Since their beginnings in January 2005, Tahuna Breaks have always been a band built upon a simple philosophy- the love of music. With an open mind and an adventurous spirit, unafraid to mix genres and musical stylings- their ‘anything goes’ and sometimes unconventional approach is governed only by two criteria: passion and energy.

In the two years since the release of their last album ‘Reflections’, the laid-back party starters from New Zealand have been busy touring, writing and recording. The 8-piece band are pleased to announce that their new tunes are ready for public ears by way of their new album.

“Black Brown and White” was recorded in December 08 with the infamous Dr Lee Preeble at the Surgery Studio in Wellington and features 13-tracks in true Tahuna Breaks style – a diverse mix of soul, funk, blues, roots & reggae.

The lifeblood of this band is live performance and it is from countless live gigs and tours that they have crafted their own brand of roots reggae, funk, soul and good old fashioned rock and roll!

If you haven’t already seen or heard of these funky cats, give them a listen and look out for them next time they are touring near you!

Links to follow up:

The offical site

Their myspace page

…Yossarian

[Info gathered from press releases]

Over the next 7 weeks, we are lucky enough to be working with some of the greatest crossover artists in Australasia for  a series of one off collaborative performances.

Over the next 7 weeks, Very Good readers are lucky enough to have some free tickets on offer from the bands who have generously offered their community the chance to come along and enjoy the events as their guests.

We are talking of course about Batucada Sound Machine, Olmecha Supreme, Pataphysics, King Tide, LABJACD, and DJ JC. To enter the draw, all you need to do is email vg@verygood.com.au with the subject line saying ‘community’ and your name, city, and preferred concert.

Batucada Sound Machine - He Said She Said

Batucada Sound Machine will play:

Gaelic Club Sydney, Nov 19th with King Tide and DJ JC – Get your tickets From Moshtix

AWME Black Box Melbourne, Nov 20th – Get your tickets to AWME

Ruby’s Lounge Belgrave, Nov 21st with Pataphysics – Get your tickets From Moshtix

East Brunswick Club Melbourne, Nov 26th with LABJACD & Pataphysics – Get your tickets here

Robe Village Fair Robe, Nov 27th and 28th – Get your tickets here

LABJACD Live at Woodford Folk Festival

Olmecha Supreme VS Pataphysics will play:

ANU Bar Canberra, Dec 3rd w special guests TBA

Beach Rd Bondi, Dec 4th w Laneous and the Family Yah and DJ Mike Who

Gaelic Club Sydney, Dec 5th w Budspells and DJ JC

The National Hotel Geelong, Dec 11th w special guests TBA

First Floor Melbourne, Dec 12th w special guests TBA

Ruby’s Belgrave, Dec 16th w special guests

Great Northern Hotel Byron, Dec 17th w special guests TBA

Cooly Hotel Gold Coast, Dec 18th w special guests TBA Get Tickets

The Hi-Fi Brisbane, Dec 20th w special guests TBA Get Tickets

Tickets on sale next week.

Olmecha Supreme – Bebestyle

…bs

Yeeeeeah! New Zealand’s 13ish piece super group Batucada Sound Machine are putting on a very special show for Auckland on September 4th at ‘4:20′. For this special performance they bring along the infamous King Kapisi, Cherie Mahieson, Miho Wada and DJ Bobby Brazuka. If you haven’t seen Batucada Sound Machine play before, the energy of this massive group sets them apart from most live shows these days, with almost as many people on stage as in the crowd. The incredible musicianship and talent of the individuals involved in the group, forming a Brzilian style afro beat bigband will set any night off, so with the addition of more talent to a night from BSM, it’s sure to make for an epic evening out.
Batucada Sound Machine featuring Che-Fu – Smoke

With MC Hazaduz (right hand man to Che-Fu) and King Kapisi both on the mic, Auckland will get to enjoy two of New Zealands finer MC’s, and potentially from memories of performances when I was still at high school, one of the best beatboxers Australasia has to offer in King Kapisi.

King Kapisi – Reverse Thoughts

Following this performance, BSM will be hitting the ‘Brisbane Arts Festival’, back to NZ for the ‘Nelson Arts Festival’, and then back to Australia for another run of concerts and festivals in November. Keep an eye on their myspace for additions to the tour run as they confirm them, and be sure to check out the performance in your hood if you get a chance.

And the three amigos in the horn section in their Adidas track suits look cool man…

You can check out more from Batucada Sound Machine at:

www.myspace.com/batucadasoundmachine

…bs

Hey peoples…

Pataphysics has posted his new track ‘Cloaked Guerilla’ on Triple J’s ‘Unearthed’ for voting now! Shooting straight to #42 within the first few days, and #16 on the hip hop chart, it’s time for us to have our vote and push this track further up the list, to where it belongs.

You can vote at:

www.triplejunearthed.com/Pataphysics

and check out what Pataphysics had to say about the track in an earlier post here.

Cool

…bs

Pataphysics released another sweet track this week to add to the collection… we caught up with him in brief to see where he’s at, and where he’s going next…

You’ve just dropped your new track ‘Cloaked Guerilla’ this month. So what’s a Cloaked Guerilla dude?
Guess you could say people who are marginalised or a part of a minority, who aren’t treated fairly, and who stand up and resist being subjected to the will of oppressing forces.

Yeah, Australia’s history is funny, one of our favorite icons is a cop killer (Ned Kelly), but we find it hard to

remember warriors who resisted invasion and protected their families, warriors like Pemulwuy and Jandamarra, comparable to figures like Geronimo and Sitting Bull.

Got a film clip coming out soon for Cloaked Guerilla, as well as playing a show on the 4th of June with the Free West Papua campaign. These guys are fighting for basic human rights in West Papua . Check it out at www.freewestpapua.com.au/

And you can check out Cloaked Guerilla in

Pataphysics Artist Profile

Impromptue meetings this morning meant that I got to take a pleasent tram ride over to South Melbourne, giving me a chance to soak up one of the local Melbourne street press mag’s Inpress. As usual the mag is full on advertisements for controversially dressed people of all different ages and genres trying to communicate their sound in an unusual promotional piece. The big advertisements are usually the same as the last week and generally reserved for those artists who have management and promotion handled for them, so I usually check out the smaller ads and write-ups to see what’s going on that’s not hot on the streets, ’cause there’s a far better chance that i’m going to be into it.

And a little ad in the corner of the page for New Zealand’s psychadelic soul group Little Bushman proved my theory right once again.

Yossarian covered them well in his earlier article if your not familiar with these dudes.

They will play starting next week in QLD, VIC, WA, NSW and both of New Zealand’s north and south island’s with a complete gig listing on their myspace page.

Little Bushman – Mary

For anyone who is trying to work out where they know that beautiful voice from, your not crazy, Warren Maxwell is one of three parts of one of the best groups to have ever come out of New Zealand – Trinity Roots. So i’m really excited to see how this event plays out having thrashed Trinity Roots albums ever since they split a few years ago just waiting for the chance to see any of them play live again. A complete shift away from the style of Trinity Roots, Warren brings a really new and innovative style to the party in Little Bushman, unless of course you grew up in the seventies. I’m not really sure if i’m gonna dance or grab a couch and chill for this set, but I am sure i’m going to have an awesome night, and for $12 in Melbourne, I hope the brothers have a tip jar out, because that’s just crazy for this quality of music.

Trinity Roots – Home, Land & Sea

You can check out more of Little Bushman at:

www.myspace.com/littlebushmanband

…bs

The man who needs no introduction in Australia and New Zealand, Che-Fu, is back on one of his semi-regular Easter trips to Melbourne to pay his respects to his the huge Aussie and Kiwi following down under. The Fresh RnB Club has been bringing a bunch of the underground hip hop, soul, Rnb, reggae acts that have been big players in New Zealand over the last decade in the likes of King Kapisi, Nesian Mystik, Savage, and now topping it off with one of the godfathers of Aotearoa for our generation, Che-Fu. You can check out the history and score card for this dude in his Artist Profile but if you’ve been in Australia or New Zealand in the last 15 years you probably already know how many dope tracks and kiwi anthems he has given us. To put it his influence in perspective, The Very Good Agency first existed in the market to run an East Coast tour of Che-Fu, DJ CXL, and PROJECT nRt a few years ago, so all you international readers out there can understand a lot about New Zealand music from checking out not only his solo work, but some of the funk rap mix he kicked in the old school in Supergroove.

Che-Fu – Misty Frequencies

The rastafarian influence in NZ hip hop, Che-Fu has always been related to by kiwi guys and girls ’cause he talks a real game with an every day vibe that exists in New Zealand. Always bringing the soft soul vocals, Che’s also one of the few artists in New Zealand who raps as tight and as consciously as he sings. (never overlook Olmecha Supreme and MC Hazaduz).

Che-Fu plays at The Colonial Hotel this Friday 10th April. hopefully after Supergroove re-united last year he may have been practising some of his rhymes to drop from back in the days…

like this

Supergroove - Can’t Get Enough

You can check out more of Che-Fu at:

www.myspace.com/chefunz

www.che-fu.com

…bs

New Zealand’s most talked about group, Fat Freddy’s Drop, are back in Australia this month kicking off their week long tour of sweet sweet dub reggae, roots, breakbeats & soul.

The tour starts in Melbourne tomorrow night at the ‘Palace Metro’ in St Kilda, our apologies for not posting this earlier for those who are in Melbourne and haven’t already heard, just take it easy tonight and then whooshtaaa! get up in there.

Fat Freddy’s Drop – The Nod (Live)

Fat Freddy’s Drop will play:

Thursday 19th – Palace Metro – Melbourne

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.au

Friday 20th – HQ – Adelaide

Tickets: www.venuetix.com.au venuetix outlets & B Sharp Records

Saturday 21st – Enmore Theatre – Sydney

Tickets: www.enmoretheartre.com.au, www.ticketek.com, 132 849 & ticketek outlets

Friday 27th – The Tivoli – Brisbane

Tickets: www.ticketek.com, 132 849, & Rockinghorse Records

Saturday 28th & Sunday 29th – The Great Northern – Byron Bay

Tickets: Hotel Great Northern, 02 6685 6454 & www.oztix.com.au.oztix.com.au ph 1300 762 545

If you haven’t seen any of their recent material you can See earlier article here.

You can check out more of Fat Freddy’s Drop at:

www.fatfreddysdrop.com

and for full tour info check out the dude’s who are bringing them at:

www.nicheproductions.com.au

…bs

Two of New Zealand’s best talents are hitting Australian shores in April again to show Australia the roots, reggae, funk, soul style that is bursting out of Aotearoa’s seams these days. New Zealand’s most successful reggae group Katchafire, and up and coming funk, soul, hip hop crossover group Opensouls will hit

Brisbane @ ‘The Arena April 2nd

Melbourne @ Queensbridge Hotel April 3rd

Sydney @ The Forum April 4th

With Katchafire regularly crossing the ditch over the past few years they are well known for putting on a great show which is usually largely filled by the millions of kiwi’s who have made the wee trip to live in Australia. Opensouls having been here less however will be sure to catch Australia’s attention with their smooth blend and energetic group performance to pave the way for many more shows to come.

Opensouls – Rise Up

With both of their first two albums placing in the US Billboard top ten, Katchafire have made world success which is very restricted to reggae normally. Starting out as a covers band (mainly of Bob Marley songs) around New Zealand pubs and clubs, they have come a long way to tour the world on a regular basis selling out shows and receiving rave reviews alike. Definitely one of the more ‘fun’ bands to see out of New Zealand, their light hearted show and mellow reggae beats make for a sweet boogie, and usually a room filled with good vibes and a smoke of some assortment. If you haven’t see them, it’ll be a great night out especially for reggae fans who don’t often get treated with international tours.

Katchafire - Colour me Life

You can check out more of these guys at:

www.katchafire.co.nz

www.opensouls.co.nz

…bs

]]> http://verygood.com.au/kiwis-in-australia-katchafire-and-opensouls/feed/ 0 http://verygood.com.au/i-nation-festival-2009-about-to-go-off/ http://verygood.com.au/i-nation-festival-2009-about-to-go-off/#comments Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:52:55 +0000 Gerard http://verygood.com.au/?p=299 People……. If you can remember/scroll back to an article on this site from last year, about the New Zealand musician/producer/all round nice guy: Mr. Oakley “O.G.” Grenell, then you might have already heard of ‘I-Nation’. If you haven’t heard of it yet, I would like to inform you about this legendary annual music festival held [...]]]>

People……. If you can remember/scroll back to an article on this site from last year, about the New Zealand musician/producer/all round nice guy: Mr. Oakley “O.G.” Grenell, then you might have already heard of ‘I-Nation’. If you haven’t heard of it yet, I would like to inform you about this legendary annual music festival held in Whitecliffs, North Canterbury. This years line up includes Very Good favourites like Tiki, The Little Bushman, Ladi 6 and members of shapeshifter.

I-Nation was described as “the outdoor party of the year” by one NZ magazine, which is a pretty big statement these days, with the amount of outdoor parties going on in NZ. So it basically goes down (and off) out in the bush with a mean-as sound system and family-friendly environment. As the official website states: “This year the legendary valley of Whitecliffs just 45mins west of Christchurch will once again host some of Aotearoa’s finest talent in Drum n Bass, Dubstep, Jungle, Funk, Soul & Breaks.”

There is less than three weeks to go and tickets are selling fast for the gig, which is expected by the organisers to sell out. If your not in the area to catch it, make sure you at least check out the website! It has some cool stuff, full information on all the artists, maps and a full run-down off the whole situation really.

Ticket Info:

$85 Tickets plus BF available from Cosmic Corner Stores NZ-wide or $100 Limited Gate Sales available upon entry.  Tickets can also be purchased online from www.cosmiccorner.co.nz/tickets – Children under 15 free with ID if accompanied by a parent or guardian.

When/where it’s at:

…Yossarian