NEW Singles & Videos + Release Announcements + Brand New Signings
IA & Rei collaborate on new R&B infused single |Listen to ‘He Piko He Tuna’
Taonga pūoro band IA teams up with award-winning artist Rei to launch their latest single, ‘He Piko He Tuna,’ marking the vibrant beginning of New Zealand Music Month. ‘He Piko He Tuna’ blends smooth RnB with minimalist beats and the soothing voices of the Punga Ihu (clay nose flute), evoking nostalgic echoes of late ’90s RnB and hip-hop. The song weaves a narrative around the eel (tuna), symbolising resilience, endurance, and the complexities of love. Inspired by the traditional Tainui whakataukī “he piko he taniwha,” Rei reinterprets this into the central lyric “he piko he tuna,” signifying love’s enduring presence at every twist and turn of life’s journey. Rei notes, “If eels can journey to Tonga overcoming every obstacle, surely our own relationships can endure life’s hardships.”
VOOM share super catchy single 'Crazy Feeling' |Watch the video today
Auckland power-pop band Voom’s latest single ‘Crazy Feeling’ is here! An instantly infectious, deeply relatable dose of heart-on-sleeve pop that romantics everywhere will connect with. “I usually try to say something clever or cryptic about our songs because I’m embarrassed by how dorky and emotional they are,” says Buzz Moller. “But ‘Crazy Feeling’ — like most of our songs from the past two decades — is just about my lovely, gorgeous girlfriend Janey!” In addition to the new single, the band has shared a video for ‘Crazy Feeling’, directed by Frances Carter and featuring some of Auckland’s most notorious characters from the indie music scene.
RINGLETS share single & video 'Street Massage' | New album coming soon
Ringlets have shared the blistering new single ‘Street Massage’ from their upcoming album The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies), which will be released on June 27th. Following up the slyly-subdued ‘Heavenly Wheel’, ‘Street Massage’ leaps and bounds down crunching gravel guitar and traverses vast thunderous rhythms, stepping over shimmering strings – halting for the stop-sign stentorian vocal delivery of Leith Towers. To be released on June 27th via Flying Nun Records and Leather Jacket Records, The Lord Is My German Shepherd (Time for Walkies) is the band’s shimmering follow-up to their distinct eponymous debut in 2023 and a vibrant expression of their singular song craft.
EVERYTHING IS RECORDED share star studded remix | Listen to 'Never Felt Better' (rLr mix)
Richard Russell steps up under his rLr alias to remix his own Everything Is Recorded project. Released via XL Recordings, the rLr remix of ‘Never Felt Better’ sees Russell breaking apart the original into a bass-heavy audio collage that warps and chops Sampha and Florence Welch’s original vocals while beaming in legendary mixtape pioneer Kid Capri from somewhere in 1990’s New York City. It’s the first rLr remix in over five years, following previous remixes for the likes of Crass, Viviankrist, Ibeyi and Roots Manuva. The original ‘Never Felt Better’ features on Everything Is Recorded’s acclaimed third album Temporary. Released in February, the album features an incredible roll call of collaborators including Sampha, Florence Welch, Bill Callahan, Noah Cyrus, Maddy Prior, Berwyn, Alabaster Deplume, Jah Wobble, Yazz Ahmed, Laura Groves, Kamasi Washington, Rickey Washington, Roses Gabor, Jack Peňate, Samantha Morton, Clari Freeman–Taylor and Nourished By Time. It was for these records, alongside previous lauded production work for the likes of Bobby Womack, Damon Albarn, Gil Scott–Heron and Ibeyi, that Russell received the prodigious Inspiration Award at last week’s Music Producers Guild awards in London.
BAD SUNS have announced a new album | Check out new song 'Slow Karma'
Indie-pop mainstays Bad Suns have announced plans to release their new album ‘Accelerator’ out on August 8th via Epitaph Records. More than a decade after their debut, on their joyous fifth album the Los Angeles trio are taking stock of everything they’ve been through together as a band and pushing into a bright future with a renewed sense of purpose. Bad Suns also share the hook-packed gem ‘Slow Karma’ which doubles as frontman Christo Bowman’s mission statement for Accelerator. An intimate and cathartic track, the album opener finds Christo at a personal and professional crossroads as he confronts old habits and makes a life-changing decision.
BADBADNOTGOOD share new song 'Found A Light (Beale Street) | Check out this V.C.R collaboration
BADBADNOTGOOD return with a new single and studio video for ‘Found A Light (Beale Street)’ which features the three-time Grammy-nominated LA-based, Memphis-raised singer-songwriter and composer V.C.R. The song sees BADBADNOTGOOD and V.C.R. blend to create a funky & energetic jazz masterpiece, spotlighting both the soulful vocals of V.C.R. and, as ever impressive instrumentation from the trio. Last September, the group held their first residency at the legendary Blue Note jazz club, performing eight sold-out shows. They were joined by special guests, including singer-songwriter, composer, and producer Tim Bernardes, who debuted their collaborative single ‘Poeira Cosmica.’ Pianist and composer Julius Rodriguez and drummer Stéphane San Juan contributed to covers of Milton Nascimento’s ‘Tudo O Que Você Podia Ser’ and Gal Costa’s ‘Pontos De Luz,’ while Keeyan Omari added flute arrangements.
JENNY HVAL shares focus track ahead of album release | Listen to 'Lay Down'
This Friday, Norwegian musician, artist and novelist Jenny Hval will release her new album, Iris Silver Mist. Following ‘To be a rose’ and ‘The artist is absent’ (“one of the most infectious songs the Norwegian singer-songwriter has laid to tape,” The Guardian), Hval unveils a final Iris Silver Mist preview, album opener ‘Lay Down’. Just as the scent of iris comes from the roots and not the flower, the album, too, begins underground with ‘Lay Down’. “Lay down, down in the deep where your love comes from,” Jenny sings. Surrounded by soft drums, synths and strings, she emerges from the dirt and into the blue sky, like the root of the iris aspiring to become its scent. When she sings “You had bled through your jeans,” it is both observational and emotional—a sign of what is to come.
MECHATOK shares new single 'Virus Freestyle' | Check out Mechatok’s sonic world
Mechatok – aka Timur Tokdemir – has subtly become a defining architect of today’s underground experimental pop and rap. While touring globally, he’s released a steady run of solo EPs and albums that have shaped a sound where emotional immediacy meets sleek, digital-age aesthetics, leaving a mark on a new generation of genre-defining artists like Drain Gang, Ecco2k, Yung Lean, Charli XCX, and Bala Club. 2025 is set to be the Munich-born artist’s most ambitious year yet. He kicked things off with the euphoric single ‘Addiction,’ and now returns with ‘Virus Freestyle’, a vibrant follow-up that channels his signature bouncy and experimental production into a track that spirals around an infectious vocal hook.
SPLIT CHAIN release new song 'Subside' | Check out this nu-gaze band from Bristol
Hotly-tipped Bristol nu-gaze band, Split Chain, have today released new single, ‘Subside’, taken from their eagerly anticipated debut album, motionblur, out on July 11th via Epitaph Records. Speaking of today’s new single, frontman Bert Martinez-Cowles says,“Subside’ is a call-out song to the antagonists in everybody’s life. It’s a break out from the judgemental, close-minded people who consistently try to bring you down to their shitty level. ‘Subside’ is the realisation that you are under no obligation to anyone and owe nothing to any of those people. Free yourself from the dead weight in your life and allow yourself to grow past them so you can thrive and live life in a way that works for you.”
JAPANESE BREAKFAST shares video for 'Winter in LA' | Watch the new video
Japanese Breakfast releases a video for ‘Winter In LA,’ a highlight from their acclaimed new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), out now via Dead Oceans. The video, shot in South Korea, is directed by Michelle Zauner and Peter Ash Lee and produced by SSENSE. “I made this video with Peter Ash Lee, who also shot the cover of Jubilee. I loved the idea of playing a fussy bride who ruins her own wedding,” Zauner explains. Hot on the heels of an appearance at Coachella, which Rolling Stone called “one of the best sets of the day,” and a rousing performance of ‘Picture Window’ on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Japanese Breakfast are bringing their For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) show to Tāmaki Makaurau as part of the Auckland Winter Series. Get your tickets for the June 7 show today.
LIDO PIMIENTA shares heartfelt single 'Aún Te Quiero' | Listen to it today
GRAMMY and Latin GRAMMY-nominated artist Lido Pimienta shares her latest single ‘Aún Te Quiero’, the latest off her fully orchestral new album La Belleza set for release on May 16 via Epitaph. Co-produced by Pimienta and GRAMMY-nominated composer Owen Pallett, “‘Aún Te Quiero‘ translates to ‘I Still Love You’”, Pimienta explains. ‘La Belleza’ encapsulates why Lido Pimienta is the artist of our moment. Unafraid to explore the depths of her creativity, she produced a haunting, invigorating album that only prompts the question: What will come next?
BECKY AND THE BIRDS win prestigious award | Listen to new song
Swedish experimental pop musician and producer Thea Gustafsson (aka Becky and the Birds) shared her self-produced debut album, Only music makes me cry now, in November 2024. After recently being named Producer of the Year at the 2025 Swedish Grammis, she now returns a new track entitled ‘Should’ve known better (choices)’ — a thematic companion to the Only music makes me cry now track ‘I look at the choices i made’, the new single highlights Gustafsson’s unique, current, and boundless production style via a daring yet synergetic combination of 90s alt-R&B flow, gritty Timbaland beats, and bright accordion passages, provided by her father.
New Albums & EPs Out Now
CAR SEAT HEADREST share focus track from new album | Get The Scholars today
The Scholars is the first new Car Seat Headrest album in five years – an expansive suite of songs that sweeps seamlessly from majestic glam to The Who-worthy bombast. Today, you can hear the buoyant rock ’n roll tour-diary ‘The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That Man).’ Inspired by an apocryphal poem by Archbishop Guillermo Guadalupe del Toledo, and featuring character designs from Toledo’s friend, the cartoonist Cate Wurtz, the album focuses on the yearning and spiritual crisis of the titular Scholars. They range from the doubt-filled playwright Beolco to Devereaux, a person born to religious conservatives who finds themselves desperate for higher guidance. The music draws, carefully, from classic rock story song cycles such as The Who’s Tommy and David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars.
JENNY HVAL releases new album Iris Silver Mist | Listen to this inspired work
Norwegian musician, artist and novelist Jenny Hval is set to release her new album, Iris Silver Mist, via 4AD; named a most anticipated album of spring 2025 by NPR’s All Songs Considered, Pitchfork, and Brooklyn Vegan. Following ‘To be a rose’ and the “outright pleasant” “giddy, sticky pop song,” (Stereogum) ‘The artist is absent,’ Jenny earlier this week unveiled a final Iris Silver Mist preview, with album opener ‘Lay down.’ Iris Silver Mist is named after the fragrance by Serge Lutens with the same name, the album too moves like a perfume—between flower and smoke, ghostly yet alive. The album didn’t start with music, but with its absence. When live music disappeared during the pandemic, Jenny Hval was left with a void that was hard to pinpoint until she found herself drawn to perfume. Smelling and collecting, reading and writing: she put away the music, and surrounded herself with the notes and accords of fragrances instead. It was only later that she understood why: she was searching for another way to sense presence, to fill the emptiness music had left behind. When she eventually returned to making music, each song was infused with smells.
JENSEN MCRAE releases new album & performs on Jimmy Kimmel | Watch the live preformance
Folk’s modern muse, Jensen McRae, releases her sophomore album today, I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! via Dead Oceans. Throughout the project, McRae explores the emotional aftershocks of intimacy and the deeper process of reclaiming the self. Her voice — airy, textured, and undeniably expressive — embodies both the heartbreak of being left and the strength it takes to leave. I Don’t Know How But They Found Me! was recorded in North Carolina with Brad Cook (Waxahatchee, Bon Iver), featuring contributions from Nathan Stocker (Hippo Campus), Matthew McCaughan (Bon Iver) and her brother Holden McRae.
MARIA SOMERVILLE releases new album on 4AD | Get Luster today
Irish musician Maria Somerville has released her second album and debut project on 4AD, Luster. Last week, Somerville shared the record’s final single, ‘Spring’ –a whirring and atmospheric dreamgaze track, full yet fleeting with distorted acoustic strumming, ghostly siren calls, commanding percussion, and a surprising auto-tuned outro. Channeling her experiences growing up on the wild and mountainous region of the Corrib in her native Connemara, Luster also pays homage to 4AD forebears such as This Mortal Coil. Luster is available on all digital platforms, as well as physical formats (CD, Clear Vinyl LP) .
ADRIANNE LENKER releases 120 minute immersive masterpiece |Get Live at Revolution Hall today
Grammy/BRIT-nominated Big Thief songwriter Adrianne Lenker presents a 120-min immersive album entitled ‘Live at Revolution Hall’, a sonic documentary combining audio from 3 days of the 2024 ‘Bright Future’ tour. Tracklist spans performances of fan favorites, deep-cuts, & unreleased gems including 'i do love you' — delicately carried by twinkling keys, chill-inducing violin, and Lenker’s timeless & stirring storytelling, the track (ironically one of her oldest) hushes the room. In additional news, Adrianne was recently listed at #96 on Consequence’s “The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time”. “Adrianne is an effortlessly transcendent guitar player. She makes the instrument sing alongside her in perfect accompaniment and does it with ease and power. All of her songs are beautiful, but zoom in on the guitar parts and you find complexity and an earnestness that is unmatched.”—Luke Gruntz cleopatrick)
Tours, Events and Festivals
On Tour, Live Shows, Gigs, Concerts and Festivals
Check out all our favourite gigs, shows and events coming up. Including Nadia Reid's upcoming - Enter Now Brightness Tour, Japanese Breakfast's - For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women) tour, Voom's - Something Good Is Happening tour, Junk Festival 2025 and the recently announced Brad Cox - I Really Love NZ Tour.
Don't miss out, get your tickets today!
ICYMI - Curated by The Label
Welcome to NZ Music Month 2025!
Today marks the start of TE MARAMA PUORO O AOTEAROA 2025, with the NZ Music Commission also marking its 25th year of NZ Music Month festivities across Aotearoa. The month of May will shine a light on those who are the heartbeat of our nation’s music scene, celebrating everyone in the industry - behind, in front, beside and all around the mics and amps, who help develop, create and amplify music from Aotearoa, locally and internationally. This year’s 25th edition of TE MARAMA PUORO O AOTEAROA will see a range of artist releases, gigs and events highlighting new and emerging talent as well as established recording artists and performers showcasing their talent and work here, across the motu and overseas.