Ones to watch Neu Recommended (Beabadoobee, The Murder Capital, Black Country, New Road & more)

New Dirty Hit signing weaves gorgeous, hushed folk tales.

We normally associate Dirty Hit with shiny, experimental pop music, so there’s something refreshingly stark and to-the-point about new signing Beabadoobee. Bea Kristi, born in Manilla and raised in London, racked up millions of streams on early singles, but it’s with her debut EP that her marker’s really put down, a collection of Elliott Smith-influenced folk ditties that are stunning in their simplicity, worming their way into your head via plucked guitars and pitch-perfect vocals, never to leave.

Listen: Debut EP ‘Patched Up’.
Similar to: Elliott Smith, Big Thief

An absurd, exhilarating South London supergroup.

Formed out of the ashes of the buzzy-then-gone Nervous Conditions, Black Country, New Road are a supergroup-of-sorts from South London that make a frenetic, otherworldly noise. Fusing experimental jazz with simply apocalyptic noise, the band - who boast members of the similarly buzzy Jockstrap - have only released one track to date, and between that - the huge, creepy ‘Athen’s, France’ - and a live video shot at Brixton hotspot The Windmill is enough to more than whet the appetite for what’s to come.

Listen: Debut single ‘Athen’s, France’
Similar to: Putting yourself in the firing line of every possible human emotion in the space of 20 minutes.

The next in line for Dublin’s grubby rock’n’roll throne.

Before they’d even released a note of music, The Murder Capital sat alongside Fontaines DC as Dublin’s most exciting new noiseniks via a host of intoxicating live shows. The music has now arrived in the form of debut single ‘Feeling Fades’, and casts this promise in stone. Clawing at the darkest, most intense corners of punk, there’s hints of The Fall, Protomartyr and more in the dirgy first cut, and hints at even greater things to come.

Listen: Debut single ‘Feeling Fades’.
Similar to: Fontaines DC, Protomartyr.

Sprightly, anthemic indie from energetic Oxford bunch.

In their short tenure as a band, Lacuna Common have shared the stage with Sports Team, UGLY and more, and share more than a few characteristics with their peers: sprightly, straight-down-the-line indie-rock, this is music to bellow along to from the depths of a sweaty moshpit, with fevered new single ‘Lack Of Knowledge’ the best example - it’s impassioned indie, delivered in a gorgeously thick British accent.

Listen: The catchy ‘Lack Of Knowledge’.
Similar to: Drinking ten pints and launching yourself into a moshpit.

Bristol bunch teaming the playful with the brutal.

‘Piochitas’, the new single from Bristol four-piece Haze, hangs in the balance beautifully. The track jangles along with an infectious momentum via a jumpy guitar line, but always teeters on the brink of absolute chaos. Channelling the current wave of grubby guitar bands from the country, from Shame to YOWL, the unpredictability of the band’s music is what makes it so exciting, and leaves their future wide open.

Listen: New AA-side ‘St John’/’Piochitas’.

Similar to: A South London circa 2017 melting pot, with added hints of Blur at their jangliest.

Tags: Features, Neu, beabadoobee, Black Country, New Road, February 2019, Haze, Lacuna Common, Neu Recommended, The Murder Capital