No Cigar are the best rock band you've yet to hear of. The Aotearoa five-piece return with their third album Under the Surface, their most layered, groove-wired, and emotionally charged album yet. Formed in 2019, NO CIGAR has carved out a loyal international following with their genre-blurring sound. Their second album The Great Escape spent over 74 weeks in the NZ Top 20, while the standout single “Concubine” landed at #10 in Rock FM’s 2024 listener-voted countdown. Born from quiet nights in rural France and sweaty headline shows across Europe, Under the Surface dives deeper than any NO CIGAR release to date. It’s the sound of a band at full creative tilt: pushing their indie-surf roots into moodier terrain, without losing the funk-strut heartbeat that’s earned them a global cult following. Led by the debut single Chantilly, written in a French forest while after watching the Rugby World Cup final, the album flickers between high-octane bounce and soft-focus introspection. Problem keeps things hushed and deliberate; Clean offers up a raw, gritted-teeth version of their signature sound. The result is a record that feels lived-in, expansive, and pulsing with late-night honesty.Following their sold-out 2025 UK/EU tour, Under the Surface cements NO CIGAR’s place as one of New Zealand’s most magnetic musical exports. We were lucky enough to witness the tour while we were in Europe and we were completely blown away. We'll be down the front when they next hit Sydney this October...
