I’ll clarify something – I do get submissions that I go back to folks and say this track isn’t ready yet. What I post are reviews of tracks that have had the full audit of studio work from A to Z, and if they’re not there, I will advise the artist as much, as I…

A few years back Darren Watson released the famous – or infamous, depending on your beliefs – single Planet Key. Initially banned from airplay, Darren won the right for it to air. I wonder if this new track, Lyin’ Luxon, is going to garner a similar reaction from its subject. Time is going to give…

Can I invent a genre? Or more specifically, can I give a name to a genre? Dystopian Punk. There you go. That’s inspired by the sound I hear from Tāmaki Makaurau trio Repairs, who bring us their new single Mosaic. Written about watching how history seems destined to continuously repeat as we wind back gains…

Thrash Metal was born in California as the antithesis to the increasingly pop-laden sound of the spandex toting Los Angeles Sunset Strip Glam scene of the early to mid 1980s. While bands like Van Halen, Ratt and Motley Crue retained a harder, uncompromising, punkier attitude and a visual image more akin to the earlier, more…

Auckland/Durban based The Transits have done it to me again! This trio blew me away with their awesome video and record for previous single Lost Ones, and the new single Heartbreak Queen covers so much musical ground I’m actually spellbound. These guys are fantastic song-writers, musicians and vocalists. Make no bones about it. This single,…

From his newly released EP Secrets (released today, 14th Feb in fact), Scotland-born but Taranaki based singer Dave Ritchie Smith brings us Say It. Okay, now I’ll level with you. This Taranaki thing with the stunning amount of talented bands of varying genres has been a real eye opener for me. The region keeps delivering…

T(M)²I (pronounced Tangaroa Made Me Ill) is the newest single from Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Aitutaki, Palmerston singer Geneva AM (short for Alexander-Marsters). It’s a release that’s been recorded in Te Reo and English. I’m reviewing the Te Reo release. Currently based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Geneva AM has created a minimalistic, enthralling…