New music guide The Neu Bulletin (ZoZo, Days Fade, Nights Grow, Mush & more)

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

6th October 2017

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.

ZoZo – NONO

Forming over a love of New York post-punks but cutting their teeth within the UK’s DIY scene, Leeds band ZoZo effortlessly walk the tightrope between the two on their new track ‘NONO’. Produced by Hookworms’ MJ, it’s the first cut from their upcoming EP ‘A Bitter Gourd’, it’s a five-minute burst of scuzzy, crunching riffs, quick-fire, half-spoken lyrics, squalling brass flourishes and even some sing-along “woah-oh” moments. It’s pretty much the perfect melting pot of their myriad of influences distilled with their own twist, and it’s very hard to resist. ‘NONO’? More like yes yes. (Eugenie Johnson)

Days Fade, Nights Grow - Amelioration

Days Fade, Nights Grow is the new project of London-based Camille Rearden, a member of a handful of UK DIY bands including Towel and Garden Centre. ‘Amelioration’ is their first full solo effort, self-released onto Bandcamp. 11 tracks of lo-fi noise, its title track is a real highlight, nestled towards the end of the tracklisting. An almost choral beginning sees Rearden reciting verse after verse of vicious spoken word, before the music catches up with her anger; thrashing drums and intense, droney keys serve to back up the intense power of her lyrics. “I’m gathering power daily,” she bellows, and despite its bleak exterior, ‘Amelioration’ is a song and an album to banish darkness with. (Will Richards)

Mush - Luxury Animals

As ever, Bristol’s Art Is Hard Records have brought us some of the best lo-fi, DIY indie rock of the year across 2017, and the new track from Leeds outfit Mush doesn’t see the standard drop. ‘Luxury Animals’ - the first side of a new 7” coming out on the label - channels Parquet Courts in its uber-cool, loose garage rock. It’s no less forceful for it though, with screaming guitars worming their way around vocals that sit somewhere between Lou Reed and Protomartyr’s Joe Casey. It’s brilliant. (Will Richards)

Luke Marzec - When We First Met

We first came across British-Polish multi-instrumentalist Luke Marzec with his extremely promising single ‘Another Guy’, released in the summer, a song which painted him as anything but just another guy. His gravelly vocals are once again at the fore of its follow-up ‘When We First Met’, dancing around swelling synths. Skittish synths and smooth-as-silk jazz drumming enters the fold, but it’s Marzec’s vocals that remain the standout, and they’re stunning enough to carry him to pretty massive things. (Will Richards)

Seazoo – Shoreline

Uplifting? Check. Jangly? Check. A bit wonky? Check, and mate. With their debut album on the horizon, Welsh quintet Seazoo have conjured up a magical indie-pop number like a rabbit from a top hat. With wobbly vintage synths, driving guitar riffs, and vocals that rise and fall at will yet remain easy to have a sing along to, ‘Shoreline’ is simply bursting at the seams with oddball pop charm. Now, who’s ready to hit the beach? (Eugenie Johnson)

Neu gig of the week

Underwater Boys @ Sebright Arms, London
11th October, Free Entry

Ahead of their slot supporting Dream Wife later this month, Brighton duo Underwater Boys are headlining a free entry show at everyone’s favourite boozer (and the home of DIY’s own monthly pub quiz, cough cough) the Sebright Arms. Early single ‘Everyone You Know’ is a falsetto gem full of woozy melodies and the kind of twinkling, slightly substance-addled vibe of a lost Connan Mockasin track - aka it’s very good indeed. Get in the know.