Release Roundup: Tali, Junny, Mim Jensen, Harry Charles, Frog Power

A handful of local gems to keep you tied over until Friday. Scroll downwards for new and recent Aotearoa highlights from Tali, Junny, Mim Jensen, Harry Charles, and frog power.

Featuring guest contributions from Nathan Haines, Jordyn with a Why, Stamina MC and Polaris, multi-award winning MC and producer Tali's eighth studio album EMPRESS ERA is a celebratory event — spanning a multiversity of clubland styles. "I love all the songs on this album — otherwise they wouldn't be on there! The title tracks 'Empress Era' and 'Spell' really resonate with me. 'Empress Era' is a love letter to all the women out there going through this next phase in their life (peri menopause) and finding strength and power in that evolution. ‘Spell’ is slightly more personal and reflects on what it looks and feels like to be technically 'middle aged' but still performing on stages to a young audience and dealing with the ailments and anxiety that are present — exacerbated by the state of this chaotic world — yet that pale in comparison to what many are going through."

Lead singer of a run of collaborative singles with Amamelia, including 2022's Planet mag-touting 'Love Is Useless', Jenn Tamati (Te Arawa, Ngāti Tuwharetoa, Ngāpuhi) aka Junny reemerges with her debut release via Sunreturn. Written and produced with Amelia Berry (the aforementioned Amamelia), the punningly titled 'Kumara Suite' is the lead track from a forthcoming EP of the same name. Expressing sonic breathiness and sweetness of melody, while digging deep into the dirt of colonial history in Aotearoa, Junny shared an in-depth statement about the song over on Instagram. Here's an excerpt: "... Kāore te kumara e kōrero mō tōna ake reka (the kumara does not speak of its own sweetness). A lesson on the value of humility which in many contexts is valid and good. Though, in the context of repetitive injustices, perpetual humility felt more like a tool of oppression and self pacification than a moral good."

Having just performed at Ōtautahi's star-powered Electric Avenue festival, Mim Jenson gently but perhaps ominously eases us from summer to autumn with spectral new ballad 'The Mask', launched with gorgeous coastal visuals shot and edited by Adam Hogan. "To truly love and be loved, we must be exposed to our patterns, and break out of our own conditioning to see clearly what we have been accepting based on a belief system inside ourselves. Stepping into unknown territory and removing our “mask” feels terrifying but it's where we find ourselves and where we can create the love we truly deserve."

Swiftly following his 2025 meditative journey Movement, electronic producer Harry Charles shifts focus to body-moving club grooves with his new album Nova, the artist's second long player via Loop Electronic. "After finishing my sophomore album Movement, I felt the pull to write something more direct, a body of work I could take straight to the festival stage. I was curious about the energy I was hearing on dancefloors at the time, but I never wanted to lose the slower groove that has always been part of my sound. Because of that balance, Nova became the fastest body of work I’ve made, while still feeling grounded in where I come from musically."

Compiling a bunch of frog power's recent YouTube-only hits with new insta-classic 'heltor skeltor pt 2', welcome to the cream factory is the biz for lovers of demented songwriting genius and genuinely great production choices — eg. maybe you? Like one YouTube commenter suggested: "Turn it up and rip off the knob."