Music News

Weekly Round Up: Friday 2nd February

Friday 2nd February, 2018 3:31PM

This week saw the momentous return of St Jerome's Laneway Festival to Albert Park on a scorching hot Auckland Anniversary Day. We were there in force, with our team of dedicated music writers reviewing almost every single artist who played! You can read our extensive coverage of the awesome day HERE, accompanied by a gallery of excellent snaps of the occasion by hard-working photographer Ngamihi Pawa.

Big tour news of the week included the announcement that scrappy legends of local hip hip Home Brew are hitting the road for a nationwide Fundraising For Baycorp Tour beginning this February. We're also looking forward to Seattle pop auteur Perfume Genius' upcoming performance alongside the fabulous Aldous Harding at the Auckland Arts Festival this coming March.

We were stoked to premiere the tender and psychedelic new single from Wellington trio Womb, who'll be unveiling their debut album this March. We also premiered a colourful and fun new video by Blenheim folk-pop artist Jocee Tuck, taken from her latest album Mt. Dora.

It's been a great week for local releases, Auckland electronic artist Green Grove shared a sublime debut EP, noisy Tauranga trio Super Narco Man dropped a chaotic new single and video, Wellington psych-rockers Transitor busted out two shimmering tunes, Heavy Chest unveiled a summery and wistful new song, and a huge collaborative single was released by the titanic duo of Onehunga rappers SWIDT and Auckland electronic dance artists Yoko-Zuna. Auckland beat aficionados The Grow Room shared an excellent split EP by local producers Whyfisucks and Affsid Kidjhagiffy, and label-associate Ryan Hendriks of hip hop duo Badcorporation dropped a new solo album titled Old Zealand.

Other notable local releases for the week included a collection of alien-themed hip hop tunes by mysterious local producer CYKA, a compilation titled Works For Loudspeakers featuring sounds by Alexa Casino, Indira Force, Sam Longmore and more, a vibey tribute to this week's once-in-a-lifetime 'blood blue supermoon' from electronic producer ROC///OPT/, and a bolshy new 'diss-track' from iconoclastic Tokyo-via-Wellington artist Lilstiffy, who has a bee in his bonnet about alleged similarities between his own signature look and Unknown Mortal Orchestra's latest promo image.

This week's Caught Live video features Kerikeri musician and actor Troy Kingi, who'll be playing songs from his popular new album Shake That Skinny Ass All The Way To Zygertron in Leigh and Auckland this weekend. He'll be accompanied by a crack lineup including his live group The Galactic Chiropractors, Electric Wire Hustle, Borrowed cs, Mark Vanilau, and Coco Solid. Here's a recent clip of Kingi performing his tune 'Grandma's Rocket Poem' at The 13th Floor...