Christchurch lo-fi collective founded by Luke Towart in 2012, recorded to four-track cassette. Members have included Brian Feary, Ben Woods and Adam Hattaway. Their 2023 album The Giant's Lawn was named one of the best New Zealand albums of the year by Rolling Stone NZ.
New Zealand band active in the mid-1980s, releasing two EPs on Ode Records including the radio-played 'The Burma Road'. Members went on to form the Dough Boys and The Reactions.
Wax Chattels are an Auckland trio making confrontational, guitar-less post-punk, who released their self-titled debut album in 2018 through New York label Captured Tracks to international acclaim.
Obscure solitary release from Michael Webby on short-lived Palmerston North based underground lathe-cut label Secret Safari.
Debut release from a Palmerston North import from Hawkes Bay who's now resident in Dunedin. Beautiful low-key solo guitar pieces.
- Secret Safari
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Christchurch 5-piece rock group who put out a self-titled debut in 1995 after featuring on Failsafe Records Good Things compilation. Disbanded in 1996. Keyboardist Andrew 'The Hammer' Hamtpon would later become the head of New Zealand's Secret Service, i.e. the GCSB.
#nzmusic #wadd #failsaferecords #gcsb
Jangly Christchurch pop from the early 1980's. The group recorded a 6 song mini-album with the intent of it being released on Flying Nun Records, however the recordings went unreleased until 2013 when it was picked up and released as a retrospective LP by German label Unwucht.
The song 'Mystery' shows the group had bags of potential.
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Warble was a High School aged post-rock group formed by (future stand-up comedian and author) Eamonn Marra and Jack Hooker, with the intent to enter Smoke-Free Rock Quest in 2008.
Joined by drummer James Woods (who had previously appeared alongside Hooker in We Will Fight You), violinist Clare Fryer and (initially) Valentine Nixon - though the Purple Pilgrims vocalist left before Warble had started recording their sole EP, which they put out on BandCamp in 2009.
#nzmusic #warble #purplepilgrims
The Wastrels were an early 1980's Christchurch 4-piece pop-rock group who were touted as the 'Next Big Thing', but never kicked on to wider success, with just a single and an EP to their name.
#nzmusic #thewastrels
Fairly rudimentary punk coming out of Wellington's late 1970's / early 1980's Terrace scene. Famously organized the **** compilation - which is a pretty effective scene document.
Sonya Waters first appeared as the vocalist for ska group The Instigators, putting out a couple 7" singles on Ripper Records in the early 1980's before releasing an EP under her own name in 1983. This release got her a lot of attention - eventually leading to an RIANZ award for most promising female vocalist.