Whitney – Light Upon The Lake (Secretly Canadian) ALBUM REVIEW
GARY STEEL asks: Why do so many albums sound intentionally awful and artless? Part 2!
Cullen Omori – New Misery (SubPop) ALBUM REVIEW
GARY STEEL asks: Why do so many albums sound intentionally awful and artless?
Poliça – United Crushers (Pod) ALBUM REVIEW
We need more politics in music, but not poor music with a political twist, writes GARY STEEL
These Records Sound Amazing
Is it possible for recordings to sound as good as the musicians when they performed in the studio? RICHARD VAREY has found a record
Music Listening Clubs
DR RICHARD VAREY has been thinking about deep music listening on good equipment with other human beings in the same room!
NZ Music Month – Shoes This High
GARY STEEL digs up his 1981 review of the first and only record by the now-legendary Shoes This High.
The High Resolution Musician
David Elias is an acclaimed singer-songwriter. He also happens to be an audiophile and high resolution music pioneer. DR RICHARD VAREY talks to him
Murder Ballads, Dead Girls And Funerals
Fancy a spot of spelunking? GARY STEEL reassesses Nick Cave.
Records For Life
DR RICHARD VAREY takes a deep, quizzical look at the supposed vinyl revival, retro-mania and the new glut of merchandising around Record Store Day.
Unsung Legends Of NZ Music
ANDREW JOHNSTONE waxes lyrical about Graeme Downes (The Verlaines) and Matthew Bannister (Sneaky Feelings).
Future Islands – The Far Field (4AD/The Label)
Their fans will love it, but Future Islands’ fifth album sticks in GARY STEEL’s throat.
Daniel Brandt – Eternal Something (Erased Tapes/Southbound) ALBUM REVIEW
GARY STEEL is seduced by a seductive and gently adventurous album. By a drummer, no less.
Methyl Ethel – Everything Is Forgotten (4AD/The Label) ALBUM REVIEW
GARY STEEL makes an indignant stand against a record that sounds like a C90 cassette tape that's been thrown out of a car onto
The Map Room – Weatherless (No Label) ALBUM REVIEW
GARY STEEL recommends this album to all those lost souls who find life just too harsh and edgy.
Van Morrison, Mike Nesmith And The Road To Enlightenment
Have you ever looked to musicians and their work as a pathway towards insight on life and transcendence? ANDREW JOHNSTONE on the two artists
Soundgarden – Ultramega OK (Sub Pop) CD REVIEW
How did Soundgarden’s remixed and remastered album end up sounding so bad? GARY STEEL’s tinnitus screams his name.
Sinkane – Life & Livin’ It (City Slang) CD REVIEW
Forget those monomaniacal one-genre grinders, here's something that basks in a multi-hued excitation of genres. GARY STEEL is kind of smitten with Sinkane.
Chinese whisper, or careless whispers?
Vinyl is taking over, didn’t you know it? DR. RICHARD VAREY has his own theories.
Neil Watson – Studies In Tubular (Southbound)
Gary Steel is tired of NZ musicians making albums that are glorified calling cards rather than coherent musical statements.
William Tyler – Modern Country (Merge/Southside) ALBUM REVIEW
It’s Gazza’s Big Ketchup, wherein GARY STEEL chips away at the massive review pile that accrued during 2016.
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