Release Roundup: Princess Chelsea, Thee Golden Geese, Lucky Boy^, Borrowed cs, Neil MacLeod, CHAII, Byllie-jean + More

We've been bouncing between festivals around Aotearoa for the past few weekends — Ōhinehou / Lyttelton's excellent Port Noise festival and Camp A Low Hum in Wainuiomata (both were great) — but now we're back on regular weekly release roundup track, freshly inspired and still slightly fried. Rewind to this week's coverage of Hannah Everingham, Amiria Grenell, Reiki Ruawai, MOKOTRON x Big Fat Raro and Valere, then dive into new / recent local highlights from Princess Chelsea, Thee Golden Geese, Lucky Boy^, Borrowed cs, Neil MacLeod, Byllie-jean, CHAII, Pearly*, Lesbian Death Slutz From Hell, Heresiarch, Devilskin, and Midwave Breaks.

Princess Chelsea aka Chelsea Nikkel (Teenwolf) has one of the most dedicated global fanbases I've witnessed for an Aotearoa artist since Lorde, filling the YouTube waiting room for her new video with excited chatter and speculation. Featured on her 2023 Taite Music Prize winning album Everything is Going To Be Alright, Nikkel's self-edited clip for 'I Don't Know You' was filmed by Kermath late last year amidst the hustle and the bustle of the Big Apple. How long has she had that monkey plushie for — is it the same one from 'Monkey Eats Bananas'?

One of Tāmaki Makaurau's finest live acts and red hot in the studio too, soul-rockers Thee Golden Geese claim their hideous new video for 'Back Foot' (from their debut album Bird of the Year 2023) is hand-crafted with your viewing pleasure in mind. "This video was painstakingly hand-animated and barely used ANY free online artificial intelligence apps, the video perfectly captures the words “Back Foot”, “Me”, and “Got Me”, as well as some weird melting gold-ish geese holding things that resemble guitars. It’s a shame the Oscars have just finished, because we think this might have been in with a grin. Enjoy!"

Member of Princess Chelsea's talented band, the once incredibly prolific Lucky Boy^ is back with swoony yet subtly stress-inducing new ballad 'Shower Door'. "Kinda forgot how to write a song for a moment there. The shower door in my flat spontaneously exploded also".

Possessor of an unrivalled work ethic, Borrowed cs aka go-to Aotearoa producer / multi-instrumentalist / DJ Cory Champion follows last weekend's late night set at Lyttelton's Port Noise festival with a two-pack of blazing club cuts.

Also hailing from Ōtautahi, electronic songwriting adventurer Neil MacLeod's stunning new audio-visual work (co-directed with Oscar Keys) strives to resist the paralysing, ever-present influence of 'Fear' on our daily lives. “Like many people, I’ve allowed fear to influence my life. At one stage, I developed quite a fearful relationship with my dreams. I’d been exploring dream interpretation and lucid dreaming and found myself increasingly anxious about going to sleep. In retrospect, I can see that I was just too close and obsessed with the whole thing. I was reading meaning into my dreams without any help or support, and it was messing with my sense of reality. This song gets into all of that. In essence, it’s exploring the fear that I might lose myself on the journey to finding myself.”

Winner of the 2022 APRA Maioha Award | Tohu Maioha for her collaboration with AJA 'Te Iho', Byllie-jean (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Ngāti Pahauwera) unveiled her debut collection Filter — six bass-booming waiata featuring contributions from Marlon Williams, author / poet Isla Huia and AJA. “There's healing in these songs for me, and stories within stories, they are recorded snapshots of moments in time — lots of blood and water and bush and memory and suburbia. This collection of completed songs was grown and documented from a friendship come recording project with producer Chris Wethey; we would met each Thursday and a sound soon emerged that was acoustic and clean as well as electronically muddy and hard-hitting due to my partiality to 808s."

Part of Aotearoa's contingent to this year's controversial SXSW showcase in Austin, Texas, Iranian / NZ superstar CHAII's new track 'FUN' feels like it'd physically compel your body to dance when blasted through club speakers — experience the vibey accompanying visualiser clip.

Ōtepoti's Pearly* serve up a fuzz-drenched slab of indie-rock / spoken word exuberance with new anthem 'Post Key BCP', their second release of this year from southern independent flag wavers trace / untrace.

Tāmaki Makaurau's Lesbian Death Slutz From Hell inject a refreshing dose of sci-fi synths into their punk / no wave ruckus on their new Switch Hitter EP — anthems like 'ANIMALS' ("animals need shelter and shade") will get you dancing and pumping your fist in solidarity.

Ultra-aggressive in their extreme metal attack, Heresiarch's ear-blasting new single 'Gloryless Execution' is a grim precursor to the Te Whanganui-a-Tara group's latest album Edifice — out in full on 12th April.

Aotearoa metal stars Devilskin busted out a faithful rendition of Heart's arms in the air 1977 classic 'Barracuda'.

Touring with Incubus in April, Tauranga alt-rockers Midwave Breaks aka Bruce Conlon and drummer Paul Russell (Supergroove) channel their inner Bruce Springsteen on 'All She Was', the lead single from their new triple anthem Standing Inside Out EP.