News This Week In New Music (15th December 2012)

Instead of unleashing a bunch of Christmas classics, many new bands have taken it upon themselves this week to match the winter chill with alarmingly downtrodden, miserable music. This is not a companion for nights alone with a bottle of gin, let me tell you. All of our favourites from this week share the trait of being tender young men not afraid to put their emotions on display. It’s a strange coincidence that they just so happen to all be brilliant at what they do.

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Brolin - Another Year


This might just be the strongest, most crippling love song of them all from the past year. The opening declaration, ‘if you need a place to stay tonight, somewhere to rest those tired eyes, you can call me, darling’ is enough to calm the most ragged of pre-Christmas nerves. Our beatmaker who works in isolation turns out to be quite the charmer. ‘In time, I know you’ll be my forever’ he claims with quiet confidence. In truth, we could listen to ‘Another Year’ until the end of time, as Brolin sings to us by candlelight.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Deptford Goth - Union


This video will make you squirm with frustration. All you’ll want to do is join Daniel Woodhouse in that big open field he encounters, with balloons strapped to his wrists. He looks tired and in need of a proper hug. The music itself is intimate, laced with life and hope and all the things poor haggard Daniel looks like he could do with.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
Ranvir Bassi

Latest recruit to the guy-in-bedroom-who-also-writes-great-tunes mantle is Ranvir Bassi

The producer from Coventry is now recording in London, having emerged from a trip to Berlin with three whole album’s worth of material. Early tracks ‘Of Moons’ (stream above) and ‘Birthday’ are deep, experimental cuts, less concerned with cold emotions than grand statements, an emphasis placed on an illuminating, iridescent sense of musical adventure.