Music

The return of the Roots

The return of the Roots

Trin­ity Roots Cit­izen (Self-released) When beloved Wel­ling­ton group Trin­ity Roots ral­lied them­selves for a series of reunion con­certs in 2010, it became clear that the pub­lic weren’t that keen to let […]

Movements

Movements

Pub­lic cri­ti­cisms of the estab­lished New Zea­l­and music industry aside, Ian ‘Blink’ Jor­gensen might be best known for organ­ising the well-loved Camp A Low Hum music fest­iv­al dur­ing the late […]

The world comes to Taranaki

The world comes to Taranaki

Between 13 and 15 March, the New Zea­l­and WOMAD fest­iv­al returns to Brook­lands Park and TSB Bowl of Brook­lands in New Ply­mouth for yet anoth­er week­end of incred­ible music, arts […]

Taking it to Tokyo

Taking it to Tokyo

Fat Freddy’s Drop, live at Unit, Tokyo, 9/11/2014 At just past 1am on Sunday 9 Novem­ber, Fat Freddy’s Drop, our very own hi-tech soul stal­warts, took to the stage inside […]

Surviving the sophomore slump

Surviving the sophomore slump

Elec­tric Wire Hustle Love Can Pre­vail  (Okayplayer/Somethinksounds)    With their self-titled 2009 debut, Wel­ling­ton trio Elec­tric Wire Hustle paid homage to the rich tra­di­tions of Afric­an-Amer­­ic­an soul, jazz, hip-hop and […]

Legends and soon-to-be legends

Legends and soon-to-be legends

Fly­ing Lotus You’re Dead (Warp Records)   Almost every time the great Amer­ic­an jazz trum­peter Miles Dav­is released an album, it was worlds apart from his last work. And yet, […]

Blindsiding

Blindsiding

FKA Twigs LP1 (Young Turks) Young Jamaic­an-Eng­l­ish-Span­ish sing­er-song­writer and dan­cer FKA Twigs (real name: Tah­liah Debrett Barnett) has been com­pel­ling listen­ers and view­ers across the globe since 2013, when her […]

Further afield

Further afield

Carsick Cars 3 (Maybe Mars) For their third album, Beijing’s Carsick Cars — per­haps the pre-emin­ent Chinese indie rock band — trav­elled to New York to record under the watchful […]

Rattle and No Hum

Rattle and No Hum

 Jonath­an Cray­ford Dark Light (Rattle Records) Recor­ded in New York City last year, Dark Light sees nomad­ic New Zea­l­and pian­ist Jonath­an Cray­ford play­ing along­side Ben Street (bass) and Dan Weiss […]

July Music Review

July Music Review

Shunkan Honey, Milk and Blood (Art is Hard Records) As Shunkan, 20-year-old sing­er, multi-instru­­ment­al­ist and DIY record pro­du­cer Mar­ina Sakimoto cre­ates bed­sit indie-pop songs, which while drenched in an emo­tion­al register […]