Round-up This Week In New Music (12th July 2014)

In our weekly round-up of tracks, videos and discoveries, Neu picks out its favourites.

Words: Jamie Milton
12th July 2014

In a recent interview with Londoners Real Lies (which’ll soon arrive in full form later this month), they disclosed that their debut video for ‘Deeper’ (a heady mix of house party shots and inner city outtakes) cost £50 to put together. They managed to get Rollo Jackson to direct, and in turn create a clip that put the trio on the map. Often homemade clips or archive footage can come off a bit lacking in purpose, but this one matched their sound to a T. Big budgets don’t necessarily make for equally showy entrances. Plenty argue that some new artists arrive backed by funds, a plan, an easy way in. But don’t bet against lesser knowns still making their mark with mere pennies.

Below, we’ve picked out the highlights in new music from the past seven days. One arrives from a band making music in a bathroom. Another sees a promising London artist collaborating with an equally exciting photographer/videographer. The last is from a band with absolutely zero info out there, but for a snazzy website and a promising debut single. They might have a lot of backing, but does it matter when a debut’s this good?

Here’s the best of what happened this week in new music:

TRACK OF THE WEEK:
Spring King - Can I?

The walls shake and the house crumbles in the background to Spring King’s latest call to arms. The Manchester band tend to record one at a time - Tarek Musa’s at the helm, but actual sessions depend on how many individuals he can fit in a bathroom slash studio. It’s a testing process, but somehow on ‘Can I?’ he brings a big, bolstered full-band mentality. They sound like a gang, even if there’s leaning on a toilet seat to record their solo. There’s method to the madness, evidently, and it holds one of the country’s more unhinged bands in good stead.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:
Adult Jazz - Idiot Mantra / Community Rhythms

Strictly speaking this isn’t a bog-standard music video. It’s (presumably) the first of a project called Community Rhythms, headed up by Leeds band Adult Jazz. It sees the experimental four-piece sitting in a circle in a community centre, bashing bongo drums into eternity until they eventually land on a nifty rhythm. It’s one that forms ‘Idiot Mantra’, a devilish, twisted glimpse into the very depths of Adult Jazz’s oddball intentions. This band are writing songs that don’t follow convention, so it’s just like them to come up with a video that shuns rules in equal measure.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK:
Formation

Formation is a pair of twin brothers based in South London, their debut single being a curious mix of funk and playful pop. The white label video it arrives alongside gives hints to a previous age, where singles of this ilk would blast out of neighbourhood houses, onto sun-drenched city streets. Ignore the spinning wax and this is an undeniably modern, sophisticated pop track, one tailor-made for Hot Chip addicts, or indeed anyone that was equally as intrigued by Jungle’s early efforts this time last year. All signs point forward, then.

Tags: Adult Jazz, Real Lies, Spring King, Listen, Features, Neu