Summer Release Roundup: Caru & Brandn Shiraz, Repulsive Woman, Hemi Hemingway, Eveline Breaker, Body Beat Ritual, Bub, Harry W + More

The cosmic jokester in charge of Aotearoa's weather has finally let the sunshine in as we returned to the office. There's been so many significant local releases during the summer break period and pre-Christmas crunch, so please enjoy our jumbo Summer Release Roundup. Explore new and recent tunes by Caru & Brandn Shiraz, Harry W, Eveline Breaker, Hemi Hemingway, Repulsive Woman, Body Beat Ritual, Bub, beet-wix, Moider Mother, Void Waves, Eyeliner, The Paradox Princess, The Electric Sheep, Bruce Russell, HOON, Vicissitude, Castlegarden, Mudgoose, Tali ft. Jordyn with a Why, and Glass Vaults ft. Instant Fantasy.

Thanks to the dubious magic of social media, I got to enjoy video snippets of Caru and Brandn Shiraz's collaborative set at Twisted Frequency festival without having to put on my gumboots (still feeling FOMO though). Giants in their own respective realms, the pair's 'Two for Two' is a jazz-tinted hip-house odyssey featuring Rhodes and synth by keys wiz Joe Kaptein. Cop the limited 7" vinyl edition while you can and catch them both supporting MOKOMOKAI at Raglan's The Yard Café on 31st January (tickets HERE).

Possibly the funnest local release to materialise in the UTR inbox while we were out of office, 4 And A Half Songs is the second collection of tunes from Aotearoa DIY maestro Harry W, also the mind behind The BEANS ZINE. Unfathomably catchy guitar fuzz / robo-drum concoctions which don't outstay their welcome, like a missing link between P.H.F, Tall Dwarfs and Barcelona egg-punks Prison Affair. Crank up 'Nudist Beach (Sax Edition)' and 'Pizza Party' ("no time to be lugubrious / when chomping on these nutrients") for starters, then put the whole thing on repeat.

Standout closer for Junk Festival last June, Idle Viewer is the uncategorisable debut album from Aotearoa electronic / noise-pop artist Eveline Breaker. Future gazing synthetic textures intermesh with guitar-strum songcraft — at various points morphing into emotive anthems (reminding these ears of local star Emmanuelle) and avant-folk contemplations revelling in the sheer tangibly of sound itself. "The dream is finally real, thank you."

Hemi Hemingway (Waitaha, Ngāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Mutunga) revisits the new romantic textures of last year's '(To Be) Without You' to give us 'This City's Tryna Break My Heart'. Emotionally vulnerable and sonically gripping, 'This City's Tryna Break My Heart' could be the finest single yet to emerge from the Te Whanganui-a-Tara crooner's forthcoming new album Wings of Desire, fully out on 20th February via PNKSLM Recordings.

Repulsive Woman aka Millie Lovelock has been relatively quiet of the release front since bagging the Best Independent Debut award for her 2019 album Relief. Back in Aotearoa from the UK and touring nationwide this week (grab tickets HERE), Repulsive Woman shared her first studio single since 2023, hushed and regal folk ballad 'Battle Axe'.

Whanganui's secret dancefloor weapon, Body Beat Ritual unveiled the lead track from his forthcoming HALLOWEENLAND EP, launching in full on 31st January. Insistent new beat synths arps, ominous sampled dialogue and muscular percussive workouts conjure an underground chain fence club atmosphere, in which listeners have no choice but to move to the music.

Top Twenty finalist for the 2025 Silver Scroll Award and one of Tāmaki's very best live acts to boot, Bub's Priya Sami capped off the year with a magnificent new video for 'Bored' courtesy of Mean Bitch Productions — whiling away the hours with a smattering of local legends at Karangahape Road's Charlies Bar (sadly closing down this month).

Ōtepoti's beet-wix put out an enjoyably skronking, distorto-keys synth-punk take on Nirvana's perennial grunge fave 'Come As You Are'. "All profits from this track on Bandcamp will go to Outline Aotearoa, a local support hotline for Takatāpui, MVPFAFF+ and Rainbow communities, their friends, whānau and those questioning."

Accompanied by a poem by visionary Aotearoa painter Liz Maw, Moider Mother's fangs-out 'BBL Summer' is indisputably the no wave / dance-punk song of the summer. Those who dare disagree are required to take it up with the Ōtautahi family band direct.

A breakout local talent in 2025, Tāmaki Makaurau's ever-enigmatic Void Waves released a two song slab of cold wave / synth-punk / italo-gothic goodness with 'Haunted / Te Kawa' — good jeans at the beach listening material.

Aotearoa vaporwave pioneer and subject of Michael Brown's exhaustively researched 33 1/3 Oceania book BUY NOW, Eyeliner aka Luke Rowell (Disasteradio) is the latest artist to contribute a remix of Dudley Benson's rendition of 'Pūrerehua' (Waiata of the butterfly) by Hirini Melbourne. The Ōtautahi-based MIDI-pop producer dusts off his beloved Korg M1 patches to reimagine Benson's own version as a divine yet muscular boogie-funk groover. "All proceeds from sales of Pūrerehua are given to The Manaaki Collective, an organisation who work to protect activists against the far right."

Delivering digital hardcore heat at Tāmaki's all-killer TnM Christmas Extravaganza last month, The Paradox Princess shared a pumping bonus cut from the same sessions as her essential latest album HELLFIRE BURNS OUTSIDE THE PARTY. The Paradox Princess is playing on 7th February at UFO with Ghost Parable and Talmer (get tickets HERE). "A little joyous queer tune that is a rough cut that didn't make my album but still wanna show it to yall. Quite inspired by Sophie, RIP."

Expressing another side to sonically unchained NZ club culture, the latest edition of Kiwijahzz's Jazz from the Underground Nightclubs of Aotearoa series is a full length live album from The Electric Sheep, the four-piece of Jeff Henderson, Joe Callwood, Isaac Smith, and Riki Gooch. The Electric Sheep's enthralling on-a-dime interplay confronts our contemporary cyber-hell era with virtuosic flair, Callwood's inventive electric guitar work injecting scrappy no wave energy into the perpetual motion mix. "Channelling Philip K Dick, dystopian techno realities & the saturating morass of meaningless media — The Electric Sheep present an album full of paranoid delusions, discombobulating glitches, confusing non-melodies, nightmarish nightclub funk & more disconcerting tropes."

Expanding horizons beyond music itself, Bruce Russell's new long player Let's do this is accompanied by "a revised version of my 1993 manifesto 'What is Free?'. It has been fully revised and annotated for the twenty-first century." The album documents The Dead C co-founder's solo improvised guitar performance at the Northcote Social Club in Naarm, Melbourne — my friend who attended described the event as "pretty good yeah."

Repping Kirikiriroa Hamilton's hardcore community (a staunch tradition stretching back decades), HOON ushered in the new year with launch of their formidable debut album To Live Is To Suffer. Finding hope in adversity, read all about the themes unpacked on TLITS over on HOON's Instagram ("it's important to learn from these times and build ourselves up into something greater") and catch them at Tāmaki's Big Fan on 23rd January plsying at Tough Guy Shit: Vol 2, also starring Synthesis of Self and Parasitica (grab tickets HERE).

Supporting Polish ceremonial black metal iconoclasts Batushka / Батюшка at Tāmaki's Double Whammy on 17th January (get tickets HERE), Aotearoa metal extremists Vicissitude recently contributed two pulverising tracks to a split release with Germany's Pale Spektre, and have just released a new tee illuminated with the grim linework of visual artist Fadhlul.
 

Scraping the heights of the bFM Top Ten with their debut single 'I Know You', Tāmaki Makaurau rock upstarts Castlegarden welcomed the new year with their Live From The Box live EP, plus full session footage showing there was no post-production tomfoolery involved. "We wouldn't be anywhere without your amazing support through 2025. To say thanks — and to celebrate — we've released a live session we recorded with Malachy Heath and have titled it 'Live From The Box'."

Notably name-dropped twice by UTR contributors in our 2025 Favourite Music Moments feature, Mudgoose has been drip-feeding DIY gems from the Te Whanganui-a-Tara songwriter's forthcoming new album Chasing Horse. Squizz your ears at recent standout 'Undeniably Cool'.

Aotearoa drum 'n' bass icon Tali teamed up with Maioha APRA Award winner Jordyn with a Why on sleek hyperkinetic club cut 'Young Daylight'.

Aotearoa avant-disco voyagers Glass Vaults reactivated their 2020 collaborative track with Instant Fantasy — sharing vibes-drenched Introverted Dancefloor and Naram Tape Reduction remixes of 'Pure Imagination'.