Discoveries of the week The Neu Bulletin (Joy Again, Chastity, Quilt & more)

DIY picks out the best discoveries from the past seven days.

10th November 2015

DIY’s new music know-it-all Neu has been penning daily Neu Bulletins for the past couple of years. There’d be a gig of the day, Bandcamp finds - anything turning heads at the time. We’ve decided to slow things down a tad. Neu Bulletins are now weekly. They’ll 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. This past week, we’ve shared music from Heavenly Recordings signing Night Beats, Swedish punks Dolores Haze and very promising NYC post-punks WALL.

Catch up with all our recent Neu Picks here.

Photo: Joy Again, by Dylan Pearce.

CHASTITY - YOU’RE SCARY NOW

Brandon Williams’ Chastity project finds weird rejoice in noise. Instead of going for broke and simply raising the dial, there’s a curious craft to how Williams goes about his work. On ‘You’re Scary Now’, he’ll range from broken chants to more astute declarations, everything backed by a grunge-nodding calling card. There’s a thirty-second intro that only the left ear can hear, so Williams clearly isn’t fussed about delivering the goods in a flash. But stick with him, and he exposes himself as one of Canada’s brightest new prospects.

JOY AGAIN - LOOKING OUT FOR YOU

Thought you knew everything there was to know about XL signing Shamir? His disco-nodding pop and impromptu fan hugs aren’t everything. He’s also a new music addict, scouring Tumblr for new discoveries, and it’s a habit that hasn’t dropped since becoming a Massive Pop Star. Shamir manages Joy Again (pictured, top), a sweetly-glazed five-piece hailing from different sides of Pennsylvania. Their debut single on Lucky Number is ‘Looking Out For You’, a smiley faced twee customer on first glance, secretly packing a dark heart.

MOTHXR - TOUCH

There are bands queueing up around the street with the same steamed up pop Brooklyn’s MOTHXR sport. But these four have a headstart, weaving razor-sharp melodies into their skyscraper pop aesthetic. On ‘Touch’, they come closer to mastering the post-Drive soundtrack mood than any other contemporary, finding a new shade to moody R&B when it didn’t look possible.

RICKY EAT ACID - DEAR LORD

Ricky Eat Acid’s built foundations of steel on his spiny, slick production, but he’s yet to put his name to anything quite this barbed. Popping up at the tail end of last week, his latest builds pitch-shifted vocals and a metallic, technicolour backing towards a needle-point drop that’s fit to shake mountains. Dear Lord indeed.

QUILT - ELIOT ST.

Wilting with psychedelic flourishes, there’s an eerie tint to Quilt’s latest. The Mexican Summer signees might be under the radar for the time being, but that’s only cause they’re so hard for it to pick up – smoky and shapeshifting, it’s a track that knits Bowie-esque pomp to a foundation of classic indie-rock, and given UMO and Gengahr’s heady heights, one that suggests new album ‘Plaza’ could be this lot’s breakthrough.

Tags: Chastity, Listen, Features, Neu, Neu Bulletin