What's New in New Zealand Music?

What's been new in 2017?

TELL ME

Apart from

Estère, who's on fire rn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-h2dS2GUlM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUbtgDsVmoE

So far she's released half the album, My Design, also including "Ambition" https://youtu.be/zJdyRmg5n1s

So Below in club banger mode

https://soundcloud.com/sobelowsound/ruin-sombear-remix-1

Indi (Indira Force) is having a good year – a solo album Precipice (title track here) and an astonishing ambient collaboration with violinist Anita Clark, The Dying Light:

https://newdawn1.bandcamp.com/album/the-dying-light

And K2K's extremely chill EP, as mentioned [NOT VINYLED YET]

https://marginslabel.bandcamp.com/album/mar-003-k2k-sugar-ep

Has anyone mentioned Surf City? They're almost a Flying Nun circa early 90s pastiche but with some great songs. If the Flying Nun roster were like the Premier League table, I'd have the Chills, the Bats, the Clean and Straitjacket Fits occupying the Champions League spots, Surf City would be somewhere towards the bottom of table with Garageland.

Hey Grantman, you may like Search & Destroy: Flying Nun &
Flying Nun 25th Anniversary box set

Surf City got mentioned in the Arch Hill records thread – some stuff is on Bandcamp/Spotify, but the Kudos album isn't available to stream apparently.

2017 NZ albums, what are yours?

A posse of ILMers are losing their shit over Thread of Aldous Harding - eccentric 'gothic folk' NZ singer songwriter so that's good.

The NZMA awards on Thursday, several awards went to Lorde obv - also two for SWIDT's Welcome to Stoneyhunga as mentioned by etc. This was their performance:

- http://www.maifm.co.nz/home/vids/2017/swidt-perform--player-of-the-day--at-the-vnzmas-2017.html

- http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/lorde-and-jacinda-ardern-gave-us-the-defining-moment-of-the-nz-music-awards

Apparently Maisey Rika withdrew herself from the Māori Artist award, in order to support the younger musicians. It was won by Teeks' smooth soul EP, The Grapefruit Skies.
'

A few more albums...

Ria Hall makes a play for history with Rules of Engagement, an album years in the making, and which should have appeal well beyond 2017:

- https://riahall.bandcamp.com/album/rules-of-engagement

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0638701128_7.jpg

The key inspiration for this work is the letter scripted by Henare Taratoa (Ngāi Te Rangi) in March 1864 to the Governor of New Zealand, Sir George Grey. This letter outlined the way in which both Māori and British should conduct themselves during war, namely the battle of Pukehinahina (Gate Pa) in my tribal area of Tauranga Moana. This code of conduct was known as the Rules of Engagement, and is where this album takes its name from.

Forgot to mention Tei's mixtape from earlier in the year, OMW:

- https://teimusic.bandcamp.com/album/omw

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1715241857_7.jpg

And Yumi Zouma's latest, Willowbank, as nom'd elsewhere:

- https://yumizouma.bandcamp.com/album/willowbank

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0997252318_7.jpg

For the making of Willowbank, Yumi Zouma's members — Charlie Ryder, Josh Burgess, Christie Simpson and Sam Perry — settled on a plan to reunite for the New Zealand summer. To complete what would become their first significant work written and recorded entirely in their home country, they rented a studio in Christchurch’s semi-demolished CBD, on one of the few remaining blocks that still characterizes the city from before it was destroyed by a series of earthquakes. “It was as though there was a brief pause in all of our lives and we finally felt like a band from New Zealand,” said Burgess. “We were on home turf and creating from a place that felt fundamentally natural.”

Hey, sbahnhof, keep forgetting to thank you for boosting the Ria Hall album and Estère EPs - while I'm probably not as up on them as you are, spending more time listening to them has been great. The whole Loop Recordings / Wgtn jazz-school thing had put me off a little (early aughts PTSD), but they're both a lot richer than that. Having an Irish transplant / Erykah Badu fan asking for local recommendations was another good reason to engage, as well. Could have sworn I'd mentioned the tei. mixtape here, but must have been somewhere else.

Quite a strange choice of group name, but this came out of nowhere to pretty great effect:

Babyface - Dirty South Pacific
https://growroomakl.bandcamp.com/album/dirty-south-pacific

Looking forward to the new Coco Solid mixtape, COKES, on Waitangi Day, eh.

Under The Radar's EOY playlist and roundup are pretty catholic:

http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/13685/Stream-Our-2017-End-Of-Year-Playlist.utr

http://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/13696/2017-End-Of-Year-Round-Up.utr

My god, with this kind of voting bloc, something Kiwi might even reach the top 777!

Thanks for your panic-nominning, Etc, it's all here

- ILM's 2017 End of Year Tracks & Albums Poll / NOMINATIONS THREAD

That SoccerPractice album is very good, I'd totally overlooked it:

- https://soccerpractise.bandcamp.com/album/soccerpractise

- http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018623054/soccerpractice-discuss-their-excellent-debut
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3367875804_7.jpg

Other NZ stuff in the EOY includes Lorde, Aldous Harding and SWIDT, and others?

Mermaidens' album Perfect Body

- https://mermaidens.bandcamp.com/album/perfect-body-3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP6jUTd-jfY

Nadia Reid's Preservation

- https://nadiareid.bandcamp.com/album/preservation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jN1BfSLbzg

That Nadia Reid album is so good, feel like a lot of ppl on ilm would like it?

really great recommendation, thanks! video is cool too

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=67&v=0jN1BfSLbzg

Yeah, I have a soft spot for "Richard" - she's great live, too. Some surprisingly Eno/Buckley-ish textures on the album.

Meanwhile, a few days until
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DU1AoHOVoAErWBD.jpg

Don't forget Coco Solid's Aroha Bridge is coming back too. It's a cartoon and almost a documentary:

- https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/aroha-bridge-2013/series

Some great concerts are taking place for Waitangi Day 2018 in some locations...

- https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018630566/waiata-on-waitangi-day

Finally, a song to sing when someone is carrying a bag which looks heavy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPQaxGJcRRg

(story of the song & video on this page)

Oh yeah also

New Zealand has an act called Jeremy Corbyn Sound System

They played this festival, and that's all we know so far

- https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/13413/A-Gathering-In-The-Forest-Announces-Lineup-For-2018.utr

Astro Children's new single is more chill and less lo-fi for them. Surprisingly they've put a donk a synth on it.

And frontwoman Millie Lovelock interviews as entertainingly as ever:

- https://thespinoff.co.nz/music/09-03-2018/astro-children-the-only-dunedin-sound-i-have-ever-cared-about-is-my-own/

No one in Dunedin is safe! Also, that grafitti thing that she mentions (Chills mural defaced by a new band seeking notoriety), doesn't really make anyone look good...

Dear BBC 6 Music listeners – sorry & you're welcome for The New Radiohead, NZ band Groeni (pronounced...."Groany"?), who may not have realized they were such a tribute act. But hey, it's working for them. Even got played on Radio 3's Late Junkshop, so they're def doing very well. Luv u Groany.

(The R3 host calls them "Groiny", in fact)

And now

IT'S REGGAE O'CLOCK
once an hour :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAGqGgsYup8

Etc's linking of this interview-article about Tomorrow People is a good reminder that reggae is really popular in NZ, so it probably needs a mention itt :-) Or is it just Six60 dominating the NZ-only singles chart?

https://s26.postimg.org/yhum4fx2x/NZ-top-six60-singles-19mar2018.png

Imagine five months of that with a 6-track EP - they controlled the NZ-only chart even more with a full album, though their sound is less reggae-ish now. Bands like that might be the Kiwi music with the most long-running appeal in NZ – helped by reggae's prominence in movies like Mt Zion starring Stan Walker, and The Pā Boys. It can't only be people at BBQs listening to it...

Sort've wished the interview had teased out things re, say, their popularity vs Ria Hall's rather than putting all NZ reggae / Aotearoa roots / dub / whatevs stuff in the same basket. (etc)

Well, Rules of Engagement got to number 6, but maybe it's a simple case of being more 'challenging' thematically that it didn't become more popular? Dunno if interludes in Te Reo from the '60s are what the kids are streaming these days. I hope they are, but not at all sure. BTW, don't reggae and roots mean the same something similar? Obv Tomorrow People are playing a very poppy variant of those. Reggae is usually best imo when it's political and extremely pissed-off, like Herbs, or, uh, Sons of Zion? (For bemused ILMers, the music's popularity here goes back to the Māori rights and Pacific anti-nuclear protest movements of the 1980s.)

https://s26.postimg.org/eie004hm1/whats.jpg

In pop atm, the solo musician October is on a run of four decent-to-great singles, but might win the Unpopular Populism star prize without some urgent Spotify fixing. New song "1000 Eyes" is her most polished, but maybe least distinctive https://youtu.be/dPtzNAoI1OU ... The previous one "All She Does Is Stare" was more representative of, as one writer cautiously called it, "a zero f***s approach". She don't give a fly*** eff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctVfUKiKrww

nm, "1000 Eyes" is just great

Hamish Kilgour of The Clean Has A New Solo Album Coming Out This Summer

Ba Da Bing will be releasing Finklestein, on July 6th

It’s our second record with Hamish, and we’re happy to brag we’re the only label who has ever released a Hamish Kilgour solo record! Take that Cleano Productions!

The Clean member Hamish Kilgour's second-ever solo album, Finklestein, flips the singer/guitarist/drummer's path taken on All of It and Nothing. Having previously gone for intimate, minimalistic performances, Finklestein displays a chock-full production quality akin to a fairytale. It's a fitting change, seeing as the songs are based around a children's story Kilgour conceived for his son about a kingdom that invents a way of dealing with their depleting gold resources. The songs include organ, saxophone, pedal steel, piano, vibraphone, harmonica, even footsteps (Hamish is renowned for his stepping), most of it performed by Kilgour and his producer/collaborator Gary Olsen at Olsen's studio, Marlborough Farms in Brooklyn. Originally conceived as being a children's book as well as album, Finklestein rides roughshod through this fairytale world with grace.

Finklestein took a year to record, as Hamish's involvement with a large part of the Brooklyn music scene, as well as dates with recent New Zealand Music Hall of Fame inductees The Clean, split his time. His songs benefit from this elongated recording period, as each track creates its own space within the Finklestein world, mixing instruments and melodies in a rainbow of ways. Yet it's Kilgour's songwriting sensibilities that hold the album together, his charismatic and loose arrangements within a congenial environment of musical play.

For more information, please write Ben and Katie at press at badabingrecords.com

Thought there was a thread all about The Clean and/or their kind of music, but couldn't find one.

Apparently there are nine threads for them O_O They win ILM! Most recent two you could use are The Clean - Compilation + The Clean Anthlogy and there other material

NZ Music Month, or is it?

http://thewireless.co.nz/system/production/content_images/images/000/003/471/full/NZMM-01-v2.gif?1462220757

Pop musician October has released her album, Ultra Red. A set of beautiful pop songs disguised as ugly industrial fuzz:

- https://open.spotify.com/album/3sLYZtrcfagCOYEv8L1IBa

https://www.muzic.net.nz/images/news/7501.jpg

Rei has unveiled his Māori-language hip hop EP, Rangatira:

- https://musicbyrei.bandcamp.com/album/rangatira

- http://musicnation.co.nz/rei-releases-groundbreaking-te-reo-maori-ep-rangatira

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1739189705_7.jpg

JessB is a possible new hip hop star – she brought out the EP Bloom in March. Latest video is "Set It Off", with cameos :)

- https://basefm.co.nz/jessb-set-it-off

- https://soundcloud.com/ogjessb/sets/bloom-ep

https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music118/v4/c6/86/31/c686310b-ef52-e39d-95ac-26c73c83a710/192562225240.jpg/200x0w.jpg

Estère's two-part album is done now, My Design, On Others' Lives:

- https://estere.bandcamp.com/album/my-design-on-others-lives

Also recently, the new album by Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Sex & Food ... Metal band Alien Weaponry's bilingual debut album, Tū, is out tomorrow ... New Zealand's fourth most popular independent music award, the Taite Music Prize, was criticized for an exclusionary voting system, and during the ceremony the ashes of the Headless Chickens' Grant Fell (Ngāpuhi) were scattered onto the stage, a major no-no in Māori culture due to the sanctity of human remains ... Coco Solid was unimpressed with NZ music's response to the gender equality campaign Equalise My Vocals: "Now what? The industry needs to use it's resources and platforms for better & not leave it to 2 tired queer women of colour with a crowdfunded 5k to do all the fucking work".

David Dallas brought out the video to "Probably", the fourth single from the album Hood Country Club cos he's South Auckland AF

- https://youtu.be/meLtp1tYr_c

NZ Music Month coincides with comedy festival month, and some talented comedians have invented the genre of Centrist Reggae:

- https://twoheartsnz.bandcamp.com/track/legalise-it (warning, extreme content)

And the top Kiwi song of the moment: those angry reggae punks Sons Of Zion, with the furious "Drift Away":

- https://youtu.be/tq4adoBJCU8

As RMNZ has introduced a second NZ top 20 for the week's fastest-rising songs, here are some things that are bubbling under the charts under the charts:

Hi-Nes and Krisy Erin join the elite with "Never Get Me Back":

- https://youtu.be/IAVixrS8UuA

Raiza Biza brings the chill beats in "Marco Polo" ft. Bobandii:

- https://open.spotify.com/track/6WQC0R3sDNSIp4yIFcHUS3

Country-folk artist Emily Fairlight released her heartbreaking album Mother of Gloom. It's a bit sad...

- https://emilyfairlight.bandcamp.com/track/drag-the-night-in
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2172066623_7.jpg

(Recommended if you liked Like Splitting the Head From the Body by Womb, from earlier in 2018)
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0584207770_7.jpg

-

On a much sunnier note, pop band Drax Project dropped their Noon EP, but their single "Woke Up Late" has been on the NZ chart forever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD4LgdcDdVc

And for maximum tonal whiplash, metal band Alien Weaponry bring the opposite of chill on their debut album Tū, in Māori and English, an LP that hit the top 5:

- https://youtu.be/5kwIkF6LFDc
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0321818772_7.jpg

TBH, all I really want to do is post episodes of Aroha Bridge and The Māori Side Steps to confuse our non-Kiwi viewers until the thread reaches 100 posts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOe67mNhWc4

i love the Chelsea Jade record which was released yesterday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s-koCm9INw

SO GOOD!

"Laugh It Off" is one of the 20 songs that might win the Silver Scroll, the prestigious "artists' choice" award. All nominees are here:

- https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/2018652990/the-apra-silver-scroll-award-2018-top-20-announced

...Chelsea Jade and 19 indie songs :-) Well, not quite, and there's a lot of really nice music on the list, but it isn't as "diverse" as they claim – it was selected by only nine people, and it shows. In the whole list there's one rap song, lots of downtempo/MOR stuff, no female Māori artists, no songs fully in Māori... (Songs in Māori have the Maioha Award, but that gets much less publicity.) At least they didn't nominate Groany, but it's all very "Music 101 on a Saturday afternoon". I'm not a big SWIDT fan, but "Conquer" leaps out of the speakers against this field.

The voting system has some problems similar to those the Taite Music Prize was criticized for. Artists enter their own songs, and must be APRA members, which shouldn't be necessary imo, if they're truly seeking the best NZ songwriting. This year's awards come after the 2017 Silver Scroll, when APRA voters chose an all-female top 5 for the first time.

Anyway in conclusion, here's Groeni, I mean, Rob Ruha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIqQTrxc15E

The Beths, also on that Silver Scroll shortlist, have an album out too and it's the most glorious bored squally pop https://open.spotify.com/album/4NK0WVg7ZK0rIrcwFKjTIU

The new Broods single is great too!

^ These are they

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVImwSb4EYU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKG1Ddm8KgE

The Beths now have a thread, imaginatively titled The Beths

Some recent-ish stuff:

Haja, an all-star album featuring current NZ artists: Aaradhna, Chelsea Jade, Estère, JessB, Kings and Raiza Biza.

As well as that, it's a fusion of musical styles from Sudan and New Zealand. Surprisingly it was put together by rock frontman Jon Toogood, of Shihad – he first heard the Gisma Group and aghani al-banat, "girls' music", when he got married in Khartoum, Sudan. The band recorded there with him, some of which is on this album years later.

- https://open.spotify.com/album/1lCMWkUACs5TaPm7Y1KABa

- https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/music/jon-toogood-married-african-roots-nz-hip-hop-new-album

https://www.noted.co.nz/media/19898/mt0718_the-adults-haja.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_FrOD9st4M

Maybe for Discogs reasons, the label insisted on reviving the bad-but-good name "The Adults", which Toogood's supergroup used in 2011, although the two albums are quite different.

btw, Estère's radio Mixtape is highly ILM-friendly, but don't let that put you off. She even knows the words to "Akanamali" :D

Jazz hip-hop band Avantdale Bowling Club, fronted by Tom Scott of the influential rap group Home Brew, as he reflects on life and fatherhood. The band includes Julien Dyne (drums) and Guy Harrison (piano/trumpet).

- https://avantdalebowlingclub.bandcamp.com/album/avantdale-bowling-club

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4203606936_7.jpg

And one of the sleeper hits of the year by a New Zealander, Robinson's "Nothing to Regret", it's for the young people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dICTrWgBp_U

After streaming success in NZ and Australia, the song is one of the nominees at the New Zealand Music Awards 2018.

"Our culture is your culture"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4sN1etmws8

Who won the Silver Scroll, you don't wanna barely know, but Ria Hall won the Maioha Award with her song "Te Ahi Kai Po" from Rules of Engagement.

‘Te Ahi Kai Pō’ is about healing after war, and trying to find hope in times of despair. It draws on Ria’s own family history, telling the story of the Battle of Te Ranga (just south of Tauranga), where, in June 1864 the British Army took retaliation for the earlier battle at Gate Pā. Over a hundred Māori died there, some buried where they fell.

At the ceremony, local soul singer Teeks delivered a moving performance of ‘Te Ahi Kai Pō’, supported by Nick Dow and Ngā Tumanako kapa haka group. – (RNZ)

The Scrolls' main award went to Marlon Williams' ballad with Aldous Harding, "Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore", with its pleasingly literal video:

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsJIDptF-2c

Williams' ‘Nobody Gets What They Want Anymore’, a duet with fellow Lyttelton musician Aldous Harding, explores the pair’s break-up. Williams said it was an honour to receive the award and paid homage to the other finalists. "To hear my name in your company is something that I treasure," he said.

Great tune.

And at the NZMAs in November, Williams won best album for Make Way for Love. Other highlights included JessB's medley performance featuring Rubi Du, and Upper Hutt Posse's Te Kupu, who filibustered the broadcast for 15 minutes by listing the names of everyone they'd ever worked with.

END OF 2018 is near, so if you want you can post your best of the year... perhaps using the classic "fake awards ceremony" style, such as "Best gangsta indie EP" or "Most improved DJ".

This was Chelsea Jade's debut album Personal Best, 10 tracks of VERY tight pop tunes, and one o_O title track

- https://open.spotify.com/album/05JyBFPtta56x6uBvIfnal

https://nztop40.co.nz/assets/record_covers/cover_5_1532656962.jpg

The new album by Yoko-Zuna and a host of guests, Voyager, continuing their cool electro-hip-hop-jazz thing. Though with the cover artwork, they're positioning themselves as the Daft Punk of New Zealand :-)

- https://yoko-zuna.bandcamp.com/album/voyager

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3135319595_7.jpg

Coco Solid and Queen Kapussi feature in the 9-piece rap collective Fanau Spa:

- https://fanauspa.bandcamp.com/album/fanau-spa

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0752519859_7.jpg

We each possess a different lens, voltage and ancestral life that the world rn needs to hear from - and we know this record serves a purpose bigger than what we could do as individuals. Ngā mihi mega ki a mātou katoa.

- (UnderTheRadar)

There's a whole heap of recent stuff I still need to hear, but in the meantime, from earlier in 2018, some unofficial awards:

Best conscious rap / Most conscious rap: STOP THE VIOLENCE produced by Icepro, who's worked with youth musicians in Palmerston North for years

Best song title you wouldn't think was necessary in this day and age: CHILDREN DON'T BELONG IN JAIL, Luke Buda & Don McGlashan

I have felt very upset and outraged by the reports coming out of Nauru, especially the stories of children as young as five engaging in serious self harm.

We wrote this song to raise awareness of what is happening in offshore detention, in the hope that more people will sign up to the campaign to pressure the Australian government to end the horror they have created for these little kids and their families.

Best compilation imo:

Shoegaze emo band from Wellington, Bad Friend, released their Best Of, so far. It is eleven minutes long

- https://badfriendnz.bandcamp.com/album/best-of

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0842844951_7.jpg

The bad friend EP is great, yeah - in associated acts, the namesake EP that's just come out is v.dreamy: https://namesake.bandcamp.com/album/4-songs

Some EOY stuff:
Under The Radar's best albums/videos/songs moments: https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/news/15341/2018-End-Of-Year-Roundup.utr

The Spinoff's best local albums/singles: https://thespinoff.co.nz/music/21-12-2018/the-definitive-very-best-new-zealand-music-of-2018/

Great to see the Shiraz & LSJ video "Where Tha Pape$ @" in the former - their "Clubsmoking"'s another great no-fi video.

Namesake are very chill!

Two tracks nominated for the ILM 2018 EOY that weren't already mentioned:

Yumi Zouma's beautiful dreampop song "Powder Blue / Cascine Park", from their EP III:

- https://yumizouma.bandcamp.com/album/ep-iii

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3174856807_7.jpg

With EP III, they grab us by the hand and take us out on a gorgeous adventure.

“Powder Blue / Cascine Park” is the first destination, and it's spellbinding. Delicate beats, a chiming guitar, and (Christie) Simpson’s stirring vocals recreate the feeling of summertime bliss. – (TheRevue.ca)

Dance track "Arbuz" by Kiwi-Italian-Melburnian producer Chambres, with vocals from Abigail Knudson:

- https://chambresband.bandcamp.com/album/arbuz

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1753870535_7.jpg

I'm stunned that October got two separate nominations, that's my AOTY! Thank you, nommers. (and sorry for calling you nommers)

A few other 2018 things...

The solo debut Shine Your Light by Kaaterama, who's in the successful pop group Maimoa. Her first single "He Iti" is getting the iwi radio plays, but most impressive imo are her soulful tracks "Mr. Man" and "Paiheretia", with the choir of Te Reanga Mōrehu o Rātana:

- https://open.spotify.com/album/1mOUoRm61WqW68aA4wE2KA

https://www.muzic.net.nz/images/news/8188.jpg

Maybe even more chill than Namesake(!), the first EP by twin-sister duo Tāl (Shalina and Shantini Sandran), including Indian tabla and sitar:

- https://talduo.bandcamp.com/album/t-l-ep
- https://nzmusician.co.nz/music/tal-tal-ep

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0630431439_7.jpg

In other Māori-language music in 2018, the collaborative album Te Kākano went to number 1 on iTunes in September, recorded by Pere Wihongi, Mere-Arihi Pipi-Takoko, Makaira Berry and Hamiora Tuari.

On the artier side, Allana Goldsmith brought out The Waka Kura Sessions, and Gisborne's Miss Pou made her debut.

Kiko released a blues-rock EP, Ranginui Blues, including the video to "Patupaiarehe", in which the band get attacked by the fairy-like being of the same name, it's a good watch

Also, taonga pūoro! - Rolling Classical 2018

In the singles chart this week, Six60's "Vibes" ended 6 (six!) months as the top NZ song. "Long tail"/"dumb algorithm" doesn't begin to describe it...

The new No.1 is Bene and her laid-back track "Soaked" - https://youtu.be/ubE_ac2wYPQ

We posted about the Broods single earlier – their album will be called Don’t Feed the Pop Monster. Hopefully it'll turn out to be the best thing ever and/or a Gaga rip-off, just so we get more funny interview quotes like

Caleb: "I left my phone in LA so I’ve just been off the grid. It’s amazing. I have no idea what’s going on in the world. Or what time it is. I’m just watching the sun."

and

Georgia: "I don’t like the word lucky. I think we’re fortunate."

that Bene song is so good. Looking forward to the Broods album, all of the tracks they’ve released so far have been enjoyable to varying degrees.

It's only Bene's second song to be released - the first was "Tough Guy" in 2018. Guess she must've played more songs live this summer.

Apparently "Soaked" first became a radio hit in Australia, on Triple J's 2018 EOY list.

And Broods' album is out, UNLEASH THE MONSTER

- https://open.spotify.com/album/1zVzO9st0ZXLCH6YmgAzYF

1-listen review: it's good! I like it nearly as much as the Chelsea Jade album, with which it shares quite a lot in common sonically, nice word. Critics seem to agree it's a 5.0 out of 10.0, and skim-reading their equally mediocre numerology, it's because the band haven't changed their sound. Which reads more like a dig at electro-pop than anything. (There's one track that might be a baggy Madchester tribute... if that helps.) But "Peach" is prob the bangin'est song on there.

Another album from the ILM poll:

By experimental electronic musician OMIT, Clinton Williams – the vast 5-album set Enclosures 2011-2016

- https://endofthealphabetrecords.bandcamp.com/album/enclosures-2011-2016 (also released on Picadisk)

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2370721155_7.jpg

OMIT employs home-built instruments constructed from modified electric motors and salvaged sound sources to create a startlingly original soundworld. It is a world he inhabits alone, isolated in the small town of Blenheim in southern New Zealand, but it involves a deep exploration of the human condition. Over the years OMIT’s music has become less noisy and more sparse and minimal, as open signal patterns and oblique textures pass each other in haunted spaces.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDJq5Wu-Lvc

Nadia Reid's new song, and a radio interview:

- https://podcast.radionz.co.nz/aft/aft-20190213-1310-nadia_reid_live_and_solo-128.mp3

"She will release her third album later this year, and previews one of the songs from it, which was written after a New Years Eve in Levin. It's called 'All Of My Love'." – (RNZ)

And as mentioned in the interview above, Teeks has got an orchestra!

- https://www.noted.co.nz/culture/music/teeks-apo-soul-man-orchestrates-next-big-move

Teeks is also performing at WOMAD 2019 (Aotearoa section) along with Nadia Reid, Charlotte Johansen, Finn Andrews, KORA, Niko Ne Zna, Ria Hall and The Black Seeds.