Simian Mobile Disco - Unpatterns
May 2012
Time changes certain things over its course, but Identity is much more difficult to erode and some elements of it are naturally retained like DNA. In the five years since Simian Mobile Disco’s...
Damon Albarn - Dr Dee
May 2012
The breadth of Damon Albarn’s work rate and scope of his ambition has been widely documented over the last decade. He is an artist who incessantly strives to create and challenge both himself and his...
Jack White - Blunderbuss
April 2012
For someone who has hardly shrunk into the shadows of his 'other' bands, you'd be forgiven for wondering what exactly is going to differentiate a Jack White solo album from one produced by any of his...
Battles - Dross Glop
April 2012
For most bands nothing spells ‘contractual obligation’ more than ‘remix album’. It used to mean nothing more than an excuse for overpaid producers to extend a track and possibly allow the rhythm...
Graham Coxon - A+E
April 2012
Graham Coxon’s solo career has now stretched to one more album than he managed as a member of Blur. Like Blur's, Coxon’s solo work has at times seemed wilfully perverse as he mines his own eclectic...
Nneka - Soul Is Heavy
April 2012
Great music is often made by people with a real story to tell. This is certainly true when it comes to Nigeria-born, Germany-based singer Nneka Egbuna. Having relocated to Hamburg at the age of 18 to...
The Mars Volta - Noctourniquet
April 2012
For over a decade now The Mars Volta haven’t so much made albums as psychological tests, works that stretch far beyond mere collections of notes and vocals to take on the qualities of madness. From...
Odd Future - The OF Tape Vol 2
March 2012
If you haven’t heard of Odd Future, then you’ve probably been hiding under a rock this past year. The Los Angeles hip-hop collective are followed by controversy as closely as smugness follows Piers...
Miike Snow - Happy To You
March 2012
Miike Snow’s eponymous debut album was something of a surprise. The album came from nowhere to receive critical acclaim and widespread airplay. Yet, while the Swedish trio’s rise was impressive,...
Hodgy Beats- Untitled EP
March 2012
It was Domo Genesis that named his album Rolling Papers and had an ensuing mini-beef with Wiz Khalifa, but he's not the only member of Odd Future who likes to smoke weed by the acre. Despite his...
Grimes - Visions
March 2012
While no record label can be a guarantee of quality, 4AD comes pretty close. Since 1979, the label formed by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent has been a by-word for quality, boasting names like The...
Sleigh Bells -Reign Of Terror
February 2012
First came the guitar, shooting licks like laser bolts from the fingers of its wielder, Derek Miller. Then there came the voice. Sometimes it came hiding nunchucks in its pigtails. Other times, it...
Goldfrapp - The Singles
February 2012
It's been a long and varied career for Alison Goldfrapp and Will Gregory. Over the last 12 years and five albums, they've explored everything from spooky ambience (with their debut Felt Mountain),...
Leonard Cohen - Old Ideas
February 2012
What an apt, wry, self-deprecating and Leonard Cohen-esque title this is for a new Leonard Cohen album. These days every move the master poet and songwriter makes has some sense of finality. This was...
Lana Del Rey - Born To Die
February 2012
In the eight months or so since the video for Lana Del Rey's single Video Games slipped onto YouTube, she's undergone an entire career in fast-forward: critical adoration, followed by perceived...
Nada Surf- The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy
January 2012
In the post-modern landscape of popular music, you've got a weird mingling of new, ankle-biting bands trying to sound like they're from the '90s (Yuck and Silversun Pickups come to mind). And, you've...
The Big Pink - Future This
January 2012
Scaling a peak is fine, but if following the climb you just remain there, what has it achieved? Is the joy in the journey? The destination? Or the return to normality afterwards?
Wiley - Evolve Or Be Extinct
January 2012
Survival of the fittest. When it comes to evolution, those that can adapt live to fight another day – the rest? They become history. Fossilised remains of disremembered failures. The survivors of the...
The Juan Maclean- Everybody Get Close
January 2012
As if to celebrate DFA's 10th anniversary, John Maclean - whose history with the label runs from its very beginning - offers us this, a collection of extras, unreleased tracks and remixes to...
Chris Cornell - Songbook
January 2012
Anybody reading this who has had the pleasure to witness Chris Cornell live will surely agree that the man has an astonishingly good voice. Not only that, but it can mould to a number of different...
Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow
December 2011
Usually hell has the chance to freeze over a couple of times between Kate Bush albums; but in 2011 the unthinkable has happened. It appears that revisiting her own material for Director’s Cut fuelled...
Mr Oizo - Stade 2
December 2011
Autumn has been a big season for the Ed Banger top table, for hot on the heels of the second Justice album is another opus from the prolific co-founder Mr Oizo. Stade 2 begins with something of a...
The Black Keys - El Camino
December 2011
Despite what indie rockers might say, they’re not any more unique than those in the mainstream. Like the big leagues, indie rock has a rotating cast of characters that occasionally take the front...
Lou Reed & Metallica - Lulu
December 2011
Having collaborated on a version of Sweet Jane at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame back in 2009, the idea of a more committed association between Metallica and Lou Reed has resulted in this, an album...
Megadeth - Th1rt3en
November 2011
As part of Thrash Metal’s big four Megadeth has been one of the most influential bands in Metal since their formation back in 1983. Metallica might have had documentaries made about them blubbing to...
The Dø - Both Ways Open Jaws
November 2011
French/Finnish duo The Dø (pronounced "The Dough") released a Number 1 album in France in 2008 with their debut, A Mouthful. At home, they're a major act, packing stadiums and thrilling the festival...
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
November 2011
Big Brother is back. Two years on from parting company with his brother Liam and dissolving Oasis, after more than 15 years of one of the great rock 'n' roll sibling rivalries, not to mention selling...
Feist - Metals
November 2011
Leslie Feist has now well and truly transcended the Toronto music scene from which she first emerged, albeit at least in part through the use of her music in advertisements. Whilst many loved and...
Florence And The Machine - Ceremonials
October 2011
Florence Welch has always been bigger than her band. On stage the Machine works efficiently in the shadows while Flo, usually resplendent in something flowing and ephemeral, copper wild locks a...
Tom Waits - Bad As Me
October 2011
It starts with a full-throated roar of "All Aboard!" and ends with a rendition of Auld Lang Syne. In between there's gin-soaked ballads, swampy blues, several appearances from Keith Richards, gunfire...
Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
October 2011
After a very impressive start to his solo career, with the double-whammy of Heartbreaker and Gold, Ryan Adams' career has been something of a stop-start affair. There's been highs (the Love Is Hell...
Roots Manuva - 4everevolution
October 2011
Rodney Smith, arguably the very best of British rappers, has been recording for well over a decade now, justifiably gathering acclaim and admiration but failing to achieve a crossover hit single. It...
Wilco - The Whole Love
October 2011
Like The Byrds or Pink Floyd, Wilco are a band of various distinct phases and line-ups that it is always difficult to place each new release in the context of their broader career. The current...
The Rapture - In The Grace Of Your Love
September 2011
Having successfully moved trendy dancefloors with Echoes, The Rapture returned with a record of significant polish, boasting Woo! Alright – Yeah...uh Huh - a track that sniped at those who were still...
The Kooks - Junk Of The Heart
September 2011
"So, let me fuck the world off just for you," The Kooks front man Luke Pritchard coos on the unabashedly poppy Fuck The World Off. It’s a phrase that sounds completely out of place coming from the...
The Drums - Portamento
September 2011
Amid the wave of new music that was hyped at the start of 2010, the guitar bands that really cracked it were the likes of Two Door Cinema Club and The Drums, whose brand of upbeat, summery throwaway...
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Im With You
September 2011
I’m With You is the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ 10th album and their first for five years. This is also their first album with their new guitarist Josh Kinghoffer. John Frusciante’s guitar playing has...
Nero - Welcome Reality
August 2011
2011 has seen an escalation for Daniel Stevens and Joe Ray. The London-based duo had already cornered the market on remixes, but the real challenge was make it in their own right. The BBC has a lot...
Beirut - The Rip Tide
August 2011
The word precocious could have been invented to describe Zachary Francis Condon, the driving force behind the band Beirut. Back in 2006, at an age when most wannabe rock musicians are still knocking...
Jay-Z and Kanye West- Watch the Throne
August 2011
Watching the throne may be harmful to your eyes. The long-awaited, wildly hyped joint effort by Jay-Z and Kanye West has arrived at last, and it gives off a gilded glare – both from the actual cover...
Kaiser Chiefs - The Future Is Medieval
August 2011
The music industry might well be in a state of paralysis when it comes to releasing records, but this doesn't necessarily mean the interest isn't there. Whilst the money's scarce and while most acts...
SBTRKT - SBTRKT
August 2011
Dubstep is an area of music that lends itself to the solitary, reclusive city composer, and as a result it can offer some incredibly insightful musical thought. That is exactly where we find...
Brian Eno - Drums Between The Bells - Drums Between The Bells
July 2011
Brian Eno albums are like electric buses - you wait for ages, and then two come along very quietly at once. That's the theory, at least - for lest we forget, Eno bears the title 'godfather of...
Incubus – If Not Now, When?
July 2011
Where the hell has Incubus been? It’s been over four years since we nodded our heads to “Anna Molly” off of 2006's Light Grenades, and in that time away, the band has managed to do a complete 180....
The Horrors - Skying
July 2011
It takes a lot of guts to look at what you've created before and alter your ethos and musical direction. Not least because it's an admission that what has gone before might not have been quite up to...
Wiley - 100% Publishing
July 2011
There is a triumphant air that marks Wiley's return to Big Dada, the label where he was last seen with Playtime Is Over. That record was said to initiate a premature retirement, but since then he has...
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
June 2011
If ever there was a case of a difficult second album, then this is surely it. With For Emma, Forever Ago, Justin Vernon produced one of those rare gems - an introspective, deeply personal album that...
Battles- Gloss Drops
June 2011
Although primarily an instrumental group, it was the incessant march-of-the-gnomes stomp of Atlas from the band's previous album Mirrored that really bought Battles to widespread attention. It was...
Arctic Monkeys - Suck It And See
June 2011
"You're not from the Mohave Desert; you're from High Green." That seemed to be the general reaction to the sludgy, desert-rock of Arctic Monkeys' last album, Humbug - as if Josh Homme's bludgeoning...
Eddie Vedder- Ukulele Songs
June 2011
As soon as this album was announced music journos were busy checking their calendars to see if it was an elaborate April fool; Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder - one of the godfathers of grunge - and... a...
Thurston Moore
May 2011
Sonic Youth albums always walk a Neil Young-esque tightrope; they'll always be incredible or truly dire. The possibility of either is what makes the anticipation so amazingly unbearable.
Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
May 2011
In 2008, Fleet Foxes burst onto the scene with the release of their Sun Giant EP and self-titled debut album subsequently changing the face of 21st Century folk music. Fans and critics alike...
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two
May 2011
Nearly 30 years into their career, Beastie Boys sound incredibly fresh. A listen back to 1986's License To Ill reveals a trio of hyper-sexed binge-drinking twenty-something punks with something to...
Tyler the Creator - Goblin
May 2011
Who the fuck invited Mr I don’t give a fuck?
Tyler screams at the beginning of Sandwiches. The answer is a generation of teens whose most rebellious artists have been severely lacking over the...
The Kills - Blood Pressures
May 2011
It has become the thing to talk about The Kills in terms of a series of external factors. Factors which have the square root of bugger all to do with anything they've done as a twosome. Hell, we've...
Metronomy - The English Riviera
April 2011
Nights Out was one of 2008's best albums, though it didn't propel Metronomy to startling heights. Not that it was a problem; the band have often felt like a precious secret, the partially-obscured...
TV On The Radio - Nine Types Of Light
April 2011
For their fourth proper studio album Nine Types Of Light, TV On The Radio left the comfort and familiarity of Brooklyn's bohemian scene to record at guitarist Dave Sitek's home studio in Los Angeles....
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
April 2011
Rock is back, and it's about fucking time. Wasting Light is exactly the kick-start needed to jolt the genre back to life in an era when hairstyles lead to record deals and guitar solos are in...
Katy B - On A Mission
April 2011
It's been a while breaking through, but now it's here - and Katy B's album is very much worth the wait. The Peckham songstress has built up her reputation on the back of a strong series of guest...
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
March 2011
Armed with an Autoharp, PJ Harvey has made a poignant declaration about the nature of war. Let England Shake, Harvey's first solo album since 2007's White Chalk, is a brutal, often difficult and...
The Strokes - Angles
March 2011
It's been five years since we last heard from The Strokes, and in that time they've largely abandoned the formula that made their seminal 2001 debut, Is This It an unexpected milestone record....
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes
March 2011
There are parallels between Lykke Li's and Yeasayer's first and second albums. Both split their audience into two camps: one camp hails the existence of the year's best pop record, while the other...
James Blake - James Blake
March 2011
James Blake is a 22-year-old Goldsmiths graduate who drew increasingly effusive acclaim during 2010 through the release of three excellent EPs: the fractured, disorientating The Bells Sketch, the...
The Streets - Computers And Blues
February 2011
Well, no one can, with justice, claim that they didn't know this was coming. Mike Skinner has been promising for a while now that his retirement of The Streets was imminent, and stating quite clearly...
Radiohead-King of Limbs
February 2011
I have a relatively long history with Radiohead. When I was 11, I bought "OK Computer" (which I subsequently didn't love). I drove to Somerset Mall in Troy, MI to buy "Hail to the Theif" the day it...
Cut Copy - Zonoscope
February 2011
In their first two albums Cut Copy have been painting the picture of a band rising from the influence of 1980s electronica to take on the disco, no holds barred. The feeling has persisted through...
Chase & Status - No More Idols
February 2011
The UK has a history of outstanding dance music and, from drum 'n' bass and big beat through to dubstep, we've produced some outstanding LPs in the last couple of decades. The best records have been...
The Go! Team
January 2011
Under the lights of indie's current, childhood-obsessed wave, The Go! Team looks almost sagacious. Here was a band playing a hyper-nostalgic, cartoon-character pandemonium in the same year Arcade...
Wanda Jackson - The Party Ain
January 2011
The news that country and rockabilly legend Wanda Jackson was collaborating on a new studio album with Jack White has been kicking around for so long that the album's emergence almost feels like an...
The Decemberists- The King Is Dead
January 2011
The Decemberists‘ 2009 rock opera, The Hazards Of Love, pushed frontman Colin Meloy’s verbose storytelling to its peak, a complex, sylvan fanta-tragedy that polarized fans, causing many to hail it as...
Joan As Police Woman - The Deep Field
January 2011
Fans of Joan Wasser's previous releases Real Life and To Survive will find plenty to fall in love with on this third album. Named after a far and distant part of space containing other galaxies, it...
Gorillaz – The Fall
January 2011
“An album made on an iPad? How will that work?”
Ghostface Killah- Apollo Kids
December 2010
If the Wu-Tang machine has started to run out of steam over the past few years, suffering from a major drought of truly captivating long-players since the turn of the millennium, then their...
Cybiont-3
December 2010
Robyn - Body Talk
December 2010
To say this has been Robyn's year is an understatement. She's filtered the Euro club-pop heritage and blasted it out across Body Talk Pt 1 and Pt 2. The third part of the trilogy slices five cuts...
Simian Mobile Disco - Delicacies
December 2010
After an acclaimed debut with Attack Decay Sustain Release, which offered up the immediately accessible and catchy hooks of Hustler, Hotdog and It's The Beat, Simian Mobile Disco's follow up,...
Daft Punk - Tron Legacy OST
December 2010
"I kept dreaming of a world I thought I'd never see". Jeff Bridges' words, a snippet of dialogue from the eagerly awaited Tron Legacy, could almost be levelled against Daft Punk, invited to score its...
Kanye West- My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
November 2010
Kanye West: douchebag, enemy of the state, incurable gobshite who’s annoyed more American presidents than Fidel Castro. A man with a head so unfeasibly smooth, it looks like he’s slowly evolving...
Cee Lo Green - The Lady Killer
November 2010
Fuck You! might be the biggest pop success story of 2010. Cee Lo Green wasn't exactly reigning in pop ubiquity before it dropped, but thanks to some sunny brass, an instantly catchy sing-along chorus...
N*E*R*D - Nothing
November 2010
While Simon Cowell takes most of the credit, and blame, for dictating ultra-mainstream pop tastes over the last decade, Pharrell Williams has proved the more respectable face of pop. Alongside his...
Magnetic Man - Magnetic Man
November 2010
To their champions who saw them perform in a 50,000-volt battle cage at this summer’s festivals they’re a superhuman supergroup who will free dubstep from the basement of Plastic People. To the...
Deerhunter- Halcyon Digest
November 2010
As someone with a habit for music and an even grosser habit for enthusiasm, there’s something about writing on a favourite band- and with Halcyon Digest, Deerhunter have cemented themselves as one-...
Kings Of Leon - Come Around Sundown
October 2010
In 2010, Kings Of Leon bare no resemblance to the scruffy, bell-bottomed, mustachioed preacher's sons who released the seminal Youth And Young Manhood only seven years ago. Gone are the days of...
Tricky - Mixed Race
October 2010
The frustrating thing about being a Tricky fan is that he's a guy who knows damn well where his talents lie, and yet he chooses to ignore them. The list of things Tricky does poorly (rock, house,...
Aloe Blacc - Good Things
October 2010
It's fair to say that people don't listen to traditional soul in the numbers they once did. Pop has become ever more synonymous with electronic dance and there's very little cueing of up brass and...
Weezer - Hurley
October 2010
Is it completely unreasonable to expect something resembling actual music from Weezer at this point? It has to be one of the most puzzling and enduring stories in all of rock ‘n’ roll. Weezer has...
Brandon Flowers
September 2010
As frontman for the Killers, Brandon Flowers is best when he projects an air of boredom with his own sleaze. He's not the most charismatic of singers, but he's able to strike an effective ironic...
2 a.m. Orchestra – Fire Escape
September 2010
After listening to and adoring the wondrous tunes of David Kelley’s ‘project’, 2 a.m. Orchestra, for the past couple of years now, I finally got to see the band in all their glory – live at...
!!! - Strange Weather, Isn't it?
September 2010
Yup, those big, bold, triple-declaratory exclamation points are back, coated in ice and all, on dance-rock lifers !!!'s fourth full-length, Strange Weather, Isn't It? If it looks like the image is...
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
September 2010
How interesting it may seem to listen to this record in your car as I did while trying to come to grips with it. Much of the themes seem to evolve or at least take place in a moving vehicle and I...
The Klaxons
August 2010
Forgive us for stating the obvious, but it’s important to remember that ‘Surfing The Void’ is not the album Klaxons wanted to release. If it was, they wouldn’t have handed in whatever gak-prog...
Brandon Boyd - The Wild Trapeze
August 2010
After nearly two decades in the limelight with his band Incubus, Brandon Boyd has decided to release his first solo album into the wild. The Wild Trapeze was an experience of relative isolation,...
Saul Williams – The Inevitable Rise And Liberation Of Niggy Tardust
August 2010
When former hip-hop prophet, Nas writes a song entitled 'Hip-Hop is dead', I felt an affinity to that. hip-hop is dead. The likes of Eminem and Jay Z drag it out of the stables, like a dead animal...
Cairo Knife Fight - EP
August 2010
What do Anika Moa, Weta and Fat Freddy’s Drop all have in common? Would you be surprised if I said rock? Probably, but I’m not making it up, people…I could never tell a lie like that to your sweet...
Die! Die! Die! – Form
August 2010
The name Die! Die! Die! surely brings to mind all kinds of evil, but there is certainly nothing nasty about their latest album to hit the shelves, Form. Known for their impressive on stage...
The Magic Numbers - The Runaway
July 2010
Ah, The Magic Numbers. Remember them? Two sets of siblings, lots of hair, blissful harmonies and jangly guitars. And Richard Bacon upset them once by joking about their weight. Whether they responded...
M.I.A - Maya
July 2010
M.I.A.’s third album, Maya, is blanketed with a thick layer of noise that is nearly impenetrable, a harsh buzz that is as schizophrenic as it is grating. I’m not talking about the album – although...
Kele - The Boxer
July 2010
Bloc Party’s last major recording “One More Chance” gave the world a glimpse into direction of Kele Okereke forth coming solo career, as Bloc Party whole heartedly embraced mainstream dance music....
P-Money - Everything
July 2010
There’s has been a lot of hype and hoopla about the new direction of P-Moneys third studio album ‘Everything’. The new album sees P-Money bursting out of his Hip Hop box and offering us an...
The Roots - How I Got Over
June 2010
Above everything else that defines them, the Roots are capital-P Professionals. That's why they're perfect for their "Late Night" job. They don't fit there because, as critics would say, they're...
The Chemical Brothers - Further
June 2010
Any raver worth his or her glowsticks will have no doubt danced their sweaty backside off to a Chemical Brothers record at some point in their life. With an extensive back catalogue filled with...
Knights of the DUB Table - Tronic EP
June 2010
Knights of the DUB table have delivered on their considerable buzz with the outstanding nine track ‘Tronic’ EP. If your not in the know about the Knights of the DUB table they are one of the...
The Naked and Famous – No Light
June 2010
Ah June, freezing bloody cold and finally the end of NZ Music Month. I say this in the nicest possible sense, I promise. I just don’t feel it’s safe to review The Naked and Famous’ debut record when...
Slash - Slash
May 2010
Some folks haven’t seen Slash since he took his last bow next to Axel Rose in 1996. To get those folks up to date, Slash, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum ditched that Axel guy and started Velvet...
MGMT - Congratulations
April 2010
The closing and title track of MGMT's second album could be a career coda, a tender acoustic elegy with ornate keyboard sprinkles, and frontman Andrew VanWyngarden playing an arch dandy resigned to a...
So So Modern - Crude Futures
April 2010
This Wellington four-piece have been the heroes of underground music in New Zealand for some time. After a few EPs, the most successful and most widely distributed being Friendly Fires, So So Modern...
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
April 2010
In the ensuing 5 years since their last triumphant release, 'Demon Days', the world's biggest virtual band have been busying themselves building their very own Tracy Island. No doubt watching various...
Massive Attack - Heligoland
April 2010
It has been seven years since our favourite Bristol trip hoppers last offering, 100th Window, and with their latest LP Heligoland (heli-go-land, you’ll get it), Massive Attack offer a welcome return...
Hollie Smith - Humour And The Misfortune Of Others
March 2010
Hollie Smith is back and it must be said better than before. Hollie has been through a lot in the two years since her debut Long Player and this collection of work is all the better for it. Much was...
The Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas
March 2010
Now for any of you who like poetry, song writers with great lyrics or monsters under your bed, will know that the Mountain Goats are on their way to NZ. Playing Kings Arms in Auckland and San Fran...
Salmonella Dub - Freak Controller
March 2010
New Zealand Music has come on in leaps and bounds and it’s always nice to see artists succeed rather than have to witness them fall hopelessly by the wayside covered in sausage roll...
Julian Casablancas - Phrazes For The Young
March 2010
Over on the downing street website lurks an e-petition calling for "sleep education" to become part of the national curriculum. Should the government choose to heed its demands, they could save...
Green Like Go
March 2010
I had never heard of Green Like Go until just the other day and now I cant get them out of my head. Green like Go is a five-piece indie rock band hailing from Christchurch who have been making waves...
Groove Armada - Black Light
February 2010
Groove Armada have been rocking dance floors and busting up the charts for over a decade now and you’d think over time they would fade into obscurity and lose their relevance among today’s plethora...
Wynton Marsalis - From The Plantation To The Penitentiary
February 2010
Curse John Stewart. This is his fault. I heard US Jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis on The Daily Show one night and due to Mr Stewart’s uncanny ability to make me want to research the guests on his...
The Black Keys - Blakroc
February 2010
Well well well, what a turn out for the books. If I had tried to guess where the next rock/rap record would come from I feel my thoughts would have drifted lazily down the Limp Bizkit reunion path of...
Shapeshifter - The System Is A Vampire
February 2010
One of New Zealand's most loved musical outfits Shapeshifter have returned with their fourth studio album The System is a Vampire and I must say I’m well impressed.
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
January 2010
Pearl Jam has been around for 20 years now and it almost seems like they have new hits on the radio every time you turn it on. They keep bringing out new albums that rule the radio waves every time.
Tricky - Tricky Meets South Rakkas Crew Review
January 2010
Usually when you hear that last years album has been handed over to the remixes you're automatically thinking "it's gonna be rubbish" or "fucking sell outs"!! and you know who the guilty artists are....
Aum – Aletheia
January 2010
Popular up and coming producers, Jeremy Graham and Daryl Turner have been involved with the local music scene for the past few years now, gaining quite the following along the way.
Them Crooked Vultures
December 2009
Them Crooked Vultures has been a highly anticipated album worldwide, mainly to the fact these guys booked a worldwide arena tour before even releasing a song to the public knowing they would sell...
Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3
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December 2009
A good review must have a non-bias eye towards the artist in question but what I struggle to do with this legend is find faults. Yes since the tender age of 12 when I first heard 'Izzo (H.O.V.A)' I...
Immortal Technique & DJ Green Lantern – The 3rd World
December 2009
Immortal Technique has to be one of the finest lyrasists in hip-hop at the moment. And when I say “at the moment” I blatantly mean “ever”. This New York MC’s poetry sits effortlessly alongside...
LA Mitchell - Debut Album
December 2009
Young Miss Mitchell has spent the last little while being very, very famous. She has toured Europe with Dave Dobbyn and opened for Stevie Wonder for his shows in NZ. So I thought it was about time to...
Dylan Storey - Out Of The Soup
December 2009
Dylan Storey’s third album Out of the soup, I must say is an enjoyable listen. The Auckland musician who’s been a mainstay of the NZ Music scene for some tie now has produced an album packed with...
Isaac Aesili - Eye See
November 2009
You may have heard the name Isaac Aesili. In the New Zealand music scene he’s a bit of a big deal. He is most well known for his trumpet playing in popular kiwi groups the Opensouls, Soola and the...
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
November 2009
Humbug is the name of the latest album on offer from those Sheffield lads known as the Arctic Monkeys. This is a solid although not dazzling third album from the British four piece.
Royal Falcon - Royal Falcon Ruined My Life
November 2009
I doubt very much that these Auckland rockers could have ruined anyone’s lives; they just simply haven’t been around long enough. Technically the group have existed under the name Royal Falcon for a...
Tourettes - Who said you can’t dance to misery?
November 2009
Who said you can’t dance to misery? I did Mr. Tourettes, I did. Do you know why? 'Cos misery is freaken depressing. I know people who drink, sleep, cry, take drugs and occasionally commit a spot of...
Melvins - Electroretard
October 2009
Most decent music faring people who are into Grunge are somewhat familiar with this Aberdeen, Washington outfit. Their trademark slow, brutal sonic attack was in place long before most of the world...
Kid Cudi - Man On The Moon: The End Of Day
October 2009
When Kid Cudi's first single 'Day n Night' was released and found by crookers and turned into a number 1 dance hit, I can safely say a few or more of us assumed a one hit wonder had occurred. But oh...
Deja Voodoo - The Shape Of Grunge To Come
October 2009
Deja Voodoo. The band that brought cheese covered adult humour from the sleaze of late night TV into mainstream rock n roll are back from semi-obscurity with a new self-described Just as Good album...
An Emerald City - Circa Scaria
October 2009
When I listened to An Emerald City’s new album Circa Scaria I was taken on a mystical out of body journey to a far off land (possibly Kazakhstan?) of gypsy’s, wolfs and other eastern Europeany type...
The Woolshed Sessions
October 2009
Now I bought Jess Chambers’ debut album for my dad for either a Christmas or birthday thing. I’d listened to it in the record store (remember those?) and decided it was the typical, sissy elevator...
Antiform - City In Exile
September 2009
In case you don’t know Antiform are a New Zealand electro outfit consisting of brothers Josh and Luke Purcell and Brendon Spain who have been tearing up dance floors since 2002. They have been at the...
Sola Rosa - Get It Together
September 2009
After waiting with eager ears for nearly four years, Sola Rosa fans have finally been gifted with yet another delightful album to enjoy over coffee with friends. It may have taken a while, but this...
Motocade - Tightrope Highway
September 2009
2005 saw the formation of four piece indie rock act Motocade who have developed their unique sound over the years to bring us their solid debut album, Tightrope Highway. They’ve built themselves up...
Placebo - Battle for the Sun
September 2009
While this album is being billed as Placebo’s come back, the changes are probably not too noticeable for many, even if the time lapse is. If the last time you heard of these Brit pop/goth rockers was...
Fly My Pretties - A Story
August 2009
The third installment from the Fly My Pretties franchise comes intertwined with a story. Funnily enough this is why the album is entitled, Fly My Pretties – A Story. In concert, Barnaby Weir’s...
Tiki Taane - Flux
August 2009
It doesn’t seem that long ago that Tiki Taane bravely stepped away from Salmonella Dub and presented us with his now legendary first solo effort Past, present, future. Well as a matter of fact it was...
Fat Freddys Drop - Dr Boondigga And The Big B.W.
August 2009
Kiwi talent, Fat Freddys Drop seem to be doing no wrong, and with the release of their second studio album, they’re beginning to prove it to the rest of the world. Having already gifted us with many...
The Veils - Sun Gangs
August 2009
The Veils new album Sun Gangs is the third from Finn Andrews. After a line up change in 2004, Andrews has employed a few kiwi musicians to recreate the textured indie sound that launched the original...
Kanye West - 808
July 2009
This futuristic offering from hip-hop heavy weight, Kanye West is a great creative step, but lacks connection with the listener. The opening track of Mr. West’s latest, 808’s and Heartbreaks, 'Say...