Release Roundup: LEISURE, P.H.F, Echomatica, Brandon De La Cruz, Rhian Sheehan & Arli Liberman, Demon Sluice, DAHTM + More

Our latest release roundup arrives rather tardy, yet overflowing with Aotearoa sonic riches. Scroll downwards for new / recent highlights from LEISURE, Echomatica, Brandon De La Cruz, Rhian Sheehan & Arli Liberman, P.H.F, Demon Sluice, DAHTM, Postnatal Abortion, Drop Zone and IVY.

Scope out the UTR Roundup Playlist below, 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, which has been an increasingly hot topic during the past few weeks.

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

Up there amongst Aotearoa's most successful groups in the streaming realm, LEISURE set a smooth relaxing tone with their new ten track voyage in soul / funk / dream-pop Welcome To The Mood. Launched with design-focussed visuals for their sparkling 'Diamonds', LEISURE took an organic approach for their latest record: "Off the back of touring the last album, we had played more shows than ever and wanted to bring more of the live element into the process, so we didn’t use drum breaks and loops as much as previous records and tracked live."

Achieving ear worm status via Aotearoa's SRN airwaves with their debut single 'Love Isn't Always', Echomatica's warm and wistful new tune 'Something' hits like a springtime apparition. "'Something' was one of those tunes that started simply, as fragments toyed with on an acoustic guitar. The song flowed easily from there, and came to reflect ideas of reaching for meaning when everything feels uncertain, and how even in silence and hesitation there’s often the joy and wonder of discovery and an electric potential in what’s left unspoken."

Launching his new album Blue Irises in Hologram next month, the rickety rhythms and hazy melodies of Kirikiriroa-based songwriter Brandon De La Cruz's new single 'The Wildcat I Can’t Calm Keeps Me From Home' feel ghostly, yet simultaneously vivid and present. "Three years ago I participated in a 10-day silent Vipassana retreat up in Makarau. On day five, I was half-sleeping and dreamt of a tense and traumatised cat that dug its claws into my hand when I tried to help it. The scared cat became an analogy for the frightened energy of my own soul and has given me a context to better understand myself in the years since that first vision."

Critically celebrated Aotearoa composers / producers Rhian Sheehan and Arli Liberman reignite the creative spark of 2020's collaborative Recollections, sharing eight tracks of elegantly sculpted sound shapes and atmospheric ambient / electronica excursions on their deeply immersive new album Traces. Experience Sam Caldwell's free flowing visuals for latest single 'Specular'.

COMP 2010-2012 triggers a sugar rush of nostalgia for this listener, a time-warping compilation showcasing the early musical achievements in lo-fi rock 'n' pop from future icon of Aotearoa's underground P.H.F — known way back when as 'Perfect Hair Forever'. Titles like 'BEING DEAD IS COOL' hint at world-conquering future moves, while the joyously frantic 'THIS ROTS!' successfully predicts egg-punk. Pret-tay, pretty good.

Propagators of "Oceanic Black Death Hell", Aotearoa's Demon Sluice are reaching appreciative ears around the world with their triumphantly brutal, reality-ripping new opus Dancers Beneath Shores of Fire. "Four blasphemic curses to wreak havoc upon the shores of humanity."

Supporting Aussie speed metal punks Reaper this October and playing with Ōtautahi's Radium next week at Valhalla (get tickets HERE), Pōneke's DAHTM eviscerate earholes with the heavy riffage of their new three track Death Throes EP — also featuring a Kate Bush cover, a remix by Freak Magnet, and cover artwork by superstar muralist Xoe Hall.

Playing next week's Boneshed Fundraiser in Havelock North and Crate Day Carnage at Põneke's Valhalla this summer (grab tickets for both events HERE), Hawke's Bay deathgrind experts Postnatal Abortion sound utterly unhinged and inhumanly thuggish on Live at The Boneshed, laid down live last March while supporting Czech Republic's Onanizer.

Tāmaki Makaurau's team supreme Drop Zone, aka Indira Neville and Garry West, reemerge with an entire new album of mainly bite-sized tunes Don't Think We Did — zig-zagging from no wave textural adventures to dubby sci-fi robo-loops to avant-pop majesty with enviable mastery.

Ruling SRN charts and soon to play at Tāmaki Makaurau's The Others Way festival, Ōtepoti's IVY haven't quite shaken out the influence of Radiohead / Thom Yorke on their new album Hush, but they're evidently having a lot of fun finding their own voice in panoramic post-rock, attracting devotees as they do so. "We are proud of how we cut our teeth. We simply didn't have access to the corporate side of the music world. We practiced in our school hall, attempting to write music. We then moved to our bassist's parents’ living room. Playing hours of nothing as long as it wasn't a cover. We played way too many gigs that felt more like practices. We weren't afraid of failing as there wasn't much to lose. We raised the money for this record through our own path and as a result it feels more like a letter to the time we spent making it up along the way."