News This Week In New Music (17th May 2014)

Sometimes - read: always - it’s a good thing to mythologise. Come up with stories, imagine things that might just be pure nonsense, and attach them to the bands currently making waves. Chicago’s ‘scene’ might not actually be a scene anymore, especially given the fact its small roster of bands are all respectively touring the world in different cities. But it’s cool to think that here exists a bunch of friends with similar ideas, the same attitude, ready to take on the planet.

The same goes for new UK duo Hockeysmith, who apparently made most of their music while holed up in a caravan on the South West coast. Even if this was complete bollocks, it’s nice to imagine the pair shuttering the screens in a Breaking Bad-style fashion and shutting themselves off from the world while making the country’s answer to Warpaint. And when it comes to new band TOKEN, there’s pretty much no info to match the band’s debut track ‘METEOR’. And that’s exciting. Imagine the possibilities, the circumstances in which their first work was defined by. Make your own myth - it’s half of the fun.

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Twin Peaks - Flavor


A couple of disclaimers: Yes, Twin Peaks are a band moving onto their second album, which doesn’t quite fit the Neu criteria. But who’s keeping score? They’re a band on the up, on the brink of releasing their debut UK EP called ‘Flavor’. Also, the EP’s lead track has been floating around since last year, but here in its fully affirmed glory it truly stands out as the Chicago group’s brightest call to arms so far. Carefree rock ‘n roll is the spirit, jumped-up riffs the prescription. Spreading from Chicago outwards, there’s a definite scene splintering off out of the city, from The Orwells and beyond - if Twin Peaks are responsible for said scene’s step-up, it wouldn’t be a surprise.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Hockeysmith - Hesitate


This wasn’t the only brilliant video to emerge over the week - Le1f’s ‘Sup’ clip summed up his no-prisoners, honest-to-tape style like nothing else up to now. But Hockeysmith’s latest also told a distinct story. Filmed in Falmouth, Cornwall, so the story goes this is where the South of England duo have been working - in a caravan - for months, whittling away at their disturbing industrial pop. Their tale’s probably been mythologised in some part, but what else is going to explain their stormy, dagger-sharp approach? Dark hearts coin music like ‘Hesitate’, and this Laura Coulson-directed clip goes some way to explaining how it was conjured up.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
TOKEN
METEOR by TOKEN

Here’s what we know: TOKEN make some of the giddiest, most alive-sounding synth pop this side of CHVRCHES. They consist of Anne Douris and Nixon Boyd, who used to play in a band called Hollerado. Together they combine forces in a streamlined, celebratory, glistening way that’s tougher to master than its sheer effortlessness might suggest. Debut track ‘METEOR’ is the sound of the future crashing down to earth - it’s a sharp, deadly, splintering thing and it’s beyond the most exciting debut we’ve heard on these pages in a long time.