New Music Guide The Neu Bulletin (Kate Teague, Mush, Steady Holiday & more)

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

2nd August 2018

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.

Kate Teague - Good To You

Originally from Alabama but now based in Mississippi, Kate Teague’s latest single ‘Good To You’ may only be her second release as a solo artist, but it hardly shows. A slice of upbeat Americana-influenced dream-pop following on from her first single ‘Low Life’, the track is, according to Kate, about a “struggle with comparing myself as a partner to other people as partners, and relaying my frustration at inopportune times… like at a wedding”. With a breezy instrumental and lyrics full of storytelling prowess, ‘Good To You’ is a dynamic and delightful addition to any summer playlist. (Rachel Finn)

Mush - Gig Economy

Wonky Leeds types Mush first pricked up our ears around this time last year, with sprawling, sardonic single ‘Alternative Facts’ – a wry nod to the Trump-affiliated phrase laced over 10 minutes of careering Parquet Courts-esque guitars. In the interim year, the band have lost none of their dry wit nor way with an idiosyncratic hook. ‘Gig Economy’ clocks in – fittingly - at a reasonably economical 2 mins 40 and rattles by on eye-rolling lyrics about the difficulties of maintaining any semblance of financial stability in the modern world. It’s also, despite the subject matter, all sorts of fun, landing somewhere between Pavement, the aforementioned Courts and the more art-rock end of England’s 80s. (Lisa Wight)

Steady Holiday – Who’s Gonna Stop Us

Steady Holiday – the nom de plume of LA singer Dre Babinski – makes the kind of intimate yet strangely dangerous music that dwells in the tactile, ethereal shadows. Still relatively unknown on UK shores, over in the US she’s already racked up support tours with Mitski and Unknown Mortal Orchestra – both very different artists, but both ones with immediately recognisable sonic markers. Babinski too, has these in spades. Spacious, delicate twinkles gentle cradle Dre’s cooing, gently entrancing vocal, yet there’s something darker at play here and it’s this underlying unease that sets Steady Holiday and ‘Who’s Gonna Stop Us’ apart from the pack. It’s about time the UK started taking note. (Lisa Wright)

Aaberg - Kreosel

Aaberg is the project of Brighton’s Hunter Mockett, who makes intimate folk songs full of self-reflection. His latest release ‘Kreosel’, taken from his debut album ‘Albratross’, is full of ambient space. With almost whispered lyrics, a sparse and meditative guitar line and an eventual fade out into the calming sounds of nature, the track is an exercise in both relaxation and introspection, something that’s able to stop you in the moment to sit back and listen. (Rachel Finn)