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…

Wellington indie band Dateline is the project of Katie Everingham. The band is returning with new single Choose Me, and I got chills, n’ they’re multiplyin.! No, we’re not looking at the 21st Century re-boot of Grease, it’s just me finding a way to verbalise how intense this track is. In a totally good way.…

How many people live in Taranaki that aren’t in really great bands? Asking because I’ve just been introduced to Twin Tiger (The Twin Tiger?), a four piece combo from New Plymouth who are extending my increasing appreciation for the talent pouring out of one of my favouritest regions of these islands. Comprising Craig Jones on…

Loved ones we have lost is a bittersweet thing to consider. We all have that yearning, that need, to see them, hold them, smell them, and hear their voice, jut one last time. Steffany Beck, from Portland in the USA but now resident of Ōtautahi, verbalises her wishes to see her late father one last…

Kristin Paulse is KRISTN, South African born, Tāmaki Makaurau based but currently a resident of Australia where she’s exploring numerous opportunities and contracts in the entertainment industry over the ditch. New single Lowkey is R & B blue-blood. Absolute royalty in this genre. Boasting a fey TLC vibe, a la No Scrubs backbeat as a…