Release Roundup: Roy Irwin, D.C. Maxwell, Adam Hattaway, Alphabethead, Aridni Orca, Mel Parsons, Bailterspace + More

We had a hoot at last Saturday’s premiere of The Weed Eaters, the must-see horror-comedy debut feature film from Sports Team, the production brains behind UTR's Trash Recital and Live Music Bar web series! Featuring an ace soundtrack of contemporary / recent local faves, we encourage you to go see it on a screen near you around the country (and / or Frightfest in London), also (spoiler alert) I only just clicked the title is a pun.

Revisit this week's coverage of goya, Erase Everything, Vagina Dry, jackaltheblackal, Purple Dog and our interview with Gareth Shute about his just-published book Songs From the Shaky Isles: A Short History of Popular Music in New Zealand, then explore new / recent local highlights from Roy Irwin, D.C. Maxwell, Adam Hattaway & The Haunters, Alphabethead, Aridni Orca, Mel Parsons, Brandon De La Cruz, Ex-Partner, Frau Knotz, Dale Kerrigan, and Bailterspace. 

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. Author of Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist (One Signal Publishers), music journalist Liz Pelly will unpack the politics of contemporary streaming in conversation with Martyn Pepperell at Tāmaki Makaurau's Whammy Bar on 26th August, get tickets HERE.

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

Icon of Tāmaki Makaurau's music community and recent P.H.F recruit, Roy Irwin's first new single in two years 'Drown' is a world-class guitar-pop dreamscape, imbued with a rare grace and majesty very few could even hope to muster.

Now based across the Tasman in Naarm, D.C. Maxwell arises reborn with the the Aotearoa songwriting star's first new single since 2023's debut album Lone Rider. A powerful "big strum" climate crisis ballad with no fat on the bone, the video for 'Jesus' Son' draws inspiration by Isabelle Adjani's performance in director Andrzej Żuławski's twisted 1981 spy-divorce-horror Possession (also starring Sam Neill). An unhinged yet well-dressed D.C. Maxwell contorts violently like a figure in a Robert Longo drawing in his self-directed clip, filmed at Flinders Street train station. "We knew going down into the tunnel that we had one opportunity to get the shot. Flinders Street on a weekend can be crawling with cops and PTV inspectors, and a guy freaking out and screaming about Jesus was always going to attract attention. So I got myself revved up, thought about what Sam Neil would do, then we pressed record and me and the DOP Joseph Griffin just went for it. He trailed me like a lion stalking a gazelle. Thankfully we got the shot".

At the forefront of Canterbury's country rock renaissance, Adam Hattaway and The Haunters share soaring new ballad 'Two Roads', the second tune revealed from their forthcoming album Hot Variety, out on 5th September with a strictly limited vinyl LP edition via Leather Jacket Records. Watch Max Liautaud and Gina Johns' panoramic clip and go catch them at Tāmaki Makaurau's cosy Frieda Margolis on 10th September, you can nab tickets HERE.

A Whanganui-based artist who embodies untamed imagination and top chief-like technical prowess, David Morrison aka Alphabethead turns his attention to Nintendo's balloon-like mascot Kirby, on his club-bumping follow-up to July's SRN hit 'I'm Lucy Lawless'."'Kirby's World' is the second single from my upcoming electronic album on Sunreturn. I hope it puts a pep in your step and diminishes the pull of gravity, even if just for a few minutes."

Now based in London, Aotearoa electronic composer and singer Aridni Orca aka Indira Force's (Doprah) new album time-warps listeners from mythical pasts to far-flung futurisms, sometimes simultaneously. The Bell, the Swan & the Golden Thread merges the organic and the hyperreal across ten transportive tracks, out now via Sonorous Circle.

Award-winning Canterbury songwriting star Mel Parsons maintains a champion run of 2025 tunes, one-upping the Gallagher brothers and saying no to terminally online lifestyles with her latest dream-folk single 'Be Here Now'.

Kirikiriroa-based psych-folk traveller Brandon De La Cruz revealed two side to his forthcoming album Blue Irises in Hologram, the impressionistic 'New Signs' and alchemical ballad 'How Many Names For Yellow?', out in full on 17th October.

Ex-Partner's new polycule EP serves up "10 minutes of new ex-partner skronk" just the way you like it — seven diverse tracks encompassing mind-stretching drone balladry, ensorcelling synth-bloops, woozy glitch-pop, abstract mutations and more. Generous and restrained, nice.

New Plymouth electronic artist Frau Knotz shared her new five track Digital Plastic Surgery EP exclusively on Bandcamp, and revealed that it's the first half of a sonic diptych of EP releases. "I see this EP as the sonic equivalent to The Breakfast Club — it’s an unlikely grouping of quirky characters that form unexpected bonds and reveal their inner selves."

Premier southern noise-punks of our era, Ōtepoti's Dale Kerrigan unleash a thirteen track tsunami of feedback-spiked, guitar-mangling tunes on their third studio album HEAVY GREASY, adorned with monsterised artwork by the group's Shlee Nicholls and Joel Field (also of Pearly*). "Heavy Greasy is out, and for now it’s only available on Bandcamp, we’re so proud of this record go check it out!"

Bailterspace's new live album Fused documents the hugely influential Aotearoa trio throwing down slabs of zen-like distorted noise-rock in venues across Europe in 1991. "This is the closest you will ever get to being in the same room with Bailterspace at the peak of their powers. Years in the making, these incredible live recordings captured during their 91 European tour crackle in the best way imaginable." Streaming service monopoly men will be weeping again, as this is a Bandcamp / CD only release.