She's a hard road finding the perfect awards night formula boy, so, as Dave Dobbyn would have it, "sing hallelujah... " - for after 37 years of trying RIANZ pretty much got it right this time. ...more

Avotor are a band - but I'll venture not like any you have experienced before. For a start they have no 'image' - they don't do press photos, they don't appear in videos or license their music to product shifters. They're rock 'n roll, but there are no guitars. They're electronic but there are no computers. They are a band but there's just two of them... ...more

Well, tonight's the night. What once seemed far off is now upon us. We're putting the band back together you see, to borrow the immortal words of the all-too-mortal John Belushi. ...more

Attending last year's Red Bull Music Academy in Brazil must have been like visiting Mecca for Chris Cox, recently seen rummaging through the record bins of San Paulo's record stores on TV2 Kiwi dance music documentary The Mix. ...more

In their new band Richard Small still plays guitar, Pet Johnson, bass, Steve Gallagher keyboards and Andrew Tilby handles vocals - but former pop/rock outfit Breathe are playing to the beat of a different drummer - and a different title. ...more

Shannon Dirks, aka DJ Shan, may have come to national attention with his version of P-Money's Touch Somethin' starring Deceptikonz, one of the stand out remixes on the recently released 'Big Things Instrumentals' bonus disc. But the Dunedin-based hip hop DJ has been whipping up a storm on the mainland for over five years now. ...more

Hard to believe but true. The soon-to-be released debut album from Elemeno P - a band whose members claim to love "... dirty ass, trailer residing, bleached blond hair and fake tits rock music"- is all thanks to Shania Twain. ...more

The International Music Managers Forum (IMMF) has set up a branch in New Zealand after a successful series of 'interest seminars' in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin. ...more

King Kapisi clearly doesn't like to be idle. Not only has the rapper, otherwise known as Bill Rangi Urale, recently launched his own streetwear clothing line, but amost simultaneously '2nd Round Testament', the much anticipated follow-up album to his 2000 debut 'Savage Thoughts'. ...more

Overshadowed by the very public difficulties besetting Te Mangai Paho and Maori television in the same period, Maori music took a significant step forward recently with the launch of MMIC, the Maori Music Industry Coalition. ...more

Turbine Records' arrival as a new independent label worth plugging into will be announced with two album releases in June; Conray's 'Mefasolate' and 'Giant Spheres' from Sleepers Union. ...more

Their debut release 'New Concepts In Sound Recording' illustrated both PanAm's eagerness to take the piss and their lo-fi preferences. ...more

Beginning his musical career as part of guitar band Cicada, Andrew Spraggon re-invented himself as Sola Rosa four years ago. His second album 'Haunted out-Takes' is due out in July. ...more

Damon Schwalger aka The Nomad is shaping up as one of our most prolific electronic recording artists. ...more