Leatherman & The Mojave Green

This impressive 2024 double album Leatherman & The Mojave Green – which debuted at the top of the New Zealand charts – is number eight in Troy Kingi's 10/10/10 project: 10 albums in 10 genres in 10 years.

The first ones came easily, he said, but he was feeling stale and needed a new environment to get past creative blockages. And so to the famous, eccentric Rancho De La Luna studio in the Mojave Desert where influential artists like Kyuss and Queens of the Stone Age had recorded.

Kingi undertook ceremonies with Cahuilla people and local shamen, and afterwards -- feeling more grounded and mentally expanded -- the songs came in a rush. Thereafter is a thrilling, desert rock journey: a mix of hard rock/pop, stoner escapism, punkish speed metal, tough reggae and a campfire singalong.