New music guide The Neu Bulletin (Blakie, Yellow Days, Lully & more)

George van den Broek has a soulful voice tailor-made for yoghurt adverts, but thankfully it looks like the 17-year-old is dodging that route. On debut Yellow Days EP ‘Harmless Melodies’, honesty and purity come first. He can’t shadow the truth, so when singing lines like “kissing you is just bad for my health,” it’s like peering into his subconscious without him realising strangers are listening in. (JM)

Almost a year to the day, Elf Kid let loose ‘Golden Boy’, a rampant, Amerie-sampling statement track which shone a light on South East London’s grime collective The Square like never before. Now, the baton’s been handed to Blakie. After producing ‘Crime Riddim’ on Skepta’s Mercury-nominated ‘Konnichiwa’, he’s gunning for similar heights himself on debut solo joint ‘Can’t See Them’ - a frivolous, youthful bounce through his SE hometown of Brockley. (TC)

Slap bass, pitch-shifted vocals that resemble a cartoon insect and a Flubber-esque sense of melody, Lully leaves no stone unturned in their quest to warp expectation. Taking the best elements of PC Music’s most wonderful weirdos and somehow dragging them into a more palatable realm, it’s experimental without dipping into racket; playful without sinking into the pretentious. (TC)

Sedated, strung out but devastatingly to-the-point, HALFBROTHER sound like they’re working with different tools to the rest of the pack. The duo consists of Murkage Dave and UsedTo, ‘Go Tell the Mandem’ being a series of low-slung abstractions, pieced together by self-assured statements. In different hands, this could be a straight-up ballad - instead it’s an impressive, dynamic introduction. (JM)

Purposeful vocals, fuzz lining the seams, Ella Williams is at her most defiant on ‘Not Your Prey’. Going by the name Squirrel Flower, her music shuns unwanted advances with cutting turns of phrase (“if you touch me I won’t be still… I’m not your prey, I’m not your kill”). The track is taken from a mini-album out December, called ‘Contact Sports’. (JM)

Low Island share a similar sense of experimentalism to their fellow Oxfordians Radiohead - that much is undeniable. Taking that first-day-of-spring feeling of wonder and nudging it gently towards the dancefloor, they occupy the middle ground between Thom and co.’s ‘In Rainbows’ electronic wizardry and the the life-affirming bangers of Caribou. ‘End Piece’ is the complete package - an effortlessly moving slice of beautiful electronica, from a self-titled debut EP due January. (TC)

Soaring power-pop in the vein of Teenage Fanclub, OhBoy! are as euphoric as that band name might suggest. On ‘Hey Princess’, they take a seemingly simple tale of love from afar and amp it up for Christmas party season, chucking fuzz and fun behind every move. (TC)

On her debut track, British-American newcomer Azusena parses gloomy folk, late night trip-hop and no-strings-attached pop. Just when ‘Crosby’ looks to be heading down a conventional route, it takes another left turn. An unorthodox pop sensation in the making? Quite possibly. The track lands ahead of a UK tour with Felix Riebl. (JM)

Tags: Yellow Days, Listen, Features, Neu, Neu Bulletin