Avantdale Bowling Club

With Avantdale Bowling Club, Tom Scott (Home Brew, @Peace) foregoes traditional hip-hop samples in favor of provocative, at times wild jazz accompaniment. Scott’s return to the Auckland neighbourhood of his youth, Avondale, coincided with a personal transformation triggered by hitting his mid-thirties, resulting in moments of deep reflection. Witness the expansive “Years Gone By,” a chronological autobiography littered with hard-learned lessons, and concluding with the life-affirming birth of his son. Recorded against a backdrop of that personal triumph and tragedy (his mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, his aunt with dementia), it’s no wonder he raps, “I’ve seen the sky; I’ve seen the sewer” on “F(r)iends.”