Tom Lark is a Christchurch based artist with an ear for melody and a penchant for transforming noise into revolutionary tunes. The “TOM LARK EP” released in july 2011, is a collection of sunlight starved tunes composed in musty, jungle like bedroom conditions of the quake ravaged city. These tracks showcase the ingenuity of unconventional sounds blended with unadulterated pop melodies.

“As one man findeth shelter under the eaves of his neighbour’s wife, so shall he be plagued by the sparrow. And lo, where fields of wheat once grew lush upon the soil, lies now the infernal desert of the pestilential sparrow.” – Lawrence Arabia, 2011.
 
Introducing the new album from New Zealand songwriter/producer Lawrence Arabia.
 
The Sparrow is Lawrence Arabia’s third solo album, the evocative follow up to the Taite Music Prize/Silver Scroll winning Chant Darling. Venturing away from the harmony-laden, classic pop production of Chant Darling, The Sparrow is a more measured and minimalist work, drawing particularly on the influence from the symphonic late-sixties work of Scott Walker and Serge Gainsbourg.
The songwriter, known to his bosom compadres as James Milne, explains: “I’d been turned off by the infinite possibilities of Pro Tools production by the process of making my last album. You can mimic any sound from any part of pop history and stack them up on endless tracks and edit them in endless ways. It’s maddening. I became totally enamoured with the mystique and aesthetic limitations of these late-sixties and early-seventies records where there was so much space in the arrangements and you can really luxuriate in the sounds of individual instruments.”
While various ominous words like “mature,” “serious” and “pretentious” come to mind, there are still strong traces of the witty pop songwriting that defined the first two Arabia albums.

 
“Travelling Shoes” is a recollection of a young man (not unlike the young James Milne) defining himself against the prevailing culture of his provincial upbringing. “The 03” muses on the same character’s possible shameful return to that same setting having gone out into the world to achieve his dreams, and failed…
The material for The Sparrow was accumulated throughout 2010, while Lawrence and his band The Prime Ministers toured in support of Chant Darling. Images like the “crude moustache, exposed brains” seen on a poster of Zac Efron in the New York subway, the jaded conversation with the Tom Tom on a rainy British motorway, “the last breaths” of a London house party that dragged on just a little too long, were collected throughout the year as context-free scribbles in a diary, waiting for songs to attach themselves to.
 
These images found homes during a fairly frenzied period of writing in borrowed lounge rooms and rehearsal spaces at the end of another abject London summer. During the same period, the enigmatic title “The Sparrow” surfaced and became some kind of mysterious guiding image for the aesthetic of the album, the angst of the inexorably approaching thirties, represented in the form of a small, malevolent bird. God knows why.
 
In October 2010, with Elroy Finn and Connan Mockasin, Lawrence recorded the basic tracks for these new songs, live, at a large house in Surrey that became known as the Japanese Academy. Strings and horn overdubs were added during 2011 in a couple of sessions at Auckland’s Roundhead Studios.
 
The Sparrow will be released worldwide in July, with extensive touring of New Zealand, Europe, North America, and Australia to follow before year’s end.
 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lawrence-Arabia

Auckland trio Popstrangers burst onto the live circuit early in 2009, and
immediately began making waves with their truly unique celebration of grunge,
punk, and noise music winning punters over wherever they went.
 
The band self-released an EP of their early hits in September of that year, with
song after song sitting pretty on both the bNet and New Zealand Alt Radio
Charts for weeks on end.
 
Before long the group were in serious demand, and wound up playing with
everyone from Peaches (US) to Crocodiles (US) and Die! Die! Die!
 
They released their sophomore EP, Happy Accidents, with the singles Happy
Accidents and Arrest Your Body being played heavily on Alternative radio.
 
The band have just signed to New Zealand record label Flying Nun and have
also been nominated for the Critics Choice Award at the 2011 NZ Music Awards.
 
Popstrangers on Facebook

The Ghost Wave sound finds itself somewhere between the Flying Nun bands of the 80s, the British explosion of the 1960s and the wayfaring dubs of Lee “Scratch” Perry.
 
http://www.facebook.com/ghostwave/

Hailing from New Zealand’s iconic music city, Dunedin, founding Die! Die! Die! members Andrew Wilson and Michael Prain cut their teeth in the live music scene playing in noise bands and going on to form the band in 2003. Die! Die! Die! have always given their all at every show – the result being a band that brings persistent ferocity and energy to live performances.
 

2005 saw Die! Die! Die! record their debut self titled album in Chicago under the tutelage of uber-cool Steve Albini, who brought intensity to their raw, minimal sound with his experience in bands Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac, as well as producing such iconic albums as Nirvana’s ‘In Utero’.

 
A dilapidated barn in New York was the scene for their sophomore album recorded in 2007. Enlisting the help of their long time friend and mentor Shayne P. Carter (Bored Games, Straitjacket Fits) Die! Die! Die! released ‘Promises, Promises’ to critical acclaim (including 8/10 reviews in The Guardian and NME).

 
‘FORM’, released in 2010 produced by Nick Roughan (Skeptics), encapsulated their live sound even further, strengthening the unyielding, sometimes reckless and menacing sound, combining it with their signature bursting melodies.

 
Die! Die! Die! release ‘Harmony’ in 2012, their fourth studio album recorded at Blackbox Studios, France. This album proves the band continue their evolution to perfect their sound. ‘Harmony’ brings together the raw energy and emotion of their live shows, encapsulating savant pop elements with their DIY punk philosophy. Produced by Chris Townend (Portishead, D12, Violent Femmes), ‘Harmony’ has been well received all over the place. ‘Harmony’ described by Rolling Stone Australia as “…their finest work yet”.
 

Joining Andrew Wilson and Michael Prain is once again Shayne P. Carter and rounded out nicely by bassist Michael Logie (The Mint Chicks, Opossom).

 
Die! Die! Die! tour extensively worldwide, carving out a niche for their sound bringing back loyal fans and newcomers their face melting shows and burning as many bridges as they cross.
 
http://www.facebook.com/diediedieband

Blending soul, rock, dubstep and drum and bass, their music is as dynamic, versatile and unexpected as their back story. Extended singer/songwriter jams incorporate dubstep sections as bridges, hard rocking guitar work duels with robust synthetics and thunderous low end bass over vibrant percussive rhythms, and in both voice and instrumentation infectious melody consistently shines through. They’re a band with songs that make just as much sense when listened to with headphones strapped on, as they do in the heat of a capacity concert moment. And with Tiki Taane as co-producer on their self-titled debut album, they have married what they’re known for with where they’re going. Leave your preconceptions at the door and let Six60 show you the world as they see it, one song at a time.