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100 Essential New Zealand Albums

Newest in the 100 Essential NZ Series. Music guru Nick Bollinger gives the definitive guide to NZ music.

Awa mini-blog (Production HQ)

Memories, in the corner of my mind

13/ 4 / 10; 2:33:10 PM
At a celebration for the release of 100 Essential New Zealand Albums at Slow Boat Records, Nick Bollinger spoke of the way music conjures up memories, feelings, moods. It does for me, daily. Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama recalls hooning in hot cars through the empty backroads of Blenheim. Frankie Valli's croony "what a lady, what a night..." will see me busting out bad disco moves down the supermarket isle. Simply Red, better left unsaid...but I just hope he's happy now. So which album of Nick's NZ 100 will set me off? Supergroove's Traction, definitely, because that's what I thrashed on a solo backpacking trip through south-east Asia in my early 20's. Songs From The Front Lawn and Woodface were played on a loop at Yifan's video games parlour where I worked (and got RSI) as a student. BOATS by Fat Freddy's Drop - a perennial favourite - reminds me of stripping down to my undygruts to swim in the murk of Frank Kitts Lagoon while the band played their legendary Hula Lagoona gig. Misty, water-coloured memories, scattered pictures, the smiles we left behind...

Stories from the great big ice block

31/ 8 / 09; 10:47:55 AM
I'm currently obsessed with all things Antarctic, which I guess is what happens when you work on two editions of the Antarctica Cruising Guide (new one out mid October).

I've just finished reading The Lost Men by Kelly Tyler-Lewis, the story of the crew of Aurora - they who set out to lay supply depots for Shackleton's crossing of the white continent (the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, 1914-17). Little did they know ....