No Cigar – Under the Surface (13th Floor Album Review)
No Cigar have carved out a place as one of Aotearoa’s most distinctive alt-rock exports, threading together indie rock, coastal grooves, and emotional candour since their formation in 2019.
John Bradbury
About John Bradbury
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Chris Stamey – Anything Is Possible (Label 51 Recordings) 13th Floor Album Review
On his latest album Anything Is Possible, Chris Stamey, a founding member of The dBs, finely crafts a record of musical memory, stitched together from echoes of past masters, fleeting lyrical references, and the enduring emotional architecture of classic pop.
Cory Hanson – I Love People (Drag City) (13th Floor Album Review)
On I Love People, his fifth solo album, Cory Hanson offers a warm, sun-drenched, and slightly subversive take on the 1970s American songbook.
Folk Bitch Trio – Now Would Be A Good Time (Jagjaguwar)
The name Folk Bitch Trio is punky, provocative, even a little tongue-in-cheek, but the music on their debut album Now Would Be A Good Time is quietly radical in a different way.
Soft Bait – Life Advice (Flying Nun) (13th Floor Album Review)
Formed in 2020 in Tāmaki Makaurau, Soft Bait are a band that took shape before they ever took the stage. Their debut, Plot Points, written and recorded before playing a single gig, was literary, brooding post-punk built on relentless rhythm and tight, coiled tension.
Sadsmiles – Eyes Over There (Songbroker) (13th Floor Album Review)
On their quietly assured debut album Eyes Over There, Sadsmiles, the collaborative project of Mahoney Harris and Wayne Bell, offer a collection of songs that reward stillness and attentiveness. With Harris on lead vocals and Bell playing every instrument, the album is a notebook of understatement: poetic, emotionally intelligent, and beautifully unhurried.
Wet Leg – moisturizer (Domino) (13th Floor Album Review)
On their 2022 debut, Wet Leg made a splash with slacker wit, post-punk cool, and a deadpan sense of fun. With moisturizer, Rhian Teasdale and Hester Chambers return, but this time, the songs are about love, and Wet Leg now sound like a tight, fully formed band.
Shedheads – Big Milk (13th Floor Album Review)
Nelson trio Shedheads introduce themselves with Big Milk, a debut album that barrels out of the gate with intent, throwing funk, rock, and noise into a blender. Across ten tracks they make noise, play fast, and say a lot. Whether every moment lands is debatable, but there is no doubting their skills, ambition, or energy.
Freya – Of Water (13th Floor Album Review)
Freya (Alice Freya Delargey Jones), an Auckland singer-songwriter, delivers an assured debut album with Of Water, a seven-track collection of sparse, slow-burning folktronica.
The Reds, Pinks and Purples – The Past Is a Garden I Never Fed (Fire)
There’s a special kind of romance in Glenn Donaldson’s work that explores the understated ache that sits between moments. This might be in the quiet indignities of creative life, the drift of friendships, or the daily performance of holding yourself together. Under his long-running project The Reds, Pinks and Purples, Donaldson has, over the last half-decade, […]