A brand new HPs remix album ‘Rewind Re-versioned’ out Dec 5

Hallelujah Picassos announce a brand new remix album ‘Rewind Re-versioned’. It’s a version excursion, riddim-wise styles.

We are releasing a special remix album with 15 remixes of the same song, all in wildly different flavours. ​Why? That sounds insane.

Last year was the 30th anniversary of Hallelujah Picassos’ single ‘Rewind’ being released. The song quickly became hugely popular with fans and student radio, and was a highlight of our live sets, sung by our drummer Bobbylon from behind the kit.

We’re doing it to remind everyone what a magnificent singer Bob was. He passed away in 2018 and we want to do this project to honour him and his legacy.

We’re going to include a handful of remixes from a wide range of folks who have been active since the time we released it, along with the original version.

Remixers who are involved include Christoph El Truento, Amamelia, Stinky Jim (Unitone Hifi), Sola Rosa, Daniel Maneto, Surly, Timmy Schumacher, Evan Short (Kiljoy, ex Concord Dawn), Mike Hodgson (Misled Convoy, Pitch Black) Joost Langeveld (Subware), and Rachel D.

‘Rewind Re-versioned’ is coming out December 5, 2025 on a limited run of CDs and cassettes, and digital. All formats come with a booklet with photos and tales of Bobbylon from some of the remixers and friends of the band.

​Preorder it on cassette or CD from Flying Out.

We will be having a launch event at Flying Out on Dec 5, from 4pm to 6pm, with DJs and pals to celebrate the release.

Watch the original music video for Rewind, recut to the mighty Christoph El Truento's remix:

One Love: The Very Best Of Aotearoa Reggae, out now, feat Hallelujah Picassos!

This cool new compilation aims to pull together a cross section of our nation's affinity with reggae, going back to the influence felt from Bob Marley's historic 1979 concert here.

You get early local pioneers Herbs (a great early cut, Dragons and Demons, later sampled by Che Fu, who also appears here), Aotearoa, and Dread Beat and Blood, thru to 90s acts like Upper Hutt Posse, DLT and the Mighty Asterix (who came up with the Twelve Tribes of Israel band and also appears on the Unitone Hifi track, a hugely underrated voice on the local reggae scene), Salmonella Dub and my own band Hallelujah Picassos, and  contemporary acts like Fat Freddys Drop, the Black Seeds, Cornerstone Roots, 1814, Kora and many more.

The compilation is out now on 2 x CD/digital on iTunes,  Amplifier etc

TRACK LISTING:
CD1:
1. The Black Seeds – So True
2. Fat Freddy’s Drop – Roady (feat. Ladi6 & P Digsss)
3. Katchafire – Get Away
4. Salmonella Dub – Problems
5. Herbs – Dragons & Demons
6. Sons Of Zion – Good Love
7. Cornerstone Roots – Is It Real?
8. Upper Hutt Posse – Ragga Girl
9. Soljah – Message
10. House Of Shem – Thinking About You
11. David Grace & Injustice – Rua Kenana
12. Tomorrow People – Take It Away
13. 1814 – Jah Rastafari
14. The Twelve Tribes Of Israel Band NZ – Tribulation Soldier
15. Three Houses Down – She’s My Woman feat. Spawnbreezie
16. Paua – Crazy Bout You
17. Unitone Hifi feat. The Mighty Asterix – Guiding Star


CD2:
1. Six60 – Don’t Forget Your Roots
2. Kora – Politician
3. Che-Fu – Fade Away
4. Tiki Taane – Faded
5. Dread Beat And Blood – I Unity
6. Rhombus – Clav Dub
7. DLT feat. The Mighty Asterix – One Love
8. Hallelujah Picassos – Rewind
9. Tahuna Breaks – Empower Me
10. Unity Pacific – From Street To Sky
11. dDub – Comfort
12. Aotearoa – Sweet Child
13. Knights Of The Dub Table – Small
14. Sweet & Irie – Sunshine Reggae
15. Southside Of Bombay – All Across The World
16. Brownhill – My Girl
17. Aotearoa Reggae All Stars – Sensitive To A Smile

Rewind

From 5000ways.co.nz, reviewing NZOA-funded music videos, by Robyn Gallagher...

"A song about relaxing and taking it easy, which seems to be the national genre of New Zealand. The “Rewind” video is a cruisy collection of a lively studio performance and scenes from New Zealand.

It’s a fun video that nicely captures the spirit of the song, with green screen used quite thoughtfully. The background images, scenes of both rural and urban New Zealand, are contrasted with the laid-back band.

The video also features the nice bright, highly saturated colour palette that was cool in the ’90s, and I think this kind of colour use has come back around. Now all we need is for chunky green screen to become cool again.

Best bit: the green-screened turntable.



Bonus: Peter McLennan of the Hallelujah Picassos has again been kind enough to share his experience of the video:

"We worked with Stratford Productions on this video, as we did for the previous video Lovers Plus. The latter video was directed by Bruce Sheridan, and for this one we worked with Clinton Phillips. I co-directed the video with Clinton, which was very generous of him, as he did a lot of the work, really. We shot Rewind at the Powerstation, using the stage for the band footage, and shooting from the balcony for the verses, looking down on Bobbylon, singing. We bounced round the stage Roland and myself wearing turntables strapped on like guitars, and Johnnie playing his korg synth, nicknamed the Hog.

The black and white footage in the verses was shot on super 8 film by me, while we were on tour. I gave it to Clinton to send off for telecine transfer over in Sydney and never saw it again, which was a bit sad.

There’s also footage shot on video of us clowning round on the roof of Civic House, next to DKD, which also makes a brief appearance in the video. The only green screen is on the record on the turntable, which also serves up my fave shot in the video, at 2.09 – Roland doing his best Michael Jackson tippy-toes dance move.

This song will be included on the forthcoming collection of Hallelujah Picassos tunes, remastered for CD/digital."