Hallelujah Picassos

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The Hallelujah Picassos are a reggae, rap, ska, thrash, jazz, pop crossover band from Auckland, New Zealand. They started life in the mid-1980s as a garage punk band The Rattlesnakes. They were released on the Wildside label.

New Zealand publication Rip It Up described their music as a mix and match: "The Picassos mix and match musical styles to keep themselves, as much as their audience, interested. A reggae bassline appears in a thrash number, which breaks to a pop jazz ditty before thrashing back into something with a hardcore bassline which is finished off with a reggae outro." (Rip It Up, May 1992)

The Hallelujah Picassos are particularly notable for their association with other bands from Supergroove [1], musician Greg Johnson and venerable ska band The Managers [2], to Dub Asylum and new punk bands like City Newton Bombers, [3] [4] and also for their association with cult New Zealand figures such as Martin Emond. [5]In 2002 New Zealand Musician called Hallelujah Picassos "one of this country's seminal reggae/rock fusion outfits." (Vol:10, No:3)[6]

In 1991 they were the support act for Screamin Jay Hawkins on a tour of NZ. [7] The band officially broke up in 1997 but occasionally reunite to play live gigs. Although they had limited commercial success - Rewind was "the only single that ever made a dent in the charts" [8] - the band retains a cult status in the New Zealand music scene.