Pinky Boy
by ratbag
After last year’s take-notice EP why aren’t you laughing?, this is the first single of 2024 by ratbag, the moniker of Auckland electro-punkish multimedia artist Sophie Brown signed to Universal Music in Australia and doing quite well, as they say, on social. An amusing kiss-off of a song with echoes of Lene Lovich from ye olde New Wave days, it comes with a video with a unique point of view from which it seems the chap the song is addressing is something of a mouth-breather. – Russell Baillie
Casual Drug Use
by Katie Gavin
Second solo single from Gavin of California’s queer-identifying indie-rock band Muna who recently opened for Lorde and Taylor Swift and is signed to Phoebe Bridgers’ label Saddest Factory Records. Gavin came to Muna from a folk-rock direction and has reverted to that for two singles in advance of her debut album What a Relief (due October 25). First single Aftertaste owed a debt to Swift but for the wordy but pointed Casual Drug Use (“it’s a little unnerving how fast I fall back in to fixing my issues with casual drug use”), she engages with fragile folksy scene-setting and intimacy before hitting the engaging chorus. Intelligent folk-pop. – Graham Reid
Death Kink
by Fontaines D.C.
From their new album ‘Romance’, Death Kink shows the Dublin band’s progression to stardom. It’s more radio-friendly – but the band’s raw, post-punk origins are still bubbling beneath the surface. Grian Chatten’s vocals are instantly recognisable – there’s something special about singing in your natural accent. Lately, he’s experimented more with his vocal delivery – whispers and breaths add new textures to their sound. Then there’s the unmistakable Nirvana-inspired blend of chorus and distortion on the lead guitar. It’s ‘About a Girl’ for the modern era. – Sam Clark
So Good
by Louis Baker
The previous tracks on the way to a new EP might have suggested that Wellington soul-bloke could not get any smoother, but he has on his slinky slab of retro R&B, in which the “B” possibly stands for “boudoir”. Oh, and nice glockenspiel. – Russell Baillie
Mutations
by Nilüfer Yanya
British singer-songwriter Nilüfer Yanya is always equally expressive with her voice and guitar. On this track, they harmonise – interweaving with each other, and the immaculately delayed drums. Strokes-like staccato guitar chugs through the chorus and bridge, before a string section comes in. Her influences are eclectic – producing a genre-defying sound that’s as much indie rock as it is trip-hop. It puts her alongside fellow indie trailblazer, Dean Blunt. Her upcoming album My Method Actor is out September 13. – Sam Clark
Carry Me
by Fin Rah Zel
Judging by previous single ‘Going Home’ and this, Taranaki band Fin Rah Zel have designs on one day leading a packed Bowl of Brooklands in hearty singalongs at a triumphant homecoming show. ‘Carry Me’ is certainly a rousing wee number – think a TrinityRoots ballad getting a touch of Coldplay grandeur, and a ready-made hit, surely. – Russell Baillie
Holy Holy
by Geordie Greep
Mainman from the ambitiously unusual English rock band black midi delivers this first single from his forthcoming solo album The New Sound (October 4). Opens with machine gun percussion then veers into melodramatic rock which sounds beamed in from a ludicrous salsa-infused rock opera full of sex and fairly confused religious politics. Utterly mad and enjoyable for that reason alone. Can’t wait for the stage show (directed by Baz Luhrmann?). – Graham Reid
Garmonbozia
by Flying Lotus
From spooky Bowie to lush synth soundscapes over an unnervingly wobbly bass and closing with a DJ-fooling descent into silence in just three and a half minutes. Quite something. The return of one of the most interesting, experimental studio boffins after his excellent soundtrack of miniatures for the soundtrack to the anime feature Yasuke and the less interesting collaborative album Flying Objects. No album announced but this whets the aural appetite. – Graham Reid
Sviridov, Piano Trio in A min: I. Elegy.
by Levansa Trio
It’s been two years since Levansa Trio played live, but the group – comprising well-known locals Sarah Watkins (piano) and Andrew Beer (violin), plus Switzerland-based cellist Lev Sivkov – have finally released an album featuring works performed on their 2022 tour, including this superb piano trio by the Soviet composer Georgy Sviridov (1915-1989). Sviridov’s music can occasionally sound like the sum of other people’s parts – his friend and teacher Shostakovich looms particularly large, and there’s an outrageous swipe from Mahler in the middle section of the trio’s slow movement (*cough* Symphony No.4). But don’t let that put you off, because Sviridov brought his A-game to this one. The album, which also features music by Martinů, Schnittke and Arvo Pärt, is out now on Atoll records. – Richard Betts
