From the magazine: Neu Recommended (Jorja Smith, Drones Club, EAT FAST & Hudson Scott)

DIY picks out four new acts to get (very) excited about.

Words: Jamie Milton, Tom Connick
26th April 2016

Every month in DIY, we pick out four new artists who stick out in a big, ever-growing crowd of fresh faces. With each day that passes, there’s someone else turning heads, another act to follow and keep track with. Our weekly Neu Bulletins cram in everything brilliant we’ve heard.

Neu Recommended aims to filter things down to the absolute must-hear names, acts who’ve bit-by-bit established themselves as the real deal. Below, find out what we’re getting excited about.

Also in this month’s magazine, we interview the otherwordly Pumarosa and rising folk dreamers Whitney, and catch NYC bruisers Show Me The Body at all three of their debut London dates.

(Photo: Jorja Smith)

Jorja Smith

A Dizzee Rascal-nodding phenomenon.

Based in Walsall and just 18-years-old, Jorja Smith’s debut single ‘Blue Lights’ is a dynamic patchwork of the influences every music-obsessed kid hears growing up in the UK. Reinterpreting Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Sirens’, there’s quick-thinking lyricism, heartstopping R&B nods and playful pop staples by way of Lily Allen. Everything’s in place for a takeover.

Listen: ‘Blue Lights’ hears the sirens coming.
Similar to: This country’s answer to Frank Ocean.

EAT FAST

Appetite-whetting giants in waiting.

Either they’re massive fans of popular 90s kids TV drama Byker Grove, or there’s an aesthetic emerging in EAT’s first steps. Debut track ‘Byker Drone’ delivered the gut-punch to grunge that revival cynics have been clamouring for, and on second strike ‘Byker Lime Slicer’ they up the ante. Aping Britpop anthemia with its call-and-response ‘oohs’ and twisting, shredded tone, EAT have established themselves as the bonafide real deal in the time it takes most groups to tie their shoelaces.

Listen: ‘Byker Drone’ is INHEAVEN-nodding brilliance.
Similar to: A three-course meal of guitars, guitars and guitars.

Drones Club

Dance revolutionaries or nutters with balaclavas?

Everyone’s talking about Drones Club (we say everyone - your nan’s probably not interested yet). Whether it’s passers-by confused by their senseenhancing, Ghostbusteroutft live shows, or whether it’s a groundswell of fans engrossed by their KLF-nodding electronica, something’s stirring from the London force. This is eye-gouging, bonkers dance determined to inspire a generation.

Listen: ‘Python’ shows its fangs.
Similar to: Sped up 90s rave videos on YouTube.

Hudson Scott

The year’s alt-pop inventor of choice.

After years tooting horns in the live arena for the likes of Foals, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs and Petite Noir, Hudson Scott is finally ready to take centre-stage. Bringing that trumpet to the fore, this Oxford newcomer deals in a parping, alternative slant on pop, dealing a side-eyed glance at the charts in the process. It’s Hudson’s day job as a carpenter that proves debut single ‘Clay’’s winning hand, a method of construction lending this debut a rigid backbone amongst all its freeform impulsiveness.

Listen: ‘Clay’ sets the foundations for a bright career.
Similar to: Yannis from Foals making introspective electronic pop.

Taken from the April 2016 issue of DIY, out now. Subscribe to DIY below.

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Tags: Eat Fast, Hudson Scott, Jorja Smith, From The Magazine, Listen, Features, Neu