NZ Music Month always delivers a wave of new music, and 2026 is no exception. Kicking off today on the first day of Te Marama Puoro o Aotearoa, the releases span everything from blues and doom metal to folk, pop and electronic — a snapshot of just how broad and vital Aotearoa’s music scene is right now.
Leading the charge today is Casual Healing’s ONE, the final instalment of Nikau Te Huki’s ambitious four-part elemental EP series — a live, soulful roots and reggae project recorded in one room with an eleven-piece band, and one of the most quietly significant releases the local scene has produced this year. We’ve got a full piece on that one already.
Also landing today is the debut album from Vera Ellen, Heaven Knows What Time, alongside SXMPRA’s album EXISTENTIAL CRISIS, The Sour’s Daughter EP, Reb Fountain’s Smoke Signals EP, and Just Janie’s album Mythology of the Girls. On the singles front, Aldous Harding returns with Coats, Sheep Dog and Wolf drop Guessing, and Mel Parsons shares Grain by Grain — three names whose presence on any releases list immediately raises the stakes.
Throughout the month, look out for Mountain Boy’s Heard It In The Wind, Ella Pollet’s A Name I Knew, PARK RD’s Burn Away, Midwave Breaks’ A Thousand Years, WHO SHOT SCOTT’s Peaked in Highschool, and Parallel Park’s Empty House among many others spanning pop, indie, electronic and beyond.
Te Wehi’s album I’m Home, Reid+Wolken x Texture Time’s Trident House Sessions: Sketches in Real Time, and Dillastrate and Amber Carly Williams’ video for Tōia Mai round out a month that offers something genuinely worth exploring at every turn.
For the full programme of events, initiatives and live shows happening throughout NZ Music Month, head to our main piece.
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