while brewing a new coffee method each day.
Days 1-10 and 11-20 are in the books. Now time for the next tranche.
Leshgo.
Day 21: The Dartz ‘The Band from Wellington, New Zealand’ and an Origami
Rating: Get in
The Dartz with 'The Band from Wellington, New Zealand' with an Origami with Kalita filters this time.
The Dartz might be the Kiwi version of The Chats, or even a modern day Deja Voodoo.
Songs about drinking, drugs, partying and having a good time. The Dartz are rad. Fun, carefree rock with no fucks given. A great road trip album. Hell yeah.
Brought out the Origami for round 2, but with the Kalita Wave filter paper, instead of the V60. Do different filter papers really make a difference? Totes me scrot they do.
With the Origami they provide another avenue of flavour to explore.
Good shit. Day 21.
Days 22 and 23: Don Mcglashan and Dry Cleaning
Rating: Don; poos. Dry cleaning; rad.
Busy busy busy so I forgot to post yesterday. And I forgot to listen to the album but it's all be rectified now.
Day 22: Moccamaster with Don McGlashan 'Bright November Morning' Day 23 a Nespresso (yeah, i know) and Dry Cleaning 'Stumpwork' with a Moccamaster.
Moccamaster in a classic Kiwi bach is the best Moccasmaster. Good Coffee, with great people, in an incredible location. Summer.
Nespresso cos the AirBNB has one and I thought it'd be lol and it was as bad as I remembered. Quickly ended in the bin.
Also in the bin, Don McGlashan with a supermarket friendly album of 'rock' (lol, nope) that the boomers would fuck all day too. Get in the bin.
Not in the bin is Dry Cleaning. Strange and mellow indie rock from south London, with vocals all the way up in the mix, with more spoken word than singing.
Picture being in a pub with super low ceilings, with 100 people in a venue that can hold 50, smoke hanging in the air and sweet dripping from the roof, and everyone bobbing their heads and tapping their feet - this would be the band you'd listen to.
Day 24: Erny Belle ‘Venus Is Home’ and the AeroPress Go!
Rating: Slaps hard
Venus Is Home is such a banger of an album. Alt-country-rock fun times with a rad attitude. “All of my life, I’ll never belong to the hell hole” is such a great introduction to an album.
A great chilled out and well crafted album.
I was back in Wellington to this one, so pulled out the AeroPress Go! It’s a travel sized AeroPress, where everything folds into a nice carry cup with a lid.
It’s not as big as the OG AP volume wise, but it’s perfect for a hoon around the country. Get in.
Day 25: Father John Misty ‘Chloe and the Next 20th Century’ and some weekend coffee cupping
Rating: Fun fun fun
Holy moly macaroni, Father John Misty is something else, and ‘Chloe and the Next 20th Century’ is a magic album.
Indie folk rock with oldie time big band sounds coming in to rock your socks off.
Fun, fun, fun with even more fun.
A great album to listen to while doing some cupping.
What is cupping? It’s the industry standard way of tasting coffee. It’s what roasters, buyers, sellers, and baristas use to compare coffees, without the influence of brewers, filters or anything else.
It’s used because it’s repeatable, doesn’t require special tools and is super easy.
Day 26: Fazerdaze with the EP ‘Break!’, and a V60
Rating: Fun fun fun
By this stage Instagram had deleted my captions for some reason… I can’t remember much about this day other than it was raining so flipping hard.
The ‘Break!’ EP is a great listen. Go listen.
Day 27: FKA twigs ‘CAPRISONGS’ and the Tricolate
Rating: Rocking
FKA twigs with the mixtape 'CAPRISONGS' and more experimentation with the Tricolate.
I listened to FKA Twigs while out on a jaunt around the 'burbs, and it was a rad album.
Hip-hop, grime, avant-pop and RnB from the UK, with Jamaica influences and a bunch of collabs, incl one of my favorites, Pa Salieu.
[ED note - I just found out Pa Saileu was jailed for 33 months following a mass brawl in the UK. In 2021 he won the BBC Sound of 2021 poll for new music talent. Talent wasted it seems…]
FKA Twigs created a mixtape project, inserting "snippets of candid conversations ... fears, hopes, worldly advice, reassuring pep-talks and positive affirmations," or so the reviews go.
It's really awesome.
The more I play with the Tricolate, the more I'm starting to love it.
Today I used Scott Rao's method and played with the grind.
It was with a really finer grind than I was expecting where it really started to shine. Using the Honduras 🇭🇳 from Coffee Untitled was a perfect pairing, as the coffee seems to enjoy a higher extraction.
Loving it.
Day 28. Florence and the Machine ‘Dance Fever’ and a Mokapot
Rating: Meh
Florence and the Machine with 'Dance Fever' and a steaming hot cup of Fairtrade practices with the Mokapot.
Mokapot - classic, brilliant, solid, easy, magical. Not much more to add to what I've already said about this amazing brewer. It should be higher in the rotation than it usually is, that's for sure.
I'm not a huge fan of Florence and the Machine, so this was in the background without a keen ear tuned in. I was hoping for some big poppy dancefloor bangers, which never really came.
It was fine, but maybe not a classic. Unlike the mokapot, which rocked.
Day 29: Fontaines DC ‘Skinty Fia’ and the Clever Dripper
Rating: It’s fine
Shit, nearly a month of almost daily posting and a new album every day. It's be fun pulling out the old toys, listening to some great, good and terrible albums that Radio NZ deemed their top 50.
Today - the Clever Dripper, which is very clever, and Fontaines D.C. with 'Skinty Fia.'
Spotify says: Skinty Fia is an Irish phrase which translates to English as “the damnation of the deer." With that in mind, I was really looking forward to a dark, heavy punk album. I guess it's dark, it's not super heavy but it is enjoyable.
Post-punk is a strange genre name. Genre names are strange over all. What's post-punk? What's pre-punk? Why is it called punk at all? Cos it doesn't match the OG punk name, so what is it? Does it matter? Or is it like coffee tasting notes - a misguided attempt at shaping our minds into thinking that something is what it isn't?
Dunno.
Coffee was good. Love the Clever Dripper for its simplicity, it's consistency and its excellent tasting brew. No skill needed - just good vibes.
I used the James Hoffman method - put the water in first, and then the coffee. Helps to stop the stalling that this brewer can be known for.
Day 30: Gabriels ‘Angels & Queens’ and the French Press
Rating: Holy moly
Day 29 of 50 discs, 50 brews, 50 spins of the earth.
Today, on the rainiest of rainy days, I was gifted the smoothest, sexiest, and groviest soul and RNB vibes a cool cat could get. Gabriels with 'Angels & Queens', washed down with a French Press.
This shit was sexy AF, groovy as hell, fun as fuck. What an album.
Think CeeLo Green's voice, range and soul, with the funk and vibe of James Brown, and you get the huge sound of Gabriels.
I'm loving the album. It slaps. It bangs. It rocks.
GET THIS IN YOU.
Plunger was the perfect match for the vibe. Slow, considered, rich and tasty AF.
Protip for the plunger - take your time. It's not slap and dash. You'll be rewarded for letting the magic happen. 10minutes - that's the magic.
Lesgo.