Yurt Party Shares new single, ‘Boho Dub’

8 Oct

Ōtautahi Christchurch street party band Yurt Party release ‘Boho Dub’ on Friday 9 October. It's the first of three singles from a new album due early 2027, and it lands two weeks before the band heads to Australia for shows in Melbourne, Brisbane and at Tablelands Folk Festival.

Guitarist Connor Hartley-Hall wrote it, and borrowed half the title from an older Yurt Party tune, ‘Tango Dub’. On the surface it bounces along like an oompah band. Underneath, a slow dub groove and a run of odd chords keep pulling it somewhere else. The Surgery in Wellington keeps a Hammond C3, and keys player Tom Harris spent most of the recording week on it, so it's all over this track. Drummer Thomas Isbister switched to percussion on the last day and layered overdubs across the record, and producer Dr Lee Prebble finished the mix with a light dub gloss.

‘It's just a song that has a sort of dubbed feel with some quirky chords,’ says Hartley-Hall, who the band call The Hammer. He also drew the artwork for all three singles.

The band recorded the album over a single week at The Surgery at the end of January 2026. They'd come straight off a long touring run that finished on the mainstage at Woodford Folk Festival, where they were one of the surprise hits of the festival, and worked through the whole album in one go. It's mellower and cosier than anything they've released before, but the fire is still there.

Yurt Party are a six-piece instrumental band from Ōtautahi Christchurch. They call what they play street party music. It's Balkan and Latin folk run through dub and played loud, for people who'd rather dance than stand and watch. Their self-titled debut came out in September 2023 and they sold out a nationwide tour the same year. Since then they've played Cuba Dupa, Single Fin Mingle, Tora Bombora, Twisted Frequency, Nostalgia and Woodford, and they hold the Golden Fiddle Award for Best Band with a Fiddler.

Yurt Party on tour, Australia and Aotearoa:

OCTOBER 22 MELBOURNE @ REVOLVER UPSTAIRS Tickets

OCTOBER 23 BRISBANE @ BLACK BEAR LODGE Tickets

OCTOBER 24-25 TABLELANDS FOLK FESTIVAL (QLD) Tickets

OCTOBER 30 ŌTAUTAHI (CHRISTCHURCH) @ SYDENHAM UNDERPASS Tickets

DECEMBER 11 TĀMAKI MAKAURAU (AUCKLAND) @ PONSONBY SOCIAL CLUB Tickets

DECEMBER 12 PŌNEKE (WELLINGTON) @ SAN FRAN Tickets

DECEMBER 31 MATAKANARAMA FESTIVAL Tickets

JANUARY 29 AUCKLAND FOLK FESTIVAL @ KUMEU SHOWGROUNDS Tickets