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]
2001, Columbia, 5024222000 The Straitjacket Fits were an unusual, charismatic, and somewhat untrustworthy rock band. Over the course of ten years Shayne Carter proceeded to claim authoritarian command of one of New Zealand’s most popular bands, releasing three albums. This trilogy… Read More »Dimmer – I Believe You Are A Star
2001, Flying Nun Records, FNCD449 The garage rock explosion of recent times has given way to the world again discovering rock’n’roll outside the borders of the United States. After Japanese outfit Guitar Wolf got everyone pumped up all those years… Read More »The D4 – 6Twenty
In September 2012 I conducted an interview with The Pin Group’s Roy Montgomery for an article published by the Christchurch Press. This is the published article.