Lume: Six quick thoughts
A new album-focused streaming platform/app/thing from kiwi co-founders was announced today. Is this the digital innovation that can make good music pay?
LATEST REVIEWS
On ‘Heaven Knows What Time’, Vera Ellen caps five years of reinvention
One of New Zealand’s very best musicians presents a fifth album/EP, and a fifth change of direction, since 2021. Take your time with Heaven Knows…
Review: Newtones – New Way
Christchurch’s Newtones were the band that, for the betterment of New Zealand music, inspired Rob Mayes to launch his Failsafe Records label back in the…
Review: Belladonna – Arcus Way
I’m late to give this album a listen, given it was released in November 2025, and doubly given how much I loved Belladonna’s two magnificent…
An Andrew Wilson gig without Die! Die! Die!? THE NERVE!
“AW’s really just about using what was there. We used whatever bass amp was in the studio, and a little Jansen guitar amp. We recorded with a SingStar microphone!”
Home grown legends The Datsuns are coming to Hamilton for Homegrown. Makes sense.
If you’re old enough to remember back when The Datsuns launched like a rock n’ roll missile out of Cambridge and onto top tens and magazine covers around the world, you’ve had…
“There’s no revolution without a bit of party”: Dick Move’s album launch comes to Raglan this weekend
The third album from Aotearoa’s foremost socialist party punks, Dick Move, is out on Friday. On Saturday, get to The Yard in Raglan for the Dream Believe Achieve launch tour (with Soft Bait and…
Review: Disco Summer by Haiku Redo
Failsafe Records, originally from Christchurch — now based out of Japan — usually focusses on bands from the Garden City. In a departure from this trend, however, their latest release comes from…
“We Have Rules That We Stick By”: A Q&A with DEAN
Lo-fi instrumentalists ‘DEAN’ have been active since the mid-1990s, featuring (at least, initially) 24 strings, (and still) 4 tracks… and an attitude. Ahead of the Contact 50th anniversary gig and party, we…
“I Miss My Hoons”: A Q&A with Vicki No Mates
Many of us remember Vicki from her time as guitarist in 5 Girls, the dirty, noisy punk/rock band initially active between 1993 and 1997, formed by a group of friends from Hamilton…