Release Roundup: Pickle Darling, Eo, Theia, Sarah Mary Chadwick, P Wits + More

The days might be getting colder and darker (it felt like night-time this morning), but the great local music simply ain't quitting and we're all better off for it. Let's revisit this week's coverage of RATSO, Sure Boy, Karl Sölve Steven x Proteins Of Magic, cc(tv) plus Amamelia remix, K M T P and Sofia Machray, then delve downwards like a dungeoneer with torch in hand for more significant new / recent Aotearoa offerings from Pickle Darling, Eo (Mānuka Recordings), Theia, Baby Zionov, Sarah Mary Chadwick, P Wits, Richard Francis and The Green Room / RDU 98.5fm's Green Visions compilation.

Ōtautahi's Pickle Darling delights fans around the globe with the release of their third album Laundromat, out today via San Francisco imprint Father/Daughter Records — plus an utterly beaut lyric video for the title track, animated by the bedroom-pop artist and Christiane Shortal.

The second release from Mānuka Recordings following Summer Vee's breakout double-single last year, Eo's 'Tell Me' journeys through cascading Balearic grooves laid down with Dylan Biscuit, Kenny Sterling and JY Lee. Formerly of The Grow Room hip-hop affiliates Badcrop, Eo's second half of the package 'What You Need' (Ft. JY Lee & Cory Champion) will be out on on 30th June.

Aotearoa's award-winning electronic pop queen Theia (aka TE KAAHU) may have been busy moving the crowd at LA Pride this week, but that hasn't got in the way of her unleashing punky new banger 'Girls'. She said: "I’d been listening to a lot of my favourite 90s women when I wrote Girls! — artists like Sinead O’Connor, The Cranberries and Alanis Morissette. So inspired, that for the first time ever on a Theia track, I did away with all the electronic bells and whistles and went only with live production. Everything you hear — the drums, the guitars — are all being played live in the studio".

Low key launched online earlier this week, Tāmaki Makaurau electronic artist Baby Zionov's 'Froggy Forest Raceway' (their first BMS) makes this listener wonder about the nightlife activities of your average bog-dwelling amphibian — this track and video both strongly suggest hella-catchy good times.

Launching her eighth studio record Messages to God via Kill Rock Stars this September, Melbourne-based Aotearoa songwriting talent Sarah Mary Chadwick asks "who's driving this shitty car / around this shitty town / with these shitty people all around?" in her theatrical new single 'Shitty Town' — plus video to match directed by Geoffrey O’Connor.

If you want a copy of the Elam Press 10" lathe edition of P Wits' new My Resolution is Free EP, well too bad buddy as it's already sold out. Thankfully the collection is listenable over on Bandcamp with an accompanying video for 'No/Body'. Featuring four fog-enshrouded squalling textural 'scapes, with Auckland legend L Xerox on 18 minute closer 'The Illusion of Depth', My Resolution is Free compelled none other than Byron Coley to declare "P Wits’ music here is a massive chunk of abstract architecture that sounds totally great, and deserves your attention".

Speaking of experimentally inclined Aotearoa artists, Richard Francis shared sonically nuanced 25 minute offering O earlier this week — "recorded in April 2023 using the instrument and mixed in May 2023". What instrument?

A 23 track collection of homegrown Aotearoa electronica presented by The Green Room, RDU 98.5fm, Main Divide Wines and NZ On Air, all proceeds from Green Visions "go to ‘WWF’ Ocean charity in aims of preserving Marine life, Sustainable fishing, coastline restoration and education".