Release Roundup: Dead Famous People, Synthetic Children, Marmalade + More

It's time to wave goodbye to Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa / NZ Music Month for another year and say hello to Old Man Winter. Let's cast our minds back to this week's news coverage of Jazmine Mary, deepState, Babe Martin, LEISURE, RATSO and The Loving Arms, then dive into more new and recent local releases below from Dead Famous People, Synthetic Children, Marmalade, Sea Mouse, Brandon De La Cruz and Sam Cullen.

"Don't go to work if you don't want to go / And work with someone you don't wanna know" sings Dons Savage of Tāmaki Makaurau's legendary Dead Famous People, whose typically superb new album Ballet Boy launched digitally earlier this week.

Playing with GTKB this weekend in Tāmaki Makaurau, Te Whanganui-a-Tara and their Te Papaioea base of operations [get tickets HERE], electronic artist Synthetic Children unveiled their speaker-pounding third album Everything’s Perpetual late last week. Thanks to a scheduling snafu on my part we'll be running an interview with Synthetic Children next week after those release gigs wrap up — fortunately for all,  the eternally-onto-it Rachel Ashby of 95bFM Breakfast had an informative chat with the artist you can listen to right HERE.

Not to be confused with the '60s Scottish pop / rock group (who first called themselves The Gaylords), Tāmaki Makaurau five-piece Marmalade shared their debut single 'Bright' — a sunny slice of guitar-pop "about overcoming hurdles and self-growth." Go catch them celebrating with a release party at Big Fan in Morningside, you can nab tickets HERE.

Already beloved for their boundless rock 'n' roll energy, Pōneke's Sea Mouse crank it to admirably unhinged new levels on their frenzied new single 'Weed Whacker'. Here's the scoop from Sea Mouse themselves: "The inspiration for the song comes from witnessing the pure frustration of someone standing in knee high grass, abusing their weed whacker, after spending the last 20 minutes wailing on the pull rope to know avail. With that in mind, "Weed Whacker", in essence, is a song about mowing the lawns, and there’s nothing more badass than mowing your lawns."
 

Launching his new album Two Kilos Of Blue this August, Kirikiriroa-based US songwriter Brandon De La Cruz shared his tranquil latest single 'Disguise'.

Te Whanganui-a-Tara by way of Invercargill rising songwriter Sam Cullen shared an upbeat performance vid for his arms-in-the-air new rock anthem 'Forever'.