If This World Was Made For Me
by The Chills
This is the first track from the forthcoming posthumous Spring Board collection of the early unrealised songs of Martin Phillipps, which were dusted off and recorded with the final Chills line-up and an impressive cross-generational guest list. If This World Was Made For Me certainly gets things off to a personal start with a low-key Phillipps pondering life as a solitary outsider against an elegant piece of minor-key chamber-pop, on a song which could have sat quite nicely on 1990′s Submarine Bells. – Russell Baillie
Whistling in the Darkness
by the Phoenix Foundation
The capital’s indie rock institution returns with new material for the first time since 2020′s underrated Friendship album with an amiable jangle of a song about facing life in a divided and rotten world and propelled by a suitably droll lyric. It comes adorned with the violin of Anita Clark/ Motte (a Friendship guest star), just enough cowbell, and a touch of whistling down the very end. Pleasantly bittersweet. – Russell Baillie
Just Don’t Know
by Summer Thieves
Before they take themselves for a jaunt around the nation’s coastal pubs, Summer Thieves add yet another defiantly cruisy and awfully catchy number to the setlist. It’s a loping ballad nicely carried by frontman Jake Barton’s lightly graveled voice and may soon be unavoidable. – Russell Baillie
Rubicon
by Mild Orange
Another laidback Dunedin band, though one who is seemingly on a permanent OE and now in London. Rubicon has them taking their dreampop of slip-sliding guitars and sighing vocal harmonies to maximum lushness. Not sure if there’s a song at the bottom of it all, but it sure is cuddly in there. – Russell Baillie
Dead Spit
by Shooless
After a string of singles and an EP last year, Tāmaki Makaurau band Shooless have released their debut album Lonely Playground on which Dead Spit is a standout track. It’s built around King Krule-inspired chords, before descending into a looser jam, which makes sense given their reputation as a solid live act. Singer Freya Pinkerton’s brooding delivery sounds a lot like PJ Harvey here – which is right at home over the chorus’ distorted guitar tones. – Sam Clark
The Long Road
by Alba Rose
Groovy neo-soul from local singer Rosie Spearing aka Alba Rose. Her production often leans into electronica, with tight drums and keys, which sound great under Rose’s mellow vocals. She occasionally breaks into a Spanish verse – a reference to her heritage, which is also where she gets her stage name. – Sam Clark
Pure Love
by DJ Koze, Damon Albarn
Superstar German DJ gets the very English voice of Blur/Gorillaz to sing down the phone over an infectiously syncopated mix of Spanish guitars, bass and other groovy touches. Irresistible. – Russell Baillie
Pets (Daniel Avery Remix)
by Porno for Pyros, Daniel Avery
As well as his own original recordings, English DJ and producer Daniel Avery has built a reputation for chopping up alt-rock tunes into dance remixes. Since 2023, he’s put his spin on tracks by DIIV, Interpol and Slowdive. This one, is of Perry Farrell’s 1990s art rock outfit, Porno for Pyros. Perhaps it comes down to identifying an underlying groove – the spacey atmosphere of the original Pets lends itself to a remix. Whatever it is, it’s working. – Sam Clark
Benjamin Rimmer, In the Shining Blackness.
by Exaudi Vocal Ensemble
Choir singers may already know the English composer Benjamin Rimmer (b.1993). This piece, In the Shining Blackness (2017) is becoming something of a standard, having been previously recorded by star vocal group Voces8, and now here by exciting new-music ensemble Exaudi. …Shining Blackness is less filmic than some of Rimmer’s other music – he writes for movies too – and if you really need a label, you can call it post-post-minimalist, in a child-of-John-Tavener kind of way. Better, though, to just sit back and let the waves of sound wash over you. – Richard Betts
