Sounds Escape is a new project by multi-instrumentalist Logan Wedgwood, with Voices being the debut release. This six-track 30-minute-long instrumental album was conceived during the first Auckland lockdown when Logan discovered he and his wife were not coping well...

In June of last year I made my way to Wine Cellar to see {Melanie} for the first time, and one of the bands on the bill that night were {Finger Tight}, and when I reviewed them I said “I was extremely impressed by the end and found it hard to believe this is just...

What can you say about {BLindspott} which hasn’t already been said? When it comes to metal icons from NZ, there are few who exist in the same rarefied atmosphere as these guys, and when I saw them play recently there was no doubt they were among friends who knew all...

Don’t let the first ten seconds of the latest single from Christchurch outfit Stonehurst lull you into a false sense of security. Admittedly, I was staring at the speakers trying to work out what was going on and equate the sounds with the band I saw play last year...

Impostor Syndrome is an experimental recording project based in Auckland, New Zealand. Becoming best of friends as seventeen-year-olds over a shared love of Alice in Chains, it took until 2019 before vocalist Ryan Culleton, drummer Scott Nicolson and...

Amanaki are back with the second single from their forthcoming EP, Tempest, and is a song which they say was incredibly difficult to record, and even harder to play live given the emotions behind it. During the first lockdown, April discovered that her father’s cancer...

Some 40+ years ago David Coverdale sang the immortal words, “I love the blues, They tell my story, If you don't feel it you can never understand” and they are as true today as they ever were. If you get the blues, really get the blues, there is nothing else like it...

I have always had a soft spot for folk music, and five years ago travelled to the other side of the world just for a folk festival (honest), but one instrument I did not come across a great deal in the UK was the ukulele, probably due in no small manner to everyone...

Baja Mexico. Private Release 42mins https://www.facebook.com/bonzo.fimbres.5 Rating 90/100 Not since the ‘Hampton Grease Band’s epic album ‘Music to Eat’ has any other recorded material come close to bursting forth and squeezing the brains from out of the top of your...

It is safe to say there is no other artist in New Zealand currently working at the pace of Troy Kingi. Earlier this year he released the te reo version of Holy Colony Burning Acres, Pū Whenua Hautapu, Eka Mumura, finished the tour for Black Sea Golden Ladder, and is...

Brutal death metal Auckland quintet have just released their debut 5-track EP, following on from the two singles which were released from it last year. I was lucky enough to see these guys when they supported Pale Flag earlier this year, while I have also caught...

Here we have the second single to be taken from Anthea’s forthcoming debut solo album, The Vicar’s Daughter, which will be out later this year. Hailing from Lyttleton, she used to spend her Wednesday nights with The Eastern until Adam Mcgrath told her, ''you gotta...

Here we have the latest single from Wellington-based indie-alternative band Vogel Town who feature Andrew Roberts is on the guitar, and Aaron Mody on drums/percussion. This instrumental track starts with some hand drums and a single guitar playing a repeated riff, and...

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 decided to record and produce this EP by himself to...

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 Villainy back on a rock stage. The quartet (which is...

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 daughters even wrote and recorded a song with Chas. I saw...

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 many teenagers I was soon sending cheques and postal...

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 yet again we are taken on a journey with a pianist and...