At this time of the year, it is common to look back and think about what we have experienced, and while anyone living in Auckland will happily complain about the last 3+ months (with good reason), we were all able to experience live music earlier in the year if we so...

This is the debut single from Ayla Wesley, a young alt folk/indie artist who has been playing gigs in Tauranga and Auckland over the last few years. It commences with a few electric guitars combining to set an ambience until it settles down to just one guitar being...

2021 has been a voyage of discovery for me in the NZ Music scene, and it may have taken a lengthy road trip, but earlier in the year I finally managed to catch up with {In The Shallows} who have the temerity to live in the capital as opposed to Auckland. I fell in...

There is no doubt that 2021 has been a hard ride emotionally for Written By Wolves. They went through the process of re-recording tracks from their Secrets album and putting them out as The Collab Project//Secrets, baring their soul to get people talking about mental...

Earlier this year Investigator made it into the official NZ charts for the first time with Lake of Eyes, a wonderful achievement for a fully independent self-funded outfit. Since then, there has been the minor issue of an Auckland lockdown which prevented them from...

Thanks for Thierry Sportouche (Acid Dragon), here I am writing about a French album which was released back in 2001. At the time this was the first solo album by Voulzy for 9 years and reached #2 in the national charts. He originally led the English-pop-influenced Le...

It is safe to say that I was hugely impressed by Heckler’s debut album, ‘After The Flood’, while he was the first artist on the indispensable series, ‘The Magnolia Sessions’, so when I saw this had been released I was expecting great things, and I was not...

Kaylee is the most streamed Female Country artist from Australasia, with more than 30 million to date, with her recent hit single That Summer breaking the million and being the mot added song to mainstream radio in New Zealand in the month of release. That is one of...

Multi-instrumentalist Ben Ruegg is back with his latest single as Channeled, which also now appear to have a new logo. I have always been impressed with this band, either live or in the studio, but here Ben is moving in a slightly different direction, and I am not...

If you had told me at the beginning of the year that we would be ending 2021 and I had only seen Coridian play a few times I would have laughed at you. Mind you, we also expected the full-length album, Hava, as well but COVID 19 has a way of messing up the best laid...

Band In Town is the latest single from folk/pop singer Mahoney Harris. Inspired by memories of her mum and friends getting ready for nights out, the cover actually features both her mother (on the left) and her godmother. I haven’t heard any of Mahoney’s earlier...

Lazy Fifty are Adrian Athy (vocals, guitar), Ryan Raggett (bass), and Ali Sochacki (drums), and they play traditional solid Seventies-style melodic hard rock. This is their fourth album, and to put is simply, is an absolute blast from start to finish and a load of...

Guitarist Doug MacDonald and bass player Harvey Newmark have worked together quite a lot over the years, with Harvey featuring in many of Doug’s different line-ups. Given that they have such an instinctive feel for each other, the idea came up of recording as a duo...

Here we find Doug in Honolulu, recording in a quartet which comprises Noel Okimoto (vibraphone), Dean Taba (bass) and Darryl Pellegrini (drums). I have always thought the vibraphone is a much-maligned and under-used instrument in modern music, as it has a tone and...

When it comes to writing about progressive rock music, then there are not that many still going who have been in the scene longer than me, but one notable exception is Thierry Sportouche, who has been running the French progzine Acid Dragon since the late Eighties. I...

Indochine are apparently France’s best-selling band, although this 2002 album is the only time I have come across them. Formed in Paris back in 1981, they had considerable success in the Eighties, which slowed somewhat in the 90’s, although their fortunes were revived...

One of the sheer delights of Lee’s new album, Gypsy Soul, which is due out in February, is the incredible amount of diversity contained within it. During the recording process, songs were rearranged, many discussions were had, and the album ended up being taken in...

One Dead Man is Michael Baxter from Tauranga bands {The Dead Man 6} and {The Knids}, who came up with the idea during lockdown of putting together a collection of songs which would work together as a rock opera or concept album, and he settled on the idea of...