Diesel Jenny & Synthetic Children 'Backroom Smooches' Tour Announced

Aotearoa left-field club innovators Diesel Jenny and Synthetic Children will soon be putting a smile on your hardware electronics dial, coiling / uncoiling cables aplenty on their just-announced Backroom Smooches nationwide tour this winter. The nom de plume of Te Papaioea’s Celina Goacher, Synthetic Children recently contributed to The Big Fresh Collective's era-defining new FOOTMAHI 2025 compilation, plus has unfurled the bouncy and dreamy lead track to her forthcoming smooch EP — "3 love songs that celebrate the corners of euphoria and growth I’ve encountered and held close to my chest in the last few years".

Also known to attentive listeners as ABG, Diesel Jenny aka Pōneke’s Josh Finegan has too released via The BFC and Aotearoa's consistently impeccable Bankrupt Records, and the tour "will celebrate the inaugural release of Diesel Jenny’s white label series with a rock-solid RUC-exempt two-tracker". The only unsatisfying aspect of this announcement is Backroom Bar no longer exists, happily Audio Foundation will host the pair's Tāmaki Makaurau Backroom Smooches show, inside the Myers Park sub-basement hub for sonically adventurous dial-twisters. Here are the details, featuring a dang fine selection of special guests...

Diesel Jenny and Synthetic Children 'Backroom Smooches' Tour

Friday 4th July - Ōtautahi, Flux with BWD*
Saturday 5th July – Ōtepoti, Yours, supports to be announced
Friday 11th July - Tūrangi, Sanjay’s Selection, DJ sets b2b Skymning
Saturday 12th July – Tāmaki Makaurau, Audio Foundation, with Baby Zionov
Thursday 17th July – Pōneke, Valhalla, with Ekho Lahlia
Friday 18th July – Te Papaioea, Snails, with Club Tremaine, Cradle
Saturday 19th July – Whanganui, Porridge Watson, with Alphabethead, Club Tremaine

Tickets available HERE via UTR
Tickets from flicket*

Listen to Synthetic Children's 'slippers' from the smooch EP, out in full on 30th June...

Hit play on 'Gerbil' from Diesel Jenny's upcoming Dexy Heartbeat / Gerbil two track EP...

Press release:

Two of Aotearoa’s most rungle hardware acts are joining forces for a mid-winter tour across the country this July. Armed with new releases and a reckless lack of MIDI cables, longtime pals Synthetic Children and Diesel Jenny are packing gear into the whip for a trip up and down the motu.

The six-date tour will see the pair serve up their respective dishes in Ōtautahi, Ōtepoti, Tāmaki Makaurau, Pōneke, Te Papaioea, and Whanganui. Joined by local favourites, the tour will bring the sounds of provincial Aotearoa to the big smoke. To pair will also make a special stop in at the legendary Tūrangi dairy ‘Sanjay’s Selection’, to spin some tunes through the most bass boosted speakers in the Waikato.

Via hardware synths and drum machines, Synthetic Children (Te Papaioea’s Celina Goacher) is bringing bubbly synths, auto-tuned vulnerabilities, and sub-rattling beats. Her latest Smooch EP, and appearance on the Big Fresh Collective’s Footmahi compilation, show an emerging fun side to her dancefloor arsenal, following the murky weight of 2023’s Everything’s Perpetual. Donnys worldwide have heralded the new release as a “freshly cooked 3 course meal, served up by Palmy’s premier snack pack herself”. Think wonky hyperpop with plenty of low end.

Diesel Jenny’s (Pōneke’s Josh Finegan) live set will blend brain-breaking breaks with sugar-rush synths and 3D club energy years. This tour will celebrate the inaugural release of Diesel Jenny’s white label series with a rock-solid RUC-exempt two-tracker. With multiple releases on underground mainstays Big Fresh Collective and Bankrupt Records as ABG, this isn’t the first time Diesel Jenny’s revved the engine.