New music guide The Neu Bulletin (Drones Club, Emily Yacina, Petite League & more)

One of this year’s finest records came from Viet Cong, a band rising out from Women (they’re also busying themselves with trying to come up with a less controversial name). But in Women’s absence, something still feels missing - a crop of similarly-minded bands rinsing inventive guitar parts for all their worth. Tampa’s MTVH1N1 have a similar aesthetic, and on ‘Slow Rise’ they tie tangling parts around heartfelt lyrics about “an overwhelming notion that the pieces never fit”. Lovely enough to meet the parents, deadly enough to have a twist in the tale - this is really special.

Philadelphia’s Emily Yacina has previously worked with Alex G, and on her solo run, she shows a similar knack for finding beauty in unlikely places. ‘Loser’ has a whistle-like tone, bordering on harsh but never going overboard. Tiny fragments come and go in the background. The whole time, Yacina’s songs feel like they could spill out of control, but there’s serious purpose tying everything together.

London’s See You At Home could easily fall into the self-indulgence trap, lulling guitar lines stretching beyond their sell by date. But on debut EP ‘Everything Is Okay’, this first-glance post-rock projects shows plenty more feathers. Delicate drum machine loops circuit around the gorgeously produced ‘At Least the Weather’s Nice’, and the trio find space to nestle in with ‘Postmodern Art’.

Oleka are a South London outfit featuring members of Halls, a choral pop project belonging to Sam Howard. Together, these four make fidgety pop, all intent on experimenting. ‘The Thing About You’ is a loved up sweetheart with shuffling feet and unorthodox charm. Part-NZCA Lines, part-Postal Service, Oleka make smart and sparse songs that warrant terrible dance moves.

Drones Club are being billed as a destructive force, a band to put a spanner in the ever-running works of personality-devoid droids. They crash fashion shows. They wear burkas on stage (they should probably stop doing that, to be honest). But their latest single, the sweet ‘Soul of a Spaceman’, is a warm soul. Going way beyond initial KLF comparisons, it has the afterglow of a Shura single and the ease of a future-hit in waiting. They might not be the anarchists the hype implies, but something special is definitely afoot.

There’s a definite amateur edge to Washington producer Snap Radius’ instant fix ‘Part2’. Beats crackle and sometimes spill out of time. Earnest vocals break form and split away from dayglow production. But in slight hiccups comes a clear charm, and oddly enough, ‘Part2’ sounds most reminiscent of Peace trying to take on blog-pop in the vein of Spooky Black.

Petite League have an unstoppable appetite for the great outdoors. It’s there in the terraced roof artwork for their ‘Slugger’ EP, and it’s racing around this ten-track release’s bright, beaming sense of life. The Syracuse two-piece go through heady pop punk (‘Surviving October’) to Japandroids style joy (‘My Black Lungs’) with the excitable speed of a toddler running round a park for the first time.

Tags: Drones Club, Listen, Features, Neu, Neu Bulletin