Release Roundup: O & The Mo, Sarah Mary Chadwick, Young Moon, Yolanda Fagan, CRUSH, Church x ENO + More

It feels like 2025 has finally begun in Aotearoa music, as Valentine's Day has brought forth an onslaught of significant local releases. Revisit this week's news coverage of Neive Strang, HIGH ALTAR, Tom Lark, Grecco Romank x Body Beat Ritual, BUB and Half Hexagon, check out Mark de Clive-Lowe's exclusive new playlist for UTR, then venture onwards for new / recent highlights from O & The Mo, Sarah Mary Chadwick, Young Moon, Yolanda Fagan, CRUSH, Church x ENO, Emmanuelle, Greta O'Leary, Miss June, Club Ruby, and the trailer for the forthcoming Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua - Two Worlds documentary.

Are you an Aotearoa artist / imprint releasing something new soon? Let us know! Send your info including links to editor@undertheradar.co.nz.

Toasting their superb new long player Make Way For The Sun with headline shows this weekend in Whakatū, Tākaka and Blenheim (get tickets HERE), psych-folk duo O & The Mo shared a pastoral, dreamy vision for album highlight 'All My Love' — shot, directed and edited by Daniel Fletcher.

Returning to Aotearoa from Naarm next month for Ōhinehou / Lyttelton's Port Noise Festival (get tickets HERE), Sarah Mary Chadwick announced her forthcoming album Take Me Out To a Bar / What Am I, Gatsby? will be out on 4th April via Kill Rock Stars. Completed immediately before the artist got sober "after a lifetime of alcohol use disorder," experience the poetic and raw lead single from the record 'Not Cool Like NY / Not Cool Like LA' with painting by the artist below. "I can hear it. The desolate desire for change, the goodbyes, the fading romance, the memories. And the pain — that’s different but that never leaves, it’s part of me".

Based in Whakatū / Nelson by way of San Francisco, Young Moon is the dream-pop / shoegaze project of Trevor Montgomery — you can read Matt Hellriegel's insightful interview with the artist right HERE. Playing a launch party for his forthcoming Paraverbal Orchids / Young Moon Is a Broken Bone double EP via Home Alone at Nelson's 18A Gallery with friends on 1st March (nab tickets HERE), acquaint your ears with the spellbinding strum of lead single 'The Orbiting Object'.

Tāmaki Makaurau's multi-talented Yolanda Fagan of Half Hexagon (who just released their second EP), Na Noise and Echo Ohs has also been productive in solo mode, drip-feeding listeners adventurous new tracks over on her Soundcloud page. Launched online this week, dubwise psych-jammer 'Hold On' sounds beamed in from an alternate universe where Jah Wobble rules the roost — super good.

Featuring members of Glass Vaults, Womb, Clear Path Ensemble and more, studio-based Aotearoa super-collective CRUSH reemerge with the discofied summery bliss of 'What If I Wanted It? / Child Prodigy' — the lead cut from their forthcoming GLOW EP. The new collection is out in full on 28th March, bundled onto vinyl 12" alongside their previous FANTASY FICTION EP, a double-sided disc releasing via Leather Jacket Records. "'What If I Wanted It? / Child Prodigy' is one of four previously unreleased tracks that comprise the GLOW EP. It was recorded during the same sessions as the previously digitally released tracks from the FANTASY FICTION EP. The EP features duet vocals by Cello Forrester (Womb) and Richard Larsen (Glass Vaults), drums by Cory Champion (Clear Path Ensemble, Borrowed CS), fretless bass by Tom Callwood (The Phoenix Foundation), and was mixed by Bevan Smith".

Aotearoa hip-hop royals Church (maintaining a prolific streak of releases) and ENO combine their considerable powers on the new seven track Crying 4 Girls EP.

Emmanuelle reemerged this summer with a lovingly crafted and distorted slice of emotive grunge, co-produced with Lontalius — watch the immaculately executed visuals for 'Hit The Ground' by Finnbar Porteous.

Maintaining the momentum of a breakout 2024, Tāmaki Makaurau-based songwriter Greta O’Leary preps our ears for her forthcoming debut album with the hushed majesty of new single 'Prelude', recorded with instrumentalists Cass Basil, Alastair Deverick, Callum Passells, and producer Jol Mulholland at the LAB Studio. Watch her self-directed video below: "It’s a signifier of one side of life ending and another beginning. 'Prelude' is the beginning".

Aotearoa punk rock brat pack Miss June are back with their first new single in five years 'HALO PER IDOL', plus rawkus video directed / produced by Joe Curtis.

Club Ruby throw their hat in the Valentine's Day release ring with their first single of 2025 'Heartbreak Overtime', piling up the power-pop hooks in their perfectly timed new "anti-love anthem".

Directed by Ursula Grace-Williams, Marlon Williams: Ngā Ao E Rua - Two Worlds is "an intimate four year portrait of Williams as he writes and records his first te re Māori language album Te Whare Tiwekaweka." Launching in cinemas on 1st May, experience an advance taste with the trailer right here.