Australia & New Zealand July 2014

Thunderbolts And Lightning is a 2014 bootleg CD by American kabuki rockers Kiss. When Kiss released their Unmasked album in 1980, American audiences had too much of the make-up band so they chose to go elsewhere. In this case, this CD documents their 1980 tour in Australasia, which means Australia and New Zealand, plus bonus tracks taken from a live album that ended up not being released. This set was released by The Godfatherecords.

Tangents are a self-described "post-everything improv" group from Sydney, Australia. Their participants include Triosk's Adrian Lim-Klumpes (keyboards, marimba, vibraphone), electronic producer Ollie Bown of British duo Icarus, FourPlay String Quartet cellist Peter Hollo, and both members of Spartak (drummer Evan Dorrian and guitarist Shoeb Ahmad). Tangents don't fit into any easy categories, as they are influenced equally by free jazz, modern classical composition, and electronic music styles such as drum'n'bass. They're as likely to feature glitchy electronic textures as well as clattering drums and tense strings in their freewheeling improvisations, which are performed by anywhere from two to five members of the group. Following the group's 2013 debut, I, Tangents signed to Temporary Residence, which released their sophomore effort, 2016's Stateless, as well as 2018's New Bodies.

Christian rock and worship group Hillsong spun out of Australia's Hillsong Church, a Pentecostal ministry based in northwest Sydney. Founded in August 1983 by New Zealand natives Brian and Bobbie Houston, Hillsong Church was first known as Hills Christian Life Centre. At launch, the congregation counted just 45 members, but grew to 900 within four years. As the church's music ministry evolved, in 1986 the Houstons founded the Hillsong Conference, an annual event created to teach and nurture contemporary Christian musicians. A live CD released under the name Hillsong Live (later to be rebranded as Hillsong Worship) titled The Power of Your Love hit retail in 1992, featuring singers/songwriters Geoff Bullock and Darlene Zschech, both mainstays on the myriad Hillsong albums to follow. By the end of the decade, the Hillsong brand was so well-known that in 1999 the Houstons renamed the church Hillsong as well. Despite several controversies that caused the church to become a lightning rod for their strong political stances, the juggernaut surged forward and in 2004 the live Hillsong Worship release For All You've Done topped the mainstream Australian pop charts. A year later, more than 30,000 people attended July's Hillsong Conference. By early 2006, the Houstons counted more than 19,000 parishioners attending services each week.