Release Roundup: Marlon Williams, The Veils, Brandn Shiraz x Caru, Rubi Du, WHO SHOT SCOTT, XRVR, bzp

A quick office tea leaf ritual indicates 2025 could be an anything goes year for Aotearoa music, as hinted by the diverse onslaught of local sounds that emerged during the last week alone. Delve downwards for new NZ release highlights from Marlon Williams, The Veils, Brandn Shiraz x Caru, Rubi Du, WHO SHOT SCOTT, XRVR and bzp.

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Lyttelton songwriting royalty Marlon Williams (Kāi Tahu, Ngāi Tai) played a stunning all te reo Māori set to an uncharacteristically hushed Camp A Low Hum crowd last year, and has now revealed 'Aua Atu Rā', a heartfelt waiata reflecting on the need for solidarity. Williams' forthcoming "first Māori language album" Te Whare Tīwekaweka, is out in full on 4th April, notably also including pop star Lorde amongst its special guest contributors. Co-written with Kommi, experience Williams' self-directed video for 'Aua Atu Rā' below. "'Aua Atū Ra' has existed as a song since May 2019. My stumbling around in flawed, simple Māori in my Lyttelton bedroom studio, spurned on by the thought of writing a depressively isolationist rebuttal to the above whakatauki, was the moment that kickstarted the record. It speaks to something universal, but especially pertinent to Te Ao Māori’s collectivist culture, that I’ve always found difficult to square. We ARE all in the same boat, and as the British literary pundit GK Chesterton added to the picture, ‘we owe each other a terrible loyalty,’ and yet are at once utterly alone".

One of the few Aotearoa artists to have worked directly with now-departed, legendary US director David Lynch, The Veils today released their seventh studio album of gothic romantic balladry Asphodels via V2 Records & Banished From The Universe. Immediately embarking on an extensive tour of the UK and EU, Finn Andrews and band will soon be back in Aotearoa for a nationwide run of album release shows in March and April. "It’s a beautiful thing to watch this album finally seeing the light of day. It is an album obsessed with matters of love, life and death — I hope these songs help people to process these rather hefty matters in the same way they’ve helped me".

Featured artist at Boiler Room's first ever showcase in Rarotonga, rapper Brandn Shiraz teams his S tier lyrical flow with the production prowess of Caru on their breaks / house-inflected four track collaboration Back 2 Back — also welcoming on board fellow Grow Room alum Eo and JARNA.

Tāmaki Makaurau born and raised reggae / dancehall artist Rubi Du (formerly SilvaMC) will be sizzling up summer crowds as support for Fat Freddy’s Drop from this weekend onwards, priming ears with dubbed-out new groover 'Played Me'.

Maestro behind the mic, in the studio and on-stage, rapper / producer WHO SHOT SCOTT aka Zaidoon Nasir must have been dizzy as heck filming his clip for max-NRG new anthem 'PACK STEEL' — directed by Connor Pritchard. "This song reflects the experience of falling out with a close friend and the lingering resentment that followed. After an uncomfortable conversation with someone I deeply care about, I spent the night unable to sleep, battling imaginary conflicts in my mind over their words. Eventually, I realised I wasn’t truly fighting against my friend, but rather against myself and the false narratives I was creating. Once I arrived at that thought, it became clear that it was all a trauma response. I told myself at that moment that I don’t want to carry metaphorical weapons anymore. I want to choose peace over war with others or myself for that matter".

Playing the Whanganui leg of Japanese beat-rocker DEATHRO's forthcoming Aotearoa tour (get tickets HERE), synth-punk rap maverick XRVR dropped a suitably mulched-up clip for his snotty latest banger 'F4F'.

Dwellers on the outer edges of the dance music spectrum, Te Whanganui-a-Tara's Buzzy Point casually unveiled their first release in nearly two years trig — a four-tracker of deep textural explorations / compositions / sound shapes produced by Thomas E Richards (Mongo Skato) and snappily credited to bzp.