MOUSEY RELEASES NEW VIDEO FOR “DOG PARK”

Mousey has just released the music video for Dog Park, filmed at darkroom in Ōtautahi during the tour for her third album The Dreams of Our Mothers’ Mothers!. The video centres on two young friends who stumble upon Mousey’s live show while running around town on a night out with a handheld camera. The grainy, distorted aesthetic of the VHS video mirrors the industrial tone and dark, brooding instrumentation of Dog Park as they stumble around town and recording their antics.

The Dog Park music video is the final bookend for Mousey’s third album The Dreams of Our Mothers’ Mothers! released on Winegum Records in October 2024. A tonal shift from her past material, Mousey’s prowess as a songwriter and creative is on full display with and album spanning from minimalist to cinematic in her most recent effort. Dog Park reached #2 on the Alternative Airplay charts, while the album charted at #11 on the Official Aotearoa Music Charts and #15 on Rolling Stone Australia’s Top 50 Albums list for 2024.

The Dog Park music video is out now online. The Dreams of Our Mothers’ Mothers! is available on all streaming platforms, and vinyl can be found from Bandcamp or at your favourite local Aotearoa record store.

Mousey’s music is emotional and cathartic. A songwriter first and foremost, there’s a captivating depth to her music, delivered with unrivalled sincerity and skill.

Emerging in the later part of the last decade with deft songcraft and a sound all her own, Mousey writes songs from the heart in true earnest fashion. Wading in a pool of warm instrumentation, tight band-arrangements and striking vocal performances, her sophomore album MY FRIENDS earned high alternative and student radio praise and a No. 10 placing in Aotearoa’s album charts, cementing Mousey as a fixture of Aotearoa New Zealand’s heavy-hitting songwriter selection.

As a live act, Mousey’s performances are characterised by her faultless vocals, her multi instrumental musicianship and raw emotional energy. After multiple national tours, festival appearances and a string of support slots (with the likes of The Beths, The Chills, Reb Fountain and Princess Chelsea) Mousey is set to continue her own brand of raw, hook heavy indie sounds further into this decade.

“Effortlessly creative without being contrarian, and immediately accessible without being shallow.” - Rolling Stone Australia

“…brutally bleak, darkly funny and hantingly beautiful - often in the space of one song.” - Chris Schulz (Boiler Room)

“Spine-tingling, folk-inflected vocal powers and sophisticated instrumental arrangements — sounding absolutely gigantic or disarmingly tender as the occasion calls.” - Under the Radar

“Writes the kind of songs that feel instantly familiar.” - Tony Stamp (RNZ)

REB FOUNTAIN RELEASES NEW ALBUM HOW LOVE BENDS – OUT NOW + NEW SINGLE 'HE COMMANDS YOU TO JUMP INTO THE SEA'

“How Love Bends is for those who choose to dance in the shadows” - Beat Magazine

“For ‘How Love Bends’ Reb Fountain and her band have dreamed a musical landscape that is both familiar and new, and signposted with warnings as well as words of comfort; an album for our times”. - Nick Bollinger

‘“‘How Love Bends’ is a significant step forward in her discography in New Zealand and positioning her for a place on the international stage.” - 13th Floor

"Reb Fountain and the team have produced another beautifully understated gem of an album with How Love Bends. I love the exploration of new and unusual analog tones and sounds, all wrapped up in the usual excellent songs. At Flying Nun, we are all super proud and stoked to be teaming up with Reb for this new album.” – Ben Howe, Flying Nun 

Celebrated Aotearoa singer-songwriter Reb Fountain today unveils her highly anticipated new album How Love Bends, available now on all streaming platforms, vinyl including special edition packages, and CD.

Produced by Dave Khan and Simon Gooding, How Love Bends showcases Reb’s poetic depth and signature sound. Joined by longtime bandmates Dave Khan (guitar/keys), Karin Canzek (bass), and Earl Robertson (drums), the album dives into the transformative nature of love in all its forms—its tenderness, its power, its chaos. Building on the success of IRIS (2021) and her Taite Music Prize-winning Flying Nun debut Reb Fountain, this latest offering is haunting and magnetic; a dynamic dreamscape traversing love’s endless complexities.

Reb’s surrealist storytelling harnesses the sage wisdom of the dream, guiding listeners through limitless explorations of love, life, and loss within a landscape entirely of her making. Her love is the stuff of chaos and oceans, vulnerability and revolution; stirring the depths of the human condition and dancing with the richness of who we really are.

How Love Bends is a positive record. For Reb, Love is the tether that binds us all; love is a choice, a perspective, love is liberation. As love bends, so too has Reb’s music effortlessly evolved. In How Love Bends, Reb further reveals the expanse of her artistry; her palette is rich, complex, brazen and unapologetic.

“The way in which I perceive the world and myself changes over time to the degree to which I am prepared to allow it to change. That’s so fucking liberating.” Reb

Alongside the album release, Reb shares her powerful new single “He Commands You to Jump into the Sea” – an evocative, hypnotic track that captivates from the very first note. He Commands You to Jump into the Sea is such an arresting testimony that listeners will remember where they were the first time they heard it. In the spoken word tradition of Jack Kerouac, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen, Kae Tempest, and Sleaford Mods, Reb mesmerizes with words incarnate; seamlessly fusing her noir folk style with an infectious, beat-driven dirge. The track compels and awakens, inviting listeners into a journey that disrupts the familiar and embraces the surreal, much like her live performances that entice audiences into slow-burning, transformative narratives.

Enhancing the release is an outstanding music video directed by Lola Fountain-Best, fittingly it is the 20th music video Lola has directed for Reb. Shot at Connells Bay on Waiheke Island, the video poses the question; He commands you to jump into the sea; do you follow? The brooding groove of 'He Commands You To Jump into the Sea’ paces the journey for our protagonists heading the call. Weaving through iconic landscapes and surrounded by substantial artworks by some of Aotearoa New Zealand’s finest sculptors, Reb Fountain leads us on this path as a seeker; daring to uncover the lure of the almighty. Reb's art is an invitation to explore and unravel the stories that we tell ourselves with the prospect of liberation on the horizon. How Love Bends is a compass for recalibration, where changing change is possible should we will love to prevail.

 To celebrate the release of How Love Bends, Reb Fountain and her full band will embark on a twelve-date nationwide tour this April and May 2025. Fans will get their first glimpse of How Love Bends live, experiencing the raw emotion and compelling storytelling that define her captivating performances. Known for her powerful presence and deeply moving shows, Reb brings an intensity that leaves a lasting impact. This tour is the perfect chance to see her magic up close. Tickets are selling fast, and shows are already close to selling out!

REB FOUNTAIN - How Love Bends Album Release Tour

With special guest Pete Moriarity
April-May 2025
Tickets on sale now

THU 10 APR
Totara Street | Tauranga
flicket.co.nz

FRI 11 APR
Dome Cinema | Gisborne
moshtix.co.nz

SAT 12 APR
MTG Century Theatre | Napier
moshtix.co.nz

THU 17 APR
Last Place | Hamilton
moshtix.co.nz

SAT 19 APR
Leigh Sawmill | Leigh
moshtix.co.nz

FRI 25 APR – NEW 5pm SHOW
Grainstore Gallery | Oamaru
moshtix.co.nz

FRI 25 APR
Grainstore Gallery | Oamaru
SOLD OUT

SAT 26 APR
Errick’s | Dunedin
moshtix.co.nz

SUN 27 APR – NEW 5pm SHOW
Sherwood | Queenstown
moshtix.co.nz

SUN 27 APR
Sherwood | Queenstown
moshtix.co.nz

THU 1 MAY
The Church | Christchurch
flicket.co.nz

FRI 2 MAY
Opera House | Wellington
ticketmaster.co.nz

SAT 3 MAY
Town Hall | Auckland
ticketmaster.co.nz

Loopy Tunes share 'I Love Huawhenua (Tupuānuku)' and 'Huarākau Is Fruit (Tupuārangi)' from their Matariki album for Tamariki

Loopy Tunes (Preschool) Music have released two more waiata 'I Love Huawhenua (Tupuānuku)' and 'Huarākau Is Fruit (Tupuārangi)' from their new upcoming Matariki album 'Mā: Matariki for Tamariki', made with support from NZ on Air. 

These new waiata follow up '​Hiwa-i-te-rangi' and 'Te Waka o Rangi (Pōhutukawa)' from their upcoming 'Mā: Matariki for Tamariki' album, a 13-track assortment from the Ōtautahi-based sister duo, made for "our little ones to help them understand Matariki and grow up singing and dancing to the waiata".

Listen to 'I Love Huawhenua (Tupuānuku)' HERE 

A fun waiata written about Tupuānuku, the star in the Matariki cluster associated with kai harvested from the soil, tamariki will get to learn the names of different vegetables in Māori and English. “A line in the song that we love is, ‘when Tupu-ā-nuku shines bright in the sky, prepare to see your garden fill with kai!’" says the duo. “It has a fun we call and response at the end, ‘I love hua whenua….they are namunamuā'.”

Listen to 'Huarākau Is Fruit (Tupuārangi)' HERE

In this song, tamariki will learn the names of fruit in Māori and English, as “Tupu-ā-rangi represents kai from above”. The star is associated with food that comes from the sky, such as birds, or elevated fruit and berries from trees.

Siu Williams-Lemi and Leah Williams-Partington make up Loopy Tunes Music. With ancestral links to the largest Māori tribe in Aotearoa, Ngāpuhi, and the friendly islands of Tonga, the sisters bring a super-fun cultural vibe to the children’s music world. They are recognised for their reorua/bilingual Māori and Pasifika children’s waiata, sung in their beautifully harmonious style.

With a growing catalogue of over 170 waiata, their album 'Mā: Matariki for Tamariki' will follow “Kahurangi: Little Treasures” – a 23-song assortment of mostly bilingual tunes that young tamariki and the young at heart will enjoy, released in October 2024. 

2025 will see the duo touring the North Canterbury region through to Kaikoura in April, followed by an extra special tour to Northland in October to visit their iwi whenua, maunga and marae. Alongside touring, they are looking forward to continuing their new fortnightly YouTube series, “Music Time with Loopy Tunes”.

'I Love Huawhenua (Tupuānuku)' and 'Huarākau Is Fruit (Tupuārangi)' were made possible thanks to the support of NZ on Air Tamariki funding.

'I Love Huawhenua (Tupuānuku)' and 'Huarākau Is Fruit (Tupuārangi)' are out now on all streaming platforms.

BYLLIE-JEAN RELEASES NEW SINGLE HINEKOUKOU

LISTEN HERE

The first Byllie-jean single to emerge since the release of the artist’s debut EP Filter, ‘Hinekoukou’ was written at the 2023 Reo Māori Songhubs in Pōneke from a wānanga with mātanga reo (language expert) Te Haumihiata Mason. Byllie-jean already knew what she wanted to write about after regular visits from a ruru (morepork) when embarking on her reo Māori journey. “Hinekoukou was on my mind and as we spoke I realised that, despite the world’s obsession with image and our penchant for the artificial, she lives in the dark and sees everything.”

The waiata and video are an ode to Hinekoukou and the world she inhabits, to the non-human communities that have and continue to be decimated by humans: “I love de-centering humans, including myself as the artist; we are so obsessed with ourselves.”

The acoustic version of the music was written by Wellington artist and close friend Aja: “I asked her to play some of her favourite chords on the guitar and I wrote the vocal melody to that.” Later, in the studio producer Chris Wethey and Byllie-jean worked together on what became a theatrical sound journey that features dramatic backing vocals from Tame Tuari from the Tuari Brothers and solo vocalist Allana Goldsmith, with further reo Māori support from author Hona Black.

The accompanying video was co-directed by Juanita Hepi and animated by a digital collective led by animator Moretekorohunga Lloyd, comprising of Illustrator/Animator/Concept artist Christian Morgan Joseph and Concept Artist/Illustrator/Storyboarder Noah Foreman. The video’s style is simple, leaning into the foreboding edge of vintage noir that both Byllie-jean and Juanita Hepi are drawn to in their visual collaborations.
Byllie-jean (Ngāti Kahungunu ki Heretaunga, Ngāti Pahauwera) is a multi-disciplinary storyteller who writes and performs in te reo Māori and English,  her sound is described as Swamptrap, Fairyhop, Soulfolk and Indiehorror.
The artist has co-directed theatre works such as I Am Not Your Dusky Maiden and Wāhine Toa. She is a published poet, researcher and academic. As an indigenous island dweller and a kuia/grandmother of three, Byllie-jean is brimming with content, winning the 2022 Te Maioha Silver Scroll Award for her single ‘Te Iho’ with AJA and Chris Wethey. Her EP Filter was released in 2024 including two accompanying videos for 'Desperate Fools' (2023) and ‘Running Amuck’ (2023). Filter was chosen as one of The Sampler’s favourite NZ albums of the year for 2024 by Tony Stamp.

Impostor Syndrome – Sleep & Violence

A memory half-remembered, here right now.

Forgotten thoughts come around once in a lifetime.

I am alive, so are you.

Engage in chaotic divergence and sleepy anxiety with Impostor Syndrome's new genre-bending album Sleep & Violence.

Sleep & Violence, the Auckland based recording outfit's sophomore album, explores the realms that exist between the planes of anxiety and neuro-divergence. Clocking in at 23 minutes, this upcoming mini album is free from convention, demanding the listeners' attention, not their time. Shannon Coulomb (producer/instrumentalist), Ryan Culleton (vocals) and Scott Nicolson (drums) became friends during their high school years with the idea to create music together lingering for years. Sleep & Violence is their second self-produced album, having dived into their current fascination of the analogue realm of recording.

"It turns out the brain has a storage limit for songs kept only in one's memory. Impostor Syndrome is essentially the result of documenting our love of learning music production. That attempt to bring all of our thoughts to life, through a focused, experimental approach." 

A big step up in self production from their debut album ‘Oriens’, Sleep & Violence retains some roughness around its edges while keeping an eye firmly on the future. From the orchestral depth of opener Lore and the nod to 90's electronica in Silhouette, to the cathartic and heavy Know Me Well to the Psychedelic roots of Freedom is a Thought, self production became as much of a necessity and a means to an end:

“Limitations are important for creativity, but your own set of limitations should present themselves to you as opposed to confining to an external construct”

MAZBOU Q RELEASES CLONING.

Mazbou Q continues his groundbreaking "Rap Science" series with its th installment, "CLONING." A fusion of Jersey Club energy, emotive synths, and pounding 808s, the track is an intricate exploration of the struggle to balance artistry, family, and ambition. With his signature technical precision, Mazbou Q weaves a narrative that resonates with creatives and entrepreneurs alike—those who grind nonstop, wishing they could clone themselves to keep up with their relentless pursuits.

Lyrically, "CLONING." offers an introspective glimpse into Mazbou Q’s life as a multidisciplinary artist. The pressure to succeed is compounded by deep-rooted familial and cultural expectations, where the pursuit of creative passions must often coexist with the responsibility of providing stability and his family's sacrifices.

LISTEN HERE

This release follows his previous "Rap Science" singles, "TORQUE." and "SALINITY.," solidifying his reputation as a boundary-pushing lyricist and producer. Most recently, Mazbou Q made history as the first New Zealand artist to perform on Brooklyn’s On The Radar Radio, a highly influential hip-hop platform boasting over a million followers on Instagram and YouTube. The channel has featured the likes of Drake, Ice Cube, and Ice Spice, marking a significant milestone in Mazbou Q’s international journey.

Beyond his own music, Mazbou Q is also the lead producer for the upcoming NZ On Air-sponsored web series Beyond the Beat, set for release in May during Aotearoa Music Month. The series brings together local artists to reimagine iconic New Zealand radio hits, further showcasing his innovative approach to music production and curation.

With "CLONING.," Mazbou Q not only adds another powerful entry to his "Rap Science" catalog but also cements his place as one of Aotearoa’s most forward-thinking artists. A relentless force in hip-hop, his latest release is both a testament to his work ethic and a raw confession of the challenges that come with it.

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PARENTHOOD INSPIRES NEW SINGLE FROM THE PHIL EDWARDS BAND

The Phil Edwards Band will release their new single and music video ‘Cocoon’ on March 14. 

‘Cocoon’ is the first single from the New Zealand band's second studio album releasing later this year. 

Listen to ‘Cocoon’ HERE
Watch  ‘Cocoon’ music video HERE

The Phil Edwards Band led by Phil Edwards supported by Adrian Ashdown and Timothy Williams have been together since 2009.

During this time they have shared the stage with well known names such as John Butler, LAB, Black seeds, Tahuna Breaks and Thomas Oliver, and toured nationally and internationally multiple times performing at major festivals such as Rhythm and Vines, Festival of Lights, Moomba water festival (Australia), and Whangamata Summer festival. 

Phil takes a fresh honest stance while writing his lyrics and creates songs based on real life experiences. The themes of love, protection and release are at the heart of this song, and are themes many parents will be able to relate to.

The inspiration for ‘Cocoon’ is Phil's experience as a new parent and watching his daughter grow. “I feel it is my/our (parents) job to be her cocoon and gently guide her and direct her with love and support” shares the proud Dad. “It's her life, not our life and I am most comfortable with viewing her as her own person and not someone we own - I want her to feel free and able to do anything she wants to do.  She will remain in her cocoon until she is ready to spread her wings and be beautiful in her own way.” 

The track has a bright, warm summery vibe, and captures the simple everyday feelings many parents experience. The bass has a playful energy , which  is a nod to the song's muse, 4 year old Rumi. 

When becoming a father of 2, Phil was concerned he would lose his ability to keep producing music, but instead parenthood has reinvigorated his creative process “I am able to do what I love the most and also include my family as well” he share.  “Previously my music was more about broken hearts, partying or summer time , but now I have a song pretty much for all aspects of my current life, I have a song about my daughter, my whole family, my partner, my dog, my willingness to live life. So  I have found a way to express myself through music about the most common kind of feelings found within raising a family, with which I thought would be rather hard or a little dull, but for me it has been exciting and a journey I didn't think I would have.” 

The ‘Cocoon’ music video captures playfulness, nature, the simple things - but most importantly it “shows real love, and not acting just a simple display of my love for my daughter” says Phil. 

The Phil Edwards Band new single and music video ‘Cocoon’ is out now via all online streaming platforms.

AROUND THE CORNER - The RVMES NEWEST SINGLE

LISTEN TO AROUND THE CORNER HERE

The RVMES are back on the radar with an extremely personal single set for release on March 8th.  Around The Corner sings about dissatisfaction of where you are in life and taking a brave leap for yourself into the unknown. The track runs you through a fantastic textural climb in energy with a unique rhythm pattern emphasised by a hard-working four on the floor by drummer Logan Fox.

And as Around The Corner nears its release, lead guitarist of The RVMES, Richard Moore, prepares for a move to Japan, leaving the band behind to explore the world and live out the meaning of this very song. This track is a farewell to celebrate Richards time in the band and a great warm up for The RVMES new album to be released later in the year.

Around The Corner was recorded and engineered in Huntly by Casey Messent at Wardrobe Studios, mastered by Luke Finlay at Primal Mastering and distributed by The RVMES newest partner, AAA Records.

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