Best Australian and New Zealand Music of the Week: PNAU, Kaylee Bell, Grace Cummings and More

Dadada, a project from Nick Chrisp, one half of Rolling Stone AU/NZ favourites SACHI, recently unveiled a new single, “Glass Ceiling”.

Now, Melbourne-based producer Eden Burns has put their own spun on the song, turning it into a meditative near-eight-minute piece.

According to a press release, Dadada and Eden Burns will work together again “in the near future.” Based on this remix, that’s a good thing.

MACEY shares “Call It Even”, another taste of his new album.

Lifted from the forthcoming Once, out on July 3rd, “Call It Even” ponders the painful beauty of trying to leave a relationship with grace.

“I wrote this song just after my first big breakup, while my dad was also really sick,” the Auckland-based singer-songwriter explains.

“The song is about recognising how much we gave to each other and how much we grew together — that there wasn’t really anyone to blame or be angry at. We both did our best, loved as deeply as we could, and eventually it came to an end. We were making mistakes and making magic at the same time.

“At its core, it’s a love letter to first love, and a final goodbye.”

Lace Mine’s debut EP is here.

BODY‘s five tracks invite listeners into the Aotearoa singer-songwriter’s interior world.

“Every song was written in a different place, but the themes are the same,” Mine explains. “In the space of six months, I watched someone lose their memory, walked over 400km alone and recorded for the first time in London.

“BODY is a real-time response to that.”

Shortly after announcing their seventh studio album, AHHCade, PNAU have shared new single “Crash”.

“Crash” features a guest turn from Maleigh Zan, with the US-born, UK-based musician admitting she was “already a fan” of PNAU before linking up with the dance duo.

“Maleigh is a force of nature; it’s rare to meet a star before the world has woken up, but I’m sure you’ll agree she has that incendiary glow that comes only from the best,” PNAU’s Nick Littlemore says. “This tune harks forward to a distant club, the throb of the night, and the dawn yet to break.”

Seminal Melbourne garage-rock band Eddy Current Suppression Ring self-release surprise album In Light of Recent Events.

It’s Eddy Current Suppression Ring’s first album since 2019’s All in Good Time, although they did release a three-track EP, Shapes and Forms, last year.

Indie-pop rising star Greta van den Brink shares her long-awaited debut album This Wasn’t Planned.

“This album feels like a collection of moments where I was trying to figure myself out in real time,” the Aotearoa singer-songwriter explains.

“A lot of the songs came from chaos, heartbreak, desire, loneliness, or wanting to escape something. I think This Wasn’t Planned is really about growing into yourself through all the messiness and unpredictability of life, and learning that sometimes the unplanned things end up shaping you the most.”

PRINS and Jujulipps are a dream duo on new collaborative single “Subliminal”.

“Wanted to celebrate NZ Music Month by joining forces with another powerhouse woman in the industry,” PRINS wrote on social media. “Have always loved Jujulipps’ energy and edge, so this one felt like a natural fit.”

In other PRINS news, she’s stepping into a major new touring cycle.

She announced this week that her world tour will take her to the US, Europe, Australia, as well as her home country later this year.

Grace Cummings marks her new album announcement with its lead single.

Before Bloodhorse! comes out on August 14th via Virgin Music Group, listen to “My God” below.

“Lyrically, this song is about hatred, jealousy, rage,” Cummings explains. “The ‘God’ here is the dark forces that are wrapping around us, that we scroll through, the toxic energy that binds us together in this modern world, and the fear we feed it every day.

“‘My God’ describes a false God I wish I wasn’t subscribed to, but am. I don’t want to talk about phones or whatever, but…that God lives in there. It’s not what I believe in, but we all subscribe and are hooked to it. And I use the word ‘God’ in my music because it’s the biggest word there is. I don’t know what it means, but I feel it in a lot of things.”

Canberra-based punk band Sonic Reducer share “Rosebank”, another taste of their new EP.

Before their Living Room EP comes out on June 19th, listen to their new post-punk ballad below.

The track arrives following a stellar run of shows supporting Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers and Genesis Owusu on their respective national tours.

Kaylee Bell finishes NZ Music Month on a high note with the release of not one but two singles.

Double single “Me for Me” and “Once in a Lifetime” were both performed live for the first time at the historic debut concert at Ōtautahi Christchurch’s brand-new One New Zealand Stadium, where Bell played alongside Six60, Synthony, and more

“Once in a Lifetime” was created so that Bell had “something to mark the night — something that would outlive it.”

“The song and the video together are a time capsule — a moment in time we can hold onto forever,” she says.

Previously described by us as “the type of unpretentious, if-you-know-you-fucking-know, resolutely DIY band that rewards discovery,” Cindy return with new single “All the Nice People”.

The song is “a tribute to all the people who have supported us as a band,” vocalist Gloria Florence says. “[T]he people who come to our shows and bring the energy, the other musicians who work with us, our friends and whanau who offer their time and attention.

“It’s an incredible feeling to be on stage performing but it’s also very scary and intense — it’s not possible to do this alone.”

“All the Nice People” is set to feature on the Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland punk band’s forthcoming album, which is slated for release later this year.

Yung Milla is feeling high on love.

New single “Higher” is about “that moment when love hits and you’re suddenly spawning dopamine on repeat,” according to a press release.

Listen to the Afro-fusion hip-hop anthem, which is the NT rapper’s first true love song, below.

“Higher” is the first of two single drops from Yung Milla’s debut EP, set for release later this year.

Australian emo is in a healthy state thanks to bands like Deadshowws.

The alt-emo four-piece share debut album You in colour., which is “the culmination of a year of procrastinating and hating yourself for it,” according to the band.

Following their album release, Deadshowws will celebrate You in colour. along the east coast of Australia in June, playing shows in Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Wollongong, and Brisbane.

They’ve previously supported bands like Basement and Trophy Eyes.

Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland artist Omega Levine continues his return with “Sweet and Sour”.

The song follows the recent drop “All Things New”, his first official single in six years.

“Sweet and Sour” features strong Pacific representation through guests INF of SWIDT and ANKA, alongside AIRPORTS, made with NZ On Air Pasifika support.

“This record represents real life. The sweet moments, the messy moments, the tension, the love and everything in between. Growing up Samoan in Aotearoa, music always carried emotion and storytelling,  and this song naturally came from that space,” Levine says.