Neu This Week In New Music (22nd March 2014)

Set aside any weekend plans. This is where it’s at. In several years’ time, when we’re all discussing the effects of the Bingo Tax and wondering where it all went wrong, you’ll be able to halt sour conversation by whipping out the golden nugget of info that back in March of 2014, when the skies were blue and the music booming, you digested Neu’s new music round-up. It was the finest round-up for some time. Every second of music showcased within this feature could be digested again and again, like a soggy biscuit that doesn’t crumble off into a cup of tea. You’ll sing the songs you heard, over and over again, as everyone pores over their scratch cards and drinks the last sip of their solitary pint. You’ll tell them about the things that really matter in life, like hearing Allie X a few weeks before she gets famous, and reminiscing about the time SOHN refused to take his hat off. This is it, guys.

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

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Allie X - Prime


Things keep spinning and the wheels keep turning for Allie X. This year’s answer to CHVRCHES’ giddy, angst-laced synth pop set herself a high target with debut ‘Catch’. Let’s not get started on her chances of matching anything on ‘The Bones Of What You Believe’, too. ‘Prime’ is, however, a stunning, head-turning sign of things to come. Allie Hughes was once a finalist on How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria? She used to front a curious folk solo project too. But let’s focus on the present. Especially the bit in ‘Prime’ where everything goes full-on bleepy bloop mental, like an armageddon led by an army of fed-up Casio keyboards. There’s excitable, then there’s ‘Prime’. There’s a promising early single, then there’s ‘Prime’. If she can overcome the dizziness she’ll suffer from spinning on that chair of hers, Allie X will be a star.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
SOHN - Artifice (4AD Session)


Is SOHN a vampire? As in, has he been lurking in the dark all this time before laying down his bite (ie. soaring pop songs with a magnetic attraction to bloggers) and changing the world on his terms? The cloak he sports suggests as much. And this ‘Artifice’ 4AD session is the next clue. The craft of the song isn’t all that evident on debut album ‘Tremors’. It just sounds like a nifty, hook-heavy triumph. Here, you can see every shift in pace, every electronic twitch that goes into the process. If you’re as good at working samplers as SOHN is, you’d spend all your time indoors too, right?

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
All We Are


From Liverpool and beyond, there’s been talk about All We Are for a while now. Their first handful of demos were soaked in psych, smartly-arranged too. Like Unknown Mortal Orchestra with a few disco references up their sleeves, this was fun, fresh-faced music with plenty of breathing space. The band’s first single proper ‘Feel Safe’ is the sound of a dancehall taking a moment’s pause. Forget the spandex suits and Saturday Night Fever moves for a second. This is more Bee Glum than Bee Gee. Still, it showcases a band tighter, more free to roam than any of their peers. 2014 is theirs for the taking, one Billie Jean step at a time.