News This Week In New Music (19th April 2014)

In two weeks’ time, festival season in the UK gets into gear. It begins with the ‘showcases’. That’s a shit term for what’s essentially a bringing together of very exciting new faces, buzzing around a city thriving in venues. Yes, these bands will be playing to industry faces, the odd suit looking to be impressed. But they’ll also be making their first impression on completely unprepared, soon-to-be obsessed fans. That’s the magic of Live at Leeds or Liverpool Sound City or The Great Escape. In every venue you step into, there’s bound to be something new and eye-opening.

Sometimes it’s best to play these things by chance - don’t bother planning, just wander around aimlessly and stumble a great band. Or maybe you should plan these things to a T. Maybe you should spend all your time at the Brudenell Social Club this May (cough cough, DIY Stage at Live at Leeds), or downstairs at Audio in Brighton (cough cough, yep, that’s also the DIY Stage at the Great Escape). We’re hosting the likes of Woman’s Hour, Royal Blood and Girl Band at these fests in May. It’s going to be an incredible start to the summer.

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Glass Animals - Pools


A trip to the amazon rainforest with Glass Animals sounds like one of those once-in-a-lifetime musical giveaways, like doing ice skating with Britney Spears, or suit shopping with Justin Timberlake. It’s a perfect match for this Oxford group’s queasy, playful pop. Mimicking a rain dance and a party anthem all at once, ‘Pools’ is Dave Bayley and co.’s finest attempt to date at compressing their oddities into a hard-hitting, immediate track. If the charts was full of this - all pulsating, grooving and indisputably gooey - it’d probably grow stale, but there’s always room for strange types like Glass Animals, kings of invention.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Eugene Quell - Make a House a Home


Premiered on DIY earlier this week, a simple, glowing stop-start animation clip might not usually grab this kind of attention, but its placing is poignant: Eugene Quell, a Brighton act we’d previously rendered incapable of doing anything without a) swearing and b) shouting, shows his softer side here. A sweet message wrapped up in an equally charming song, to have this gentle and immersive clip backing it is just an added bonus.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
JUDE.


Behold, the post-Lorde-era of pop. Where emotions match up with minimal instrumentation in a cool, composed but heart-wrenching display of songwriting. JUDE. aren’t a one song group. Once they rule the charts - which let’s face it, at this rate they’ll be there in a year - perhaps a side of theirs will expose itself more than the moody grooves of ‘Crystals’. But let’s pretend that the vocals don’t mimic the world’s most famous NZ teen for a second. ‘Crystals’ - beyond comparisons - is an earth-shattering, gigantic work. Emotional to the point of no return, it’s more heart on sleeve than Anne Hathaway doing ‘I Dreamed a Dream’. This is honest, affecting pop that just so happens to arrive at exactly the right time. JUDE. will be huge.