KENINGTON 'GOING NOWHERE (FASTER THAN YOU)'

UK born, Auckland based indie musician Kenington (Mark Kenington) is pleased to release his debut album Going Nowhere (Faster Than You).
 
Mark writes honest, reflective songs of a timeless nature wrapped in lush, catchy melodies. Songs that often mix a positive vibe with a darker and deeper lyrical message.
 
Moving to NZ in 2004, Kenington adopted the kiwi ‘give it a go’ attitude and took up singing, guitar and piano lessons. He honed his songwriting skills and began frequenting open mic evenings.
 
A chance meeting with Mike Chunn put Mark in touch with award winning producer and engineer Andrew Buckton. What started as a vague idea of making an EP turned into a full album project and well and truly planted the music making seed.
 
Says Kenington, “This collection of songs are reflections about dreams morphing into an energetic reality that fails to meet our expectations. We think what we’re working towards is going to be the answer but often it’s not what we are really looking for or need.”
 
Lead single ‘Dollar For My Daydream’ is a track inspired by the exchange between Mark and a café waitress and the fantasy that ensued. Punchy electric guitar and memorable melodies punctuated by Mark’s distinctive voice evoke the likes of Brit pop/ indie rock bands such as Supergrass and Blur.
 
With the help of Andrew Buckton at the helm (Midnight Youth,The D4, Sommerest, Ekko Park), the result is a body of highly crafted, insightful catchy songs translated into beautifully sonic guitar pop soundscapes.
 
Going Nowhere will be available for purchase from iTunes, Bandcamp and all good digital service providers, plus physical CDs will be purchasable from Bandcamp and live shows.
 
Kenington performs on Friday the 28th April at The Thirsty Dog from 8PM.

THOMAS OLIVER 'SHINE LIKE THE SUN'

New Zealand singer-songwriter and local Weissenborn meistro, Thomas Oliver (Cushla Aston) has shared his brand new single 'Shine Like The Sun' and announced the release date of his second studio album, Floating In The Darkness coming out 28th April 2017.

'Shine Like The Sun' is "a song of longing for love" wrapped up in a warm, slow-building groove, backed by healthy bursts of horns, features Louis Baker on backing vocals/electric guitar, Sam Notman (drums), Johnny Lawrence (bass), Ed Zuccollo (Hammond organ, Rhodes), Adam Page (tenor/alto sax, clarinet, flute) and Ariel Bamborough (backing vocals).

Floating In The Darkness (featuring his Silver Scroll award-winning song "If I Move To Mars") is a deep and raw, reflective body of work, largely self-produced, written and mixed by Thomas himself, with an additional soul-stirring collaboration with renowned producer and composer, Rhian Sheehan ("Let It Be This One"), input from Grammy Award-winning mix engineer, Trina Shoemaker, and mastering by Vlado Meller. As a result, he sees the songs on Floating In The Darkness as an intimate and honest reflection of himself - "a product of a whole lot of searching for the magic zone."

Thomas Oliver is a New Zealand singer-songwriter, internationally recognized as one of the world’s leading players of the Weissenborn lap-steel guitar. Thomas released the world's first full-length, all instrumental, all Weissenborn album in 2013, titled Beneath The Weissenborn. The album debuted at #6 on the NZ charts, received 5 star reviews with sold out shows across the nation.
 
With over two million views on his YouTube channel, Thomas has developed an international audience from his home base in New Zealand, and has performed throughout New Zealand, Australia, Europe and Vietnam, and has toured and shared the stage with such legends as Joe Cocker, Eric Clapton and Fat Freddy's Drop. 
 
His vast diversity in his vocal delivery has also earned him a reputation as a vocalist in Drum & Bass and other electronic music, and his list of collaborations includes some of DnB's most respected producers, including Black Sun Empire, Rido, Concord Dawn and Urbandawn, and boasts releases on prestigious labels, including Andy C's RAM Records, Goldie's Metalheadz. More recently, his single “If I Move To Mars” was remixed by Urbandawn and released on Hospital Records in January this year.
 
October 2015 saw the release of his much-loved (and critically appraised) single “If I Move To Mars”, which would go onto win the prestigious APRA AMCOS Silver Scroll award a year later. With airplay support from ZM, The Hits and The Edge, it nabbed a place in the Official NZ Music Chart for 5 weeks. 
 
“If I Move To Mars” gave us a glance into the melting pot of Thomas’ largely self-produced, written and mixed new album, Floating In The Darkness, which was finished with the love and support of a successful crowd-funding campaign. The pledge reached $22,500, which was $5,000 over its $17,500 target from fans and supporters, locally and worldwide allowing Thomas to finish the album he had conceptualized with the help of a few friends along the way such as Rhian Sheehan, Grammy Award-winning engineer, Trina Shoemaker, Louis Baker (b/v’s on “Shine Like The Sun”), Vlado Meller and more.
 
Following his Silver Scroll win, Thomas released an acoustic version of “If I Move To Mars” and added to the star-studded Bob Marley tribute album, Stir It Up – Aotearoa’s Tribute To Bob Marley, with his spiritual, airy rendition of “Is This Love”. 

 

LORD ECHO 'JUST DO YOU'

Just Do You is the first single from underground super-producer Lord Echo's (Craig Pearce) hotly anticipated 3rd album 'Harmonies'. So long has it's gestation been that it has reached a status reserved only for the mythical and the absurd. Some say it will never be finished with the album devouring its host creator and assuming a life of its own - but this first single proves other wise.

Lord Echo emerges from the darkness with a gleaming diamond in his hand - a slice of pure disco dub indulgence with all the rough trimmings that have made him a cult favourite from Tokyo to Trinidad.

With the real life concerns of the DJ always foremost in his mind, this 12" has something for every occasion with two different vocals and a radical excursion into the realm of left field disco dub that record collectors sweat over in feverish night dreams of cult record acquisition.

Both vocalists are long time Lord Echo collaborators : Electric Wire Hustles' Mara TK and Fat Freddies Drop's Toby Laing. 

Mara's version sees the golden voiced visionary wax lyrical on a night time affair stemming from a tiresome diplomatic function in a sweaty, exotic location deep in the recess' of your mind.  Toby's vocal was recorded in a hotel room in France on one of Fat Freddies Drop's sweeping European Tours and features some of the most obtuse yet deeply penetrating lines in contemporary songbook narrative.

Just Do You 12”

Side A
Just Do You feat. Mara TK
Just Do Dub

SIde B
Only You feat. Toby Laing
Just Do You Instrumental

WCB DROPS DEBUT MUSIC VIDEO

Originally hailing from Auckland, openly gay artist WCB aka Will Cooper Barling (Rebecca Coleman-Smith) is a singer-songwriter and producer, now based in Sydney. WCB unites sparse, ariose production with his melodic vocal style to bring old school R&B into the modern day. His music is an atmospheric soundscape, a storyline into which you can escape, and is a unique form of indie electro-pop with undertones of classic trip-hop.

Fresh from performing his EP live release to a sold out crowd at The Golden Dawn, Auckland’s indie-music hotspot, WCB has just released his debut music video, Overdone.

WCB is both an internationally recognised performer and an unrelenting rising star who has graced stages in New Zealand, Australia, London and Edinburgh and featured on BaseFM and RNZ’s Music 101. Other notable performances in 2016 include the iHeartRadio Soundstage with Auckland Arts Festival, curated by Tama Waipara.

“Will Barling [WCB] … because of his silky tone and that beautiful vibrato … my favourite number of the night, hands down.”
– KeepingUpWithNZ

Already well respected in the New Zealand entertainment community for his undeniable talent, WCB was commissioned to produce music for Okareka Dance Company in 2015, where he reworked the classic Winter Wonderland in his typically haunting electro-influenced style.

His EP is set for worldwide digital release on 16 December but for now, check out his debut music video

DIAZ GRIMM RELEASES NEW SINGLE SINSE 7

With his futuristic new concept record 2077 described as a ‘must-have’ album for 2016 by Muzic.net.nz, Diaz Grimm is proud to release his new single and accompanying video, Sinse 7.

Lauded by NZ Herald as being “a piece of nonsensical brilliance”, Grimm’s trademark relatable lyrics and optimism shine in Sinse 7, a song told from the perspective of a seven year old, full of all the imagination that comes from the mind of a child.

Wanting to include a child’s input through the creative process of the song, Sinse 7 features the vocal talent of seven year old KT, expressing her wish to visit space and linking back to the overarching sci-fi theme of 2077. 

A Cambridge local, born and raised in the town and returning to record the album in his home studio, Diaz revisited his old stomping grounds of Leamington Primary School to shoot the video. The most humbling experience of his life to date, the artist was overwhelmed by their faith and belief in their own bright futures.

“It seems laughable to think about children running the world but in the long term all of the children are going to run the world. The enthusiasm for the smaller things which us adults tend to lose as other issues taking charge, was inspiring to say the least.”

|Asking them to dress up as whatever they would like to be when they grew up, the kids took on an incredible range of possible future occupations, driving home that while the dreams are all theirs, the task for preparing our children as much as possible for the world they will inherit falls to us.

Sinse 7 is the second single from Diaz Grimm’s recently released sophomore solo album, 2077.

ALAE RELEASES 6 TRACK VIDEO EP

One of New Zealand’s finest emerging acts alae (Mikee Carpinter and Matiu Sadd) release their self-titled debut EP today, along with 6 accompanying music videos.

Recorded over 5 days at Roundhead Studios in October 2016, the alae EP is a collection of beautifully crafted songs that will become the soundtrack to your most heartfelt quiet moments. The self-funded and self-produced release features 5 emotive new tracks, plus their debut single ‘All Gived Up’ which made it to number one spot on the singer/songwriter iTunes NZ chart in March.

It’s been a big year for Auckland based Alex Farrell-Davey and Allister Meffan, the two old high school mates who together form alae. Playing everything from local gigs to cruise ships, the duo has also supported nationwide tours for Anna Coddington and Hollie Smith and have now been added to the main stage line up at Gisborne’s Rhythm & Vines on December 31st. The multi-instrumentalist duo then performs as part of Auckland Museum’s Volume: Making Music in Aotearoa exhibition, before continuing to tour NZ over the Summer of 2017.

Says Alex Farrell-Davey, “It’s been a huge 2016. We have all worked really hard over the last few months to finish the EP and to create these videos, and have pulled favors from mates, venues and family along the way - it has truly been a huge team effort but the results have been worth it. We’re stoked to have not only the EP out but also the visuals which further express what alae are about.”

For a taste of alae’s live experience, check out a spine tingling version of the late Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, part of the Black & White Sessions as recorded for NZ Music Month 2016.

To celebrate the EP and video release, alae perform an intimate show tonight at Auckland’s Golden Dawn, Ponsonby from 8pm. Entry is free and physical copies of the EP will be available for purchase.
 
Purchase the alae EP here through iTunes
Stream the alae EP here through Spotify

ALIEN WEAPONRY 'URUTAA'

Thrash metal band Alien Weaponry (Niel Hammerhead) made New Zealand music history this year when they won both the Smokefreerockquest and Smokefree Pacifica Beats competitions. Now, they’re about to launch an assault on the airwaves with their single ‘Urutaa’.

No ordinary three-piece, these young metallers from Northland – 14-year-old Lewis de Jong (guitar/vocals), his 16-year-old brother Henry (drums) and 14-year-old Ethan Trembath (bass) – have achieved more in the space of a few short years than some bands dare to dream of in a lifetime.
 
With a live show that both startles and awes their audiences, Alien Weaponry have more than earned their right to be called the ‘next big thing’ in New Zealand’s thriving metal scene. And if three teenagers with kick-ass attitude, commanding as much attention as a five-piece band three times their age, wasn’t enough to warrant hard out respect, the fact that many of their songs feature Te Reo Māori absolutely is.
 
The band explains that ‘Urutaa’ was originally about a clash of ideas and expectations, leading to stress and unhappiness, which was likened to a plague or urutaa. The Māori lyrics refer to specific events, which occurred in the Bay of Islands in the 1800s, in which a pocket watch was inadvertently dropped into the harbour culminating in what is now notoriously known as ‘The Burning of the Boyd’. The historic incident is used as a metaphor for the misunderstandings between cultures and generations and individuals who torment each other through lack of understanding.
 
Fittingly, ‘Urutaa’ (produced by Shihad drummer Tom Larkin) is a powerful, moving track filled with contrasts, that showcases the skill and craft Alien Weaponry apply to both their lyricism and instrumentation.
 
Hailing from the small Northland town of Waipu, the lads from Alien Weaponry honed their refreshingly unique sound and vibe while attending Bream Bay College and Otamatea High School.  Last year, the band received a $10,000 grant from NZ On Air and this year, their blood, sweat and toil paid off with their history-making double whammy win at Smokefreerockquest and Smokefree Pacifica Beats.
 
Smokefreerockquest judge Jeff Newton from NZ on Air: “[Alien Weaponry’s] use of Te Reo was impressive. There’s really nothing like this in the world at the moment.”
 
And, the world is taking notice already, with the acclaimed UK magazine Metal Hammer recently including the trio in its “10 Best Metal Bands from New Zealand” feature (Oct 2016), describing them as “One for the future.”
 
The release of ‘Urutaa’ just adds weight to the powerful statement these three Northland teenagers have already made and continue to make. Alien Weaponry is like no other band that’s been before. Brace yourselves for the storm that’s coming!
 
Alien Weaponry’s ‘Urutaa’ is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play Music, etc. from Friday December 2.
 

SKINNY HOBOS 'JOKERS AND FOOLS'

Two-piece noise merchants Skinny Hobos (Sam Holdom) have released their stomping second single ‘Jokers & Fools’.

An anthem for the modern day, Jokers & Fools represents a shift in style for the two-piece while maintaining the level of groove and noise that has become their signature sound. The single was added to NZ On Air’s NewTracks playlist and is currently on rotation on The Rock FM’s Kiwi Rock Soundcheck segment.

The duo are playing at the NZ Tattoo & Art Festival in New Plymouth this Sunday before hitting the road with Cheshire Grimm and Devilskin to see the year out.