Wow, this is loud, caustic stuff.
The 2nd album from the ever-changing Christchurch 3-piece The Incisions blow the current crop of rock’n’roll revivalists out of the water. Its pure fire in a recording, scratchy, loud, abrasive and rude – more in the style of Japanese noise merchants Guitar Wolf or (particularly) Teengenrate than The Datsuns (who seem positively polished in comparison).
My review of ‘Compilation’, the original retrospective of The Clean’s first phase releases. 2 singles and 2 EPs crammed into a brilliant album.
2001, Arclife Records, ARC010 Demarnia Lloyd is something of an enigma in the Dunedin music scene. Over the past 7 years her involvement in former rock outfit mink and current band Cloudboy, as well as her solo material as cloud… Read More »Cloudboy – Down at the End of the Garden
2001, Flying Nun Records, FNCD456 After 20 years of continually releasing dynamic, independent and thoroughly inventive music – the Tall Dwarfs have released perhaps their most laid-back and restrained full length with ‘The Sky Above, The Mud Below’, their 13th… Read More »Tall Dwarfs – The Sky Above, The Mud Below
2002, Arclife Records Oh how CD’s have changed the face of music! Where once a double-album ‘opus’ from the likes of Led Zeppelin barely scraped the 60-minute mark, we now expect our albums to be at least 45 minutes long,… Read More »Demarnia Lloyd – Set Upon a Curve
A memorial I wrote for Michael J. Brassell after he sadly passed away from pneumonia in 2004. I helped organize a music tribute wake here in Christchurch to celebrate his life, whilst a similar event was also help in his then-current home of Dunedin.
The Christchurch scene of 1980-82 is pretty legendary, and rightly so. This was most fertile period of rock’n’roll in the city since the beat-boom days of Chants R’n’B circa 1966. There were some very good Christchurch punk bands (notably the… Read More »Christchurch in the 80’s [By David Swift]
2001, She’ll Be Right, SBR98912 Six years is a long time to be waiting for a debut album. Christchurch, New Zealand hip-hop duo dark tower started strongly way back in 1995 with a killer lead single and subsequent EP entitled… Read More »Dark Tower – Canterbury Drafts
2005, Flying Nun Records, FNCD494 Mathematical Warfare is an album with a heavy back-story and variety of disclaimers. Almost completely removed stylistically from the sound the band became known for just last year, the Shocking Pinks have gone through so… Read More »Shocking Pinks – Mathematical Warefare
2002, Sugarlicks Recordings, SUGARCD002 Following on from Sugarlicks first compilation ‘Urban Soul Pollution’, comes ‘Pacific Soul Warriors’ — without quite the high-profile line-up that the first compilation had. This time the album focuses more on the more soulful end of… Read More »Styles Upon Styles 2: Pacific Soul Warriors
An interview I conducted with Michael Brassell, aka Mike Hex – at the time the creative force behind Hiss Explosion and a musical co-ordinator for Arc Life Cafe / records down in Dunedin. Sadly Mike passed away just a few months later.
1998, Antenna Recordings, ANT012 Originally published as a retrospective feature review for Stylus Magazine There’s a distinct possibility that you may never see this album in even your most reliable of indie music stores. Darcy Clay was an unusual talent,… Read More »Darcy Clay – Songs for Beethoven
When a band’s been around a scene a long time, they start to develop a certain aura about them. Into The Void were always something of a notable band, with a vested interest in the local music and art scenes,… Read More »Into The Void [March 2005]
First off, describe your music in 10 words or less Antarcticish. Please substitute my use of the genre label ‘noise’, i’m not particularly fond of it myself.. Neither. ‘Noise’ is term usually used by Kylie fans to make generalizations about… Read More »Campbell Kneale [December 2002]
[Originally published in A Low Hum, October 2006] Skittery percussion, ethereal drones with metallic resonance, a disturbingly atmospheric sound counter-balanced by human, emotive vocals The Enright House sounds like a dramatic balancing act; much like the crumbling architectural images that… Read More »The Enright House [October 2006]