New music guide The Neu Bulletin (Show Boy, Scrounge, Michl & More)
DIY’s essential, weekly guide to the best new music.
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.
Show Boy – Young Gun
London’s Show Boy (FKA Jovis & the Bedwetters) are not what you’d call the shy and retiring types. Fusing falsetto vocals and funk synths with a chorus that lands somewhere between Journey and Bon Jovi - aka Maximum Power Rock, it finds flamboyant frontman Jovis declaring himself “this century’s Peter Pan” before suffering a mid-song breakdown when he’s chucked off campus for looking too old. It’s an utterly ridiculous debut, and one that stays just on the right side of The Darkness, but in this terrifying modern world, we could probably all use a hefty dose of Show Boy right now. (Lisa Wright)
Scrounge – See Through
Scrounge are clearly not ones for frilly extras. Billing themselves simply as “100% hot rock bangers” Lucy and Luke (note the first names only policy) hail from South East London. They have just the one demo out for now, but it shows they’re capable of juddering the socks off your feet, and rocking you quietly into a cry-sleep alike. ‘See Through’ - charged with all the helpless anger of a pissed-off onlooker who can see through the veneer - is an expansive first effort, and ‘Destiny’s Child’ (besides being named after one of the best bands in the world) seethes with twanging guitar progressions and infectious defiance. (El Hunt)
Joseph Chilliams – Powerpuff
Referencing his favourite Powerpuff Girl (Buttercup FYI), Lindsey Lohan and Cheerios, ‘Powerpuff’ is US rapper Joseph Chilliams’ introduction, by way of an late ’90s-indebted, childhood-heavy slow groove of a new tune. Not only does it sample the theme from the titular Cartoon Network show, it’s also taken from a forthcoming release entitled ‘Henry Church’, the English translation of Enrique Iglesias. Amazing. (Lisa Wright)
Michl – Waste?
Last year Los Angeles-based Michl briefly emerged with ‘Kill Our Way To Heaven’, but with his latest single ‘Waste?’ he’s delivered his boldest vision yet. On it, he questions the core idea of permanence, questioning whether dreams can simply fade into the ether, weaving his voice around a lush foundation of soulful R&B beats, minimal stabs of fuzzy synths, and simply gorgeous cascading piano. With this sublime slice of electro-soul (and after recently touring with maestro Mura Masa to boot), it’s hard to see Michl’s talents simply going to waste. (Eugenie Johnson)
Totty – Riff
Like if Best Coast went for a BBQ on a Sydney beach, Aussie duo Totty’s debut is a scuzzy yet sunny jam that’s purposefully simplistic and all the better for it. “On the road with my best friends/ We’re getting old/ I don’t want this time to end,” intones singer Kell over a simple four chord strum. Crack open a cider - it’s beginning to feel a lot like summer. (Lisa Wright)
Featuring SOFT PLAY, Corinne Bailey Rae, 86TVs, English Teacher and more!