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Peace Talks
by So So Modern
Been a while, hasn’t it? Yep, 13 years in fact since these Pōneke Wellington-based, post-punks – which gave singer, guitarist and keyboardist Grayson Gilmour his start – last released something (their Transpacific Express EP) and this edgy and tight single is close to New Wave-influenced guitar pop. In their earlier incarnation they offered an amalgam of hefty, disciplined rock with swathes of synths and sometimes a brutal guitar attack which they took to the world and left an indelible impression for live shows. Peace Talks suggests some refinement of their sound, but we’ll know for sure on October 9 when they release their six-song Light Years EP. – Graham Reid
Tiger In The Garden
by Tiger Lotiss
With a video for this striding jazz-funk tune which features riding Auckland’s rail network, Tiger Lotiss might just have the timeliest clip around right now. But it’s the jazzy finger-snap momentum, acoustic bass, stacked-up horns and lyrics about the struggle to survive and pay the bills which carries this enormously catchy song. Along with some previous singles like the moody and soulful torch ballad Chameleon, this makes the promise of an album before year’s end exciting. Someone to listen out for. – Graham Reid
Obsidian
by Estère
A sinuous slice of electrofunk from London-based expatriate Cameroonian-Kiwi singer-producer Estère that benefits from a very less-is-more production and an effortless vocal that wafts through the music like something sweet and steamy. – Russell Baillie
See You There
by Jess B
Delivered in her quietly determined and persuasive voice, this new single by Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland rapper Jess B reduces her part to short, terse verses. But it gains its power from her co-production with Andrew Meyer where her repetition of the title is multi-layered over a clattering percussion, cello and intense backing vocals from a choir. It’s a thoughtful love song about the hope of a relationship in the future but Jess B’s delivery suggests it’s not just possible, but the desperate energy tells us it better. After her previous single Not Today – about which we said “a song of shifting moods, from disappointment to assertion, vulnerability and the acceptance that this might not be your time to shine” – See You There is another step towards a new album later in the year. – Graham Reid
Out Of Reach
by Edyonthebeat with Hales and Juga
Edyonthebeat is the very prolific Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland producer and beatmaker Edward Liu who has produced some sultry and sensual R’n’B for the likes of Talia Perese (Skin Deep), slo-mo soul with Janine (Thank You For Breaking My Heart) and lightly stepping Hawaiian reggae for Myshaan and High Wata (Fill Up) among others. He’s a smart cookie and has a knack for spotting and promoting young Pasifika talent. Here Hales (Jeremiah Fale) and Juga (Jazmin Ugapo) – both solo artists – come together for smooth and soulful contemporary R’n’B which slips easily across the ears even as it addresses the widening emotional gap between partners. The title track on a four- song compilation of Edy productions for Donson PK, Myshaan and Perese which will all be on Edyonthebeat’s album im just a producer out November 27.– Graham Reid
Always On Your Side
by Bonobo featuring Joy Crookes
After Bonobo’s previous single Me and You from his forthcoming, guest-heavy album Distance in Static – stripped-back beats and West African music in the chants – this soulful ballad with flute and featuring Mercury Prize-nominated singer Crookes sounds enjoyably straightforward and much less demanding. We note it sits at the middle of the 14-song album so may be a place of rest on the journey. Acclaimed producer, DJ and remixer Bonobo (Simon Green) is a clever chap who mixes genres and so, as we noted when writing about Me and You, it’s hard to predict what the album might sound like. But this certainly sits neatly alongside the Lazy Drift which has also appeared and makes you quietly excited in anticipation of the full collection. – Graham Reid
Werewolves of London
by Adam Hattaway and the Haunters
Christchurch’s Adam Hattaway, his band, and guests have recorded an enjoyable tribute album of Warren Zevon songs entitled War on Zevon. Yes, singling out Zevon’s by-far biggest hit might be a bit obvious, but helped by Georgia Knight’s lead vocal playing a kind of Nico to Hattaway’s Lou Reed, and the psychedelic swirl behind it, it turns the onetime horror movie theme into something quite dreamy. – Russell Baillie
Tiger’s Blood
by Brandon Flowers
After a bunch of albums with the Killers and a couple of solo records, Brandon Flowers is heading for the country on his forthcoming album Thrasher. Tiger’s Blood is the third single and if the smalltown scenario of the lyric sounds like it’s set in Springsteen County, and the chorus does some very Don Henley/ Boys of Summer things, there’s no denying its line-dancing potential. – Russell Baillie
Sunnyside 0f The Street
by Kingfishr
Another single in advance of what looks to be celebrity collision in a Dublin bar, the 36-song album 20th Century Paddy; The Songs of Shane MacGowan (out November 13). Among those lining up to pay tribute to the singular character and songwriter MacGowan are Bob Geldof, Bruce Springsteen, Dropkick Murphys, the late Glen Hansard, Primal Scream, Steve Earle, Jesus and Mary Chain, Tom Waits, U2 and many others. Here the band Kingfishr – whose debut album Halcyon debuted at number one on the 2025 Irish charts – ache their way through the Pogues’ upbeat celebration of the louche life from 1990’s Hell’s Ditch and make it a song of defeat and acceptance. 20th Century Paddy looks like it could be a Christmas album for the discerning. – Graham Reid
And the classical ending...
Puccini – Crisantemi
by EnAccord String Quartet
Anyone lucky enough to secure tickets to Wellington Opera’s Madama Butterfly knows Puccini was a great opera composer, but do you know his string quartet, Crisantemi? It came early in Puccini’s career; he’d had some success with his first opera Le Villi, and suffered utter failure with Edgar, his second. Then, in 1890, Puccini’s friend Amadeo died. Amadeo was an Italian-born duke who’d briefly been the deeply unpopular king of Spain. It is said that Puccini was so upset, he wrote this single-movement lament in one night. In Italy, crisantemi, or chrysanthemums, are funeral flowers. – Richard Betts