Last night, during Cyclone Hola, King Krule played Silo Park as part of the Auckland Arts Festival. Henry Oliver was there in all the wet weather gear he could find. If you despair about that state of music, you need to listen to King Krule. If you’re worried about streaming and the unfettered, ahistorical, decontextualized … Read more
Fazerdaze, the current incarnation of 24-year-old Amelia Murray, released her debut album Morningside back in May. Since we wrote about the build-up to that record, Murray has had a whirlwind year, finally catching her breath back in New Zealand for Christmas. “I do it for selfish reasons,” laughs Amelia. I’ve asked her why she insists on … Read more
We asked you, our loyal readers, what your favourite albums and songs of the year were, both from here and from elsewhere. Oh, and your favourite shows, your reflections on the year, and predictions for next year. This is what you told us. Okay, list season is underway. The arms race is escalating and best … Read more
Yesterday, Henry Oliver risked it all by predicting the winners of last night’s New Zealand Music Awards. Today he updates that post with the actual results and slightly jaded commentary. Okay, last night actually went pretty well. By which I mean that, yes, it was a good show, I was sitting at a good table with nice people, … Read more
The Spinoff vs Spotify. Narrative vs Data. Heart vs Head. Who can predict more winners of tonight’s New Zealand Music Awards – The Spinoff’s Henry Oliver or Spotify’s team of (probably) Stanford-educated computer-geniuses? A year ago, I proclaimed myself New Zealand music’s Nate Silver and made (not) data-driven predictions about the outcomes of the 2016 … Read more
Henry Oliver rants and raves about the 2017 New Zealand Music Awards finalists then lists them all at the end. They got it (mostly) right The names you see most on the list – SWIDT (six nominations), Lorde (five) and Aldous Harding (four) – made the best albums in New Zealand in the last year, … Read more
Henry Oliver talks to bedroom producer and multi-instrumentalist Merk, who is playing at Seamless, an all-ages show, in Auckland this weekend. To win tickets, read till the very end! So what are you up to at the moment? I’m just working on new music. I was just in Europe for a couple of months playing for … Read more
Alaister Moghan reports from The Great Escape festival, where New Zealand artists like Aldous Harding, Kane Strang and Fazerdaze go to get the UK music industry talking. Every May for over a decade, the shores of Brighton are awash with musicians, managers and assorted music industry folk attending The Great Escape – part ‘new music’ festival, … Read more
The Spinoff Music team review albums from Alice Coltrane, Fazerdaze, BNQT, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Juliana Hatfield and The Comet is Coming. ALBUM OF THE WEEK Alice Coltrane – World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda A long-awaited reissue of new age devotional music from a jazz great This bowled … Read more
The Spinoff and Spark proudly present Pod On The Couch, a weekly podcast exploring music and the people that make it. This episode: Henry Oliver talks to Ben Howe about Record Store Day and selling LPs to teenagers. Spinoff Music editor Henry Oliver talks to Ben Howe, founder of Arch Hill Recordings, managing director at Flying Nun Records and … Read more
The international music community is beginning to take notice of Amelia Murray, who has been releasing music as Fazerdaze since 2014. After seeing her play in April last year, David Farrier followed Amelia Murray over the following year as she completed her album, Morningside, and prepared her band to take on the world. “Who is Fazerdaze?” … Read more