New music guide The Neu Bulletin (Gold Connections, Penelope Isles, Palm Honey & more)

DIY’s essential, weekly guide to the best new music.

Words: Will Richards
1st March 2017

Neu Bulletins are DIY’s guide to the best new music. They contain every single thing that’s been played at full volume in the office, whether that’s a small handful or a gazillion acts. Just depends how good the week’s been.

Alongside our weekly round-up of discoveries, there are also Neu Picks. These are the very best songs / bands to have caught our attention, and there’s a new one every weekday. Catch up with the most recent picks here.

Penelope Isles - Cut Your Hair

Bristol-via-London-via-Weymouth-via-almost-everywhere label Art Is Hard are renowned for picking up the best scrappy, lo-fi gems the country (and beyond - they released early Diet Cig tracks) has to offer. The latest edition of their new postcard club comes from Brighton via Cornwall rabble Penelope Isles, who bring a blues-tinged affair that’s at once dreamy and haunting. Following on from an excellent 2016 EP, they’re a band as multi-dimensional as they are exciting. (Will Richards)

POWERS - Heavy

POWERS is a fairly fitting moniker for Crista Ru and Mike Del Rio. Between them, the pair boast songwriting credits for Kylie Minogue, Selena Gomez, Christina Aguilera.. deep breath… Icona Pop, and The Knocks. Quite the resume. Together, they specialise in strutting, disco-ball-reflection flecked pop, which oozes New York City. Propelled by a hefty bass pulse, ‘Heavy’ is gaudy, bold, and dangerously hooky. In other words, POWERS doing what they do best. (El Hunt)

Gold Connections - Faith In Anyone

The upcoming debut EP from Gold Connections was produced by Will Toledo of Car Seat Headrest, and Will Marsh is also one of his favourite songwriters. The connection shows on ‘Faith In Anyone’ - it employs winding, rambling songwriting that it’s impossible not to follow down whichever of the many paths Marsh threatens to take the track on. It’s sunny rock’n’roll for long drives with the windows down, but undoubtedly possesses a dark heart. (WR)

Palm Honey - Palace

It’s a tall order to meld tenacious snare cracks, heat-hazey guitars, and… erm, discordant double-tracked saxophone solos within the space of one single track, but somehow, against all odds, Palm Honey make it work. The Reading four-piece have been kicking around a fair while, but now – kicking off those initial Tame Impala comparisons and treading their own paths – ‘Palace’ looks like their breakthrough moment. (EH)

Stef Chura - Spotted Gold

Scrappy, plimsoll scuffing, and a little bit bonkers, ‘Spotted Gold’ is the latest to come from jaw-droppingly talented Stef Chura, who makes brilliantly unruly music straight from Detroit. Blurting out each verse with a kind of nonchalant, trembling vocal that’s hard to pin down – a bit like she’s just woken up and spontaneously started singing odd bursts of garage rock before her morning coffee - she’s set to support Sad13 in the near future, too. (EH)

Tags: Palm Honey, Listen, Features, Neu, Neu Bulletin