Musician, producer, DJ and more, Te Whanganui-a-Tara based Mia Kelly is the artist behind Japes. This is deeply immersed in the bedsitter world of introspection and thought deviations into worlds coloured by shades of grey only seen from the mind’s eye of those who inhabit the inside of their own heads more often than they…

Tāmaki Makaurau’s Psycho Gab, the neo-jazz 5 piece that got together during the depths of the pandemic, returns with Pianomen. Very much in the fey, acid jazz vein, this is a Rattlesnake. One of those catchy yet not sugary numbers that gets you due to being just the right tone of menacing. Great. Starting with…

Man I do love Swerve City. These Auckland based alt-metal rockers are so imaginative and they have the chops to deliver. New single Good Enough echoes insecurities and the expectations of others that prey on our minds and bind us in coils of mental chains. Heavy as all hell with some resonant riffing, subtly laced…

Invercargill rockers Theorem return with new single Bridges. The band has been on hiatus for a decade, and now we get more, yay! Consisting of John Ward on guitar and vocals, Josh Hillman on bass and vocals, and Dan Harrison on drums, these Smokefree RockQuest alumni from the deep South of Aotearoa have crafted a…

And Hawkes Bay’s finest returns with new single Learn To Crawl. A song guitarist Charlie Wallace says is about uncovering the true nature of people you believed were other than they turned out to be, this diverges somewhat from their previous numbers in that it’s a more restrained tempo, with a more temperate mix. The…

Pōneke’s Maxine Macaulay is the force behind creative indie act Goodnight My Darling. This up and coming act is making waves across the country, and garnering some serious attention. New single Ruby is a good example of why. We have a soft tempo number here, driven by understated acoustic guitars complemented by a somewhat funky…

Tāmaki Makaurau based muso and producer Hugh Piesse is Alec. This act is bringing us a new album named Endless Pasture, out on 16th June 2024, with the promo single Another Party blazing the trail for the release. And yep – blaze brightly it does. I’ll refer to the act by the band name, so…

Riccardo and the Just One Fix boys are back with Thorns, the third single from EP Submit Or Death. This track is as hard, nasty and right in your face as any JOF song you care to think of, but it’s also an example of how good these guys are as performers and writers. While…

Oooooh now, Miranda‘s a naughty one! I just got my first listen to the new single from Country artist Miranda Easten, and it’s brought a smile to my dial for the saucy lyrics and quality of the recording. I know Miranda has worked with my buddy and countryman Greg Haver previously. I’ve not got the…

Dunedin power quartet Robots In Love bring us their new single Unbreakable. Oh and don’t these guys rattle Jacko’s cage in all the right ways! With a thunderous orchestration combining Gothic Rock at its most in-your-face with the melodic sensitivities of the likes of Evanescence, the band tells us what they intend to do with…