Features The Neu Bulletin (23rd April 2013)

From Monday to Friday, Neu has you covered. In these Bulletins right here, with recommended gigs and a healthy selection of songs, you’ll have a seemingly endless supply of new music tips.

Every day we offer up a choice show, a song of the day and a little something extra that’s caught our attention. Check back here every day for your latest Neu Bulletin delivery.

THE GIG
Temples, Drenge - Manchester, Night & Day


Both of these bands were thrown into the deep end, in terms of being expected to play night-in, night-out, with only a couple of hugely promising tracks to their name. Since then they’ve honed their craft, and tonight’s show at Night & Day highlights Temples and Drenge as serious potential furtherers of UK-based, guitar-wielding excitability. Details.

THE SONG
SKINNY DREAM - ALLOA


If you like your guitars to be effect-free, your songs to be distinct and simple, without being shrouded in noise, you best steer clear of today’s Bulletin. Skinny Dream are a Southend four-piece latching onto the escapist, shoegaze, what-have-you sound that every band and their uncle appears capable of producing. But this is special. Instead of reminding you of the countless groups who’ve tried this before, it steers you elsewhere & puts you into the headspace of its makers.

OTHER NEU BUSINESS
Baywaves - To the North


The description for Baywaves’ music, provided by the band themselves, reads: ‘dream dark psychedelic hypnagogic hard pop.’ I doubt anybody could come up with a more flowery sentence if their life depended on it. But let’s examine the adjectives one by one.

Does Baywaves’ music liken itself to a dream? I guess so. If you dream about pretty things, like butterflies and Phillip Schofield.

Is it dark? Not really, but maybe the thought-process that went into a song like ‘To the North’ is full of grizzly tales.

Psychedelic? Sure. We’ll give them that.

Hypnagogic? Let’s just leave that one where it is.

Hard? Err…

Pop? Not particularly. But it’s an immediate work. Not chart-busting or anything. Just catchy, rhythmic music that’s on the brink of something absolutely spectacular.