Skallander – The Camels
Take the welly dub ethic, mix it up with some guitar and ambient noise, and you end up with this brilliant slab of aural inventiveness. One of the many projects to come from the musical mind of the very talented and massively under-rated Bevan Smith.

Shihad – Killjoy
Best NZ rock album. Ever. Nuff said.

The Bilge Festival – Cape Goat
The good side of Wellington wacky rock. Two mad singer/songwriters and a super-tight rhythm section, create an opus of bizarre yet funky songs. Wildebeest a go-go!!

Over the Atlantic – Junica
Another Bevan Smith collaboration – this is like a Wellingtonian take on what the definitive New Order album might sound like. The noise wig-out on the last track ‘Fly to the States’ is the best bit of distortion you’ll ever hear. (Video below is the track ’35 Black & White’)…

Debris – She’s the Bomb
Yeah, I played on it. And technically we’re all from Christchurch. But we were living here at the time, it was recorded at the infamous Church on Frederick St., and it’s f**kin’ awesome.

If you ever talk to me and I can’t hear you, these bands and these songs are probably to blame for the condition of my ears.

• ‘Deb’s night out’ – Shihad. They might turn the noise up to 11 on other numbers, but this is quieter, more contemplative and all the more powerful and bitter for it.
• ‘The Lover’ – Fur Patrol. Is there any line more gutting than “This is the lover you left me for and I hope you’re happy now”? I don’t think so. Find it on their first EP Starlifter.
• ‘The Drinker’ – The Phoenix Foundation. “At the bottom of the bottle you can wipe your conscience clean” – and lord knows the Wellingtonista try that, although for us it should be “At the bottom of the pineapple…”
• ‘And the truth faded into dust’ – The Dukes of Leisure. Get your sonic noise on. Best heard at the planeterium for maximum impact.
• ‘I’m on fire’ – Head like a Hole. Normally it’s the Phoenix Foundation who get all The Boss up on us, but this cover is just perfect, from Booga’s sleaze, to the wig-out at the end, and the video that featured them playing on the roof ala U2, with the old Channel Z Carhoona driving around below.

We thought that we’d celebrate NZ Music month by highlighting some of our favourite Wellington music. Here’s my top 5, veering between the obscure and the downright mainstream.

Aspen, Are you that retail snob?. This was the album that got me back into making music. It’s somewhere between ambient, glitch and early 90s IDM, but all you need to know is that it’s dripping with gorgeous textures and melodies.

Rhian Sheehan, Tiny Blue Biosphere. I know, I know: it’s over-produced coffee table music for yuppies, but hell, maybe that’s what I am (even though I don’t own a coffee table). And any album that samples Carl Sagan not once but twice has to get bonus geek points.

Disasteradio, Synthtease. Damn, this guy’s ransacked my childhood! Yazoo with a VIC 20, Kraftwerk playing Asteroids, 8-bit beats and viral melodies.

Rhombus, Future Reference. Yep, it’s a Welly list, so there had to be some dub somewhere. But Rhombus’ influences range far wider than most, and touches of funk, hip-hop, electronica and jazz give their sound an infectious enthusiasm. “Scorching Bay” has to be an instant Wellington classic.

Twinset and friends, Christmas Puddin’. The only Christmas album that doesn’t make me want to stick Rudolph’s antlers where the sun don’t shine. They know that you can’t take carols too seriously, but while Benj Berryman injects some swingin’ cheese into ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’, there are some surprisingly straight jazz treatments and delicate moments. As you can probably tell, I’m still hanging out for the lounge revival revival.