Release Roundup: Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Soft Bait, Thee Golden Geese, Grecco Romank, Brainwave + More

So much music came out during the final week of NZ Music Month / Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa! Join me on my quest to draw attention to selected local releases in a pithy manner — revisit our coverage of Salt Water Criminals, Adam Hattaway and the Haunters, and We Will Ride Fast, then tuck into new / recent highlights from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Soft Bait, Thee Golden Geese, Grecco Romank, Brainwave, Another Fucking Problem, Crying Ivy, T. G. Shand, Neive Strang, Womb, and vegetable.machine.animal.

Scroll down and scope out the UTR Roundup Playlist, a rolling weekly playlist keeping you in the loop with every new release we've featured on the site over the past month!

Are you an Aotearoa artist / imprint releasing something new soon? Let us know — send your info including links to editor@undertheradar.co.nz.

The globally adored project of Ruban Nielson and friends / family, Unknown Mortal Orchestra set the online world aflame with the AI-assisted video for 'BOYS WITH THE CHARACTERISTICS OF WOLVES' — a dread-infused heavy psych stomper, foreshadowing UMO’s CURSE EP out in full on 18th June. "In the clownish, happy-go-lucky soil of lies and chaos, a silly kind of music can grow; a senseless laughter, and we can amuse ourselves with it, however darkly. We can dance with lost minds and howl in valiant hysteria as the stormtroopers of death, confused and incredulous, pile us or those we love into their meat wagons".

It seems like Flying Nun Records have entered an expansionist phase, not unlike a nWo of Aotearoa indie music. Last week Jazmine Mary joined their ranks and now Tāmaki Makaurau post-punks Soft Bait are the imprint's newest recruits, revealing their second album Life Advice will be out in full on 25th, following up their self-released 2022 debut Plot Points. Hit play on chunky chugger of a lead single 'New Leaf' plus Patrick Hickley and Jolin Lee's dapper wedding visuals. "New Leaf is a song about gossiping, seeking social acceptance and connection among groups. People projecting their own sense of arrogance or insecurity onto others. The lack of self-awareness to understand — or care to understand — the effect of their actions as they move onto the next drama and hysteria. Leaving the subject to pick up the pieces".

Thee Golden Geese announced their retirement late last year and were reunited over the weekend to play a smashing show at Tāmaki's Armageddon Expo, toasting the launch of their new interactive game / "incredible multimedia immersive story-telling event" gooseyourownadventure.com. Play the game to hear exclusive new tunes from Thee Geese! Despite the game only being released on Saturday, none other than Sir Peter Jackson reportedly gushed: "I lost three years of my life to this game, and I don't regret a single minute. It's the reason why I still haven't got around to making the Hobbit IV yet".  

A humungous release in every sense, Tāmaki Makaurau dungeon techno trio Grecco Romank unleashed their special guest-packed third album Arts Colony with a smashing launch gig at Double Whammy — along with 330 page accompanying art book, featuring 48 contributors in itself. "... a labyrinthine exploration of modern anxieties, forbidden desires, and gothic national identity, all rendered in vivid electronic textures that range from haunting italo disco to punishing industrial beats, from acid-drenched folk horror to cathartic digital release".

Pōneke's Brainwave teamed up with Luke Manson of fellow Aotearoa bruisers Xile (now based in the UK) on 'Ill Intent', a scorched earth appetiser for their forthcoming album of the same name — adorned with killer artwork by Cam Parker (@spiral.wizard) and out this spring.

Speaking of unrepentantly pummelling (both sonically and emotionally) anthems to make you cower in a corner, Tāmaki Makaurau's Another Fucking Problem cracked open their new Are We Making You Sick EP.

Tāmaki Makaurau heavy psych newcomers Crying Ivy blast brains to radioactive goo with their cautionary debut single 'Fission'.

Ōtautahi's T. G. Shand eases us into the frigid winter months with typically world class new dream-pop / shoegaze single 'The Deadpan Break' — featuring Cory Champion (Clear Path Ensemble, Borrowed CS) on drums and impressionistic visual wash animated by Spencer Hall.

A highlight from her quietly accomplished new album Find Me in the Rabbit Hole (recorded with Sean James Donnelly), Neive Strang shares a new video for 'Time of Year', directed / edited by Tane Cotton. "I wrote this song about change and the process of re-finding myself in its aftermath. It’s one of my favourites on the album as I always feel a little more healed every time I sing it. Tane Cotton (Sivle Talk) has done a beautiful job on an accompanying video for the single, capturing a live show of the band and I in Ōtepoti".

Capping off a triumphant release cycle for their new album One Is Always Heading Somewhere, sibling dream trio Womb unfurled expectedly gorgeous visuals for 'Slip'. "Formed from a demo that Haz wrote in the 2010s, we rewrote ‘Slip’ in Whanganui in the winter of 2023. Each evening of recording, we were joined by a chorus of birds that would visit the skyduster palm trees across the road. Made by East, the video is inspired by cyanotype printing – its blue tones conjuring the same world we hoped to create in the song: of rivers and oceans and airplanes and longing and love".

vegetable.machine.animal is "a live conversation between plants, fungi, machines, and human musicians" led by drummer Kieran Monaghan of Mr Sterile Assembly fame. Released via Audio Foundation's own increasingly crucial Audio Foundation Records, their synaptically scintillating debut album GUEST explores the following notion: "What would it sound like if we could interact musically with plants and fungi — if humans stopped to listen and respond? vegetable.machine.animal is an interspecies improvisational trio exploring this question through a hybrid sonic language of biosignals, modular synthesis, and live drums".