Sunreturn

Sunreturn Sunreturn is an independent record label based in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa.

11/11/2025

Congratulations to PollyHill and Samara Alofa, who have won Te Tohu Hopunga Puoro Mariu Poto - Favourite EP brought to you by Recorded Music NZ for ‘Aquaries: Age Of Uranus’ 👏

11/11/2025

Te Whiringa Toa 2025 ki a Te Pou Hononga - The SRN Top 10 of 2025, brought to you by AudioCulture | Iwi Waiata:

1. Crystal Chen - Kiss It Better
2. Ringlets - Street Massage
3. Cindy - Big Summer Blowout
4. Mokotron - WAEREA
5. SODA BOYZ - Enough
6. Pearly* - Superglue
7. Hail, Meteor! - Sweet
8. either eyether - opening night/welcome back
9. Fazerdaze - Cherry Pie
10. Fouler - Shortening

11/11/2025

Touring nationwide this summer with DISPLEASURE and BIRDPARTY.

Just as the weather warms Amamelia graces us with Summerlong, the second single from a new album due for release in 2026...
11/11/2025

Just as the weather warms Amamelia graces us with Summerlong, the second single from a new album due for release in 2026. Summerlong's drums snap and bounce, boops & beeps echo and delay while an organ bubbles away and a janky old string machine spumes.

“Honestly, when I started writing this song I think I was just feeling really homesick,” gushes Berry. “I was trying to tap into that kinda wistful Tāmaki Makaurau summer feeling. I think Summerlong is about that tension of just being here now but wanting forever to come, wanting to kind of escape to something beautiful and distant.”

“There is a lot of Yamaha CS10 synth on this song and even more Roland RS09 String Machine. There’s loads of hand percussion and a generous smattering of spring reverb from an old hi fi reverb box I got on ebay.”

For Summerlong Berry returns to work with Madison Van Staden; “Madison's vocal performance is just perfect, so delicate and emotive.”

When asked how she feels now that the song is finished, Amamelia says “I'm shocked with how well it turned out and I’m just something I'm really proud of.”

Erase Everything have shared the Twin Peaks inspired 'Shadows,' the final track taken from their blistering Glass Souls ...
29/10/2025

Erase Everything have shared the Twin Peaks inspired 'Shadows,' the final track taken from their blistering Glass Souls EP. To celebrate the band are hitting the road to performing throughout October, November and December - tickets are available from Undertheradar.co.nz. ���

🔗 https://linktr.ee/sunreturn

Glass Souls, the new EP from Erase Everything, meditates on themes of existence, desire, and disconnection. Walls of overdriven guitars are soaked in delay, while howled vocals are underpinned by a relentless rhythm section. With standout tracks like Keajra and New Year New Idea, Erase Everything shifts between restraint and chaos, weaving in nods to Twin Peaks, spiritualism and death. Recorded by Milon Williams (Cobra Kahn) and mastered by Primal Mastering, it's a release that captures both the beauty and brutality of emotional weight.

Inspiration for the anthemic final track Shadows came from noise rock and VHS tapes. “It’s a commentary on 1990’s AV. It started with a Twin Peaks marathon and ended with Helmet,’" quips guitarist Grant Sowerby. “I have a bit of an obsession for Twin Peaks,” jokes singer Angelo Munro. “When I heard Shadows it evoked an intention to speak to a dark romance. It’s loosely based on the tension between Dale Cooper and Audrey Horne, and it being somewhat taboo or inappropriate. ‘Lying in the shadows’ is like saying they can't have what they both desire.”

As the year draws to a close Munro reflects “For Erase Everything 2025 was about pulling our finger out, recording and playing outside of Tāmaki Makaurau. It's nice to get it out there, give people a taste and hopefully have them wanting more so we can unleash a full length record next year. We’re thrilled to have the EP out and can’t wait to do it all again in 2026.”

Fans can catch Erase Everything live when the band perform the EP live at Threes & Sevens (31 Oct - Invercargill w. SU:N and Theorem), Pearl Diver (1 Nov - Dunedin w. U-No Juno and Bunchy's Big Score), Big Fan (13/12 - Auckland with Roy Irwin Band, Cindy, Young Baptist and Crying Ivy) andValhalla (16/1 - Wellington at Gathering Shadows) - tickets are available from Undertheradar.co.nz.

Babe Martin blesses us with Summer Fruit, the third single from Not a Bee, but a Wasp (out November 14, 2025), opens pre...
23/10/2025

Babe Martin blesses us with Summer Fruit, the third single from Not a Bee, but a Wasp (out November 14, 2025), opens pre-orders for limited edition Eleventeen Ceramic merch, and announces a release show at Auckland Unitarians on November 20 with support from Schofield Strangelove (tickets are available now from Undertheradar.co.nz)

Anchored by a haunting viola line Summer Fruit captures the calm after turbulence and the quiet question of what comes next. Written during a warm New Zealand summer Summer Fruit uses metaphor to examine aging, change and community.

“Summer Fruit is a reference to an analogy someone told me when I needed to hear it most,” notes Babe Martin's Zoë Larsen Cu***ng. “They described how your relationships and community are like an apple tree. You put in the time and care and water it, prune it, tend to it, but sometimes you’re allowed to just lean up against it, sit in its shade, and eat the fruit. Basically - that it’s okay to be vulnerable and allow yourself to be looked after by the relationships that you’ve cultivated when you need to.”

“My friends are reflections, my friends are mirror masks, sunlight on water, moonlight on firestone, my apple tree,” sings Larsen Cu***ng. “As much as Summer Fruit is an ode to friendship, it is very much an inward facing conversation with myself about how my life has changed, very much for the better, but irrevocably. I was seeing the best of myself reflected in my friends, and the best of them reflected in me.”

"Summer Fruit is deeply personal, so that’s exciting to share. The feeling that the song evokes is exactly how I feel now. Calm and questioning. I’m very excited for people to hear this one. If Sundog was the calm before the storm, Summer Fruit is the calm afterwards. It was the last song I wrote for the EP, and feels absolutely like a conclusion. It’s a snapshot of a new beginning, and feeling very much at peace, but very much changed."

10/10/2025

track by Amamelia

Baby Zionov’s year has been full of sold out shows, festival appearances and charting releases. Today she has made it ar...
03/10/2025

Baby Zionov’s year has been full of sold out shows, festival appearances and charting releases. Today she has made it around the final lap to release her new album Raceways Of My Heart.

Raceways To My Heart plays like a joyous rave held inside an turbo charged arcade. Baby Zionov slams the pedal to the floor with high-octane tempos, funky basslines, MIDI horn melodies, and acid breaks that twist and turn through eurodance, acid and happy hardcore. Make it click and floor it into this camp chaotic record.

“Raceways Of My Heart is the soundtrack to an arcade racing game that only exists in my head,” confesses Baby Zionov. “Funnily enough, I don’t actually like to play racing games very much – when I walk into an arcade I lock into the nearest DDR machine like a homing missile – but I think their soundtracks are often uniquely amazing. I think this is because the songs have to convey a strong sense of place and atmosphere to match the theme of the level – while also being exciting and energetic to push you to wanna win. It means the vocabulary of dance music gets used in creative ways to express all kinds of moods and ideas and places, often going to unusual places that ‘normal’ club music doesn’t. It inspires me because I love the idea that the entire world can be expressed through bangers.”

“Historically, I’ve approached music-making without much intention other than the desire to mess around and smush different sounds together and see what happens. Putting myself in the shoes of an imaginary game composer forced me to be more intentional, going in with a picture in my head – waterpark, rainforest, factory, beach – and figuring out how to bring it to life through music.”

“I also intentionally kept the sound palette mostly just to recognisable “stock” rave sounds so that I could focus on making the melodies and harmonies themselves as vivid and evocative as possible. I don’t really play any instruments or have any formal training, so I did a ton of research on composition and painstakingly punched in every note one-by-one on my computer. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, and I hope it inspires other people in my position to make the music they wanna hear.”

Zionov reflects “I put a lot of my heart and soul into this album – I tried not to worry about seeming cool and just focused on expressing myself as vibrantly as possible – and it feels a little bit vulnerable to let the world hear it, but I’m really happy with the result.”

With his last single No Control currently sitting at #1 on Radioscope's Alternative Airplay Chart, Alphabethead crops b...
01/10/2025

With his last single No Control currently sitting at #1 on Radioscope's Alternative Airplay Chart, Alphabethead crops back up with 'Finger Dance' and announces a six date tour of Aotearoa with Displeasure and Birdparty (tickets available now from Undertheradar.co.nz).

🔈 https://music.drm.co.nz/finger-dance
🔗 https://alphabethead.bandcamp.com/album/my-name-is-david
🎟 https://www.undertheradar.co.nz/tour/31145/Alphabethead-Displeasure--Birdparty-Aotearoa-Tour-2025.utr

Through rusty tambourines, dubbed snares and ominous synths conjured by playing a Mellotron with clenched fist, 'Finger Dance' sees Alphabethead continue to explore the themes of free will and determinism.

“I hope the 'Finger Dance' evokes imagery of an 'omnipresent' puppet master observing and guiding all things” imagines Morrison. “My intent was to conjure a soundworld that feels rigid and oppressive; but leaves small cracks through which flourishes of freedom and improvisation emerge. For ages the song was just that super repetitive, walking bassline. I looped it for hours, totally zoning out on edibles - as I listened my mind flooded with imagery of puppetry and colossal fingers above in the clouds.”

“One of the techniques of Turntablism is called tone-play where long notes are contorted into melodies through speeding up or slowing down the turntable. I adore this style and really wanted to document it on My Name Is David. That wild warbling synth solo is actually a turntable fed through a distortion and tremolo pedals.”

“The song concludes with one of my favourite pieces of sound design on the album; a synthesized space gong! In my mind this big b**g is a big bang; but in reverse; ending all life in the cosmos rather than setting it in motion.”

Finger Dance is the final single from Alphabethead's new album "My Name Is David" which will be released digitally, on cassette and long sleeve tee on October 31, 2025 via Sunreturn.

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