2004, Lil’ Chief, LCR007 Over the course of the last two years, The Brunettes must surely go down as one of New Zealand’s most productive bands, with a series of long-stay live tours flowing across New Zealand and stories of… Read More »The Brunettes – Mars Loves Venus
2002, V2, V2CP143 With all the hoopla and excitement over the new gee-golly-gosh retro-cool selection of rock’n’roll revivalists going on – it must be hard on the bands that have been swinging this stuff for years, right’ well, in The… Read More »The Datsuns – The Datsuns
2007, A Low Hum, HUM031 The Enright House have produced a luscious polished product in their debut album, A Maze and Amazement. To most, the band is probably best known from touring with A Low Hum, who happens to be… Read More »The Enright House – A Maze and Amazement
1994 / 2003 Reissue, Flying Nun Records, FNCD078 With Flying Nun Records reissuing a number of their long out-of-print release, it was about time the boys from Jean-Paul Sartre Experience saw the light of day again. Their early discography is… Read More »Jean-Paul Sartre Experience – Jean-Paul Sartre Experience
[Originally published in A Low Hum October 2006] Will Edmonds is eager, passionate and luckily for Christchurch, one of the founders of Out of Kilter, an all ages orientated community that focuses on promoting bands and events. Out of Kilter… Read More »Will Edmonds / Out Of Kilter [October 2006]
The Leper Ballet burnt so brightly and so quickly that it’s astonishing they didn’t garner wider acclaim. Like Iggy and his Stooges during the epochal hey-day, the group were a writhing, for-the-moment ball of energy, engulfing rooms with pulsating sound… Read More »Leper Ballet [April 2005]
2002, Failsafe Records Two wonderfully hand-packaged releases from local 3-piece Substandard. Best described as an instrumental band with involving guitar textures (Danny Bare), driving bass guitar (Gareth Heta) and funky drumming (Andrew Robbins); they been highly prolific around town this… Read More »Substandard – Low Electric City Pulses EP / Global Research Centre
2002, Arclife Records, ARCLIFE019 As half of the writing force behind seminal Christchurch/Dunedin fuzz-country rockers The Renderers (with his wife Mary-Rose), Brian Crook [aka Bible Black] has been making dirty, downtrodden stories since the late 80’s. In 1997 The Renderers… Read More »Brian Crook – Bible Black
2002, Sugarlicks Recordings, SUGARCD001 Soul, funk and hip-hop with a pacific flavor seems to be emerging as the new catalyst of the New Zealand underground music scene. Over the past 5 years, a fine blend of well-crafted soul, funk, hip-hop… Read More »Styles Upon Styles 1: Urban Soul Pollunation
2004, Lil Chief, LCR009 I’ve tried to start this review several times now. There is something about Alec Bathgate‘s music that is so compelling that it’s a mystery why I find it hard to describe why his subtle blends of… Read More »Alec Bathgate – The Indifferent Velvet Void
2002, Lil’ Chief, LCR001 Sunny pop, sing-along melodies, and carefree grooves. Not something that pops up too often in New Zealand music, but The Brunettes pull it off with a slick, diverse album that I can imagine being a beach-party… Read More »The Brunettes – Holding Hands, Feeding Ducks
2001, Arclife Records, ARCLIFE016 The Clean seems to be drifting more towards lead guitarist David Kilgour’s now-prominent laid back sound. 2001’s reunion album ‘getaway’ was a refreshing slice of acoustic pop washed in feedback, all three members lazy vocals, mixed… Read More »David Kilgour – A Feather in the Engine
On Monday, September 15th I saw an innocuous Facebook post by Doo Ragnarok, aka Duane Zarakov, aka Pat Faigan – a fairly typical post by Pat, who spends a great chunk of the day posting excellent youtube clips of classic… Read More »RIP Peter Gutteridge
2005, Tea Set Records Review by Achilles Heel Not bad for a first EP, in fact it’s almost pure perfection for a first time thing. This band of 3 girls and one guy have only been together since 2004. Albeit… Read More »Duchess – Duchess EP
Over the last 20 years The Bats have garnished a label of dependability – and with good reason. Though now taking a little bit of time between releases (one might jump to the conclusion that ‘At The National Grid’ is… Read More »The Bats [February 2006]