This 13-minute-long 3-track instrumental album is by Lorenzo Vichi, an Italian who now lives in Aotearoa. Everything we hear on the EP was written, arranged, recorded, mixed, produced and edited by Lorenzo who […]

I was chatting with singer/guitarist Neill Fraser at a gig recently, and we agreed that the acoustic style gig they did with Dead Favours earlier in the year was fun, but we were both looking forward to having […]

When Lisa sent me this, she said to me that Broke reminded her of The Rabble. Now, although I am playing rapid catchup on NZ bands, that is a band I know as they were connected with Orewa College and one of my […]

There are few labels as important to metal as Neat Records, whose third release was Tygers of Pan Tang’s hugely influential “Don’t Touch Me There”. I saw them support Saxon on the Wheels of Steel tour, and like ma […]

When I reviewed John Blangero’s debut album as Sun King Rising, I said it would undoubtedly raise his profile within the music scene, which is exactly what happened. Now here he is back with the follow-up, and y […]

I was at a gig last week, and was really intrigued by the opening act, Glasshouse Keepers, very much enjoying their complex rock sound with female lead vocals, so when I realised they had released a four-track EP […]

I had to smile when I saw this single, as while melodic hardcore outfit Amanaki is new to me, on this release they have a guest in the form of Luke Manson, who I have seen in both Antagonist AD and Xile in recent […]

Last month a gig I was planning to attend fell through, so I looked around and ended up going to Wine Cellar, where the headline band that night was a group from Christchurch I had not previously come across, […]

In recent years I have been thoroughly enjoying the works of big band leader and arranger Ed Palermo as he has taken songs and turned them into jazz classics. The person getting the treatment this time is none […]

It is safe to say that I was not a fan of Ghost Bath’s last album, 2017’s ‘Starmourner’, and I said that by far the best thing about it was the artwork! The band were still hiding their identities at the time (a […]

Jeff Scott Soto has long been one of my favourite singers, and here we have an interesting concept as this album is a retrospective of sorts, as it contains re-recordings of favourite songs from throughout his […]

It is not unusual for bands to go through line-up changes, but there is no doubt that what has happened with Massacre is a little unusual in that no-one in this line-up played on the last album, while vocalist Kam […]

I am currently reading Richard Thompson’s excellent memoirs ‘Beeswing’, and in that he talks about how they had to let Iain Matthews go from Fairport Convention as he wanted to follow a different musical path, […]

Last weekend I was at Whammy Bar in Auckland to see the album release show for Xile’s ‘I Am Your God’. Thanks to a certain pandemic this album almost slipped out with people not realising, as it was released in Ma […]

This is a somewhat unusual approach to an album, as multi-instrumentalist Ashley Davies has composed 10 instrumental tracks which fit in with the 10 Lasseter series of paintings by his uncle Len. Harold Lasseter […]

This album is the third from Delay Tactics, with the line-up of Walter Whitney (keyboards, synths), Carl Weingarten (electric and slide guitars) and David Udell (acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards) who all […]

Peavy Wagner (vocals, bass) and his band of merry men are back with a special EP release for fans to celebrate their co-headlining tour with Brainstorm that is taking place over the next few months. There are few […]

It is not often that I am asked to review reggae, as it is an area which is very much a strange land to me, so I am coming at this as a straightforward listener as opposed to having any knowledge in the genre. […]

Alt rockers Old Salts hail from the shores of Bream Bay, Northland, and features John Buckle (lead vocals, guitar) Scott Brown (lead guitar, BV) Marcus Jones (bass, BV), and Lucas Hargreaves (drums, BV). This […]

Just the opening few bars of their new single lets the listener know that Dead Favours are back, and yet again they mean business. Charlie sets up an intricate backbeat, Kyle and Jared have their guitars in sync, […]