A staunch advocate of te reo and cultural pride, Apanui opens this album with an electro-thump call for everyone to support the revitalisation of the language and lopes into a reggae-driven and timely celebration of Matariki.

A week ago, 18 hopeful young violinists were in Queenstown, contesting the elimination rounds of the Michael Hill International Violin Competition; on Saturday night, three were vying for top honours.

One of the assertions on the cover of this album - released in 1969, reissued after a long absence - isn't true.

Seasick Steve - who makes his own guitars, counted Janis Joplin and Kurt Cobain as friends and had Grinderman, Ruby Turner and K.T. Tunstall on his raw 2008 album Started Out With Nothing And I Still Got Most of It Left.

Sauntering sleepily straight out of London, via Coventry, and with roots in Nigeria and Dominica, comes 24-year-old MC Ghostpoet (real name Obara Ejimiwe).

Finally, here it is: An "event" movie of this blockbuster season which is neither a superhero flick nor a sequel.

If you missed the first film adaptation of author Jeff Kinney's comic novel for kids, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, don't sweat it. The second instalment is more of the same.

Despite the glowing book-jacket recommendations from writers much loftier than me, I started out disliking Elizabeth Day's début novel, Scissors Paper Stone.

Liam Finn's 2008 album I'll Be Lightning not only proved the prodigal son was an iconic solo muso in his own right, it was also jolly likeable.

Here's the thing. The first Hangover was funny because everybody was trying to remember what happened.

It's something of an irony that this portrait of our most accessible poet should be at times quite hard to watch.

One of the most interesting things about reading a historical novel is working out what period detailing preoccupies the novelist and is used as a means of anchoring it to its era.

It's hard to think of a recent debut novel as original and ambitious in its premise - or as successful in its execution - as S.J. Watson's Before I Go to Sleep.

Never mind its unappealing cover, this debut kids' novel is bound to enchant adults, too.

One of Miles Davis' best-selling albums has been reissued 25 years later. Graham Reid looks at its contentious back-story.

Yes, it's a record by that actor chap Hugh Laurie. And no, it's not House music.

The latest collection of late-night vibes is curated by Dane Anders Trentemoller - and what a (mostly, anyway) spooky come-down after a night out it would be.

This is the Sonic Youth guitarist's third solo album and there's not a screeching riff in earshot.

Best known in the wider world as part of Leonard Cohen's touring band - the backing vocalists, multi-instrumentalists and cartwheelers - Charley and Hattie from Kent have at the studio desk here uber-producer, Peter Asher.

The title character of the last novel by Canadian comic novelist Mordecai Richler is the ultimate unreliable narrator.