NZEDGE Music — New Zealand through the eyes of the world's media

Marlon Williams’ Live Act Is Quite Something

“So often Clash will troop along to watch a new band, and their fringes will droop down over their chins, eyes pointed to the floor. Not so, Marlon Williams,” the music magazine writes. “A…

Bret McKenzie Digs Himself Into a Big Hole

Starring Bret McKenzie from Flight of the Conchords digging himself a massive, literal hole in the ground, the latest single by the New Zealand powerpop group Phoenix Foundation features on the Guardian’s music site. “If…

Lorde’s New Track With Disclosure

Lorde has released a new track together with Disclosure. The Kiwi singer “co-wrote the track with the electronic duo comprised of brothers Howard and Guy Lawrence” as reported in Rolling Stone Magazine. The…

New Music Platform STA Travel Sounds Will Showcase NZ Artists

SBTV, a digital music discovery and entertainment platform has partnered with STA Travel to curate artists for their new music platform, STA Travel Sounds. New Zealand artists will soon be showcased on the…

Writing New Album Therapeutic Says Gin Wigmore

Currently on tour in the US to great acclaim, Gin Wigmore, whose music has featured on the soundtrack to Pretty Little Liars and Grey’s Anatomy, pauses to talk with Marie Claire about her creative…

Forgotten Crowded House Song Helping Refugees

Songs can grow and assume new shapes with time, and pop’s power to engage people has taken Crowded House’s 16-year-old ballad Help is Coming and given it new life as a charitable ode to…

Stephen Taberner’s Choir a Bit on the Spooky Side

Georgian polyphonic singing enthusiast, Christchurch-born Stephen Taberner leads the 16-man Australian choir Spooky Men’s Chorale which recently performed in London at the Islington Assembly Hall. The Guardian’s Robin Denselow reviewed the evening. “It takes a…

Introverted Dancefloor’s Latest Effort Far from Shy

“Not nearly as introspective as the eponymous album title would have you believe, Bevan Smith’s latest project as Introverted Dancefloor is restrained, yes, but far from bashful,” UK arts magazine the Skinny…

Gin Wigmore Embodies Casual Tough Girl Style

New Zealand-born musician Gin Wigmore has a fashion sense equally eclectic as her sound, according to style site Paste Magazine. With unfussy platinum blonde locks, a beautifully detailed tattoo sleeve and rings for every…

Lips Argue Against Online Streaming

New Zealander Steph Brown and West Virginia-born multi-instrumentalist and producer Fen Ikner are Lips, an electronic pop act characterised by a girl with giant lips for a head. The duo has just relocated from…

Marlon Williams Has Had a Crazy Year

If the events of 2015 are anything to go by, New Zealander Marlon Williams could certainly say this has been his year, Jade Lazearevic writes in a profile of the singer for the Newcastle…

Singer Tamaryn Celebrating Unpredictable Potential

When a musician describes one of her tracks as “an early Madonna song if it was produced by My Bloody Valentine’, you know you’re in for something special,” online magazine PopMatters writes in a…

The Phoenix Foundation Give up Their Dreams

The sixth studio album by New Zealand band The Phoenix Foundation has been released and the Guardian offers up readers a track-by-track guide to the record provided by the band. “If the name [of the…

Rosie Langabeer Keeping Busy in Philadelphia

Composer and musician New Zealander Rosie Langabeer, who will perform as Diamond Blazer at the Double Decker Music series in Philadelphia where she lives, has also been working with esteemed American ballet choreographer Matthew…

New Zealand Girl Plays Piano While Sleepwalking

“Some people are so good at musical instruments they purport to be able to play it in their sleep. Yet for this one girl, it’s a reality”, writes Vin Shahrestani for The Telegraph. A video…

Flautist Marya Martin heads Bridgehampton Festival

Internationally acclaimed flutist Marya Martin heads the 26st season of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival on New York’s Long Island with an 12-concert program featuring works by Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mozart and Schubert….

New Face of International Music Conducting

Gemma New, the 28-year-old native New Zealander violinist who became a professional conductor while still in her teens, has been named the music director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s in…

Tim Finn Loves Writing Songs More than Ever

Forty years in the music business, one of New Zealand’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, Tim Finn, 63, recently performed his new collaboration, White Cloud at the Galway International Arts festival. White Cloud may be derived from…

Marlon Williams’ Voice Skips Decades and Genres

Marlon Williams’ recent gig at Sydney’s Basement was “terrific”, according to music writer Bernard Zuel. “Williams is tall and good looking and charming and winning. That will get you far. He can write a…

New Jazz Album Two-Out Intensely Moving

New Zealand “jazz titans” pianist Mike Nock and saxophonist Roger Manins’ new album Two-Out features “11 well-known standards delivered in ways that are accessibly melodic, yet interpretative, and at times intensely moving,” reviewer John…

Lorde – a Force of Nature

Just a few weeks after having covered Vogue Australia, the New Zealand singer has been photographed by Ryan McGinley for the cover of Dazed Magazine’s Girls Rule the World issue. Dazed…

Mikey McCleary – “I Became a Part of Indian Music”

Mikey McCleary “has recreated some evergreen Bollywood tracks and infused youthfulness in them”. With his work on “Khoya khoya chand”, “Hawa hawai”, “Dhak Dhak” or the recent “Fifi– Jata kahan hai deewane” he has…

UMO Ringleader Ruban Nielson Gets Personal

Ruban Nielson’s private life provided the conditions under which Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s latest LP Multi-Love came together. But the album is much more than the sum of its body parts, the Guardian’s Kate Hutchinson…

Zane Lowe Traded Radio 1 for Apple’s Beats 1

Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe has been “lured away from the bright lights of London to help launch a new music platform” with Apple. Apple’s new free platform Beats 1, its first ever-live radio station,…

Sound Artist Honor Harger Listens in on Space

Sound artist Dunedin-born Honor Harger has spent the last few years listening to the stars and recording some of the sounds of space. One of Harger’s main projects was Radio Astronomy, a…

Lorde – the July Cover Star of Vogue Australia

New Zealand singer Lorde has been photographed for her first Vogue cover for Vogue Australia. The 18-year-old singer shared the gorgeous cover image and an additional shot from the issue with her…

Sarah Mary Chadwick Sits down at the Organ

It’s been over ten years since Sarah Mary Chadwick, 32, left New Zealand to pursue her music career, initially as the lead-singer of swamp-doom outfit, Batrider, and more recently with her own solo work….

UMO’s Third Effort Has Added Whoa Factor

“Oregon-based New Zealander Ruban Nielson is already known for being an offbeat operator, providing psychedelic takes on 70s soul and deeply fried 60s pop on two previous albums,” Guardian reviewer Kitty Empire writes. “For UMO’s…

Have Faith in Lorde She Knows What’s She’s Doing

Lorde’s “gender and her age – coupled with her self-assuredness – are both reasons” the 18-year-old singer “attracts perhaps more than her fair share of scrutiny, including from ‘truthers’ who maintain she’s at least…

Nielson Family Reunion Perfect Subtext for New UMO Album

“Visionary” New Zealander Ruban Nielson, frontman of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, has tightened up his songwriting, “with the added bonus of synths” on the band’s latest album Multi-Love. “Nielson’s favourite new toy is apparent from the…

Thomston Challenging Pop Conventions

Aucklander Thomas Stoneman, aka Thomston, who recently made his British debut at the Great Escape festival in Brighton, “is most certainly a talent to watch out for,” according to Clash magazine. The 19-year-old singer’s debut…

Lorde Immortalised in Wax at Madame Tussauds

Madame Tussauds in Hollywood has unveiled a wax figure of 18-year-old New Zealand singer Lorde. Human Lorde was quite excited when the wax museum’s Hollywood location revealed her figure. She tweeted out a photo of…

Billboard Gets a Rush on Gin Wigmore’s New Video

New Zealand singer-songwriter Gin Wigmore, 28, is preparing for the release of her third studio album Blood to Bone with the “intense and uninhibited” video, “New Rush,” Billboard reports. “ Wigmore is giving her…

Jess Cornelius Releases New Track Ahead of Courtney Barnett Tour

“New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Jess Cornelius is the tour de force behind Teeth & Tongue, and returns with a rollicking new track ‘Cupcake’,” Monica Tan writes for the Guardian’s weekly “Mixtape” column. “Although recorded in…

Country Star Marlon Williams Takes to the Road

New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Marlon Williams will tour Australia and his home country in support of his just-released, critically acclaimed self-titled debut album. “A free-ranging complement to the assured country weirdness of last year’s Sad…

Louis Baker Takes Flight with New EP Birds

The “impressive” New Zealand-born songwriter Louis Baker’s new EP Birds will be released in the United Kingdom on 29 June. Clash magazine premieres the title track. Continually observing the world around him, Baker…

Kimbra Plays at California’s Coachella

Singer Kimbra was a headline act at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California, included alongside big names like Florence and the Machine, Caribou, FKA Twigs and Father John Misty. For the…

Stan Walker’s New Album Marks Becoming of Age

New Zealand soul singer Stan Walker, 24, is about to release his new album Truth & Soul, a collection of songs from icons like Stevie Wonder and Otis Redding. The Australian Idol winner says,…

Kody Nielson Is Another Exciting NZ Music Offering

New Zealand’s “most exciting offerings” of late, according to the Guardian, “have been the warped psychedelia of Connan Mockasin and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Completing this trio of peculiarity is Silicon – also known as…

Kimbra to Headline Palm Springs Music Festival

Grammy-winning artist New Zealander Kimbra will headline the US music festival, Tachevah: A Palm Springs Block Party, on 15 April outside of the Spa Resort Casino. The Desert Sun reports: “Kimbra, now living…

Golden Boy of Psych-Pop Connan Mockasin Talks to i-D

Following a residency at Marfa Myths – a festival in Texas curated by record label Mexican Summer and Ballroom Marfa, which Mockasin spent recording with British singer Dev Hynes – he found himself in…

Broods’ Georgia Nott Can’t Deny Her Pop Roots

When New Zealander Georgia Nott was young, her parents took her to wedding and church concerts where they performed with her aunt and uncle as an ABBA tribute band. “I couldn’t walk at the…

Lorde and Joel Little Back into the Recording Studio

Teenage global “phenom” Lorde will hit the studio in a matter of weeks to begin work on a follow-up to her acclaimed debut album, Pure Heroine, according to Billboard. The big news didn’t come via…

Composer Annea Lockwood Celebrates Waterway Sounds

Christchurch-born composer Annea Lockwood was one of nine artists represented at a recent audio and visual art exhibition in Manhattan, New York called “Foot Notes: On the Sensations of Tone,” an exhibition which celebrated…

Geoff Sewell’s Guerilla Opera Singers Hit Exclusive Parties

Former Amici Forever tenor New Zealander Geoff Sewell and his wife Simone Lanham run London-based Incognito Artists, a group of performers who specialise in “guerrilla opera” – available for hire as “chefs,”…

With Bombastic New Single UMO Channel Stately Soulful Music

New Zealand-born Ruban Nielson’s Portland-based three-piece Unknown Mortal Orchestra makes the Guardian’s daily playlist, with their “bombastic” new single Multi-Love. “Such was the oddball beauty of Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s introverted second album II that Multi-Love…