Music | Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard
4 May 2016
Visionary composer, producer, violist, guitarist and arranger New Zealand-born John Metcalfe will perform a series of live shows, coming to Stroud’s SVA in Gloucestershire on 21 May.
For these shows Metcalfe has assembled an incredible…
Music | Digital Trends
3 May 2016
Life is moving fast for Nelson sibling duo Broods, Georgia, 21, and Caleb Nott, 23, whose popularity seems to be gaining momentum daily. Recently, they’ve been selling out headlining tours and sharing stages with…
Music | List (The)
3 May 2016
New Zealander Annea Lockwood, who grew up with nature thanks to her father’s love of mountaineering, brings her aural installation Sound Map of the Housatonic River to Glasgow on 7 May, reports UK arts…
Music | LondonTheatre.co.uk
2 May 2016
Aucklander Nicholas Afoa will join the cast of the West End Lion King production in the role of “Simba” from 10 May at the Lyceum Theatre in London.
Afoa made his stage debut as Simba…
Rugby | Noise11
29 April 2016
Iron Maiden have released a special edition All Blacks t-shirt as a tribute to their Rugby World Cup victory. Fans will be able to purchase the shirt during the band’s tour in New Zealand.
“The…
Music | Daily Mail
22 April 2016
Lorde surprised festival-goers as she joined English group Disclosure on stage on Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California performing the hit Magnets, the most successful song from Disclosure’s album Caracal in Australia…
Opera | Tonedeaf
18 April 2016
When “Lorde and her minimalist pop masterpiece ‘Royals’ gradually conquered the world in 2013, fans and critics alike in the US and Europe – and to a lesser extent in Australia – declared it…
Music | Willamette Week
6 April 2016
Founder of Vancouver-based cassette label 1080p, New Zealander Richard MacFarlane is making a name for himself for a brand, which “uniquely inspires producers while consuming the attention spans of aesthete trend-seekers in electronic music,”…
Music | Guardian (The)
31 March 2016
Album after album, the Kingston upon Thames solo artist, Wellington-born Peter Bruntnell produces rich and refined song-craft, yet hardly anyone has heard of him. Could this be his time? The Guardian’s Angus Batey considers…
Music | Guardian (The)
28 March 2016
David Bowie believed the young New Zealand singer Lorde was “the future of music”.
“David really liked Lorde. They had a few wonderful moments together,” said Mike Garson, Bowie’s longtime pianist.
Lorde was chosen to perform…
Music | Forbes | YouTube
22 March 2016
Shirley Setia, a 22-year old Aucklander whose family hails from India, has attracted a large Indian and international following singing cover versions of Bollywood hits, Forbes contributor Rob Cain reports.
The diminutive mezzo-soprano, who calls…
Music | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
16 March 2016
Pip Brown, better known as Ladyhawke, ARIA-winning maker of synth-pop hits such as Paris is Burning and My Delirium, is back with a new album. Wild Things was created in Los Angeles and is…
Music | Los Angeles Times
16 March 2016
“The orchestra scene in Southern California is keen for refreshment,” according to classical music critic Mark Swed of the Los Angeles Times, who reviews the 29-year-old New Zealand conductor Gemma News’ recent “speed date”…
Music | Entertainment Weekly
10 March 2016
The Flight of the Conchords return to stages in the United States playing at nearly 30 locations across the country in June and July, the first time the duo has toured since co-headlining 2013’s…
Music | Irish News (The)
4 March 2016
Former artistic manager at the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic boss, New Zealander Richard Wigley, 55, is the new managing director of the Ulster Orchestra.
Wigley talks about “channelling the energy” of the orchestra…
Music | Daily Beast (The) | Guardian (The) | Telegraph (The)
29 February 2016
Lorde’s tribute to her hero David Bowie at this year’s BRIT Awards has been called “dignified”, “powerful” and “heartbreaking”. Singing Life on Mars with Bowie’s own backing band, Lorde’s was an “acid, disaffected take…
Music | The 405
20 February 2016
“It seems as though Marlon Williams is a storyteller, first and foremost. There’s a character who lives within the fluidity of each song he sings, driven by every cord he strums,” writes Daniel Harris…
Music | Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra | Hamilton Spectator (The)
19 February 2016
Conductor Gemma New made her long-awaited mainstage debut in Ontario as the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra’s new music director, receiving a standing ovation from a huge crowd.
Classical music writer for the Hamilton Spectator Leonard Turnevicius…
Music | Billboard
18 February 2016
“There are singers, and there’s Gin Wigmore,” according to Billboard. “The New Zealand-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s raw, bluesy voice is so distinctive, some pundits are convinced it’s only a matter of time before the…
Music | Guardian (The)
16 February 2016
Marlon Williams’ self-titled debut album is described as “delicious, oddly uplifting misery”, in a review written by Michael Hann for the Guardian.
“It’s hard to work out quite how the album from the young New…
Music | Village Voice (The)
9 February 2016
“If there’s anyone who proves that singer-songwriters don’t need a Nashville or Memphis address to make authentic, arresting country music, it’s 25-year-old crooner Marlon Williams,” Village Voice music editor Lindsey Rhoades says.
“Growing…
Music | San Luis Obispo Tribune (The)
4 February 2016
Andy Morley-Hall is a member of the Wellington International Ukulele Orchestra, an eight-piece band that combines high-energy ukulele covers of classic pop and rock songs by the likes of Blondie, Cyndi Lauper and Salt-N-Pepa…
Music | Vancouver Sun (The)
26 January 2016
In July 2015, Marlon Williams made his Vancouver Folk Music Festival debut stunning the crowd. The 25-year-old New Zealander is a revelation, according to the Vancouver Sun. Williams’ voice is riveting, a cross between…
Music | New York Post
20 January 2016
In 1983, Aucklander Geeling Ching was 23 years old and waiting tables at a Sydney café when she was chosen to play the lead role in David Bowie’s “China Girl,” Associated Press…
Music | Guardian (The)
13 January 2016
Singer Nadia Reid’s highly rated debut,Listen to Formation, Look for the Signs is included in the Guardian’s annual roundup of “The Albums We Missed” column.
Reviewer Michael Hann says: “It took 24-year-old New Zealander Reid seven…
Music | Rolling Stone Australia
9 January 2016
Marlon Williams’ solo debut was one of the albums that defined the year, according to Rolling Stone Australia, which includes the self-titled debut in their 50 Best Albums of the Year list.
Rolling Stone writes:
“The…
Music | Vice
27 December 2015
Thirty years after its initial release, No Tag’s album ‘Oi, Oi, Oi’ – three tracks of burly and meaty street punk, has been re-issued by New York City label Radio Raheem.
“Guitarist Andrew Boak, singer…
Music | Daily Mail | Daily Mail (the)
25 December 2015
“Ed Sheeran has paid a touching tribute to All Blacks great Jonah Lomu by taking to the stage at his concert wearing the late rugby legend’s number 11 jersey”, writes Jenny Awford for
Music | Wall Street Journal (The)
10 December 2015
One-time member of post-punk band the Durutti Column, composer, arranger and viola player New Zealand-born John Metcalfe has written “Sycamore,” which draws on the disparate influences of minimalist composer Steve Reich and the electronic…
Music | Guardian (The)
2 December 2015
New Zealand singer-songwriter Nadia Reid’s Look for the Signs is an “extraordinarily assured debut”, Guardian reviewer Kitty Empire writes.
The track Call the Days “suggests an Antipodean Laura Marling, a talented 24-year-old with a preternatural…
Music | Sydney Morning Herald (The)
28 November 2015
“Jennifer Lopez has blown away music fans and fellow performers with a show-stopping dance medley at the American Music Awards – and a Kiwi is getting the credit,” as reported in an article on the…
Music | News.com.au
24 November 2015
“Cult” New Zealand neo-dub outfit Fat Freddy’s Drop have released their fourth studio album, Bays, and according to News.com.au reviewer Cyclone Wehner, it is “more of an underground Berlin than Detroit vibe.”
The septet, who…
Music | MTV | Mtv.com
19 November 2015
Together with Disclosure, Sam Smith and Lorde turned the Saturday Night Live studio “into an electric, colorful stage” when performing tracks off Disclosure’s latest album Caracal during last night’s episode hosted by Elizabeth Banks.
Sam Smith…
Music | Guardian (The)
6 November 2015
“It’s taken 19 years for Martin Phillipps to get round to releasing the fifth Chills album (and the previous four took 16 years to make), but his manifold troubles in the years since Sunburnt haven’t diminished his melodic…
Music | YouTube
30 October 2015
An American farmer and YouTube sensation plays a mesmerising video version of Lorde’s 2013 smash hit single “Royals” on his trombone whilst sitting in a deckchair overlooking a vast pasture. Soon, a herd of…
Music | Fact Magazine
29 October 2015
New Zealand producer Olly Peryman aka Fis features in UK-based online music blog FACT Magazine’s regular “Mixes” category with one of the year’s weirdest picks, according to the site.
“With his early releases on Samurai and…
Music | Teen Vogue
28 October 2015
In the past couple of years, India Yelich-O’Connor went to both her high school ball in Devonport and the 2014 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles – not the average itinerary for a 16-year-old, but…
Music | Innocent Words
23 October 2015
The Chills spearheaded by Martin Phillipps will release their first full length album – Silver Bullets, in 19 years on October 30. A full band tour is planned for 2016 and Martin Phillipps reportedly…
Music | Stuff
20 October 2015
Wellington’s Thomas Gaynor, 24, who is currently studying in the United States, has won the prestigious 3rd Bach Liszt Organ competition, held in Weimar, Germany.
The Wellington College graduate won the organ prize over 18…
Music | Houston Chronicle
20 October 2015
New Zealand violinist Natalie Lin, 26, has created a 16-piece string ensemble called Kinetic, an unconducted chamber orchestra which recently made its debut at First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston.
“I lead the ensemble with…
Music | Atlantic (The)
13 October 2015
Lorde joins the ranks of pop singers joyfully and brutally sidestepping tropes about victimhood in the music video for Disclosure’s “Magnets” which ends with the featured New Zealander tying a guy to a chair,…
Music | Clash Magazine
5 October 2015
“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…
Music | Guardian (The)
2 October 2015
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…
Music | Rolling Stone
28 September 2015
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…
Music | Musicweek
20 September 2015
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…
Music | Marie Claire
17 September 2015
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…
Music | Guardian (The)
15 September 2015
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…
Music | Guardian (The)
14 September 2015
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…
Music | Skinny (The)
9 September 2015
“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…
Music | Paste Magazine
2 September 2015
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…
Music | Huffington Post
2 September 2015
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…
Music | Newcastle Herald
27 August 2015
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…
Music | PopMatters
26 August 2015
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…
Music | Guardian (The)
14 August 2015
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…
Music | New York Times (The)
12 August 2015
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…
Music | Telegraph (The)
25 July 2015
“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…