Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 27th July

Friday 27th July, 2018 5:03PM

It's been another whiplash week of electrifying local releases and wallet-wrecking show announcements. Upcoming tour highlights include a rare national tour from Auckland pop stylist Jonathan Bree, who'll be celebrating the release of his dreamy new album Sleepwalking along with his fabulous masked band in November, UK street punk originals Cockney Rejects will be playing their debut New Zealand shows in late February and early March, and Wellington metal maniacs Scorn Of Creation announced they’ll be inflicting their brutal riffage on the four major centres later in October and November. Fans of folk-inflected sounds were well served with the news South Island-based songwriter Holly Arrowsmith will be playing songs from her new album A Dawn I Remember across the country in August and September, and Auckland-based artist Fables announced an exhaustive tour of Aotearoa for September and October

Batten down the hatches for an onslaught of international superstars - Atlanta hip hop trio Migos will be returning to our shores to headline the North Island leg of summer festival Bay Dreams in early 2019, Nai Palm of Melbourne-based future soul unit Hiatus Kaiyote will be back for two shows in August, legendary Detroit psych-folk artist Rodriguez (the subject of 2012 documentary Searching for Sugar Man) is returning to New Zealand in February, and inimitable pillar of popular culture William Shatner is heading our way for his ‘Return To Down Under’ three date tour of New Zealand, slated for this October.

We were thrilled to present an in-depth interview with visiting dungeon synth master Mortiis, expertly conducted by Sean O’Kane-Connolly ahead of next week's tour of Aotearoa. We also shared an equally insightful conversation between two generations of Dunedin artists, Francisca Griffin of Look Blue Go Purple and Eliana Gray of Jaggers x Lines, the former of whom is playing at Auckland's Audio Foundation on Saturday, while the latter is supporting Australian superstar Tash Sultana in Dunedin that same day! Onehunga rap powerhouses SWIDT have a fresh new collection out today, we chatted with rapper Spycc about their EP and the controversies surround the recent cancellation of Onehunga's iconic 312 bus. On top of all that good stuff, we demanded that nutritiously-named Dunedin guitar-poppers Soaked Oats fess up about their favourite songs about food ahead of this weekend's shows in Auckland and Wellington, and premiered a psychedelic clip from Auckland shoegaze / post-rock unit Rope.

More local musical highlights included a spellbinding four song collection from Dunedin underground folk legend Maxine Funke, the latest album from long-running Pakarunga guitar-pop wizards The Situations, a dope compilation of emerging Auckland electronic dance producers from local imprint Heat Rockers Inc., a mind-warping and immersive collection from Tokyo via Whanganui electronic artist ROC///OPT/, a cybernetic remix by Date Night of the title track to Wellington indie crew girlboss' debut EP, a fearsome new video from Wellington metal artists Bulletbelt, and the jazz-tinged debut single from Avantdale Bowling Club, the new project of Aotearoa hip hop figurehead Tom Scott of Home Brew and @Peace.

Our Caught Live video for the week features acclaimed Auckland-based songwriter Julia Deans, who is touring her first album in eight years We Light Fire throughout Aotearoa in August and September. Get a taste of what's to come by checking out fab recent footage of Deans performing a stripped back rendition of her song 'Clandestine' in the sumptuous studios of RNZ...