Best Australian and New Zealand Music of the Week: Peking Duk, JessB, Spacey Jane and More

Wet Denim follow a sold-out show at Wellington’s Moon with an excellent new single.

“Silence” reveals a new dimension of the Aotearoa band, embracing a slower and more emotionally charged soundscape.

“First experiences can leave long-lasting impressions, especially first experiences of love. Silence is a song about love, and the feelings of loneliness and loss when a first romantic attachment drifts away,” the band say.

Songs don’t come more monumentally emotional than “Past Life”.

“I recently lost my mum, and this song has taken on a whole new meaning for me – offering strength, hope, and resilience during one of the hardest times in my life,” CRYSTAL explains. “I dedicate this song to her, and to the incredible kindness, perseverance, tenacity, and optimism she showed throughout her life.”

Watch the music video for the alt-pop artist’s beautiful song below.

Peking Duk move one step closer to Paradise with new single “Do Your Best”.

Before they release new album Paradise in August, the Aussie duo share their collaboration with Grammy-nominated Nigerian artist Kah-Lo.

The track was premiered live at Peking Duk’s recent headline show at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, where Kah-Lo made a surprise guest appearance.

“‘Do Your Best’ to me encapsulates Peking Duk in a nutshell,” says Reuben Styles, one half of the duo. “Raucous and high energy madness, whilst just pure good times and fun. Stoked we got to premiere it live with Kah-Lo at our Hordern show in Sydney.”

Angus & Julia Stone release a special music video for the title track of their new album, starring US actor Garrett Hedlund.

Directed by Julia and starring Hedlund, the clip was filmed against the stunning backdrop of wild Tasmania, expanding on the attached track’s themes of human connection, vulnerability, and shared experience.

Sogg are raging against the machine.

When we caught up with the young noise-rock trio for our Ōtepoti Dunedin Scene Report earlier this year, lead vocalist Ollie Kemmett — bassist Noelle Hill and drummer Rue Tulloch join him in the lineup — said, “We’re definitely going to record some more stuff because we’ve been changing [our] sound so much that we need to document it.”

So it is that new single “Argument” marks an evolution for Sogg, moving slightly away from the short and punchy adrenaline hits of their 2025 debut album, Kill Yr Oppressor.

“Argument” opens with a dirty, drawn-out instrumental, their tight-knight interplay on full display, before Kemmett’s screeching vocals arrive around the one-minute mark.

JessB is back.

New single “Not Today” is her first drop of 2026, and it perfectly showcases a softer, more vulnerable side to the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based rapper and artist.

“‘Not Today’ is a song about being at rock bottom,” JessB reveals. “You now that you will get through the heartbreak but also you know that it’s ‘not today’, and you allow yourself to sit in the feelings of the present.”

Fresh from featuring in our Future of Music 2026 series, Cat & Calmell drop new single “Clarity”.

It’s a cover of Zedd’s track, which Cat & Calmell first performed while supporting Camila Cabello and Reneé Rapp on their respective Australian tour.

“Whether that’s more pop-leaning or electronic, we love to sprinkle little influences from our childhood as an homage to those little girls who dreamt of being pop stars,” they explain.

Spacey Jane release their highly anticipated new EP, Exit Wounds.

Produced by Day Wave and mixed by Lars Stalfors, Exit Wounds was written and recorded in Los Angeles during sessions for Spacey Jane’s acclaimed third album If That Makes Sense, which arrived last year.

Exit Wounds features singles like “Do You Really Love Here?” and “I Neve See Her”, which frontman Caleb Harper said captures the emotional limbo of delaying the end of a relationship.

Rising Kiwi star Beth Elsden shares her debut EP, The Waiting Room.

Written across a period of major personal and creative growth for Elsden, the deeply personal project explores the uncertainty that can often define one’s early adulthood.

“When I began recording music, I started to really notice the hustle culture embedded in music,” she says. “I felt this overwhelming pressure to start young and not waste any time.

“I remember thinking, ‘As long as I have my first single out by the time I’m 22, I’ll be happy.’ Looking back now, I realise how important it was to take the time to develop as an artist before releasing music.”

Well-travelled Kiwi singer-songwriter Lisa Crawley releases new single “Hurry Up and Wait”.

The LA-based, NZ-born artist reflects on missed connections in the indie-pop song, which was produced by Grammy nominee Rob Kleiner.

“‘Hurry Up and Wait’ is about bad timing in all its forms — relationships that almost work, career opportunities that arrive too early or too late, and the strange limbo that comes with dating in a city like Los Angeles,” Crawley says.

“It’s frustrating, funny, and bittersweet. Musically, I wanted it to feel like a nod to the early-2000s indie records I grew up loving, while still weaving in some of my favourite textures, including clarinets, recorders, and omnichord.”

South Summit’s highly anticipated second album is finally here.

Run It Back, which follows an intense period of relentless touring for the band, finds them embracing a more expansive and richer sound.

“We’re incredibly proud to finally have this album out in the world,” the WA indie rockers share. “These songs capture a huge chapter of our lives and everything we’ve experienced over the last few years touring, growing and creating together.

“The support from fans has been unreal and we can’t thank everyone enough for being part of the journey. We hope people can connect with this record as much as we connected with making it.”

The Sydney-based trio of Anna Lunoe, DEVAURA, and Mincy combine forces for the first time on collaborative single “In the Mood”.

“When Mincy and I met we instantly bonded over our love for 2009 fidget and blog era bangers, and we wanted to create something with that confidence and rowdiness,” Lunoe says.

“‘In the Mood’ came together super fast! DEVAURA has more talent and spirit in her little toe than most have full stop so working with her was the most fun. The end result? An absolute bop made for and by the girlies.”

HINA shares another stunning taste of her new album with “The Fountain”.

The gospel-meets-country number was recorded in a single take, with the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland-based artist’s full band playing live together in a room.

“It’s a vessel for whatever you need it to hold: validation, reassurance, emotional certainty, a relationship, a vice, an inner voice. This song is about searching for meaning, seeking answers that will never come,” HINA explains. “It’s also about internalised blame becoming belief, self-doubt becoming doctrine, and destructively repeating this all like a mantra.”

Imani-J enters a new era with new single “me > you”.

Imani-J is fearlessly honest throughout her new song, which captures a defining moment of growth for the Haitian-New Zealand artist

“I wrote this in LA when I was starting to realise that the relationship I was in was no longer serving me and really only holding me back. It honestly took me being in LA and getting to live my dreams to clock this,” she shares.

“I thought LA was going to be super intimidating because everyone there is so talented and the standard feels so intense,” she says. “But once I got there, all of my dreams actually started to feel way more achievable just by being there.”

Fresh from featuring in our in-depth Big Fan feature, Emerson shares new single “Want Him Bad”.

The pure-pop anthem captures the messy thrill of pining for someone you really should not be pining after.

Emerson’s pop style will suit any fans of Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish.

Becca Hatch releases yet another stylish new single.

“Daylight Robbery” is the latest banger from the former Rolling Stone Australia Awards performer, written alongside Patrick Byrne (Beso Palma).

“‘Daylight Robbery’ is about a love that leaves an imprint on you; someone you can’t forget, even if they might not be the best for you,” Hatch explains.

“It’s about being overtaken by feeling and impact. Like being hit suddenly in the face or the gut. Sometimes we meet people that leave a mark on us, and even after they’re gone, parts of them still linger.

“The song lives in that tension of knowing someone has the power to hurt you, but still feeling drawn to them anyway. There’s something addictive about connections like that and I wanted Daylight Robbery to feel emotional, dramatic and a little reckless.”

The Moving Stills being their new chapter with autobiographical new single “Rock Band”.

The song, which was inspired by a recent writing trip to Los Angeles, cuts to the core of what the band is about; it’s a song about choosing the band and choosing your friends.

The Moving Stills’ new single arrives ahead of their first overseas shows in the UK next month.

Aotearoa indie-folk singer-songwriter Greta O’Leary enters 2026 in style with “Year of the Dog”.

It’s the follow-up to O’Leary’s River Dark album, which charted well in New Zealand last year.

“‘Year of the Dog’ is animal spirit, it’s racing forwards and upwards, fast and free. It’s renewal,” she explains.

Formed in Ōtepoti Dunedin and now based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, Achtung! are the latest exciting Kiwi band to mine ’90s rock influences with successful results.

Their debut single “New Dog, Old Tricks” is an apt title, melding post-punk and post-hardcore emo into one incredibly catchy song.

“New Dog, Old Tricks” is the first taste of the band’s forthcoming album Spear in Fine View, although it was actually the final song written for the record.