The main man here is Hamilton-based Matthew Bannister, formerly of Flying Nun's Sneaky Feelings and Dribbling Darts of Love, one-time Mutton Bird, briefly a solo artist as One Man Bannister, and more recently guiding The Weather.

Director Richard Ayoade's debut feature film based on the novel by Joe Dunthorne may not have you laughing riotously, but its dry and deadpan delivery will have you smirking from beginning to end.

Shihad may sort of feel like part of the furniture, but they're certainly iconic, legacy artists, and it's about time they released a greatest hits compilation.

William Bensussen AKA The Gaslamp Killer doesn't even need to think about his answer when I ask him about his preferred rhythm structure.

The second consecutive night of Flying Nun's Nunvember celebrations saw a crowd filled with characters from Dunedin's musical history and father/son combos ready to celebrate the label's 30th anniversary in the historic Flying Nun home of Sammy's.

Seven groups, 13 songs, one-minute changeovers. Shameless genre-shifting, fearless showmanship, a healthy nod to metal and no shoegazing.

Te Kupu and Upper Hutt Posse travelled to Detroit in October 1990 at the invitation of Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam.

It has taken four years and four directors to bring this supernatural romance fantasy, based on the popular young adult novels by Stephenie Meyer, to a close - almost.

Judging by the title of this career-spanning retrospective, and now that R.E.M. have called it a day, it seems they feel the time is right to admit they did some "garbage" in their time.

This 21 track "best of" collection from Portland's 13-piece mini-orchestra is how one imagines a live show of theirs might go - although obviously these tracks are polished recorded studio versions.

The Bats' previous two albums (2005's National Grid and 2009's The Guilty Office) went largely unnoticed but this one arrives with a tailwind.

Russian Circles are a post metal-rock trio from Chicago. At least, they are mostly instrumental, because on Praise Be Man, the last of the six sprawling epics here, there is a spiritualized-style gospel mantra throughout.

French-born electronic soundscape wizard Anthony Gonzalez set out to create something "very, very, very epic" with this double album, and he succeeded.

The largest human migration in the world is Chinese heading home for the holidays: some 130 million workers who keep the wheels of China's economic miracle turning, try to get on trains for 30-hr journeys to spend the lunar new year with family.

Given the title of this debut long-player from young Bristol native The Joker, you can tell this bass music whiz - he has distanced himself from being labelled a dubstep producer - was aiming high.

The new film by the director of the electrifying Man on Wire is another jaw-dropper, but for different reasons: it's a troubling and troubled meditation on the ethics of science and the apparently limitless human capacity for self-absorption.

When you are Stephen King, you get to use numerical date codes as titles. Because who’s going to stop you?

Parents wishing to change the attitude of their science-averse teenage boys could do worse than to drop into their Christmas stocking this account of Tim Flannery’s adventures as a young zoologist.

William Bligh, he of the mutiny on the Bounty, was arguably the most complex, interesting and observant of the European explorers in the South Pacific.

If you get past the crushingly obvious title, subtitle and cheap looking cover, you'll find a collection of provocative, insightful essays.

Mr D-a-double-l-a-s may have a cool and mellow nonchalance to his rhymes, and the production and beats are first rate, but his sophomore album The Rose Tint tells Dallas' story.

Many a horror film has a man with odd teeth and strange accent. Contagion has Jude Law.

The vexed question of where the boundary lies between environmental activism and terrorism (thoughtfully explored in the documentary If A Tree Falls in the recent film festival) gets the once-over-lightly here.