In the opening pages of Michael Ondaatje's new novel, a young boy named Michael sets out for England on a passenger liner. It's the early 1950s.

Playwright Albert Belz has earned considerable acclaim for his treatment of Maori subjects but his re-telling of the Jack the Ripper story seems to be making a statement about the perils of pigeon-holing writers according to their ethnicity.

If Wilco followers, especially those who signed on during their celebrated left-turn period of 2002's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and 2004's A Ghost Is Born, might have felt the band's more recent albums were playing it safe, then help is at hand.

Katy B might have been a no-show but bass heavy dubstep acts Magnetic Man, Diplo and Nero made up for at Vector Arena in Auckland.

Cole Porter's smart-to-be-silly, witty-and-warm songs are so exceptional that they could pull this 1934 hit musical comedy through by themselves.

Posturing rockers Kasabian named their fourth album after a dinosaur, maintaining they are the current dinosaurs of the Brit-rock scene.

The music of Mastodon is perfect for a spot of hunting. It's pure blood sport music because when it's human against beast, and you're pumped up with scything and powerful tunes like Black Tongue and Spectrelight you will not back down.

While Auckland rapper and poet Tourettes (real name Dominic Hoey) is not so much of a smart aleck on fourth album Tiger Belly, he's just as clever, cutting, and hilarious.

Constructed in the manner of ensemble films such as Nashville, Grand Canyon and Crash, this novel by the award-winning Australian writer Carroll again refracts the lives of some characters who have populated his previous work.

Mel Parsons' sophomore album is like high quality aural chocolate - sweet, comforting, sometimes dark, full of subtle layers, and a treat for your ears.

The often disgusting and downright mean things rappers get away with really is something. On Game's fourth, star-studded album everyone from Erykah Badu to the cronies at Interscope records are in his sights.

Pitched somewhere between Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and the 80s Kiwi shaggy dog story Carry Me Back, this unassuming absurdist Israeli feature may have trouble winning hearts on this side of the world.

Atamira Dance Company's's beautifully crafted new Te Houhi - The People and the Land are One draws on intricately connected layers of dance, video imagery and narrated text to share poignant ancestral stories from the Ngai Tuhoe lineage.

It was a little disappointing really, only for the fact Alice Cooper - still the reigning king of gonzo shock rock after more than 40 years in the business - died just once, maybe twice, last night.

Are Super Villains New Zealand’s first masked hip-hop group?