Neu Alpine

: Alpine
Based: Melbourne
Listen: ‘Gasoline’
Similar to: Wild Belle, St. Vincent

I’m sure you know this already, because everyone you know’s muttering about the very fact, but everywhere you turn Australia’s got a new band to show us. A combination of individuals like ourselves paying that little bit extra attention, alongside the improved water supplies in the country (how else do you explain this rush of talent?), the likes of Flume, Jagwar Ma, San Cisco and Alpine are proving that fun needn’t amount to something derivative.

Alpine especially are experts in making glossy pop sound like it came from some glorious, distant future. Recent track ‘Gasoline’, which heads their ‘A Is For Alpine’ debut album out this May, could just rattle on by, cheer us up a bit, get the chorus over and done with. But instead it’s enrapturing. It tugs at you and sways you from side to side, like you’re a puppet to their fresh, sparkly music. Even those with an automatic distaste for bold synth patterns end up turning their heads eventually. It’s not pop music for people who don’t like pop music, either. It’s just pure, unfastened music that blends fun and invention like they’re two best friends.

‘A Is For Alpine’ is out 21st May on Votiv.