Buttress O’Kneel — The Four Four Seasons

This is completely bonkers. And yet it works really well. It’s simply four different recordings of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons played simultaneously. Listening to them as they all drift in and out of synchronisation with each other is positively hypnotic. The Four Seasons is probably one of the most well-known pieces of music around. But… Read more »

Wet Wings — Feeeel It

This is fun. I love the way the jaunty, yet haunting (jaunting?) melody and folky vocals (folkals?) are punctuated by increasingly frantic gunshot-like drums (drumshots?).Other than the drums it could almost be a flower power folk song from sixties California. Feeeel It by Wet Wings Source: National Library of NZ

Lorde — The Love Club EP

Lorde’s track Royals has been popular on 95bFM for the last few weeks. Slick, yet stark production highlighting a great vocal performance and lyrics that are worth listening to more than once. Very solid. The rest of the Love Club EP is in a similar vein and is all excellent. Lorde’s website doesn’t give much… Read more »

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Watercolours — Pazzida

This beautiful sparse epic rides a minimalist retro-synth wave, but thankfully opts for percussive wooden planks and slaps rather than tinny drum machines. The video is beautifully shot too, and features more tap-dancing than I’ve seen for years. See Watercolours’ Bandcamp page for more. Source: NZ Herald

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Willy Moon — I Wanna Be Your Man

“Willy Moon sounds like a fist fight between Jack White and Elvis Presley on the set of a David Lynch film.” If I were a music writer I would probably say something like that. Thankfully I’m not, so I’ll just say that I love the combination of the raw, very old style and the witty… Read more »

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Isla Norman — Too Many Love Songs!

Too Many Love Songs! by Isla Norman “An upbeat and positive ukulele driven album about falling in love and being in love. Life is beautiful.” Florence Nightingale is the song I heard on theaudience — I enjoyed the nice lyrics and performance (voice and piano). The rest of the album is good too, though more… Read more »

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Lydia Cole and Ruby Frost

How’d I get so jaded at only 22? Ruby Frost, Young Why do I feel tired at 22, like all my dreams fell through? Lydia Cole, Hibernate Clearly 22 is a difficult age for young Kiwi women singers. But their quarter-life crises have resulted in a couple of great songs. Lydia’s is quiet, acoustic and… Read more »

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Aaradhna — Wake Up

It’s a call to arms, a slap in the face of apathy. Aaradhna sounds like she really means it when she tells us to wake up and stop wasting time — her performance is just brilliant. I’ve been singing “Wake Up” for the last week, and now my children are singing it too. This song… Read more »

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Émilie Simon — Song of the Storm

Reviewers often say things like “this song sounds like Kate Bush with electronic backing”. But this song really does sound like that, exactly. Émilie is doing a perfect Kate impression. The tone of voice, the vocal inflections, the lyrics, the musical arc — it’s all perfect. The rising note of hysteria towards the end is… Read more »

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