New music guide The Neu Bulletin (11th June 2014)

Nothing matches seeing Girl Band live, these days. The Irish firestarters give grizzly noise rock a genuine cause, and their London Old Blue Last show from earlier this year remains the most eye-opening of 2014 so far. Tonight marks their return, following a slot on the DIY Stage at Brighton’s Great Escape, where they predictably wreaked havoc.

Speaking of Girl Band, last night this very fresh-faced new London band going by the name of PROM joined Girl Band at their Cambridge, Portland Arms gig. Debut ‘Cry Baby Cry’ gives off the same kind of intensity as the Irish bill-toppers, although it’s compressed, shunning nine-minute noise fests in favour of refined ferocity. A video for the same track is just as disturbing - you’ll never look at a wedding dress the same way again. Obnoxious, ready to pick up an arrest warrant - PROM don’t just want to be your date for the night.

It’s heated and it’s unapologetic, but there’s a (sort of) new fad involving vocalists getting up close and very, very personal with the microphone. Every inhalation is there to hear, every slight twang in a vocal. Ry X and Chet Faker specialise in the habit, and fellow Aussie Fractures links up with the trend. His new single ‘Won’t Win’ is a despondent being - sadness isn’t hard to pick up on regardless, but it’s plain to see when he practically sounds on the verge of tears the whole way through.

‘Won’t Win’ features on the ‘Fractures’ EP, out 4th July.

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