Music News

Weekly Roundup: Friday 27th September

C.C. / Friday 27th September, 2019 5:53PM

Sometimes you make it to the end of the week and it's tricky to figure out what happened or even which way is up as you dash out the door – which is where our weekly roundup can sort you right out, keeping you in the loop with the most crucial recent musical releases and paradigm-shifting show announcements.

Upcoming events to get hyped about include Pōneke metal masters Beastwars are gearing up for a further run of Aotearoa headline events in November and December, dark synth lord Perturbator will be taking the North Island by storm in February 2020, Russian born, London-based beat guru DJ Vadim is returning to NZ for four headline events, Palmerston North's long-running annual SwampFest extravaganza is taking over Aotearoa's seventh-largest city in October, and Tāmaki Makaurau / Pōneke songsmiths Hans Pucket revealed the stellar supports for their forthcoming national tour. Even more good stuff revealed included rising LA-based songwriter Phoebe Bridgers will be supporting The National's upcoming New Zealand headline events in April, UK grebo figureheads Pop Will Eat Itself are hitting Auckland and Wellington this coming March, and the first lineup for WOMAD New Zealand 2020 was announced, featuring Grammy-winning gospel group Blind Boys Of Alabama and former Official Harpist to the Prince of Wales Catrin Finch!

The week's features included UTR assistant editor Annabel Kean's insightful and freewheeling chat with Pōneke psych trio Mermaidens, ahead of October's Aotearoa release tour for their superb new album Look Me In The Eye. We were also super stoked to premiere two awesome local releases – Tāmaki Makaurau sonic voyager Green Grove's suspenseful single 'The Sleuth' (described by one wag as sounding like "Pink Panther in space") from his brand new album Machine Music, and the emotionally powerful debut collection from currently geographically separated Tāmaki Makaurau duo Blush Juliet, the guitar-pop project of Archi Banal and Emmanuel Sarmiento. We kept the ball rolling with the latest episode of our UTR Caught Live video series, head over here to experience scintillating footage of Pōneke electronic-pop artist Lake South delivering a heartfelt performance of 'Ellice Street (One Story)', from his sophomore album Wellington / Te Upoko O Te Ika.

Our Caught Live video for the week features US black metal innovators Wolves In The Throne Room, who'll be bringing their sonic power and fury to Wellington's Valhalla and Auckland's Whammy Bar this December. Experience evocative recent footage of the group delivering a mystical performance of 'Prayer of Transformation', originally from 2011's Celestial Lineage, in Budapest, Hungary for A38 Rocks...