Awesome Feeling 5

For fifth installment of Awesome Feeling, we decided to do things a little differently – over the past month, we’ve uploaded a new track to stream or download each weekday. Now the compilation is sequenced and available to download in its entirety – there’s anthems and obscurities, bangers and ballads, […]

Don’t be fooled by the song’s title – Spelunks’ ‘Relaxed Geometry’ is decidedly unchill. There’s the shock of the trebly flute/recorder meshing with synths into a keening/eldritch psychedelic swirl like some plastic Alistair Galbraith, atop brisk, clipped beats and a dry, digi-funk bassline, with yearning, nervy vocals buried in the […]

‘Towards Our Myth’s Oblivion’ certainly doesn’t lack for ambition – Pseudorobustus’ art-metal prog stew includes ambient piano and ostentatiously symphonic synths, guitar churn and breakneck riffage, drums alternately driving the song and swirling around it, and the vocals include both a haunting female presence and hoarsely ‘-core male ones. The […]

Currently operating as a three piece, ‘Endless Empty Eye’ sees the Wellington-via-Melbourne-via-Auckland institution that is Sharpie Crows get slow’n’low, an abrasive mock-pompous strut reminiscent of the Fall’s loungier numbers, and smeared with the sexiest cornet this side of Throbbing Gristle’s Cosey Fanni Tutti courtesy of Steven Huf (from Melbourne’s Ouch […]

Auckland based duo Nothing To Nobody is the brainchild of Lui Tuiasau and Barnaby Marshall. Their roots are noticeably in hip-hop soul and throughout their music you can hear the influence of Slum Village, A Tribe Called Quest, Pete Rock and CL Smooth and more. Not that their sound is […]

‘Swallow The Key’ from Auckland’s Las Tetas shows their knack for insouciant garage/punk/girl-group churn with a harsh guitar/keyboard attack and ragged gang chants. While they haven’t been around for long – they first surfaced with a covers set for a Country Club show late 2010 (they’ve still got songs by […]

Cool Cult’s ‘Tomorrow’ might open with a quasi-Though Creature riff, but it’s quickly apparent that the young Auckland band’s sympathies lie with shoegaze. They’ve the guitar churn and vocal wash down, but where they depart from the blueprint is with how harsh and abrasive they make it sound – steel […]

Auckland duo Onesie (made up of Ary Jansen and Catherine Cumming) released their debut album Squirm early last month, and it’s a typically lo-fi and grungy affair which comes book-ended with two especially disheveled tracks, ‘Suds’ and the title track ‘Squirm’. Between the other songs on the album is the […]

Auckland’s Autumn Splendour have carved out a unique niche for themselves in the local music scene – too lean and light on their feet for the post-hardcore/garage-rock bands, and too raw and strident for the chillwave/twee axis. Their songs are scrappy sprints (‘Toby’ clocks in under two minutes) that recall […]

Dunedin-raised five-piece Mr. Biscuits (made up of Richard Ley-Hamilton, Sarah Ley-Hamilton, Sam Valentine, Adrian Ng and Lee Nicolson) recently spent a couple of weeks at the top of the Radio One top 10 with ‘New Song’, a track simply named since the band couldn’t think of a better one and […]