Hard News by Russell Brown

I'm very pleased that Metro magazine has posted my feature K Road at the crossroads on its website. Because it appeared in the December-January double issue, it's been a longer wait than usual for the story to reach the free-to-read point, but it's there now.

I put a lot of work into the story and, at the behest of editor Susannah Walker, quite a bit of myself too. I'm also grateful to Susannah for reading an early draft that I was struggling to get down to the commissioned 3000 words and telling me "don't worry about length", they'd find the space, and to concentrate on making a good story into a great one. So the story that appeared in print is nearly 5000 words long. There are not many magazines that will accommodate that kind of length and Metro is a treasure.

And still, there was a lot left out. I did 17 interviews and, inevitably, there are narratives and angles that didn't make the cut. Here are a few out-takes:

Peter Hawkesby, former owner of Alleluya cafe on setting up in St Kevins Arcade in June 1994:

"It wasn't the first time that I'd been here. I always used to come in because it was such a beautiful vista – it had, I think, four functioning shops. The café which I took over had closed the day I arrived back from living in Tokyo for 10 years. That was a Friday, I came in on the Monday and went to get a drink.

"There was Worms bookshop opposite which incorporated two shops. They told me that the women who ran the café had closed it on the Friday. So I had a closed café, a second-hand bookshop run by a retired tax consultant. A little dairy open from about even to 12 at the top of the stairs. A Niue island travel shop that also did typing. I think a magazine shop at the front – and I forget what was on the other side at the front. And she second-hand bookshop that's still there now. And that was it.

"People like Habanero and Verona, who had opened prior to me, were encouraging. They were pleased that other people were coming into the street. Other people thought it was a bit looney, because K Road was still quite depressed and the arcade was completely dead.

"Pop-in culture had stopped. When I came back [from 10 years in Japan] all my friends were in their mid-40s and busy. When I left, it didn't matter whether we were busy, we could pop in to each other's places at any time. And suddenly that had gone and I'm not a dinner party person, I'm not a party person, so I wanted to establish a place where my friends could pop in and I could re-socialise back in to Auckland. It was really for myself. It was like creating a living room.

"And that's what it is – but it's not just my living room, it's become numerous people's. And it is their living room. It's where they live, this is their office, it's where they meet their friends. It's fantastic."

 And on departing after 21 years:

"I'm optimistic. I'm not leaving believing it's all going to collapse because I'm gone or because Paul's glossing it up. At some point he'll stop glossing it up because it'll cost too much – it'll be a bottomless pit. He's already said. It's exactly what happened with Murray Rose.

"You'll see pragmatism coming in when the flash tenants they maybe imagined they were going to get don't eventuate. And you've already seen in the first few months people that perhaps weren't even going to be considered to remain in the arcade have been offered leases.

"So I don't think we've really that much to worry about. And that again is the strength of the street. The people, my customers, are the business and these landlords want business. You are what pays the hundreds of thousands of dollars rent they get each year. It's not people in Remuera or Parnell or Ponsonby, it's you guys. And they are from all over the inner city and they are not the flash crowd. They are just ordinary Aucklanders who like to breathe in and out and don't worry about what type of shoes they're wearing."

Ian Hughes, longtime resident:

"I've been living on K Road since the 90s and from what I've seen in 25 years is that it gets better and better. Back when I was first living here there were none of the trees, none of the paving – it was brutal place that still had all the echoes of the terrible town planning decisions of the 60s and 70s that really destroyed it."

Renee and Damaris Coulter, the owners of Coco's Cantina:

Renee: "I'm optimistic by nature. I think that with really strong leadership, if we can fill that gap in between the retailers and the landlords and the developers, the ones making the decisions … I'd like to see a mission statement about what we want K Road to be."

Damaris: "The artisan, owner-operated creative hub for Auckland. When anyone comes to this city, if they want something alternative – whether it's goods or practices or restaurants or cafes or gigs – then that's where they go."

Jonty Rutherford, owner of the Thirsty Dog:

"We have what I call my lunchtime corporate locals, who come in for lunch and a bit of a chat. We have our high-vis locals who are guys who've started work at six and knocked off at three. Our locals aren't necessarily geographical locals, but having said that, I can see that that will build. Wednesday night is a night where the oldies from the apartments that already here come up. They have a sense of community.

"I'm a publican, not a councillor, but what I would hope is that the area can grow, that the empty shops can have something in them, but that we can retain some of our grit.

"Up our end, it would be nice if we were a little less windswept and a bit greener. In terms if transport strategy it would be nice if there were scooter parks and bicycle racks. That’s not happening."

Adrian Hailwood, fashion designer and retailer:

"Retail has its ups and downs, but there's a real sense of community with K Road, more so in the last two or three years – and especially up this end, because we were always forgotten about. I'm glad I stuck it out.

"We do a garage sale every two weeks or so at the weekends down at Coco. Eveyone brings a can of food to give to the food bank. It's really cool. And we all sort of look after each other and use each other's services. Damaris and Renee are a big driving force behind the whole community thing. They do so much for K Road."

Tito Tafa, owner of Rebel Soul Music in Samoa House Arcade:

"It was only ever going to be K Road. It was the only place I looked, really. I've always loved K Road and it's always been the artistic and musical heart of the city. When I was a student living in Grey Lynn, I'd walk along to K Road to the university.

"It would be good to have some more life here. I've tried to gee up a few people to take over the space next door. It's a little bit dull with a travel agent and church offices at the front."

Dom Glamuzina, architect:

"Things fail all the time on K Road … it has this turnover and that's the thing that keeps it in its state. It's got the scale and capacity to fail. The antithesis of that is downtown, with big pub spaces. It drives me crazy, these massive restaurants and pubs with million-dollar fitouts. Why not allow something smaller? Small-scale failure is important."

Daniel Friedlander, K Road landlord:

On the unlet tenancies in the Friedlander family's Ironbank building:

 "That is changing. It has now turned around and it's 80% full. But that has been a long process. It's what happens when you're looking out that far – you make some decisions that the area wasn't ready for. But it's now coming into its own."

 On Bizdojo's importance in setting the character of Ironbank:

"There's a range of tenants in there now – architects, IT firms – but they were important in bringing a lot of people to the building and we have a very close relationship with them."

On K Road's future:

"It's going through a transition. There are a lot more apartments going in, there are going to be a lot more people walking around the area. It will in my view be the next Ponsonby. But not for the next five or six years. We look out quite a long period – we have a 10 or 20 year plan. And I think K Road has a great future.

"People don't like change. I accept that. But the area is changing and that's what happens when a city grows. It's one of the last areas in Auckland near the city that is changing. K Road has been waiting for its time for the last 15 years – and now it's slowly coming.

"A lot of immigrants are moving into the area, a lot more young people, artists, galleries. When it grows, you do get change.

"The creative element is changing – it's becoming much more commercial. It's changed from some guy just wanting to open up a gallery to professional gallery owners in there – Starkwhite and auction houses. It's becoming a Soho of Auckland, I can see looking forward."

Paul Reid, new owner of St Kevins Arcade:

"In terms of K Road's culture, I don't necessarily believe it's because of cheap rent. There's always a place in every city where there's a fringe arts culture. Silverlake in LA, Soho in London – although that's probably more Shoreditch now. 

"One of the things I've found is that it tends to happen where buildings are quite beautiful, or have been neglected. So maybe you're right and cheap rent is a function of that. But certainly the reason it became a red light district was when the resident population was decimated as the motorway went in. It was hard to find tenants and the tenants of last resort were strip clubs, and so they ended up leasing to them.

"There's a certain scale and intimacy to the buildings too, which is quite nice. Which you don't get in Ponsonby or Queen Street. It's a nice feeling."

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The response to the story has been overwhelmingly positive – except, it must be said, from Paul Reid himself. It does contain some things he'd prefer not to read about, but perhaps he'll come to see that I reached an optimistic conclusion of which his role is very much part.

I really do think things have turned out pretty well at the arcade. I hear only good things about the people behind the two new hospitality businesses, Bestie (formerly Personal Best) and Gemmayze Street. After long negotiations on a new lease, Whammy Bar is still there in the basement. Some plans may have changed along the way, but I think it's going to be okay. Paul and his tenants, new and ongoing, have my best wishes for the future.

I made this point in the story, but it's worth making again: the core of K Road is its owner-operators. And that's a fact Auckland Council needs to acknowledge and respond to. It's not good enough to pretty much hand Federal Street to Sky City, with its money and compliance lawyers, but make life hard for the little guys who want to manifest their community on their own street. If the council wants to give meaning to its concept of K Road as the city's edgy fringe – well, there are things it can do and people it can help.

The Taite Music Prize, with its mandate to judge solely on the "artistic merit, creativity, innovation and excellence" of the best New Zealand albums each year, with no heed paid to commercial success, has been a welcome addition to the landscape these past five or six years. But I don't think I've seen a stronger list of finalists than the eight shortlisted for the 2016 award.

They are:

SJD, Saint John Divine

Nadia Reid, Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs

Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Multi-Love

Princess Chelsea, The Great Cybernetic Depression

The Phoenix Foundation, Give Up Your Dreams

Anthonie Tonnon,  Successor

Marlon Williams, Marlon Williams

Silicon, Personal Computer

Every single one of these is a great record. And it's intriguing to see the variety of ways they've been brough to the public. Local indies, an Australia indie, a local indie distributor, artist-owned labels and the local branch of the biggest record company in the world, Universal Music, are all represented  in this list.

Having served once on a Taite judging panel, I can confirm that the deabtes to select the winner can be long and intense. I think that will be especially the case this year.

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I've been namechecking the Auckland-based A Label Called Success a bit recently. And now there's an opportunity to see some of the roster showcased live, at a Red Bull Sound Select event featuring Andras Fox, Hip Hoops, Spycc and others. It's on February 26 at Cassette, and you can RSVP here and pay on $3 on the door.

But thanks to the nice people at ALCS, I have something special for you. Just email me via the button at the bottom of this post, put the name of a A Label Called Success artist in the subject line, and you'll go in the draw for one of two double passes to the show, each of which comes with a $50 bar tab. I know, right?

I'm Splore-bound today, so I won't be drawing it until Monday evening. Speaking of which, I'd like to apologise to High Hoops for pushing him down the bill on Saturday. Sorry bro. Sometime ages goes on after beauty ...

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Couple of new videos. I really like what Dave Dobbyn's done for his new single 'Angelina', the last before the release of his Harmony House album, which is shot in his Grey Lynn home studio (there usually aren't that many guitars in it) and populated with fans invited in to dance, sing and basicallyham it up as mch as they liked. It's a happy, loving pop song and the video really expresses that:

And Tourettes' new song, 'No Losers @ Winz' – which is anything but a love song – has this bleakly hilarious clip to drive home its bleakly hilarious message (epileptic/migraine warning – flashing lights in the last 20 seconds):

 That's from the forthcoming album Feel Like Shit, Looking Great!

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In the second Dave Dobbyn mention for the week, here's the man and his ginger afro from a series of snaps taken by keyboard player Simon Lynch in the early 1980s and just published on Audioculture. Ah, the ennui of it all ...

Also on Audioculture at the moment – and incredibly popular – Clare Gleeson's history of the Begg's music stores, which played an extraordinary role in the performance and consumption of music in New Zealand in from the 1860s through till the 1970s. Clare is the great-great-granddaughter of Charles Begg, the firm’s founder and has also been able to contribute a rich collection of images like this one from the 1800s:

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Tunes!

Eddie Johnston celebrates performing at Splore as Race Banyon this week with the release of the first new recording from that side of his musical world in about two years. The new track, recorded as part of a Red Bull project in Los Angeles, features Ty Dolla $ign on the rap and co-production from DJ Dahi:

Rocknrolla Soundsystem have been quiet lately, but they've just popped up with a steamy edit of Me'shell Ndegeocello's 'Come Smoke My Herb'. That'll cost you a euro to download on Bandcamp:

It does also make me think – along with the 12" of her amazing version of Bill Withers' 'Who Is He and What Is he To You?' that I found recently – that I should have kept on paying attention to Me'shell Ndegeocello after her first album.

 You know how Soundcloud sends you on to a "related track" after your one is finished? Well, after Me'shell, it served up this new tribute to the late Jon H of Fort Knox Five. It's heavy, slow lovin' funk and it's a free download:

Lawrence Arabia has a practice of occasionally uploading bits and pieces from his hard drive. And this week, to celebrate his two-night stand at the Wine Cellar, he uploaded the original 2006 demo of his Silver Scroll-winning 'Apple Pie Bed':

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The Hard News Friday Music Post is kindly sponsored by:

This week, Helen Kelly, who has metastatic lung cancer and is terminally ill, received a letter from the Ministry of Health to tell her that an application by her oncologist Anthony Falkov under Sections 20-22 of the Medicines Act to import and prescribe cannabis oil inhalers to treat nausea, anorexia and pain has been "deferred".

Specifically:

The Ministry assessed Dr Falkov's application and considered it to contain insufficient information to enable a decision to be reached, briefing Associate Minister of Health Hon Peter Dunne accordingly.

Consequently, a ministerial decision was made on January 29 to defer the application.

Mr Dunne directed the ministry to follow up with Dr Falkov to obtain the oustanding information to allow an informed decision to be reached.

The ministry's response was swift: it was made the day after Dr Falkov's application was application was received. Subsequent delays appear to have been a matter of difficulty in contacting Dr Falkov. The response was also disingenuous and somewhat inevitable.

The "outstanding information" supposedly being sought from Dr Falkov is information that would help the application meet all the criteria used to guide the process of ministerial approval to import and use non-pharmaceutical-grade medical cannabis products.

These criteria are not stipulated in the Medicines Act. They were drawn up only relatively recently, in response to the Alex Renton case. I have an outstanding Official Information Act request as to how the criteria were prepared and on what advice. In my non-expert view, the criteria are unreasonable and, in this case, not fit for purpose.

Helen has sent me photographs of the three pages of the ministry's response and I've uploaded those in the first comment for this post. But it's worth going through them:

a. severe or life-threatening condition

Yes. Helen has metastatic lung cancer which has spread to her bones and her brain.

b. evidence that all reasonably applicable conventional treatments have been trialled and the symptoms are still poorly controlled

No. Helen is taking morphine for pain and three different drugs to try and manage nausea. But according to the ministry, "The application does not cite other medications or interventions that have been trialled for this patient." Now, remember that Helen has already taken a cannabis preparation and says that helped her sleep and manage her pain in a way that morphine doesn't. But under the criteria, that is immaterial unless the doctor can literally show that everything else has been tried.

The response also faults Dr Falkov for failing to seek advice from a palliative care specialist. It will be interesting to discover whether and to what extent the ministry has itself done this in devising the criteria, which themselves make no specific reference to palliative care.

The response also cites Sativex as "a preferred alternative if treatment with cannabis containing product is indicated". But Sativex is a pharmaceutical grade product – it's approved for use in New Zealand, but not funded. This is an application to use a non-pharmaceutical-grade product, under the rules for such an application. The ministry's response is disingenuous and irrelevant. Moreover, Helen says Sativex is unlikely to manage her symptoms as well.

c. evidence that the risk/ benefit of the product has been adequately considered by qualified clinical specialists – that is, the risk of treatment with an unproven product is less than the risk of non-treatment and account has been taken of any evidence of potential benefit and weighed against known adverse effects

No. The ministry has declined to offer any comment on this section, so it's hard to know what evidence would be satisfactory. But Helen Kelly is dying. She has already taken a cannabis preparation. It's hard to see what further "risk of treatment" might be added by her taking a commercially prepared substitute. Or, indeed, who the "qualified clinical specialists" might be, beyond the senior oncologist treating her.

d. patient hospitalised when treatment is initiated

No. And this is another example of how these criteria are unreasonable and poorly designed for palliative care.

e. patient or guardian has provided informed consent

Yes.

f. application from a specialist appropriate to the medical condition being treated or the Chief Medical Officer of a District Health Board

Yes.

g. applicant or specialist prescriber has sought adequate peer review eg, Hospital Ethics Committee approval, Drug or Therapeutics Committee review

No. "There is no mention of peer review by the applicant. As noted above there is no mention of review or advice sought from another clinician or specialty or the expert [obscured] a panel or commitee as mentioned in the criteria."

I think Dr Falkov's application would have been well-served by a supporting statement from a medical ethics committee or similar. But by the same token, these are criteria drawn up for the specific purpose of guiding approval for non-pharmaceutical cannabis products. It would be nice to see some evidence the ministry itself had sought ethical advice in drawing them up. This is, after all, a kind of application that is likely to be repeated in form. It seems a high bar to require every specialist doctor to seek this kind of peer review to help a terminally ill patient.

h. provision of a Certificate of Analysis, preferably from an accredited laboratory, so that the concentration of the active ingredient(s) is known

Bloom Farms, which makes the products Helen wants to import, supplies "medical cannabis dispensaries" throughout California – but California's medical cannabis laws are very loose and Bloom Farms isn't really a pharmaceutical manufacturer. Its website repeatedly cites "our mantra: relaxation, relief, creativity and fun" but I couldn't find any formal statement of assay on its website beyond an assurance that its "pure, all-natural cannabis oil contains consistent 45-50% THC content."

It's not unreasonable to seek evidence that a medical product is what it says on the label. It might be unreasonable to demand that every doctor or patient pays for an individual lab analysis.

But another California company, Phytologie, does provide a medical cannabis quality asurance programme that it provides "to our members to share with their physicians, so that their doctors can assist with designing more precise strategies for using cannabis medicinally." Here's one assay of a Bloom Farms product conducted with Phytologie as the client. And another of a high-CBD product. So this kind of testing is done and presumably Bloom Farms would be able to provide this information on request.

In this last respect, I think it can fairly be said that Dr Falkov has failed to provide sufficient evidence for his application. An assurance of the purity and potency of a medicine is an entirely reasonable requirement. But he's an individual oncologist and presumably a busy one. Does the ministry have a plan to build a product register? Or set up a structure to help ensure the robustness applications under this part of the law? Wouldn't that save wasted time and unnecessary suffering?

This issue isn't going to go away and I think the ministry needs to do a much better job than is suggested by these swiftly-drafted criteria, which look in some respects as if they're designed to make the problem go away.

In particular, there should be some better thinking around palliative care. It doesn't make sense to treat every application to improve the quality of life of a dying person the same as a bid to give a sick child an experimental treatment. The criteria are ostensibly specifically dedicated to cannabis products, but they're actually entirely general. We need this to be done better and more transparently.

As I've noted before, the use of cannabis in palliative care represents a particular ethical case. If a patient testifies that the treatment does in fact improve their quality of life and ease suffering in a way that approved pharmaceutical products have not, that should count for a great deal. The case for preventing access becomes much, much harder to make.

Peter Dunne has previously said to me that the criteria are only guidelines and don't determine his ministerial decision. But he's a minister who likes to emphasise that he acts on expert advice. And perhaps he has no choice, given his limited stock of political capital in this area.

This is, after all, a government that has chosen to brand itself on never changing the law – either the Misuse of Drugs Act or the Medicines Act – no matter what the evidence. That was, remember Justice Minister Simon Power's response to the Law Commission's view that there was "no reason why cannabis should not be able to be used for medicinal purposes in limited circumstances" by declaring "There is not a single solitary chance that as long as I'm the Minister of Justice that we'll be relaxing drug laws in New Zealand."

Power is no longer Ministry of Justice, but every single initiative to improve the way we deal with drugs in New Zealand still has to climb around this entirely political edict. It's the key reason we have little prospect of dealing sensibly with a fast-changing environment.

During the last election campaign, Prime Minister John Key paid visits to several Kapiti Coast and Porirua schools. When he wasn't insisting that his favourite music was One Direction, Key fielded this question from a student at Kapiti College:

Asked whether he would legalise medical marijuana, he told the school assembly: "This is the fundamental message. Drugs are bad for you."

Yes, the Prime Minister really did say "Drugs are bad, m'kay?"

I sometimes find myself in the position of defending minister Dunne. And it's not that I don't believe he should be doing better – I think he should be – but because what's happening here is not so satisfyingly simple as a prohibitionist minister crushing all bids.

The good part is that the criteria for applications like Helen's can be improved without changing the law. They're not part of the Medicines Act. I think Peter Dunne needs to ensure,  as minister, that the process is fundamentally improved. Because a process so designed as to frustrate all medical cannabis applications will not prevent the use of cannabis in this way.

In the end, we do need to revisit the law – as the Law Commisison and two Parliamentary select committee inquries have already said. Palliative care is not the only element of medical cannabis policy. But it's certainly the place we should start, given the growing use of cannabis this way in defiance of the law. When we fail to do this, we impose risk and stress on desperately ill people and their doctors – and we're saying we don't care enough to properly regulate for their safety.

No one is going to prosecute Helen Kelly for treating her symptoms with cannabis. But what the system currently says is that it can't and won't make that safer for her. We need to do better than this. A lot better.

African musicians have been adopting and adapting Western popular music for decades and there's endless pleasure to be had exploring the back pages of Nigerian funk-rock and Ghanaian disco. If you're going to WOMAD this year, you'll be hearing the fruits of the work that St.Germain, aka French producer Ludovic Navarre, did with Malian musicians on his current self-titled album, his first in, incredibly, 15 years.

St. Germain is is a lovely album for the summer, but it does fit almost too comfortably into a loungey, cafe-ethnic space that we can consume without having to think about it too much:

So it's worth being reminded that there are African producers, DJs and musicians making new and disruptive music. And that's what you'll hear on the new compilation Gqom! The Sound of Durban Vol.1, which lifts the lid on a scene that's a million miles from camping at WOMAD. It's not easy listening, but it's street tough.

The notes from a Soundcloud playlist for the album explain:

Derived from an onomatopoeic Zulu word signifying a drum, “gqom” - in the local slang - “iz da sound u get wen u drop a rock on tiles”. This extraordinary, apocalyptic bass music encompasses many influences. Each polyrhythmic track draws on the darker side of electronic music, hip hop, soundsystem culture, kwaito, UK funky and deep tribal African vibrations. As Kolè puts it: “You can feel the troubled history of South Africa. It’s riot music." Tied to a specific dance called bhenga, gqom happens in a DIY-oriented universe, grafting organic and homemade samples on sourced software to create this wholly unique sound. The label’s greater aim is to invest in much needed technology to help build a local creative infrastructure.

And Fact has a deeper primer of what it's all about.

I like this track a lot:

The album is available in various formats on Bleep.com.

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I'm delighted by Auckland City Limits' announcement that the festival has handed over the lakeside stage on its Western Springs site to the good people of Golden Dawn, who will curate an eclectic lineup ranging from Delaney Davidson to Carnivorous Plant Society and regular PA commenter and 7" single fiend Alan Perrott.

There's been a bit of commentary to the effect that Auckland City Limits needs an extra international act or two to justify the ticket price, but it's becoming clear that promoter CRS isn't trying to make another Big Day Out and that ACL's selling point is the chance to take in a variety of musical and cultural experiences in a pleasant, family-friendly (kids under 10 are free and there's a dedicated kid zone with its own lineup) setting.

Meanwhile, I was this week able to announce my Listening Lounge talk lineup for next weekend's Splore: the first part is about drugs and the second is about dance music. Fingers crossed that Cyclone Winston gets through quickly – or gives us a miss altogether.

It's a bit of a bugger that the collapse of an Australian festival on their itinerary means it's no longer possible for the Brand New Heavies,  Luke Vibert and Rone to come to Splore. On the upside, there'll now be a Leftfield DJ set on the Saturday night to go with the full show on on the Friday. The full schedule is here.

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Paquin, the personal band project of producer-to-everyone Tom Healey, have released Paquin III, which, as the title suggests, is the third EP in a set of three. It's another artful blend of shoegaze and electronic pop, available on Spotify or to buy via Bandcamp. This is the single:

And staying with local indietronica, Doprah have popped out their first track for 2016. It's a taster for their album Wasting, which is out next week, and was premiered this week on the Cool Runnings blog.

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Some rockin' business. Both new, in the form of this heavy, heav thing from the cheerily-titled new Beastwars album, The Death of All Things:

Note that Beastwars play Galatos on February 27. Tickets here at Under the Radar.

And some old vibes, in more than one way: my amigo Glenn "The Professor" Prosser last week reminded the world of the album he made with The Defendants, who describe themselves as "unashamedly proud of their links to the golden era of 70s Rock, where British bands like Black Sabbath, Budgie & Deep Purple mutated American blues into heavier, grittier, Rock n' Roll with a HEAVY GROOVE." It's got some swing – and Glenn's a hell of a sinner, er, singer:

That's available on Bandcamp at a price of your choosing. And if you see these men, do not hesitate to alert the authorities:

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Tunes!

We're down at the disco this week – well, even more than usual, we are. A Label Called Success has popped out another tune from its house "band", and it's another free download. Smooth groove ...

Furthermore, John Morales has posted several of his unreleased M+M remixes for your downloading pleasure. There's Harold Melvin's 'Bad Luck' as a 12-minute monster:

And a disco dub version on Sandy Barber's 'Steppin'':

And another unreleased mix, originally put down as the guide mix for the mix that was released:

And an entirely different kind of remix from Hober Mallow – hypnotic afro styles. Still all good for the download.

Cup & String have made their brilliant 'Say My Name' remix available as a download again. It's the linked DL from this instrumental dub of same. I'd quite like the dub to keep too!

I was researching Auckland>London>Bali beats queen Lady Flic for our Listening Lounge chat at Splore when I came across this track she recorded as her vocalist alter-ego City hayes. It's cool! Very British-sounding indie electronica:

And also this track Flic produced in 2005. Can you call it nu disco if it's 10 years old?

And some serious old-school Loft groove, crafted by combining two different Larry Levan mixes of the same tune. That's a follow-to-download job on HearThis ...

JEFFREY OSBOURNE - PLANE LOVE [Larry Levan Mix - J*ski Extended] by Jay Negron on hearthis.at

And finally, a new one of an old one from the DJ known as Gigamesh. He manages to embiggen and modernise familiar tunes without falling into the EDM hole or losing touch with the spirit of the original. I do like this. Click through for the download link to three different edits of the tune:

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The Hard News Friday Music Post is kindly sponsored by:

When the promoters of the Splore festival asked me to put together another Listening Lounge talk programme for this year's festival, they asked whether I had a dream guest I'd like to bring in. I did. And I'm pleased to say that the plan came together and, with the assistance of the New Zealand Drug Foundation, Dr Sanho Tree will be delivering the keynote speech.

Sanho is the director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington and if you've read any of the work I've done for Matters of Substance in the past three years, you'll probably have seen him quoted. Indeed, at one point my editor felt moved to politely suggest that I should write a story without quoting Sanho.

He's a former military and diplomatic historian and investigative journalist and a one-time personal assistant to entertainer and social activist Harry Belafonte. And he draws on all that to place the war on drugs "at the intersection of race and poverty". He's also witty, quotable and very smart.

Sanho will talk about the foundations of the global drug war in US foreign policy imperatives, the reasons it has failed and the prospects and means for reform. He'll also look forward to UNGASS 2016 – the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem, which takes place in New York in April.

I've written an extensive backgrounder on UNGASS for Matters of Substance, which traces an arc from the bold promise of "a drug-free world by 2008" on which UNGASS 1998 was branded, through to 2016, where the slogan might as well be "maybe we're doing this wrong ..."

Sanho's talk will be the concluding part of the first section of The Listening Lounge, at the Living Lounge stage from 10.30am on Saturday the 20th. I'll kick off with a brief summary of the history of psychoactive drugs and the laws that regulate them in New Zealand and an outline of where we're at now.

Then, at 11am, it's time for our panel:

Richie Hardcore is a broadcaster, steward, personal trainer and former kickboxer who spends his days working in the community with people with drug and alcohol problems. The twist? He does not use alcohol or drugs and has not done so far many years. But he's not judging.

Wendy Allison has done fascinating work on harm reduction and what people are really getting when they buy recreational drugs on the black market – and why that's a big problem.

The Rev Dr Hirini Kaa is a historian, social campaigner and Anglican minister. He has characterised the war on drugs as part of a "war on the poor", but, like many Maori leaders, is deeply wary of any move to relax drug prohibition.

Dr Jamie Whyte is, of course, the former leader of the Act Party. In line with his libertarian philosophy, he endorses the legalisation of drugs. But even for a libertarian, does the state have a role to play? And why can't even the party of personal choice get behind drug law reform?

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Sanho will speak from 11.30 till noon, when the theme changes to The State of the Dancehall Nation, which takes up the theme of the state of dance music that proved so profitable and interesting with Mr Scruff at last year's Listening Lounge.

 First up is the panel I'm calling The Parliament:

Eddie Johnston (aka Lontalius aka Race Banyon) is a young producer and performer who moves across musical boundaries with disarming ease. He's steeped in dance music history but worries about appropriating cultures he didn't create.

Aroha Harawira gave a fascinating (and sometimes alarming) account of working as a woman in the DJ trade at one of our Orcon IRL events last year and so I've asked her back. She's smart and strong and she know her tunes.

Lady Flic began her DJ career in New Zealand, got her break via the Red Bull Music Academy and moved to London and thence to Bali, where she she was until very recently music director at the Potato Head Beach Club. She's shared a stage with Snoop Dogg, Fatboy Slim and Derrick May, to name a few.

Which brings us to the final part of the programme: the House of Lords.

In the late 1980s Hackney brothers the Ragga Twins helped create the original gritty jungle sound that became drum 'n' bass. They're still working, still recording, still a massive bundle of fun – and reggae probably still owes them money.

They're joined by Barry Ashworth of the Dub Pistols, who was in the room (and in Ibiza) when the late 80s house revolution changed the face of global dance music and has worked since as a DJ, musician, TV broadcaster and occasional football pundit. He also helped get The Specials back together, and who can say that?

After all that, I have to leg it over to Splore DJ Stage to play my own 90-minute set of vintage house vinyl from 1.30. I'll probably be due a beer and swim when all that's done.

You can see the full Splore programme and purchase your tickets here.

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PS: Note that Sanho Tree speaks at public seminars in Auckland and Wellington in the week following Splore, under the banner A New Deal? Changing approaches to drugs in 2016. If I haven't already made this obvious, he's worth catching.