Release Roundup: WHO SHOT SCOTT, Phoebe Rings, Beth Torrance, Avantdale Bowling Club, Body Beat Ritual + More

I'm heading away from the office on a quest to the Cook Islands, so no Roundup next week, but do not fear as this inclusive feature will return the following Friday! Our news coverage will be fairly stripped back for the next few days too, but thankfully there's plenty of quality new / recent local releases to get stuck into right now. Revisit this week's news coverage of Mousey, Jim Nothing, TOOMS, Vor-stellen and Nadia Reid, watch our new episode of LIVE MUSIC BAR starring Dick Move, and delve into more Aotearoa highlights from WHO SHOT SCOTT, Phoebe Rings, Beth Torrance, Arthur Ahbez, Big Sur, Avantdale Bowling Club, Borrowed CS, Body Beat Ritual, The Tarts, and Snivelling Swineheards.

Star of our forthcoming final episode of LIVE MUSIC BAR Season One, Tāmaki Makaurau-based rapper / producer WHO SHOT SCOTT's new single 'The DATA' and video directed by Connor Pritchard is an explosive punk banger — raging against the algorithmic / vampiric puppet masters of our online era. "I had one of the most soul-sucking experiences of my life earlier this year at a music seminar hosted by perhaps the biggest social media company in the world. The whole event kept pushing a false narrative that they were there to help artists, when in reality, there was a clear self-serving agenda to keep us in the grips of their business-first, art-second mentality. When I got back home I couldn’t stop thinking about just how ruthless and nonchalant the whole thing was. It made me sick to think that there are so many artists that compromise their vision in an attempt to please social media companies or people attached to them from a business sense in order to try and be sustainable. This song is my ‘fuck you’ to the conformity."

Tāmaki Makaurau dream-weavers Phoebe Rings re-released their self-titled debut EP today on the international stage via Carpark Records, with new artwork by In Joo Park (박인주) and bonus track 'Daisy'. Play their fun pixel art video game (!) Starfall HERE, nab the vinyl LP edition irl and catch Phoebe Rings touring Aotearoa in November — grab tickets HERE.

Also based in Tāmaki Makaurau, prodigious songwriting talent Beth Torrance unveiled her Tiny Flowers EP, the keenly awaited sequel to 2022's superb debut album let's move to the seaside and never feel lonely again. Hit play on the clip for emotive new single 'Ankle Socks' featuring Rigby, and catch Torrance touring her new collection throughout Te Ika-a-Māui, starting tonight at NiceGoblins HQ. "Often, it’s only once I’ve written a song that I’m able to fully express what I’m feeling. The EP explores enduring heartache and the struggle to reconcile reality with desire, particularly when you’re physically present in the place where it all happened." 

Launching his first new studio album in seven years on 8th November via SHAM Records, Tirau-based tunesmith Arthur Ahbez revealed new jangle-garage-fuzz epic 'Sister'. "I remember writing "Sister" sometime around 2013. I was in my cottage, and I suddenly got a bout of moxie and wanted to sing something like Buffy Sainte-Marie would—loud, wailing, and with soul. I struck to two chords (which basically make up the whole song) and let rip. What I ended up with is ‘Sister,’ a kind of absurd song, a song about murder and jealousy, abandonment, unconditional love, and indifference."

Tāmaki Makaurau alt-folk collective Big Sur paint picturesque landscapes of emotion with their Black Mountain EP, revealing a knack for Morricone-esque drama and channeling their Celtic heritage with 'Lands' and 'Oísin (Tír na nÓg)'. You can catch them toasting their new collection with friends at NiceGoblins HQ on 16th November – grab tickets HERE.

Tom Scott's multi award-winning Avantdale Bowling Club thrill many fans with today's "LIVE" II (Live) album. "Two years ago Avantdale Bowling Club played a sold out show at Auckland’s Town Hall. The show is now available to stream for the first time. Were you there?"

Rise N Shine is a club-friendly new seven track EP from Aotearoa production wizard Borrowed CS aka Cory Champion (Clear Path Ensemble), featuring Mara TK on soul-drenched SRN favourite 'Hearsay' — "... a six-song suite of neon-lit machine funk, mutant post-disco and uptempo future soul. Draped in synthesisers that sparkle and glitter like summer sunlight hitting the harbour waters, the programmed Roland TR-606 drums and keyboard bass on these club tracks absolutely snap, wobble and groove."

Also coaxing divine soulfulness from mechanical rhythms, Aotearoa Neo Zealand dance producer Body Beat Ritual excellent new Fixation EP is four cut thrill-ride of club-pumping cyberpunk — out now on vinyl 12" at good record shops and online.

Aotearoa-affiliated EU dance punx The Tarts unleashed their new anthem 'God Generator' via Fantasy Fiction Records (Thought Creature, Aporia, February Montaine), scuzzing it up and throwing down as thee lord intended.

In line with today's surprise god-bothering theme, Tāmaki's own Snivelling Swineheards finally unleashed their debut On Cloud Swine EP, following a rawkus run of singles. Exactly 15:43 of fist-pumping, grin-gurning, swapper crate-smashing swine-punk — "these eight prime slabs of sonic silly sausagery taste like unabashed fun, letting everybody in the surrounding 1000 mile radius in on the in-jokes" — and rightly so.