Ha The Unclear Release ‘Astigmatic!’ EP
Ha the Unclear have released their Astigmatic! EP, featuring focus track Earth Grazer. A jittery pop number that mixes levity with introspection, the song starts out pondering a missed encounter before devolving into a reflection on existential brevity amidst a meteor shower.
The EP and focus track arrive following the release of lead single Cumberland Street (Astigmatic) – view the just-released video for the track here – and second single The Cold in September.
Astigmatic! sees the band rollick through five new tracks, and teases a full album release in 2027. Recorded with award-winning producer and engineer Tom Healy at his Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland studio, the EP is the band’s first new material since they released their 2024 amalgam LP A Kingdom in a Cul-de-Sac (Think Zik!/Virgin).
Made with the stage in mind, Ha the Unclear are due to tour Astigmatic! across Aotearoa in November, giving fans in the four main centres an opportunity to experience the new material live (dates below).
Cumberland Street (Astigmatic) extols the joy of hitting a run of green lights on the titular Dunedin street – the cry of “Astigmatic!” (for which the EP is named) serving as a central optical metaphor. The line “staring at the stars, no they were streetlights leaking in a row” comes, songwriter and vocalist Michael Cathro says, from “a very early memory of pointing out stars to my parents on a Dunedin evening, not realising they were just streetlights on the opposite hill.” The more mid-tempo The Good Times Always End in Tears is a nostalgia-tinged goodbye-for-now to the old hometown, while in the frantically anthemic The Cold, the creative process is akin to gold panning in the river of thought while a backing vocal refrain yells back a meta-narrative: “the story that I tell myself / the wood with which I build my house / the house from which I throw my stones.”
Since forming in 2014, Ha the Unclear have built a loyal following internationally and in Aotearoa; broken into the Top 10 on the Aotearoa Albums Chart; been longlisted twice for the APRA Silver Scroll; and have supported The Shins and toured with Courtney Barnett and The Dandy Warhols.
After showcasing at MaMA Festival and signing to a Paris-based imprint, the band made their European debut in 2024 with the release of A Kingdom… marked also by their first headline show on the continent, at Paris venue Supersonic. They were warmly received by French press and radio, including FIP – which described the record as “a kaleidoscopic and surreal pop journey.”
As well as additional dates supporting Lime Garden (Paris) and Feldup (Nantes), A Kingdom in a Cul-de-Sac was praised by Le Figaro, Libération, Télérama, Rock & Folk and Rolling Stone France, with rotation on France Inter, FIP and Europe 2.
Astigmatic! is out now and available to purchase via Bandcamp. It heralds a full album, expected mid-2027.
Astigmatic! Tour
6 November @ Crown Hotel, Ōtepoti | Dunedin
13 November @ Whammy, Tāmaki Makaurau | Auckland
14 November @ Space Academy, Ōtautahi | Christchurch
4 December @ Meow, Pōneke | Wellington
Tickets available here
