Release Roundup & Playlist: Geneva AM, Adam Hattaway & The Haunters, Sheep, Dog & Wolf, Freya, THEIA, Black Comet + More

Here we are halfway through 2025 — witnessing a daily political news cycle of soul-numbing / enraging dread, yet graced with a local music cycle akin to a prismatic fountain of artistic inspiration. Dare to ponder what the future might hold while revisiting this week's coverage of Pickle Darling, Soft Bait, Marsha, Synthetic Children and the Punks For Palestine Aotearoa Compilation 2, then scroll downwards for more new / recent Aotearoa highlights from Geneva AM, Adam Hattaway & The Haunters, Sheep, Dog & Wolf, freya, THEIA, Black Comet, Tubbs & Burns, Manuel Darquart, Double Ya D, and the latest From The Pits episode spotlighting HALFQUEEN.

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! Only including tracks available on streaming services of course.

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

Geneva AM aka Geneva Alexander-Marsters (Ngāti Ruapani mai Waikaremoana, Ngāti Kahungunu ki Wairoa, Aitutaki, Palmerston) teams up with Ngā Whetu Ensemble on soaring, strings-powered new ballad 'Toitū Te Tiriti' — "a call to action to honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and an invitation for everyone to speak te reo Māori" — paired with opulent visuals. We cruised along to the Pikipiki listening party at Acho's during Matariki holiday weekend and can confirm it is sounding like a standout release of 2025, you can preorder at holidayrecords.com before it launches on 15th August.

Ōtautahi's prolific proud son Adam Hattaway officially spilled the beans about his forthcoming seventh studio album Hot Variety with The Haunters, revealing the sultry rockin' 'Ted Danson' ahead of the full release on 5th September. Paired with collaged visuals by Maya Templer and Jack McConnell (Rough On Rats) that are not for the squemish, hit play on Hattaway's soulful salute to the Cheers / Curb star and go catch him singing the Songs Of The Rolling Stones at Space Academy, on 18th (sold out) and 20th July (grab tickets HERE).

Perched possibly at the opposite end of the prolificness spectrum, 2014 Taite Music Prize finalist Daniel McBride reemerges to set fan's hearts aflutter with Sheep, Dog & Wolf's first new single in four years, the graceful and pensive 'Sound of a Distant Wave'. "Memory is such a strange and unstable thing, and that’s thrown into sharp relief when you’re losing someone close to you. When the stakes feel that high, it can be difficult to accept that all things fade and distort with time. Sound of a Distant Wave is about looking for ways to hold on."

freya crafts gently-lapping luminescent soundscapes and poetical song-shapes on the Tāmaki Makaurau folktronica artist's debut collection Of Water, celebrating with an official launch event at Ponsonby Social Club on 10th July (get tickets HERE).

No stranger to urgent anthems of resistance, THEIA's (Waikato-Tainui, Ngāti Tīpā) latest single demands 'Hoki Whenua Mai (Return The Land)' — a bilingual call to action featuring pūtaratara (conch) as part of the booming sonic palette. Also known as Best Independent Debut Award winner TE KAAHU, the artist performs a powerful haka with fellow wāhine in the accompanying clip, directed by Ruby Harris. "So often the feminine narrative becomes overlooked when we discuss the plight of indigenous cultures in the face of colonisation. We fail to recognise the deeply harmful impact on women and children and ‘Hoki Whenua Mai (Return The Land)’ speaks directly of these traumas - through the lens of the Māori experience."

The Aotearoa galactic funk collective featuring Laughton Kora (Kora, L.A.B, Fly My Pretties), Black Comet are back with the sizzling interdimensional grooves of 'We Can Call It Love', heralding whole new album Episode Two: The Force Between Us — out in full on 25th July.

'Drums Are Dangerous' say Aotearoa electronic production masterminds Tubbs & Burns and they're not wrong — crank up the eminently classy lead cut from a new four track EP, out soon via Munich dance imprint / fashion house Public Possession.

Launched just ahead of an appearance at last week's headline-hitting Glastonbury Festival in the UK — on the San Remo lineup alongside John Talabot, Kelly Lee Owens and more — Tāmaki Makaurau club maestro Manuel Darquart unveiled new five track bluesurf89 EP via Munich's Permanent Vacation imprint. Tune into Hunter Keane's 95bFM Long Player interview HERE for the inside scoop.

Closely affiliated with Aotearoa's legendary Stink Magnetic Record Co., Napier's mysterious man-witch Double Ya D ladles up five spine-tingling 'n' spellbinding fuzz-boogie rippers from his studio cauldron on the new Green Smoothie EP.

Surely already a contender for the next Outstanding Music Journalism Award, the in-depth In The Pits video podcast team sit down with DJ icon HALFQUEEN aka Shaquille Wasasala — co-founder of QBIPOC club night Filth — for their engrossing fifth episode, hosted by Rachel Ashby, produced by Zoë Larsen Cumming, and filmed by Annabel Kean and Callum Devlin.