New music guide The Neu Bulletin (Mōtet Forte, Jaunt, Kadhja Bonet & more)

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

24th August 2016

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.

Mōtet Forte

The debut collection of songs by 19-year-old producer Mōtet Forte is decidedly rough around the edges. Its artwork is taken from the view of a plane, and there’s always a sense on this release that he’s going somewhere new, travelling before he’s even landed. Opening track ‘Grits’ is the standout, a glitchy, scatterbrained glimpse into a rough-around-the-edges but seriously exciting producer. (Jamie Milton)

Kadhja Bonet - Honeycomb

Kadhja Bonet’s music could easily be a lost tape from a previous decade, dug up from beneath the floor of a studio that housed some of music’s most iconic artists. There’s a modern twist to ‘Honeycomb’ -the way she swings from classical arrangements to deft flute and string parts, like standard structures don’t exist - but wedge this in the middle of a soul classics playlists and it wouldn’t look out of place. (Jamie Milton)

Jaunt - Okay Then

Toronto group Jaunt make music that gets tangled in bedsheets, comfy within empty spaces. Every piece of instrumentation is executed deftly, like they’re arranging a sculpture made of feathers. On ‘OkayThen’, a track from their ‘Chat’ EP, they somehow combine the words of Rhye and Mac DeMarco in a dangerously smooth mix. (Jamie Milton)

Pavo Pavo - Wiserway

Under ‘Wiserway’’s soft-breeze chamber pop, Pavo Pavo hide a heart of darkness. Through indecisive tempo changes and brief flirtations with all manner of twanging guitars, they hint at something truly special, like Grizzly Bear if they housed that animal they take their name from beneath their charming exterior. (Tom Connick)

Never Young - Beta Male Erotica

As anxious and spat-out as they come, Never Young’s punk-rock blaze feels like it’s been bottled up for a millennium. It’s a fitting tension, really. “Physicality was never sexy enough so you hide behind millennial plight” the Bay Area punks spit at the latent twats of their generation, before sneering one of the finest lyrical putdowns of the year - “Caught you reading Nietzsche at a house party / I caught you begging for someone to care / I think I rolled my eyes into another life that night.“ (Tom Connick)

Few Bits - Sweet Warrior

Few Bits’ softly-spoken songwriting sits atop a kaleidoscope. As all manner of instrumentation swirls and spins beneath her, Karolien Van Ransbeeck weaves as timeless a tale as they come - an ode to that titular ‘Sweet Warrior’ that was born fully formed for sunny afternoons. (Tom Connick)

Tags: Kadhja Bonet, Listen, Features, Neu, Neu Bulletin