Not all of them of course. Nothing like that. Not even enough for a Top Ten list. So much music is constantly released that even pretending I've listened to enough to create a Top Ten would be foolish. And I listen to quite a bit.

Folk Roots mag (online) just released their Top Ten Folk albums for the year. If you did nothing but listen to folk music that might be possible. (By the way, Number One was the UK's Martin and Eliza Carthy who played in Hamilton in October. Damn, I wish I'd gone!)

But we'll leave favourites till next week as there's still pre-Christmas local music emerging.

Waihi outfit

First up is an album that I've been enjoying immensely over the past month called ‘Sitting On Something' by a Waihi outfit calling themselves The Line Up.

I happen to think that's a terrible name for a band, but it's about the only thing I don't like about this.

‘Sitting On Something' had its genesis with singer/guitarist Bill Young and bass player Glenn Potier who got together jamming on some original songs a couple of years back. They had played together in various bands and recorded an album with the Psychedelic Cosmic Cowboys – who will be out gigging again this summer – and Bill has a home studio, so they enlisted the services of drummer Graham Potter and harmony singer Willy Postma (she's also a Cosmic Cowboy) and set to doing it all themselves, writing a few new extra tunes as recoding progressed.

The result is a terrific laid-back album of bluesy country with extremely cool cover art and design courtesy of Jade Culton. Things kick off with probably my favourite song, a sprightly blues tune called ‘Red Wine by the Fire' featuring several layers of understated guitar and a nice groove. JJ Cale would be proud. Elsewhere there are instrumentals (‘I Wanna be a Cowboy') and bouncy little hoedowns (‘Heading to the Snow'), while the title track hints at reggae.

It's a very pleasant album, with lyrics staying low-key and local – literally in the case of bureaucratically-focused closer ‘Local Bodies' – good arrangements and aneasy-listening sound.

‘Sitting On Something' can be download through Amplifier, iTunes and Amazon. The physical CD is available from oceanviewstudio23@gmail.com.

Meanwhile Threat.Meet.Protocol don't deliver anything as user-friendly on their new six-track EP, Pretentious, but that's not their mission.

Threat.Meet.Protocol are a three-piece, featuring another of Tauranga's second generation musicians, drummer Stefan Braunias, son of one of the town's most respected guitarists, Trevor Braunias (Trevor, aside from being a staggering guitarist, runs Music Planet at the Mount where he has aided generations of musicians).

Ridiculously talented

In fact the entire family seem ridiculously talented, but that's a story for another time...
Stefan plays some serious drums here and is joined by singer/bassist Austin Cunningham and keyboard player Luke Turner.

Things start off with an introduction. It's called ‘Introduction' and it sounds like...well, an introduction: two-and-a-half minutes of slowly-building ominous piano. But that's just to soften you up.

Wild opening

Things really kick off with the wild opening keyboard of ‘On Even Ground' and, yes, the album's first screamed lyric indeed starts with an ‘F' and comes with an R18 warning. From there it's onto ‘Mongoose' which leans towards an infectious CBGB's early punk dance beat.

Of the six tunes here there is the intro, a 30-second closer and three sub-three minute songs. Then there's ‘Elephant'. At nearly nine minutes, running on a hypnotic bass groove, ‘Elephant' is rather magnificent. As the repeated choruses – 'We're hiding from the elephant/we run from the elephant/we're scared of the elephant” etc – roll over you with increasingly manic energy it is at once absurd, threatening and invigorating.
Fantastic!

Threat.Meets.Protocol are part of an eclectic stable of bands on Tauranga's underground record label Savant Garde, which has recently also released an album from Super Narco Man and a fairly funny Christmas single by Liberated Squid called ‘Do They Know It's Suxmas?' They're all available for download from bandcamp.com. Threat.Meet.Protocol can be found at
taurangamusicsux.bandcamp.com/album/pretentious – the others can be reached from there. There are also physical CDs available from their Facebook page.