Dictaphone Blues Announce NZ Tour & Release Elastic Meditation From Forthcoming EP

After the successful release of “Bully” which Pilerats described as an “psych/fuzz/blues/pop explosion” followed by the futuristic love song “When Your Simulation Crossed Mine” which The Music described as “a bubble of happiness” Dictaphone Blues have just announced the release of yet another infectious gem of a track “Elastic Meditation” from their forthcoming 5 track EP of the same name set for release on June 29.

To celebrate the release, the band will chime around NZ’s four main centres in July, playing the new EP in full, as well as smash hits from their previous releases Mufti Day, Beneath The Crystal Palace, and On The Down And In. The band, made up of Edward Castelow, Barney Chunn, Matthias Jordan and Myles Allpress have played countless shows across NZ and contributed to some of this countries favourite indie bands over the past 15 years, and can’t wait to bring their happy-go-lucky live show to the people this winter.

Joining Dictaphone Blues on all dates will be Eden Mulholland. The multifaceted Perth-based musician renowned for his inventive solo albums; his work with the Auckland Theatre Company; the recent New Zealand Festival 2018 hit Rushes; and being the voice of mid-2000 indie favs Motocade. All the dates are below.

Friday 6th July – Whammy Bar, Auckland
Saturday 7th July – Caroline, Wellington
Friday 20th July – Space Academy, Christchurch
Saturday 21st July – The Cook, Dunedin
Tickets available HERE

FULL BIO

Singing songs runs deep in Edward Castelow’s blood. Before he could successfully climb down from the couch he was festooning atop the family lounge suite singing the theme to The Greatest American Hero for whatever family member would listen. Fast forward to the 2000s and Castelow has pumped his musical blood into an array of indie bands from degrees.k, to The Ruby Suns, The Brunettes, Anthonie Tonnon and The Conjurors. His love of forward thinking, vintage-leaning song writing has never subsided and across his 10 year career releasing under the Dictaphone Blues moniker, Castelow has played on every stage NZ has to offer, while carving out a niche for himself as one of New Zealand’s true indie voices.

The first Dictaphone Blues album was released in 2009 and was recorded solely by Castelow with a few guest drummers laying down the groove. Entitled On The Down and In it focussed on trying to find those good old positive feelings when you’re down and featured three NZ alt radio hits in “Taken Aback”, “Spooky Room” and “You Put It In Me“. This album allowed the group to headline their own NZ tour and join internationals like New Pornographers, Okkervil River and Broken Social Scene.

Beneath The Crystal Palace arrived in 2012 and showed a band more in step with itself and its sound, taking on a more aggressive psychedelic guitar sound with the band tracking live for the most part while producing the album themselves and having it mixed by Tom Healy (Tiny Ruins, Pop Strangers, Die! Die! Die!).

For the third album Castelow sequestered to his small studio and took to recording an album with only his own aural meanderings and a newly acquired vintage Tascam 8 track tape machine. The fruits of his labour was called Mufti Day, an album that yielded three Top 5 alternative radio hits including “Her Heart Breaks Like A Wave” (#1), “36” (feat. Emily Edrosa) (#1) and “Cryptic Lipstick”(#3) with “Her Heart Breaks Like A Wave” also being nominated for the Apra Silver Scroll and nominated for Video of the Year at the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards.

The EP sees Castelow teaming up with UK producer Dave Eringa, who’s production credits include Manic Street Preachers, The Who, Idlewild and for good measure, Kylie Minogue. The song moves away from the jangly guitar sound of Mufti Day and sets foot in heavy groove-based, alt-pop territory, a move which was inspired by Castelow’s love of 80s pop stars such as Eurythmics, Madonna, Tears For Fears and Cyndi Lauper.