RIP Roger Perry

Roger Perry at Box Photo: Brigid Grigg-Eyley.

From NZ Herald:

"Roger Perry. 2 July 1966 - 5 June 2026. Rest in Love our brother. Lauren, Jackson and families are grateful for the outpouring of love and respect for Roger from so many friends here and around the world. Your arohanui means so much to us. An Aotearoa DJ music legend taken too soon.

"The family are respecting Roger's wish to not have a funeral service, after the very recent losses of both our parents, Gwenyth (13 March) and David (20 May) Perry. We support his many friends wish to have a celebration at a later date."

Audioculture via Facebook, 6 June 2026; "If you went out clubbing in Auckland in the 80s to 2000s, you knew Roger Perry. Roger was, for some three decades, one of the kings of the Auckland dancefloor, the DJ who other DJs looked up to and were inspired by. Sadly, we lost Roger yesterday. 

Roger was more than just a DJ, though. In the 1980s, he actively and successfully worked towards integrating our nightlife, moving venues away from the days when brown faces were turned away at many places. He was a primary reason inner-city venues so embraced Pacifika in the 1990s.

He also broke new music repeatedly - he was the first to play house music in Aotearoa and mixed local music into the mix, championing bands like The Chills and Ardijah on the dancefloor. 

His earliest recordings were with the Headless Chickens, with whom he toured. He and Grant Fell ushered in a new era of multimedia dance parties. He worked with DLT, Slave, Otis, and Dubhead [as Stylee Crew] on some of our early sound systems. 

Teaming up with Joost Langeveld and others, he helped usher in a new era of local electronic and house music through their Reliable Recordings label. His 2001 CD, bpmmix02, was a number one album on the compilation charts. 

There's so much more, and our profile of Roger will be published over the next week or two, but in the interim, enjoy our Ten trailblazing Auckland dance parties and promoters story, which features Roger heavily."

That photo at the top of Roger at Box has a flyer for a gig he was involved with running, called Raze The Roof (see photos of it on Audioculture, by Byran Murphy). Held at the Powerstation in 1989, our band Hallelujah Picassos got on the bill. Zoom in on the flyer - they mis-spelled Roger's first name, hehe.

Russell Brown writes: 'On the stage that night were a young Hallelujah Picassos, who had begun the year as the Rattlesnakes, then adopted the new name as their music evolved. Guitarist Peter McLennan recalls it as a time when the borders between band scene and the clubbing world were more porous than they are now.

Hallelujah Picassos – Tony de Raad, Bobbylon and Roland. - Brian Murphy

“We had some good connections in the Auckland club scene, from going out dancing a lot, and just hanging out. It was the best way to hear new music, whether that was rap, funk, electro, whatever. High Street was a fun place to be. You could wander up and down the street, in and out of bars and clubs – De Brett’s, Bob Bar, Escape, Alfie’s, Siren and later Celebre/Box – then go have breakfast at Rosinis, which was open 24 hours at the weekends.

“So there was a lot of cross pollination in the scene. Plus, the 1987 crash had left a lot of office and warehouse space empty, so people were living all over the inner city and having parties with DJs and bands. It was a fun time!”

'There was a particular connection with dance music for the Picassos. Singer Roland (aka Harold) Rorschach and the band’s then-bass player Tony de Raad (later in David Kilgour’s Heavy Eights) had both come to Auckland from Whakatane at the same time as their friend, whose name would become synonymous with Auckland clubland: DJ Roger Perry.

'Perry was playing that night too – and amid the mash-up of genres, he was playing house music. One of the photographs here shows him playing two big tunes of the time: Joe Smooth’s ‘Promised Land’ and Inner City’s ‘Good Life’.

More:

Box and Cause Celebre: two clubs that changed Auckland nightlife - RNZ, Tony Stamp -  2023

21 records, for Roger Perry - by Simon Grigg

The Stylee Crew (later known as 37 Degrees). Clockwise from top left: DLT, Roger Perry, Stinky Jim, Dubhead, Slowdeck. - Photo by Darryl Ward.

Record Rooms - Emily's Rare Jazz Collection

Emily is a buyer at a Toronto record store, a DJ and also runs a community radio station. She rates jazz dudes over rock dudes.

Big Foot vinyl reissue - Crayford and Gooch

Recorded in 2007 at Trident Studios, Big Foot captures the collaboration between longtime friends Jonathan Crayford and Riki Gooch, recorded live with Gooch on drums and Crayford moving fluidly between Hammond organ, Rhodes, Clavinet, Mini Moog, electric bass, flute, bass clarinet and percussion. 

Grown out of material from regular performances at venues across Wellington in the early 2000s, and backed by the voices of Lisa Tomlins, Emma Paki, and Hollie Smith, Big Foot is an abstract reflection on the colonisation of Aotearoa, finally releasing on vinyl for the first time at the urging of Crayon Records producer Michael Robins. Don't mess about.

Crayford: "These are tunes I played with Riki and others at our regular gig at Havana Bar and other venues in Wellington for a couple of years back in 2002 to 2006, music I wrote to express some kind of feeling I had at the time - often to do with growing up in NZ and then living outside of it in places like New York.
"When I moved back to NZ in 2000 I was amazed to discover a whole new generation of musicians that were really happening and a fertile scene. This was a great period and one in which we all got together and played and played and played. This album is a product of that, a time stamp of that wonderful colourful and abundant period.”

Preorder vinyl from Flying Out

Nuevos Ríos bring the grooves

Great new cumbia album on then ZZK label... "Nuevos Ríos is the new project born from the meeting of Colombia’s iconic Canalón de Timbiquí, led by the unmistakable voice of Nidia Góngora (Quantic, Ondatrópica, The Bongo Hop), and the Toulouse-based trio Reco Reco, known for their explorations of trance-driven rhythms from South America and beyond.

Rooted on the banks of the Timbiquí River in Colombia’s Pacific region, the collaboration fuses ancestral Afro-Colombian traditions with electronic and amplified sounds. The result is a powerful and hypnotic journey where marimba, percussion, bass, and voices intertwine with keyboards, guitar, and drums. Between ritual intensity and dancefloor energy, the music bridges continents—echoing West Africa, the Caribbean, and the sweaty clubs of Europe—while always returning to the river as a vital source of life and inspiration.

Released on ZZK Records (home to Son Rompe Pera, Nicola Cruz, La Yegros, among others), this debut album is both a manifesto and a celebration: a living testimony of Colombia’s Afro-descendant heritage, reinvented through collective creativity. Nuevos Ríos is not just fusion—it is a new current, a sonic ritual where traditions flow into modernity."

P-Funk documentary from PBS

Some light relief from the Mothership... 

New Sola Rosa album out this Friday

 

Woo, this is sounding cool. Sola Rosa did a really great remix for our Rewind Reversioned project with Hallelujah Picassos, check it if you aint heard it. 

Misled Convoy remixes collection out, featuring Picassos

Misled Convoy aka Mike Hodgson (also of Pitch Black) did an epic groove mashout on Rewind for our 'Rewind Reversioned' project for Hallelujah Picassos last year. He's included that remix on his latest collection of his remix work, some great spaced out dub vibes on there, take a listen. 

He also chopped up and reworked our original music video for Rewind, watch it below:

Out Of The Past Record shop - keep it in the family

Billy Preston doco coming....

This looks good...

"Billy Preston was 5 years old when he backed gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. Over the following six-decade career, Billy contributed his signature sound to the greatest artists of his time, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Barbra Streisand, Sly Stone, Ray Charles, Rufus, and others, while establishing himself as a GRAMMY-winning solo artist. 

Despite his success, Billy struggled to reconcile his deep relationship with the Black church with his sexuality, setting off a lifelong quest to find love and acceptance. Learn more or to find a theatre near you at billyprestonfilm.com

Zherav debut 45

Out in mid March on Batov Records, very cool to see a local hook up with this label; "New Zealand-based producer ZHERAV announces his debut release, NAJA / BAZAAR, a double single and 45 on Batov’s Middle Eastern Grooves series. The record fuses psychedelic rock, hypnotic rhythms, and electronic production influences, creating a sound that moves between swung grooves and cinematic, reverb-soaked textures.

ZHERAV draws from his background in house and techno, layering live guitar, bass, and synths over programmed drums. “I had a production template for house music on Ableton” he explains, “and I thought about how to switch to this Middle Eastern sound using the same format”. Most of ZHERAV’s tracks developed through improvisation - starting with programmed drums, then experimenting around scales on instruments until something works. ZHERAV has already received support from independent radio in Australia and New Zealand, and encouragement from international artists like Ko Shin Moon.

Both tracks explore Middle Eastern scales, bringing a distinct flavour to the grooves, while maintaining ZHERAV’s signature hypnotic layered sound. ZHERAV had something in mind related to snakes and their charmers when creating the A-side, NAJA (“Indian Cobra”). An ominous bassline loops repeatedly over snapping drums and percussion, whilst ZHERAV improvises guitar riffs and effects over the top.

The B-side, Bazaar, evokes the bustling, nocturnal imagery of a Middle Eastern market at night. Again, shaped organically through improvisation and analogue texture, but at a faster pace. Flutes and percussion introduce the song before a pulsating bassline leads the way.

Looking ahead, ZHERAV is exploring live/DJ hybrid sets and collaborations with local musicians. NAJA / BAZAAR is the latest exciting edition to Batov’s Middle Eastern Groove series, promising to transport listeners into a world of rhythm, texture, and hypnotic instrumental storytelling."

Zherav.