Release Roundup: Vera Ellen, MELODOWNZ, Mazbou Q, VSS CLUB, Keepsakes, TEMPORARY DISRUPTION, Porcelain, Gareth Thomas, Data Animal

Scroll downwards for new and recent Aotearoa highlights from Vera Ellen, MELODOWNZ, Mazbou Q, VSS CLUB, Keepsakes, TEMPORARY DISRUPTION, Porcelain, Gareth Thomas, and Data Animal.

Getting all ducks lined up for her new album Heaven Knows What Time (out 1st May via Flying Nun Records), 2023 Taite Music Prize winner Vera Ellen maintains an imperial run of singles with art-pop hook-fest 'Thaw' — launched with an increasingly delirious video directed by Daniel Fletcher. "The inspiration for Thaw came when I hit writer’s block during a songwriting residency and decided a change was needed. I went to a local barber and, although he was about to close, he cut my hair and blasted Alice Cooper. We talked a lot about guitars and rock and on the walk home I got myself some whiskey. All I wanted was to write a “sick riff” — I sat down and out came Thaw."

MELODOWNZ bounds back onto our airwaves with BRON, the Avondale rap champion's first new album since 2022's star-powered global debut LONE WOLF. Reconnecting with "the freedom of creating for the love of it", MELODOWNZ's eleven track opus sports production credits from Tony Douglas, Haz Beats and Ghos, plus guest contributions from Troy Kingi, Revus, Letoa, BIGGS 685, Taniela, Coops, LILA JNR, and Ezra McKay.

Mazbou Q revisits his South Auckland upbringing while continuing to define Afro Rapcore, in the Nigerian Aotearoa rap scientist's riff-powered 'Hillpark Boy'. "Was complainin to one of my guys bout that feeling of perpetual unbelonging as a first gen immigrant in Hip hop, then man hit me with "bro the experiences you had growing up were still real, and they're yours to speak about regardless of how anyone made you feel". That hit me harder than I expected, and this was the result."

A sonic meeting of Stef Animal ("pizza ordering, session hosting") and Paul Fox ("spreadsheet maintenance"), vss club - album preview presents you, the listener, with three tantalisingly ear-tickling, soundscapey and new age adjacent electronic "tunes" from VSS CLUB. 'YOU DID!' slaps. The duo's official website states: "Based in Dunedin, New Zealand, they create music using initially improvised pieces that are then sculpted into the final product. A 3-track preview of their upcoming album is now available on Bandcamp."

HAVEN co-founder Keepsakes treats dancefloor dwellers the world over to Dystopian Euphoria. Out now on vinyl 12", the Ōtautahi-based techno craftsman's new collection features: "5 horrid goblin stompers for your club pleasure — been playing these a lot the past 6 months if you’ve caught me DJing."

If you've been out and about in Tāmaki over the past twelve months and haven't spotted gig photography king Justin Schilder aka J Snake snapping away and / or happily boogieing up front, then I hate to say it: you've probably been going to the wrong shows. Putting on his electronic production hat as TEMPORARY DISRUPTION, he might need to start taking selfies on stage instead. Without Green There Is No Green is a two track debut of top to tail cyberpunk-coded dancefloor slammers.

Picking up the baton from recently retired and widely beloved Tāmaki post-punks Scran, Porcelain are the trio of Lewis Yeats, Jackson Sullivan and Oscar Davies-Kay (both also of Moon Unit). Porcelain's first statement is an endearingly bruised and sonically frayed self-titled EP, roaming from the shadowy gothic-country balladry of 'Agave' to the life-affirming rays of 'Momentary Bliss'.

Gareth Thomas' proven knack for super catchy new wavey hooks is all over his first solo single in five years 'LET IT!', setting us up nicely for the Goodshirt co-founder's third solo album Bits due out later this year. There's also a Game & Watch style animated clip to help elevate the tune to earworm status (mission accomplished), made by Thomas and Sith Douang Kham Chanh with Thievery Studio. "LET IT! suggests 'why don't you let it all come undone, and see what you may find,' and that’s basically what I've done over the last four years. I moved to the West Coast and reduced my hours, it's been a really good move!"

Berlin-based Aotearoa cyber-rocker Data Animal shares ominously pulsing and strangely club-friendly, post-Primal Scream / Chrome / Carpenter sonic vision 'Hot Wired Soul', the new single from the artist's forthcoming collection Future of Ghosts — out this May via Dedstrange Records.