Music Industry News

Alphabethead is the musical project of David Morrison (he/him), a producer and turntablist based in Whanganui.

At any point in time Alphabethead finds himself adrift in the musical cosmos, somewhere between the constellations of Hip Hop, Electronica and Experimental Rock. At the age of 18 Morrison won the 2002 New Zealand DMC DJ Championship and this title sent him performing across the globe. Over the next twenty years he would go on to make six albums as Alphabethead, five albums as one third of cult genre-shredders The All Seeing Hand and two records as half of the psychedelic Hip Hop duo Bad Taste alongside Young Gho$t.

Morrison also contributed production or turntable scratching for Home Brew, Tourettes, Benny Tones, Death & The Maiden, The Etymologists (featuring Richard Nunns and David Long (The Mutton Birds) and The Village Of The Idiots (a modern jazz ensemble led by Anthony Donaldson (The Front Lawn, Six Volts, Primitive Art Group)). His musical prowess has led to tours through Aotearoa, Australia, UK and China and performances at festivals like WOMAD, Splore, Laneway and Camp A Low Hum.

After the one two punch of ‘I’m Lucy Lawless’ and ‘Kirby’s World’ Alphabethead is back with another single ‘No Control.’ The track is taken from Alphabethead’s new album My Name Is David which will be released digitally, on cassette and long sleeve tee on October 31, 2025 via Sunreturn.

Inspired by Kentaro Miura’s Berserk and driven by an ominous melody played by a Nadaswaram (a hardwood wind instrumental originating in South India), ‘No Contro sees Alphabethead toy with simplicity and restraint. The track features one of the few moments of turntablism from My Name Is David featuring precise scratches and cuts.

“No Control is the most minimal song I’ve ever created, I was dancing all over the mute button with this one,” says Morrison. “For the scratch solo I tried to empty my mind and scratch without free will; as if a cosmic puppet master was guiding my hands.”

“No Control is a meditation on free will and the nature of evil. I was reading Berserk by Kentaro Miura at the time and grappling with some of its themes. Is humanity just plodding along on rails leading to an unavoidable destiny, or do individuals possess the power to blaze their own trail? And, is evil an immutable force that will persist as long as humankind exists? Or, does humankind trend towards the good, with evil only emerging as an unfortunate product of circumstance?”

“These age-old questions are hard to address in an instrumental so my intent was to create a spacious soundscape that encourages the mind to wander and reflect. When the melody enters it is purposefully ambiguous in emotion so it is the listener who will decipher whether it carries hope, or despair, or a bit of both.”

‘No Control’ joins ‘I’m Lucy Lawless’ and ‘Kirby’s World’ on Alphabethead’s new album My Name Is David, available digitally, on cassette and Long Sleeve T-Shirt on October 31st.

Check out all things Alphabethead below:
Bandcamp
Apple Music
Instagram

Photo Credit: Abby Stewart