Friday Release Roundup - Maxine Funke, The Circling Sun, OP Lilypad, King Loser, Cloudboy + More

Short week and long roundup is how we dooz it post-Easter holiday break. Rewind to this week's news coverage of The Datsuns, Mandate, Tom Lark and Pickle Darling — then dive head first into even more fresh Aotearoa releases below from Maxine Funke, The Circling Sun, OP Lilypad, NVSBLX, Surly x MoonDoctoR, AndWahn, Violet Hirst, Cloudboy and the must-see trailer for the forthcoming King Loser documentary. 

Maxine Funke unveiled two meditative and mesmerising new tracks from the enigmatic Aotearoa songwriter's forthcoming fifth album River Said, out on 28th April via Warp subsidiary Disciples — preorder the vinyl LP edition via the Bandcamp link.

Speaking of sublime frequencies to set your mind adrift to, Tāmaki Makaurau's OP Lilypad (Jonathan Glenday of Long Distance Runner and Fly Nights) unveiled a debut five track collection of texturally nourishing ambient electronic compositions, titled naturally enough OPLP — launched unto the world yesterday via Sunreturn.

An all-star Aotearoa jazz collective whose membership includes (but is in no way limited to) such local mega-talents as Guy Harrison, Julien Dyne (Half Hexagon, The Lahaar), Finn Scholes (Carnivorous Plant Society), J.Y. Lee (Avantdale Bowling Club, Yoko-Zuna), Ben Turua (Avantdale Bowling Club) and Cameron Allen (Opensouls), The Circling Sun shared the interstellar lead track 'Kohan' from their new album Spirits, out in full on 19th May via UK imprint Soundway — you can preorder the vinyl LP edition via the Bandcamp link.

Ōtepoti's NVSBLX brings the mutant techno grit you need on their superb, sonically boundless five track Yardwork collection — "an audio response to the artistic work of Georgina May Young, released as part of Āpai-marie, published by Blue Oyster Art Project Space, 2023".

A six years in the making, club-blazing collaboration between Aotearoa footwork production wiz Surly and Texan DJ / producer MoonDoctoR, 10 Days in San Antonio was thankfully "resurrected from a set of previously thought-lost session files from the late 2010s" — read the full illuminating lowdown in Martyn Pepperell's liner notes via the Bandcamp link.

Fellow Tāmaki Makaurau production maestro AndWahn delves into UK grime territory amidst the fractalesque club rhythms and chrome breaks deployed on his new five track Indigo EP.

Imagining the majestic metropolitan vistas of what might have been in Aotearoa's main centres, THE CITY WAS OURS is a new five track collection of inspiring instrumentals straddling the line between appropriation and original work (ie. this listener has no idea if these tracks are fully appropriated / presented as is or created from scratch) by mysterious Pōneke artist SKY SPORTS — either way, their ear for tunes is impeccable.

Tāmaki Makaurau via Tāhuna songwriter Violet Hirst shared impassioned new ballad 'Descending Song', the lead single from her forthcoming debut album Donegal — launching this June via southern indie stalwarts trace / untrace.

A world class project who (in my opinion) ought to have been globally famous the first time around, Demarnia Lloyd-fronted Dunedin avant-pop trio Cloudboy's 2001 debut album Down at the End of the Garden is being released on vinyl LP for the first time thanks to the champs at Flying Nun. Hit play on the spellbinding, newly remastered video for '(You're So) Pretty' and rush to your local record store when it launches on 22nd April aka Record Store Day. I'll be starting my petition for vinyl LP editions of Mink's classic '90s albums (also featuring Demarnia Lloyd) immediately.

Absolute legends of Aotearoa's noisy underground, work is currently underway on a documentary telling the story of infamous Flying Nun genre-melters King Loser — take in the incredible trailer below and show your support by donating to the filmmakers' highly informative Givealittle page HERE.