Release Roundup: Birdation, Christoph El Truento, Jordan Rakei, beet-wix, Nice Girl, AW, Lucre + More

Blooming heck it is all happening in NZ Music Month / Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa 2024 — incredible festivals, tones of great releases, you name it. Tuck into this week's coverage of Tender Moonlight, Nat Hathaway, Ekko Park, Holly Arrowsmith and Seismic State, then scroll downwards for even more homegrown highlights from Birdation, Christoph El Truento, Jordan Rakei, Nice Girl, AW, Lucre, beet-wix, ß&, Lou'ana, Tom Verberne, Daily J, and SWIDT.

Launched with zero fuss late last week, a real handful is the first release in eight years (and first collection of tunes in twelve years!) from Birdation — also one third of Ōtepoti über-talents Death and the Maiden and Bad Sav. What patient fans get is a deep listening journey through southern 'scapes of electronic tekno doof, glacial atmospheric ambience, windup sound machines bumping into each other, Montgomery-level guitar voyaging bliss. More like a consistently great handful and that's putting it mildly.

Subject of an illuminating new profile by Martyn Pepperell over on the AudioCulture site, Christoph El Truento unveiled 'Performer Dub / P​ī​wari' — two tasty dubbed out numbers featuring an all-star cast including Mara TK, Julien Dyne, Cory Champion, Jeremy Toy plus more. A teaser for his forthcoming album Dubs From The Neighbourhood, the strictly limited 7" vinyl release is already sold out.

Touring across Europe in September and October (including a sold out headline date at London's Royal Albert Hall), Aotearoa soul-jazz luminary Jordan Rakei's new album The Loop is out today.

Naarm-based Aotearoa club champion Nice Girl unveiled her new album Yummy, a scant seven months since the electronic dance producer's ace 2023 collection UPP, which has been a bit of a UTR office fave. Chow down and if you move super quick you can nab the limited compact disc edition via the Bandcamp link.

AW is the new solo project of Andrew Wilson, singer / guitarist of Die! Die! Die! — laying down three nimble and atmospheric post-punk numbers with legend of the underground Stefan Neville (Pumice) on SIMPLE SONGS. Check our the sleek Chrome-like groove of 'ONE BLAH NIGHT'.

Playing alongside Brainwave in Tāmaki Makaurau and Kirikiriroa this weekend (get tickets HERE), Pōneke's Lucre eviscerate earholes with the relentless aggro overload of their new HYPERREAL EP.

Number one on the SRN Top Ten (hooray they've started posting again) charts this week, I finally tracked down the Bandcamp link for 'slug level standards' by beet-wix — I kept hunting for 'beat-wix' or 'betwix' smh. Member of the Riot Gull collective, Lucy Pollock sounds a bit like Dunedin's DIY Gary Numan conjuring doomy, bass bin blasting gothic beats and spectral synth from a humble Nintendo DS "originally borrowed from the Ōtepoti art school."

They say time moves at a different speed down south and I'm starting to believe it. Clime is simultaneously the debut release from Ōtepoti sculpturer of sound ß& and the first solo release from Jon Chapman (Eye / Co., Inc. / Double Leopards) in seventeen years! The EP's ear-enchanting textural abstractions and interstellar rhythms feel positively invigorating, the beautifully packaged limited cassette edition is rightly already all gone, so too bad to nearly everyone.

Sonic dreaminess of a different kind, Lou'ana revealed a spellbinding and bluesy new "voodoo version" of her song ‘Day Dreams’, first featured on the Aotearoa soul-pop star's 2020 album MOONLIGHT MADNESS. "It feels really special to be sharing this part of myself with my audience. I was brought up with blues music, so this song really speaks to my soul! It is also very raw and spacious, so it feels vulnerable. It also feels right to open up and share the healing I have been doing over the last few years, before we party and dance in my disco era!”

Ascendant Tāmaki Makaurau songwriter Tom Verberne revels in scratchy alt-rock textures and emotive melodies on his new single 'I Will If You Will'.

Blenheim-bred and Tāmaki-based collective Daily J sound sunny and optimistic on their new single 'Happy Slides' — accompanied by a buzzy tour clip that's akin to a summer holiday with friends.

Continuing their completely dominating SWIDT Music Month, Onehunga's most electrifying dropped 'LIQUID COURAGE', 'CREW' and a remastered version of 'DRIPPIN', keep on the lookout for an accompanying clip for 'LIQUID COURAGE'.