Reviews
Tattletale Saints - How Red Is the Blood
The duo behind this debut album of sensitively understated folk and subtle simplicity have a bit of "form", we might say. They are expat Kiwis Cy Winstanley and Vanessa McGowan who were previously in Her Make Believe Band. Their AM... More
Sam RB - Queen Street Acoustics
Auckland songwriter Sam RB has been met with some skepticism (if not outright cynicism) by many mainstream music writers on account of her song for the New Zealand Olympic Team (music journalists rarely like patriotic or cheerleading songs, regardless of... More
The Bads - Travel Light
In an interview some years ago Graham Brazier said that in the rush to embrace younger artists, New Zealand had created what he called "adult contempt". If you were over 28 you were ignored, he said... More
Popstrangers - Antipodes
Because international writers can often take a more dispassionate view of New Zealand culture -- witness the difference between local and overseas reviews of The Hobbit; ours mostly loved it, theirs went hmmm, yawn -- it is often salutory to... More
Plum Green - Rushes
Although until recently we had Plum Green's succession of notable EPs to keep us sated, the release of her debut album Rushes is no less welcome. After years of preening up support, along with a short and productive crowd funding... More
Girls Pissing On Girls Pissing - Eeling
Given their chosen name, you can guess that this Auckland four-piece don't expect (or possibly want) mainstream recognition either at home or abroad. And you don't want to know what comes up if you do a web-search or look on... More
Hello Sailor - Surrey Crescent Moon
The mythology and facts surrounding Hello Sailor as the Famously Dissolute Ponsonby Rock Band of the Seventies probably does them a disservice these days... More
Pin Group - Ambivalence
In his liner notes to this important reissue from Flying Nun, Bruce Russell makes the point that this collection has not only historical significance -- the Pin Group's Ambivalence was the first single on the fledgling Flying Nun label in... More
Dear Time's Waste - Some Kind Of Eden
When I heard 'Clandestine', the first single from Dear Time's Waste back in 2009, I was immediately hooked by its simultaneously sparse and complex nature. The powerfully monotonous bass and snare drums, accompanied by no crash and scarcely a cymbal,... More
Julie Lamb - Trippin' The Light
"If you catch me, don't burn yourself", enunciates Julie Lamb in Tell Me Who I Am, the opening track on her second album Trippin' the Light. It's some fitting phrasing indeed when we view the record in its entirety. Lamb... More
Peter Posa - White Rabbit: The Very Best Of Peter Posa
Last week, in anticipation of the success of this album, I was preparing a profile of Peter Posa -- yet to run -- and it was my pleasure to ring him back later and congratulate him. At 70 (71 next... More
Dudley Benson - Live Series: Volume One
Dudley Benson's EPs and albums always have a sense of occasion about them. They arrive as specially thoughtout, beautifully packaged little gifts with delightful or dramatic artwork (the Peter Stichbury cover painting on the limited edition vinyl EP Minerals and... More
Module - Imagineering
The recent release of the Loop label compilation album Winter -- downbeat'n'drifting electronica mood pieces for these snuggle-down colder days -- draws attention to this previously released album by Module (Jeramiah Ross). His gentle piece Reflections Scatter was the perfect... More
Collapsing Cities - Strangers Again
Finally, the sophomore Collapsing Cities album is sitting on my desk and in my CD player. There were, I confess, times that I truly believed, and I mean with with absolutely no disrespect to the band or anyone involved, that... More
Lawrence Arabia - The Sparrow
Because this deftly orchestrated album of slightly worldweary pop by James Milne -- aka Lawrence Arabia -- has already picked up five star reviews and critical acclaim at home and abroad, it perhaps hardly needs my assistance to bring it... More
Savage - Mayhem & Miracles
Anyone looking for evidence of the seeming split personalities at work within hip hop culture -- gangbangers who love their kids etc -- need go no further than this enjoyable if sometimes puzzling mix of strutting braggadocio, sensitivity, faith and... More
Opossom - Electric Hawaii
There is a myth that if two equal sized cars traveling an open road both at 100kph were to collide that the force of the impact is twice that of their traveling speed if they were to strike a stationery... More
Sunken Seas - Null Hour
From the ashes of Tiddabades comes the dark atmospherics of Sunken Seas with their debut album Null Hour being released on local independent label Muzai Records. The album opens with a soundscape setting What Birds See before segueing seamlessly into... More
Clap Clap Riot - Counting Spins
Must be four years at least since I saw this fizzy, fiery post-punk pop outfit play one of their early gigs, so this debut album does seem rather long overdue. Although it has been anticipated by some singles (three I... More
Factories - The Supreme Cosmic Consciousness Births A Star Child In Negative Space At Absolute Zero
Calling all occupants of interplanetary craft, here's your soundtrack for space travel... More
Luckless - Luckless
Initially described as "depressive antifolk," Luckless bend towards a rich, complex flavour of melancholia. Ivy Rossiter fronts the two-piece Auckland band with guitar and vocals, backed up by drummer Will Wood... More
The Golden Awesome - Autumn
It seems like forever since I've been waiting to get my grubby lil mits and ears on to this record - seemingly ever since I even heard it was going to exist, I've longed to have and to hold it... More
Dictaphone Blues - Beneath The Crystal Palace
Like Marty McFly at the high school dance in Back to the Future, Ed Castelow of Dictaphone Blues has beamed himself back to crucial touchstones in pop-rock (classic Fifties chords, Beatles era choruses, Seventies power pop, American stadium rock from... More
Skank Attack - Here On Out
This music - originally produced by Nick Roughan who has done the mixing on these recently rediscovered masters - is all forward energy, booming basslines, desperate vocals and widescreen melodies propelled by terrific guitar work... More
The Verlaines - Ultimate Meditations
Of the original Flying Nun bands, The Verlaines - the flexible vehicle for Graeme Downes - are still the most ambitious... More
