News This Week In New Music (25th August 2012)

Before secret small-scale gigs played by ridiculously big acts in London became ‘all the rage’, and before it came out that Green Day were going to be playing ‘Dookie’ to a crowd of adorning onlookers (and the odd bunch who only really liked ‘American Idiot’), new music was being talked about. People remembered what it was like to hear a new act and get that feeling in your gut, of pure excitement and expectation. You’d envision all kinds of ridiculous things, like listening to a band for the first time and imagining them headlining Glastonbury (I tend to do this every time I see Drop Out Venus live; it’s like some twisted fantasy of mine). Anyway, nobody cares about new music anymore but I’m going to persist with guiding you through all the things that have been happening on Neu’s glossy online pages. Bear with me.

This week saw the moment we finally told you all about Unicorn Kid. You might have heard about him via. a Grimes remix and the odd Radio 1 play, so it seemed due time we informed you about the (infuriatingly young) new talent. We also took a closer look at Anthony Ferraro aka. Astronauts Etc, and his slushy gooey dreampop goodness. Things didn’t stop there. We brought you the premiere of the new Slow Magic remix of Cuushe’s ‘Do You Know The Way To Sleep’ song, as well as talking to 9mary and finding out all about Jethro Fox’s cultural upbringing. We were busy. But so were musicians. Here’s a round-up of the best things that entered into our ears these past seven days:

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Neu’s absolute favourite act of the moment is Drop Out Venus; never has a band so intense, pent-up, disgustingly terrifying happened upon our speakers and such a sensation is epitomised in ‘Elastic Teen Rant’, a song stuffed with sexual innuendos and harsh growls of guitar feedback. Just do what I do and imagine them playing this song on a dark night, atop the Pyramid Stage. It’s a beautiful dark twisted fantasy.
- Daughn Gibson also celebrated signing to Sub Pop with a new song (and a new direction) in the form of ‘Reach Into The Fire’.
- Southern Shores brought tropical vibes to the forefront of our week, with their fantastic returning effort ‘New Love’.
- And Eddi Front won the “lyric of the year” contest with the brutal line: “while you’re fucking some old dusty chair, I’ll be eating bananas and riding a big black stallion”

VIDEO OF THE WEEK

One clip stole our attention this time round. Sam Howard is known for putting his name to superb videos, but the video for ‘White Chalk’ had everything: Beautiful lighting, a church choir, a sombre atmosphere. It goes hand in hand with the song itself with such beautiful ease, you forget that the lead track from Howard ‘Ark’ album didn’t have an accompanying video before this week.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK It’s hard to resist something as beautiful as what Flau Records signing Cuushe provides: Like a cross between Bjork and Sigur Ros (if you’re thinking ‘yeah, heard that before’, just listen), we said the following: “She sings with alien disguise; a Jonsi-like call to arms that speaks volumes and hones in at an inner peace. There’s a Grouper-like sparseness to a song like ‘Do You Know The Way To Sleep’, the kind you can get lost in for days.”

- Neu glanced out elsewhere, away from our own pages this week, to discover the vibrant bounce of new London act Years and Years. Listen to ‘I Wish I Knew’, it’s the only song that’s out there at the moment but this time in six months, it’s hard not to envisage it getting some chart-ready re-release.


- Hot Panda also whet our appetites for a forthcoming release on Mint Records, with a Pete & The Pirates style of wit-drenched guitar pop. Check out the Vancouver five-piece here and stream ‘Language’ below.