Neu JUNGLE

: JUNGLE
Based: London
Listen: ‘Platoon’
Similar to: Amateur Best

Information on Chess Club Records’ new signing, JUNGLE, is a little thin on the ground. We assume the cute kid surrounded by JUNGLE merch in their press shot ain’t the brains behind the irresistibly swampy ‘Platoon’, which began – and still hasn’t stopped – burrowing into our brains last week. That’d make King Krule look positively Jagger-esque by comparison wouldn’t it? Aside from that one photograph we’ve got nothing to go off visually or verbally so it’s kind of amazing that the track has resonated so strongly with people since it shimmied out of the undergrowth.

It’s difficult to strike up a rapport with the music without a name and a face to identify with; for some acts it works with mesmerizing results (WU LYF, Fyfe etc.) and in other cases, it can come over pretty charmless. Essentially the strength of the connection depends on how much personality is poured into the recordings, and that’s precisely where JUNGLE’s appeal is rooted. There’s a host of delightfully psychy guitar tones at play on ‘Platoon’ – little repeating minor chord swirls that taste like moreish droplets of a super-strength Amazon hallucinogen – but it’s the warm, searching male vocal which stamps the essential human vitality all over ‘Platoon’.

It’s a pleasantly cushioned murmur which darts through the foggy toing and froing between guitar and drums; mild threats to knock you down contrasting with some deep, soulful hums and loving ooh ooh brothers. There’s more subtle tweaks in intonation on the AA-side’s other track, ‘Drops’. Higher notes are grasped at over a frisson of samples and skeletally shuffling percussion. And there are even sultrier, groovier melodies up their sleeve still: trust us, JUNGLE will be massive.