Essential New Zealand Albums

If it were Bic Runga’s goal, as she once suggested, to make music that would “alter the listener’s mind in some way” she achieved it with this record more than any other. Birds is an album with a distinct sound and mood – even amongst her rich and varied catalogue. In this episode of Essential New Zealand Albums Nick Bollinger digs into the details of this dark masterpiece.

Hip-hop is a musical form invented by African Americans, and yet here is a version that could only have come from deep in the Pacific. It has a proud sense of place and yet it looks outward. To quote the motto emblazoned on the cover: Samoan Hip-Hop Worldwide. Nick Bollinger discusses why King Kapisi’s Savage Thoughts an essential New Zealand album.

Recorded in London in 1969, these recordings provided classic material for Kiwi rockers The Human Instinct yet the originals remained largely unheard until their discovery and release in 2012. Nick Bollinger takes a close listen, and uncovers the story of how they came to be made – and what became of their maker.

Buffalo was the album that lifted the profile of Wellington band The Phoenix Foundation both here and internationally. It saw their collective approach reach new heights – in the sophistication of the songwriting, the intricate detailing of the arrangements and production, and the manipulation of mad ideas into a singularly imaginative piece of work. Nick Bollinger peels back the sonic layers with the group’s three main songwriters – Sam Scott, Luke Buda and Conrad Wedde.

When the single ‘Like Water’ hit the New Zealand top ten in early 2011 it established Ladi6 as this country’s major R&B star. But that success was just one milestone in a long journey, and the song just one important track in the making of essential New Zealand album, as Nick Bollinger explains.

Goodshirt combined classic pop influences with a D.I.Y sensibility learned from Chris Knox, to make one of the essential New Zealand albums of the early 2000s. Nick Bollinger discusses Goodshirt’s Good and all the reasons it lives up to its name.