Maconie explains Stockhausen on war
Composer and musicologist New Zealand-born Robin Maconie writes about celebrated German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen's controversial statement after September 9/11, in which he called the terrorist attacks "the greatest work of art" ever. Maconie writes: "Stockhausen's opinion deserves respect as the view of one who knows what war is about, has suffered and forgiven, and does not shrink from confronting the moral ambiguities of international conflict nor from recognizing that actions undertaken for a morally defensible cause can still inflict enormous cruelty on the innocent." Maconie joins American composer Morton Subotnick and Björk, in ultimately discussing Stockhausen's fame as an avant-garde composer of startlingly original and uncompromising music. The New Yorker music critic Alex Ross calls Maconie "Stockhausen's chief chronicler" and this article a "passionate defence". Robin Maconie is the author of Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen. 
(14 March 2008)

The most popular 
Wellington comedy pair The Flight of the Conchords won best comedy album Grammy for their debut EP The Distant Future at the 50th Annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. The EP is a collection of six tracks written by the self-declared "Fourth most popular folk-comedy duo", Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie. Although neither was present to accept the award, Clement told The Dominion Post the announcement was made at a separate low-key event before the main ceremony. "We were with all the weirder colours of the spectrum - the best polka album and best Hawaiian album." McKenzie was enthusiastic about the win telling the Post it was a great day for New Zealand comedy. "I wish my grandmothers were still alive. They would be so proud and I could call them and say, 'Granny, I've won a Grammy'," he said. A Conchords full-length album will be released in April. 
(10 February 2008)

Cosmic pop 
One-woman Christchurch act Bachelorette is winning over Australian audiences with her "beautifully odd, inter-planetary pop". Annabel Alpers is currently touring Australia with her new album, Isolation Loops, which she recorded in a remote wooden hut near the mouth of Canterbury's Rakaia River. A review in the Melbourne Age describes the album as "lovingly kitsch space-pop", and likens Bachelorette to indie electro acts Stereolab and Broadcast. Alpers studied composition and computer-based sound design at Canterbury and Auckland universities after a brief stint in NZ psych-pop band Hawaii Five-O. "I had been playing more psychedelic rock/pop kind of music in bands," she says. "But once I was able to access computers with multi-tracking and electronic instrumentation, the more my solo stuff developed and the more fascinating it became. Bachelorette was really born out of computers." 
(26 October 2007)

Sellaband springboard for NZ rapper 
Christchurch rapper Maitreya has found international fame through sellaband.com, a new social networking site for entrepreneurial music lovers. Sellaband allows users to buy "shares" in acts they think have the potential for major chart success. When the amount invested in an act reaches the US $50,000 mark, Sellaband helps the musician record and globally release a studio album, the sales of which benefit the "believers" (fan investors). Maitreya, now based in New York, was sixth artist to break through the $50,000 barrier and is currently recording his debut album - One Love and Light. 
(9 June 2007)

Finn welcomes world to his kingdom 
Tim Finn has embarked on a tour of the UK and Europe to promote his latest solo album, Imaginary Kingdom. Finn wrote most of the album in NZ, which he says had a major influence on its sound. "Gertrude Stein said, 'People are the way their land and sky is.' I think that's true. Most of my writing was influenced by New Zealand's land, light, air and water." Imaginary Kingdom will be released in the US on April 24; a week before Finn joins brother Neil for a Crowded House reunion at California's Coachella Music Festival. 
(28 February 2007)

Chills still thrill 
Flying Nun legends the Chills are the unlikely inspiration behind up-and-coming Swedish band Peter, Bjorn and John. The indiepop trio pay tribute to Dunedin's finest with a song titled The Chills, on their third album Writer's Block. "First we took a beat from an old Dionne Warwick tune," says bassist Bjorn Yttling, "then we made this Pink Frost [the Chills' most loved song] chorus thing. It's like a homage to them." Martin Phillips formed the Chills as a 15-year-old in 1978. The band went on to become Flying Nun's most successful international act of the 80s and 90s. 
(7 July 2006)

Dusty Down Under 
Already triple platinum in NZ, Bic Runga's third album - Birds - is now making waves across the Tasman. The Age: "Dark and majestic … [Birds] is without a doubt Runga's best album - 11 eerie, atmospheric songs that sound somehow displaced, out of time, but classic." Sydney Morning Herald: "Gentle and lush, it features delicate melodies augmented by lavish backing vocals and occasional flourishes of harp and French horn. Held together by the lightness and agility of Runga's voice, the best songs evoke a smoky, retro cocktail bar - the sort of setting in which Runga made a cameo in the film Little Fish, as a 'Vietnamese lounge singer.'" Australian Vogue: "With Birds, her quietly devastating third album, Runga keeps the lights way down low while radiating a deep soulfulness that could transform her into the Antipodean Dusty Springfield … it's a contender for the first great album of 2006." 
(12 March 2006)

Hansen homeward bound?
MTV Europe’s head, New Zealander Brent Hansen has retired after nearly two decades with the company. Hansen joined MTV in 1987 as a news producer and soared through the ranks to become the President of Creative and Editor in Chief of MTV Networks International. “Brent’s strong, creative instincts have … helped us achieve a unique editorial voice and music credibility that will continue to lend integrity to our brands for years to come,” says MTV Networks International president Bill Roedy. Always maintaining he would retire from the top job at 50, and after 18 years in London, Hansen is looking forward to making “time for my relationship with New Zealand.” 
(17 February 2006)

Something old, something new 
The internationally acclaimed NZ String Quartet made an impressive debut in Minneapolis, performing as part of the annual Music in the Part Series in St Paul. The Quartet's program included the world premiere of NZ composer Gillian Whitehead's Hin-pu-te-hue, a work celebrating the Maori goddess of peace. Star Tribune: "The sense of quietude that might have been expected from a work commemorating peace seemed oddly lacking as sophisticated contemporary sonorities interwove with the ancient sounds. But together they created an eerily haunting and compelling aural landscape." The NZSQ comprises Helene Pohl, Douglas Beilman, Gillian Ansell and Rolf Gjelsten. 
(21 November 2005)

Perrier-nominated folk parodists Flight of the Conchords have landed their own Radio 2 series, with a host of names from the comedy circuit lending a hand. The duo’s improvised show will be broadcast from September. The show charts how Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement –  ‘New Zealand's fourth most popular folk parody duo’ – try to crack the UK’s lucrative novelty music scene. Much of it was recorded on a portable mini-disc at London landmarks including Hyde Park, The Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus - and the first aid room at Broadcasting House. The Conchords, who won their Perrier nomination at the 2003 Edinburgh Fringe, also  have TV development deals in place with NBC in America and Channel 4 in the UK. (June 30, 2005)

Datsuns in good company
The Datsuns have been invited to play on a tribute album for the late, great BBC DJ John Peel, alongside superstars Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Peter Shelley, David Gilmour and Peter Hook, and fellow bright young things The Futureheads and El Presidente. Peel’s son, Tom Ravenscroft, personally selected the bands and artists appearing on the album, which will be released on October 17 to mark the first anniversary of his father’s death. “All the artists on the record have at some time been played by Dad, whether recently or before I was born, and in some cases before they were really popular. It's unpredictable, and there's hopefully someone or something in it for every listener.”
(23 September 2005)
   

New wave jazz
Acclaimed Kiwi pianist Aron Ottignon launched his debut album, Culture Tunnels, with band Aronas in April. Inspired by Pacific log drumming, the Aronas sound is an innovative take on acoustic jazz. Sydney Morning Herald: “[Ottignon’s] own piano playing in Aronas sometimes also has a drum-like function. He tries to avoid falling into predictable piano grooves, such as Latin, reggae, shuffles or whatever, and the end effect is amazingly fresh, while still feeling familiar.”
(15 April 2005)

Finn-tastic
The Finn brothers’ headlining performance at Summerstage Central Park thrilled fans and critics alike. NY Times: “Rock bands of brothers aren't known for amity […] The Finn Brothers … set out to be the exception, as Neil and Tim Finn revelled in a fraternal bond both in and out of their songs.” Neil earned particularly high praise: “He is an unabashed heir of the mid-1960's Beatles, writing unhurried melodies that usually carry kindly sentiments about perseverance in the face of small and large disappointments.”
(3 August 2004)
 

Jews Brothers go global
The Naxos World Label’s Rhythm for Kids album received a glowing review in the Star: “[It’s] a neat grab for the pre-consumer demographic. There's 13 tracks of worldbeat from 12 countries […] a mix of young stuff and folk that's mostly very cheery, with obvious opportunity for clear-the-room sing-along choruses.” The album features NZ’s Jews Brothers doing Klezmer in Hebrew and English.
(10 April 2004)
  

Play it again, John
Auckland University student John Chen was the overall winner at the 8th Sydney International Piano Competition, held June 30 - July 17. The 18-year-old competed against 36 rigorously selected players from around the world, eventually walking away with $43,000 in prize money and the chance for international stardom. The Sydney event has been staged every 4 years since 1977 and is regarded as one of the most prestigious of its kind.
(19 July 2004)
 

Get real
Brent Hansen, NZ-born MTV Europe chief executive, criticises the current obsession with ready-made pop stars epitomised by hit reality Television show, American/Australian Idol: “These programs make good TV but from a musical point of view, they do not have any value … I totally believe they have devalued us, taken us back to light entertainment and voyeurism.” Despite this Hansen remains an industry optimist: “I think it will come right as long as there is confidence from the labels right through from the indies to the majors in signing new talent … [It is vital that] people don't lose their nerve and that the industry continues to be an art and not a science. It is not just about quick burns and quick returns.”
(6 November 2003)
    

Soul sister
NZ-born Carla Werner's debut album - Departure - proves a moving experience for New York Daily News reviewer, Jim Farber. "[The songs] have a compellingly confessional quality … Werner sounds most like a female Jeff Buckley, borrowing a few of his melodic lilts and vocal tics. But, ultimately, her sound, and her sorrow, are her own." Werner gives her own description of her sound in an interview with the New York Post: "I think of it as poetic descriptions of what I'm feeling at the moment […] A rainy day is the perfect environment to listen to it. Melancholy is really part of everyday life, and my music is a product of that."
(19 July 2003)
 

Nuns fly high in Seattle
Seattle Weekly chats with "one of New Zealand's coolest exports" - David Kilgour of The Clean. Kilgour answers questions on a musical career which spans 20 years; from 1981's "coughing, cursive, and practically perfect Boodle Boodle Boodle"  to the "every bit as urgent, acerbic, and exceptional" Getaway two decades later. Featured in a previous issue were Flying Nun stablemates The Tall Dwarves, whose latest CD - The Sky Above the Mud Below - was pronounced "maximally minimalist and cleverly cool."
(May-June 2003)

Rhodes steers latest hit
Kiwi singing star Teddy Tahu Rhodes has a lead role in the latest opera by Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman. Portman's adaptation of the classic French children's book The Little Prince premiered with the Houston Grand Opera on May 31st. Rhodes plays the part of the pilot.
(30 May 2003)
  

Variation the key to "Briwi's" success
NZ born popster Daniel Bedingfield profiled in the Philippine Star. "You know how an artist will go to great lengths to maintain his style and keep some elements of his first hit in all of his future releases? Well, not Bedingfield. Not only do his works vary in genre, he does each one exceptionally well." The 23-year-old has the UK and Asian charts in his thrall, and is now plotting his US takeover.
(2 May 2003)
 

Sweet as in South West
NZ sent its biggest contingent yet to the prestigious South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival and symposium in Texas. The talented line-up comprised The Datsuns, The D4, Goodshirt, 8 Foot Sativa, PanAm and Damien Binder. The Datsuns reportedly gave a "head-turning, ear-pounding performance in front of hundreds of music execs, fans and other musicians."
(8 January 2003)
 

Finn-spiration
Legendary Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr has nothing but praise for Neil Finn, who he collaborated with on Seven World's Collide. "That experience with Neil was one of the highlights of my musical life so far […] Because I had gone out and played to Neil's audience and with Neil, I then went back to my album with a slightly different perspective. I just finished the job off with a renewed enthusiasm." Keeping it in the family, Finn's son's band - Betchadupa - opened for Johnny Marr and the Healers in Sydney last month.
(24 January 2003)
  

Northern exposure
The Datsuns are taking their acclaimed brand of rock firepower to Canada, with shows scheduled for Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Their highly anticipated foray into North America precedes the release of their debut album there on March 4.
(29 January 2003)

Rebirth of Loop
2002 saw the highly successful reinvention of Wellington's Loop magazine as an independent recording label. With acts like The Black Seeds, Rhian Sheehan and 50HZ on the books, and albums which look as good as they sound, it's not hard to see why. Loop's Hannah Cornwell: "It's about NZ creative culture as a whole. For us to just go 'We're only about music,' we're cutting out a good 50% of our market which appreciates good quality design."
(4 December 2002)
 

 
Frodo's choice
American pop oddballs Elf Power have released a covers album featuring NZ's Tall Dwarf's - the now disbanded Chris Knox outfit. Nothing's Going to Happen also includes renditions of songs by Husker Du, T. Rex, and Jesus and Mary Chain.
(5 November 2002)

South Pacific sounds
NZ group Te Vaka has made the list of nominees for next year's BBC Radio 3 Awards for World Music. The Polynesian ensemble, led by Opetaia Foa'i, describe their sound as "tribal, powerful and rootsy yet melodic, warm, earthy and atmospheric." Te Vaka means "the canoe" in Tokelau - the predominant language used in the songs. The winners will be announced in London on March 24.
(28 October 2002)
 

Psathas & Kiri
NZ composer John Psathas and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa provided some of the high points at Manchester's eclectic "Pulse Festival." The concert was the climax to a six month exploration of Commonwealth arts entitled "Spirit of Friendship," which merged classical, jazz and world music. Psathas' "colourful concerto for percussion, piano and orchestra" formed the evening's centerpiece, while Dame Kiri's encore of an unaccompanied Maori song "clearly touched a chord in the large audience ..." 
(1 August 2002)

Pacific mix
Jazz has been described as the "original dance music" and one of the genre's legendary labels, Verve, has dipped into its vaults and commissioned new mixes for contemporary dancefloors. Kiwi Mark de Clive Lowe joins MJ Cole, Thievery Corporation, Masters at Work, Tricky and Richard Dorfmeister in remixing the great vocalists of jazz, including Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Billie holliday and Nina Simone.
(June 2002)

Jihad ... whoops, I mean Shihad
NZ rockers Shihad undergo cosmetic change post-Sept 11 after concerns were raised about the band name's similarity to the word jihad, (meaning holy war). The name Shihad was taken from a mis-spelling of the word jihad in the sci-fi novel Dune. Now known as Pacifier, they are set play their first gig at the LA's hip Viper Room.
(15 March 2002) 
 

The Odder Rock Tour
Neil Finn has just completed one of rock's great experimental tours. He started off playing with friends from Radiohead and the Smiths in New Zealand, and ended up on stage with complete strangers in Britain. "There's a lot of memories that will stay with me," he says. "A thrash-metal version of Four Seasons in One Day, for starters."
(11 September 2001)

Pdf copy
Band of Strangers
Further adventures in just-in-time music: Neil Finn concocts bands on the fly to "put the cat among the pigeons" inviting complete strangers to play with him on his upcoming British tour.
(19 July 2001)
 

Neighbours no more: Kiwi pop culture export success reverses the flow
Aussie girl-group Bardot, the most manufactured band in the history of pop, have become a sensation. "Popstars", the hit TV show that followed their evolution from nobodies to Spice Girls, was born from a similar show, "True Bliss", conceived and screened in New Zealand last year. And, wait for it, the concept has also been sold to America, but this time with ... a boy band. 
(24 June 2000)
  

Kiwi blows her bassoon as single-sex barriers make the news
New Zealand woman Rosamund Allison became the first woman to be recruited to the previously all-male Scots Guards Band.
(10 April 2000)
           

Off-stage antics

Pianist in demand 
Award-winning New Zealand pianist and current associate professor of piano at Florida State University Read Gainsford has performed throughout the world as solo recitalist, concert soloist and chamber musician. Gainsford performs at Middle Tennessee State University where School of Music Director Dr George Riorden is excited at the prospect of Gainsford working with the students before becoming a household name. "From the level of his artistry we know he is going to be an artist much in demand in the very near future," Riorden said. "This will give the middle Tennessee public a chance to claim him before becoming famous." 
(4 February 2008)

Music that moves you 
The acclaimed NZ String Quartet is currently touring the United States' East Coast. Formed 20 years ago, the Wellington-based group consists of cellist Rolf Gjelsten, first violinist Helene Pohl, violinist Douglas Beilman and violist Gillian Ansell. Pohl and Beilman were born in the US and Gjelsten in Canada; co-founder Ansell is the only NZ-born member. Gjelsten explains why he joined the group in 1994, and became a citizen three years later, in an interview with the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. "The music of this medium is so profound they wanted to find musicians who would dedicate themselves to this music," he said. "A bonus is that it happened to be New Zealand - one of the most beautiful countries in the world that most people would move to without a job." 
(8 November 2007)

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Kora impress offshore

Emotions running high
Crowded House were praised for their "emotion-drenched performance" at The Greek Theatre in an LA Times review. LA Times: "[T]he group's exquisitely crafted songs are infinitely rich with melodic and harmonic invention but lyrically enigmatic enough to require fans to be active participants and fill in the missing puzzle pieces to reach their own conclusions. That gives the songs, mostly written by Finn, a deliciously long shelf life. And if you're going to be in a band, it might as well be one that's worth keeping around." Crowded House reformed early this year, with new drummer Matt Sherrod joining the line-up of Neil Finn, Nick Seymour and Mark Hart.
(30 August 2007)

Check one-two 
Auckland five-piece The Checks featured as the Guardian's New Band of the Day for August 22. Music critic Paul Lester: "These five New Zealanders may be teenagers, but they sound as old as the hills that garage bands have been slowly climbing in their rusty Transit vans since time immemorial. They play primal riff'n'roll influenced by early Beatles, Who, Led Zep, Free, Van Morrison and Rolling Stones, and they arrive clutching glowing testimonials from impressed, impressive fans." Based in London, The Checks have opened for REM, Oasis and the Hives and have received rave reviews in both NME and Rolling Stone. 
(22 August 2007)

Killer opportunity 
Annie Crummer has been handpicked by the surviving members of Queen to sing on the remake of their best-selling single Another One Bites the Dust. The NZ singer caught the attention of Brian May and Roger Taylor after they saw her performing in the hit Queen musical We Will Rock You in Japan and Australia. Crummer was flown to London to record the track at the pair's studio in a historic 400-year-old mill. "Annie is one hell of a singer! A voice in a million," May reportedly told friends after the session. May and Taylor were so impressed with Crummer's performance that they have signed her on for a percentage of the song's royalties - which could potentially earn her millions. Crummer played the lead character Killer Queen on the Australian and Japanese tours of We Will Rock You, and will repeat her performance in NZ in October. The Auckland-born singer is best known in NZ for her hit 80s and 90s singles For Today, Melting Pot and See What Love Can Do. 
(30 May 2007)

Finn spreads the word 
Tim Finn talks about future recordings with brother, Neil, being made an Officer of the British Empire, and the recent spate of band reunions (Spilt Enz and Crowded House included) in an interview with Pittsburgh's Observer-Reporter. He also discusses his musical tribute to former Crowded House band-mate Paul Hester, who passed away in 2005. "I wanted to remember and I wanted to honour him, and do something he would be proud of and feel good about," he said, of the song Salt to the Sea. "It's a way for me to go on stage and talk about it without talking about it, if you know what I mean." Finn is currently touring the US to promote his latest solo album, Imaginary Kingdom. The select series of radio appearances and small acoustic shows is intended to set the stage for a more comprehensive tour in the US summer. 
(18 May 2007)

Crowded House on love and loss
An LA Times review finds Time on Earth, the new album by the recently reformed Crowded House, to be a moving exploration of love and loss. "Pop music reunions are, more often than not, driven by commerce and/or nostalgia, so the fact that the resurrection of this wondrous pure-pop band from New Zealand grew out of shared personal loss gives this one a far richer subtext than most ... In Time on Earth, the melancholy is palpable and heavy, and although everything doesn't revolve directly around the loss of a loved one, that theme surfaces in several of these eminently hummable songs." Original Crowded House drummer Paul Hester committed suicide in 2005. His death compelled former bandmates Neil Finn and Nick Seymour to reform the band earlier this year, with new drummer Matt Sherrod. 
(8 July 2007)

Small fish hits big time 
Greymouth singer-songwriter Steve Edwards has become a star in the UK without even releasing an album. A copy of One By One, a song from his upcoming Fish out of Water album, was leaked to BBC Radio 2 by the London studio Edwards was recording at. Without the usual support of marketing and publicity, One By One was named album of the week and play-listed for over a month. "It was a very pleasant surprise and at first I felt a slight trepidation as we didn't have a video or touring set-up to support it but it was great news," said Edwards, who has just released One By One in NZ. "When people were hearing it on the radio they couldn't actually buy it and if they could it would have charted." Edwards has recently returned to NZ from London and hopes to become part of his country's flourishing music scene. 
(31 May 2007)

Don't dream it's over 
A new album and world tour by Crowded House, has made headlines across the globe. According to chief songwriter Neil Finn, he and bass player Nick Seymour have been considering regrouping since the tragic death of drummer Paul Hester in 2004. "It just feels like something good and true," says Finn, "We sought each other out in the shadow of Paul's passing. That helped us reconnect and gave me a reminder of what bands are and what they bring." The new album is titled Time on Earth and will be launched - along with the world tour - at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in California this April. Finn and Seymour will be joined by keyboardist Mark Hart and are currently auditioning for a new drummer in Melbourne. "It feels right to us that the band should re-emerge at this time and together with Mark Hart we look forward to reconnecting with the audience that we established and for whom we still hold a deep respect," says Finn. 
(26 January 2007)

Conchords take flight in US
America's HBO network has commissioned a 12-part series based on Kiwi folk music parody duo Flight of the Conchords. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are to star in the series, which will feature original songs from their award-winning comedy act. A pilot episode has already been shot, with the help of Ali G director James Bobin and Everybody Loves Raymond executive producer Stu Smiley. The Conchords have previously appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (NBC), The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson (CBS) and One Night Stand (HBO), and starred in their own BBC2 radio series. HBO is renowned for producing high-risk hits such as Sex & the City and The Sopranos. 
(11 September 2006)

Aotearoa meets Sao Paulo 
Six NZ musicians spent three weeks in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as part of the Bacardi B-Live OE, organised by Bacardi and Wellington's Loop Recordings. P Digsss (Shapeshifter), Barnaby Weir (Black Seeds, Fly My Pretties), Hollie Smith, Recloose, Maaka McGregor and Alda Rezende worked with 60 Brazilian musicians to create an album for Loop, which is due for release in October 2006. Singer/songwriter Hollie Smith spoke about the once in a lifetime experience in the NZ Herald: "The music is almost secondary to the experience ... but the music's still going fantastically well ... Like every musician says, music is an international language and once you start playing, the barriers break down and there's a lot of freedom there to talk to each other through song." The Herald describes Smith as "the voice of 2006," thanks to her work on Bathe in the River from the No.2 film soundtrack. 
(20 July 2006)

Keith gets the Grammy
Whangarei-born country music sensation, Keith Urban, has won his first Grammy Award. Urban was named best male country vocal performer ahead of Toby Keith, Willie Nelson, George Jones, Delbert McClinton and Brad Paisley. This follows his best entertainer and male vocalist trophies at last year's Country Music Awards. Urban's Grammy win was nearly overshadowed by his date to the awards - actress Nicole Kidman, the first public appearance by the couple.
(17 February 2006)

Hayley hits America 
NZ's popera diva, Hayley Westenra, has landed the coveted opening slot for Il Divo on their U.S tour early next year. Touring with the hit operatic boy band could provide the ideal opportunity for Westenra to break into the tough US market. She will mount her own headlining tour of North America in April 2006. 
(16 November 2005)

On living legends and future music
NZ composer and musicologist Robin Maconie has written a meticulously researched autobiography of the man many believe to be the world's greatest living composer, German electronic music pioneer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Maconie is regarded as the world authority on Stockhausen, and his book Other Planets: The Music of Karlheinz Stockhausen is the result of 40 years of studying his work. As well as detailing the process of writing Other Planets, Maconie discusses the future of classical music in NZ in an article for the Listener: "[Although] we may not be able to compete with the artistic and intellectual resources of New York, London or Vienna, other areas of excellence that we can realistically aspire to are contemporary music, electronic music and computer music, expertise that is thin on the ground elsewhere in the world. Imagine developing music software to the level that Weta has achieved in computer animation. It can be done." 
(15 October 2005)

The new jazz order 
Stuart Nicholson, author of Is Jazz Dead (Or has it Moved to a new Address)?, names Kiwi Aron Ottignon as one of the six best new players on the international jazz scene. "Without anyone really noticing, jazz has become discreetly hip and these young musicians are part of the reason why. They represent a refreshing breeze of change blowing through a music that once sounded like a tormented brain puzzle … Ottignon's Australia debut, in 1999, was the stuff of legend. 'Aron was an unknown quantity when he made the finals of the National Jazz Awards here,' recalls Adrian Jackson, the Wangaratta festival's artistic director. 'Nobody expected a 16-year-old from NZ to play with such absolute confidence and energy and poise. I think it was obvious to everyone that a major new talent had arrived.' Six years on, Ottignon is serving notice that he is, potentially at least, one of the finest pianists in jazz."
(20 November 2005)

Fat Freddy's pick up 
Wellington dub and reggae band Fat Freddy's Drop took home four of the top Tuis at the New Zealand Music Awards. The band won best album and best roots album for Based on a True Story as well as best group and the people's choice award. Based on a True Story was released in May 2005 without the usual hype, marketing and support of a major record label. Produced independently, the album quietly went onto the shelves only to debut at #1 on the NZ music charts. "We wanted this record to kind of creep up on you" says band member Mu. "We all love records that slowly smoulder in your consciousness rather than making sense to you immediately. Most of the new songs have major rhythmic and melodic journeys within them, with a lot of different sections that go in different directions." The result is truly dubilicious.
(6 October 2005)

Four stars for Fat Freddy
Wellington groovers Fat Freddy’s Drop recently mounted a highly successful European tour. The Observer’s glowing review of their new album, Based on a True Story, proves the broad appeal of their distinctly Kiwi sound. “Restraint and poise aren't the only qualities they bring to a fusion scene inclined to cliche and over-egged production. They have a horn section that purrs and glides, a sweet-voiced frontman, one Joe Dukie, who can croon and ache, and a classy way of mixing sonic action and accomplished playing. From the deep-dub opener, Ernie, to the soulful closing number, Hope, the group's debut is a slow-burn winner.”
(16 June 2005)
   

On the edge of Country
New Zealand country music star Kylie Harris from Edendale Southland (pop 507), Timaru, Hamilton and Rotorua broadcasts to 34 million US homes daily on leading Nashville cable program On The Edge of Country, featuring performances and videos by Americana, bluegrass and alt country artists. The Gold Guitars (Gore, aged 17) award-winning singer made her Grand Ole Opry debut in 2001.

Down Under cowboy
Keith Urban took out the Best Male Vocalist category at this year’s Country Music Association awards in Nashville. Urban was the surprise winner in an all-star American field, which included Alan Jackson, George Strait, Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith. Urban’s first two albums have sold a million copies each and his third – Be Here – debuted at No.1 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart. A recent New York Times feature describes the NZ-born/Australian-raised singer as a self-made “country heartthrob.”
(30 October 2004)
 

Punk lives
Guardian names Selfish Cunt (made up of singer Martin Tomlinson and Kiwi guitarist Patrick Constable) one of the top 40 bands in Britain today, alongside Franz Ferdinand, Blur, The Darkness, and Radiohead. “Dividing the nervous few who have heard or seen them, art/punk duo Selfish Cunt aren't simply an in-joke too far perpetrated by the denizens of London's trendy Hoxton - more a malignancy at the heart of the fashionable life. [Tomlinson and Constable] create unruly anti-songs, angry unravellings of beatbox stuffer, garage noise and invective … [Their] genuinely menacing debut double A-side single Britain is Shit /Fuck the Poor is the most brutal state-of-the-national address since the Sex Pistols' God Save the Queen.”
(19 September 2004)

On the road again
Fresh from working with ex-Led Zeppelin John Paul Jones on their second album, Outta Sight/Outta Mind, the Datsuns are hooking up with another set of rock legends: The Pixies. The Cambridge-bred quartet will open 17 shows around North America for the iconic band in November/December. This comes after a typically busy month of touring in September, with concerts in Japan, New Zealand, and Australia.
(8 September 2004)

Making history with music
NZ composer John Psathas provided much of the music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Athens Games, including the climactic moment when the Olympic flame was lit. Born in NZ to Greek parents, Psathas was not chosen for his heritage but for his ability, which Games organisers discovered on hearing the fanfare he wrote for the opening of Te Papa in 1997. “I don't think I have any idea just how I'm going to feel on the night,” Psathas told the NZ Herald shortly before leaving for Athens. “It's going to be incredible.” It was.
(14 August 2004)

The runaway returns
Boston Herald profiles 20-year-old singer/ songwriter Finn Andrews, son of XTC and Shriekback keyboardist Barry Andrews. Andrews left NZ at 16, formed his band The Veils in London, and spent 5 years recording an album – The Runaway Found - with Suede’s Bernard Butler. In a review of his solo show in Boston, the Herald describes his “soaring” voice as a cross between Jeff Buckley and Morrissey. Andrews recently returned home to put together a new Veils line-up.
(23 July 2004)
 

Puckish Psathas
NZ composer John Psathas applauded in the Guardian's review of his collaboration with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble in Bath. "This concert, entitled Zeibekiko, threw a puckish girdle round the world as ... John Psathas explored his Greek heritage ... This lively cultural exchange was in itself an ambitious undertaking, but Psathas further extended his parameters by spanning two-and-a-half-millennia: arranging fragments surviving from Greek antiquity, including a hymn to Apollo from Delphi, and, in his own piece, Maenads, conjuring the wild female Bacchantes worshipping the god Dionysius. It was an intoxicating collaboration."
(29 May 2004)
 

Metal, opera, and all that Jaz
Jaz Coleman - the legendary "madman" behind British industrial rock band, Killing Joke, and a recently naturalised Kiwi ("It's not safe to have a British or Australian passport, anyway, these days.") - held court with the Sydney Morning Herald while touring Australia. "He's barmy, a cracked genius who also is the resident composer for the Prague Symphony Orchestra, was resident composer of the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-95), wrote an opera ... and has earned a doctorate of theology in his adopted homeland of NZ ... [The new album] is full of fear and loathing, ecological philosophising, clenched fists and passionate belief. Good yummy gear, just like the early Killing Joke classics such as the magnificent single, Wardance, and their definitive self-titled debut." Coleman with with collaborator and Foo Fighter Dave Grohl above.
(14 November 2003)
   

Pure class
Promoting her international debut release on Decca, (the world's largest classical label) prodigious Christchurch singing talent 16-yr old Hayley Westenra continues to charm. The album mixes Westenra's sonorous voice with classical crossover pieces, choral, pop and Maori songs, and is co-produced by legendary Beatles' producer George Martin. Brisbane's Sunday Mail: "she has been blessed with a most beautiful pure soprano voice." Following a tour of Australia, Westenra tours South-East Asia, before singing with Bryn Terfel and Jose Carreras in Wales at the Faenol Festival. Malaysia's The Star: "Forget Avril Lavigne. Forget Charlotte Church. The latest teenage siren on the block is Hayley Westenra, who sings songs by classical music greats rather than self-penned, whimsical confessionals, and projects a voice that rivals Andrea Bocelli." 
(August 2003)
 

Aotearoa Ark
Auckland band Goodshirt get big ups in SMH's Metro: "irresistibly catchy, clever pop quirk that mixes up the laid-back idiosyncrasies of Pavement with classic melodic pop, new wave and retro synths. [...] It could be too cute - that is, if they weren't clever engouh to pull it off with humour, strong songwriting and great pop sensibilities that lift it well clear of kitsch." "The arty gimmick on video clips" (all their videos are shot in one take, ala Russian Ark) from the ex-art school lads rates a mention even if the reason is slyly as much good business sense than art, "because there's no editing costs and you don't use as much film." The promo for Blowing Dirt is currently getting airtime on MTV UK.
(29 August - 04 September 2003)