Release Roundup: SWIDT, Princess Chelsea, T.G. Shand, Hans. x Hanbee, Nathan Haines + More

NZ Music Month / Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa is all wrapped up and it's time to go out and have some fun, if you're in Tāmaki Makaurau you'll catch me boogieing at The Wine Cellar's 20th Anniversary festival and Tender Moonlight tonight. Revisit this week's coverage of Liam K Swiggs x Young Gho$t, Grecco Romank, S.E.I.S.M.I.C, Shepherd's Reign, Sarah Valintine, Brother Sister and Marlin's Dreaming featuring Erny Belle, then tuck into more new / recent highlights from Princess Chelsea, T.G. Shand, Internn, Hans. x Hanbee, HOMINID, Embedded Figures, Saturns Drive, Nathan Haines and SWIDT.

Winner of the Te Manu Taki Whanokē o te Tau | Best Alternative Artist at last night's Aotearoa Music Awards, Princess Chelsea treated her many fans worldwide to a sparkling new self-directed video for 'Everything Is Going To Be Alright (Pt. 2)', the concluding tune on her Taite Music Prize winning album of the same name.

Recipient of the Te Tohu Hopunga Puoro Mariu (Favourite EP / Mixtape) accolade at 2023's SRN awards, a new release from Ōtautahi shoegaze voyager T.G. Shand is always welcome — immerse your ears in 'The Cheese'.

 

Emerging seemingly out of nowhere to race up the 95bFM charts with standout single 'Cada', Aotearoa four-piece Internn revealed their five song debut EP of the same name late last week.

Kiwi-Korean stars Hans. and hanbee shared new collaborative strum-pop charmer 'Warmer, accompanied by footage filmed between Aotearoa, Australia, Vietnam, South Korea, and Japan. "Warmer was one of the first songs hanbee and I tracked together back in 2021. At that time, hanbee was still living in Korea while I was in Auckland. The song itself was inspired by ‘The Moon Song’ by Karen O, whose ‘Crush Songs’ album had a huge influence on me during my university days. We even had an original video inspired by the movie ‘Her’ that was filmed last year, but it never came out due to other projects and life getting in the way."

The electronic project of Te Whanganui-a-Tara sound designer and composer Benny Jennings, HOMINID follows up the synaesthetic sculptural intricacies of first single 'Introvert//Extrovert' with a debut EP release of the same name — including a (presumably unofficial) abstracted reimagining of Japanese artist Miki Matsubara's 1979 city pop classic 'Stay With Me'.

Now based in Naarm, Aotearoa electronic artist Embedded Figures aka Bianca Amber Skye's coldwave debut album Dark Artery was a low key standout release of 2017. Today we're treated with the pulsing gothic atmospherics of brand new LP 6 Lovers (orderable via sdz records) from the Strange Harvest / Rise of the City Cat Cult member, compelling bodies to make shapes and instantly resonating with this listener's autumnal exterior world.

Speaking of welcome returns, it's always a treat to hear new material from anyone involved in axis of cosmic energy that was / is Thought Creature. Sounding distinctly balearic in cascading oceanic intent, Next Stop Nebula is a dancefloor friendly new solo full length offering from Saturns Drive aka TC frontman Elfy, channeling inspiration from "early sci-fi, exotica and library music, cosmic disco synthesizers, italo grooves and arpy electronics" — nice.

A collaboration with Music First's Frank Booker on beats duties, Nathan Haines revealed 'Come Into The Light' featuring La Coco, the first single from the multi-instrumentalist / producer maestro's forthcoming eleventh album.

Truly making NZ Music Month their own, with a massively ambitious tidal wave of May releases under the banner SWIDT Music Month, Onehunga hip hop icons SWIDT stick the landing with today's brand new album TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS — their first official long player since 2017's era-defining STONEYHUNGA!