Excitingly, these albums are all independent releases, a testament to the fact that the DIY spirit is thriving in our musical communities.
The relaxed grooves of Wellington reggae/soul/folk outfit Dr. Reknaw’s album Miracles weave a web of peace and positivity around listeners, gently urging them to pause and consider the possibility that everything is going to be all right after all.
Alongside the hallmarks of classic reggae, the album features liquid psychedelic guitar, Latin-flavoured flourishes and swirling rock riffs. The final track - surely the one they refer to as "nun rock" - with its violin, piano and clicking fingers, feels like an old-world spiritual ushering in of a new utopian era.
Throughout, Miracles frontwomen and sisters Julia and Sophie Cooper radiate sizzling synergy, shifting between angelic purity, sultry whispers and soulful power as they deliver timely reminders of how we can thrive in this complex world.
"Gotta make time for yourself", they remind us. "Put yourself on a pedestal" and "be a conscious creator". And when they say "we gotta get higher", you know they aren’t just talking about spirituality, although they most definitely are.
A tip for experts - if you’re wondering who Dr. Reknaw is, try reading it backwards.
Ōtepoti band The Fabulists present themselves as peacocks in a monochrome city - storytellers and conjurers of marvels. Their new album The Sky Spills Secrets draws from a wide palette - including plump synth bass, strummed acoustic guitar, washy textures, deep sonorous vocals and an eclectic mix of samples - and mixes these ingredients into a variety of different forms.
Listeners are treated to bass-heavy dance floor bangers, lazy summer day songs and power ballads with epic emotional shifts. Straight 8 - a gently crooned, David Bowie-inflected critique of modern life - has biting lyrics: "Turn on your big TV, the plot is getting deeper. Fast-fry last night’s meal, yet still it’s under-heated".
Some tracks on The Sky Spills Secrets could slip under the radar on a Classic Hits of the ’80s radio station, others make you sit up in surprise - often both simultaneously.
The Fabulists recognise this, describing The Sky Spills Secrets as "a strange mix of cohesion and chaos". The cohesion is to be found in the potent retro flavour, the distinctive vocal stylings and in the faintly cheesy quality that runs through the album.
Whether this touch of kitsch is a self-aware wink or simply an accidental flourish is open to interpretation. But overall, the addition of the chaos makes The Sky Spills Secrets a perplexing listen; The Fabulists’ vision is so uncommon that it’s difficult to place - but that is undoubtedly part of its charm.
The members of Wānaka grunge/hard rock band Powder Chutes may still be in their teens, but they’re already hitting the big time, their eponymous album sitting at No 4 on the Official Top 20 Aotearoa Album Chart.
Head-spinningly, four of Powder Chute’s songs have been shoulder-tapped by Classic Rock Magazine for their "best new rock songs you need to hear right now" column.
It’s not hard to see why the band are receiving these accolades - their sound is immense and confident as they erect walls of complex, layered noise, reminiscent of classic bands like Sound Garden or Pearl Jam. It’s a relentless barrage, packed with riffs and high energy, that demands good speakers to be felt properly.
Everything here pulses with symphonic grunge urgency - even the misleadingly titled Mellow Track refuses to dial it down. The lads take influence from the cookbooks of many genres - occasionally an emo flavour is identifiable in the vocals, elsewhere tasting notes of System of a Down are evident in the mantra-like chanting.
The subject matter is the nuts and bolts of life - the enduring teenage topography of existential troubleshooting, unrequited love, fraught family relationships and getting blackout sloshed - all rendered with beyond-their-years maturity and poeticism.
