New music guide The Neu Bulletin (Phantastic Ferniture, Elle Watson, Momma & more)

“I’d gone straight into folk music, so every experience I’d had on stage was playing sad music with a guitar in my hand,” Julia Jacklin explains of her thoughts behind new project Phantastic Ferniture. “I thought, I would love to know what it’s like to make people feel good and dance.”

She’ll surely find out soon enough if debut track ‘Fuckin ‘n’ Rollin’ is anything to go by: based around an infectious, worming bassline, Jacklin’s vocals soar with a new-found urgency, buoyed by the upbeat indie-pop surrounding her. It’s a real delight of a first step. (Will Richards)

Elle Watson is the newest signing to Paul Epworth’s WolfTone label, and has been working with Epworth himself, as well as Clams Casino, on tracks leading up to her new EP ‘Clinchers’, out next week.

New track ‘Pressure’ sees her teaming up with fellow WolfTone signing and Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley, who brings a slinky, psychedelic backbone to the track, on top of which the singer lets loose with her pitch-perfect, silky smooth vocals. Once her identity is solidified, she’ll be a real force to be reckoned with. (Will Richards)

Gothenberg-based Wildhart released their debut album ‘Shine’ towards the end of 2016, but a lot has changed since then for the group. The once-trio is now a duo, meaning the band have had to experiment with new ways of making music and the results show on their latest track, suitably titled ‘New Beginning’. With a lush minimalism that builds into something more as the song progresses, the band’s new arrangement means their original rhythm section has been replaced with more sample-based beats, allowing soft synthesisers and dreamy vocals to take centre stage, and it seems like a good direction to go in. (Rachel Michaella Finn)

Los Angeles songwriters Etta Friedman and Allegra Weingarten are mainstays of the Los Angeles DIY scene that has spawn the likes of Girlpool, and the pair’s music - made under the name Momma - isn’t too far away from the glistening lo-fi pop of the aforementioned pair.

New track ‘Work’ - taken from debut album ‘Interloper’, out later this month - uses restraint as its biggest weapon. Lyrics are softly released - almost even whispered - while drums rattle with intent in the background, and it transmits all the intensity of a thrashing punk song, but with the patience and calm to allow the message to hammer itself home. (Will Richards)

London’s Bad Nerves sound like they have a point to prove. New track ‘Can’t Be Mine’, the third single from the National Anthem-signed five-piece, sees them thrash their way through two minutes of frantic punk with all the momentum of a runaway train. There’s no room for breath on the track, all fuzzed out vocals and razor-sharp guitars strummed within an inch of their lives. With a superbly catchy chorus somehow packed in there too, it’s an exhilarating ride. (Will Richards)

Honeymoan are an indie band from Cape Town, formed in mid-2017. On new track ‘Rachel Michaella Finn)

Brighton/London five-piece Squid released their debut EP ‘LINO’ last year, and have returned with an outrageous and brilliant new single. ‘Terrestrial Changeover Blues (2007 - 2012)’ begins with harsh vocals roared over the top of woozy, psychedelic meandering, as if Shame’s Charlie Steen accidentally found himself on a Magical Mystery Tour.

An almost entirely different song is then tagged on the end, a zig-zagging, jumpy krautrock encore that channels the unpredictability of TRAAMS. To get all this inside five minutes is a real feat. (Will Richards)

Tags: Elle Watson, Phantastic Ferniture, Listen, Features, Neu, Neu Bulletin