Release Roundup: Instant Fantasy, Casual Healing, Tami Neilson, Liam Finn, Aridni Orca, LEIGH + More

Last weekend's thunder and lightning spectacular heralded a very short work week and our second Thursday Roundup in a row, as we now batten down the hatches for NZ Music Month Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa. Reflect on the (very present in our mediascape) inhumane horrors of war as we head into ANZAC weekend, and help lift your spirits with some new / recent Aotearoa releases from Instant Fantasy, Casual Healing, Tami Neilson, Liam Finn, Aridni Orca, LEIGH, Club Ruby, Yumi Zouma, and Emma Dilemma.

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

Transcending time and space, Gemma Syme's electronic alter ego Instant Fantasy has resurfaced in our post-internet reality. The Ōtautahi icon has announced a 10th anniversary reissue of her vibes-drenched 2015 debut The Wet EP via Sunreturn, out now on also resurgent compact disc format, accompanied by visualisers "for each track which were used exclusively in her live performances." Sounds like we can look forward to more news from Instant Fantasy in the near future too. "I’m really proud of the songs on The Wet EP. It took me a long time and a lot of work to feel comfortable with it all but writing something so honest and by myself gave me a sense of self worth. I got to reconnect with myself as an artist. I treasure it."

Aotearoa roots-reggae / hip-hop phenomenon Casual Healing dropped his seven track new AHI EP on Good Friday, "the first of the four elemental EPs... inspired by Te Taio, the natural world" — featuring fellow rising star MĀ on 'Hypersensitive' and The Hongi Slicker (aka Troy Kingi) on 'Water The Good Seed'. "Please go give Ahi all your love. It’s a very special album that I believe everyone can find their own healing in."

Tami Neilson and Oklahoma's JD McPherson (Broken Arrow) make like a 21st century Nancy and Lee on 'You're Gonna Fall', the lead cut from the Canadian / Aotearoa songwriting sensation's forthcoming record Neon Cowgirl — which features Neil Finn on the title track. "NEON COWGIRL represents a lifelong dream of chasing Nashville and country music. I’ve loved her my whole life, even when she breaks my heart over and over again."

Suddenly incredibly productive on the release front, Liam Finn treated fans to the Record Store Day unveiling of his long awaited Hyperverse LP and there's even more on the way. Finn's swoony 'The Howl' is in fact "the 8th single from Liam Finn’s solo Hyperverse Project" (implying the vinyl record is the first in a series?), out with furry-friendly Super 8 visuals, co-directed by Finn and James Douglas Cooper.

Exploring imaginative zones between fantasy synth, rhythmically frisky electronica and ensorcelling avant-folk-pop, 'Saint Mikhael and the Dragon' is the latest single from Aridni Orca's upcoming album The Bell, the Swan & the Golden Thread, out in full on 13th June via Sonorous Circle. "Saint Mikhael and the Dragon is the name of a school play we put on every year; it harkens back to memories of battling with wooden swords and dancing around the maypole. I had a uniquely extended and magical childhood at a Rudolf Steiner school, where creativity and ritual were prioritised. Blacksmith samples and muddy footsteps comprise the beat, while a harpsichord jangles and out-of-tune recorders toot messily behind the folky melody. It is the first of many songs on this album exploring childhood and playfulness".

Making waves with February's 'Comfortable?', newly redubbed songwriter / producer LEIGH (fka Cameron McCurdy) this week shares 'I Still Love the Moon', a sonically majestic and vividly poetic second cut from her forthcoming new record Empathy for My Future Self. You can catch LEIGH with band, plus friends Club Ruby and K M T P, celebrating the album's launch at Big Fan on 5th July — nab tickets right HERE.

The aforementioned Club Ruby have been busy too, amplifying the already gigantic punk-pop hooks of their latest single 'Heartbreak Overtime' with a suits-on-in-pool extravaganza that makes this viewer feel, A: impatient for summer, and B: relieved those guitars weren't plugged in! Good fun.

When I attended the Camp A Low Hum festival last year in Wainuiomata, it became a running joke that whichever stage I ended up at, the team from Yumi Zouma were there hanging about too. New single 'Bashville on the Sugar' finds the globe-trotting Cantabrians in upbeat new wave / power-pop mode (verging on punk-pop) which suits their hook-mastery to a tee, out now with a self-directed video reflecting on a topic near to my heart. "The first song on our forthcoming project that we really dug into, it's an ode to the subway and public transport, New York’s in particular. The band has a deep affinity for it; its reliability and the access it provides are unlike anything we experienced in New Zealand. At the same time, its unpredictability — what you’ll see, who you’ll bump into — keeps each trip rooted in the present."

Emma Dilemma graced our Good Friday with her explosive five track OUCH MY HEAD HURTS EP, the genre-smashing Canterbury artist's first collection of tunes since 2022's Spit. "Each song came from a moment where my brain just needed to release something — whether that was pain, rage, sadness, or clarity. It’s a collection of sonic journal entries, and I hope people hear themselves in it."