News This Week In New Music (27th April 2013)

The age of people quitting their jobs, squeezing into some lycra and joining in on the disco revival is not yet upon us. It will be. Daft Punk have a new single out, it’s going to get to number 1. Think: Some people haven’t heard ‘Get Lucky’ yet and they don’t know what it feels like to have Pharell Williams musically undress them with the lyric ‘Like the legend of the phoenix / Our ends with beginnings.’

That lyric is so awful, so utterly ridiculous, it should be a turn-off. But instead you’re compelled to stay up all night to get lucky.

Anyway, presuming this disco revolution goes down, sooner or later new bands will have given up. They’ll be ripping up almost-signed contracts in front of label execs, heading for the streets with nothing but a suitcase full of spandex trousers. For the time being we’re humouring ourselves with the idea that this won’t happen, so here comes another new music round-up where we tell you about the finer things that emerged in the past seven days.

TRACK OF THE WEEK
TRAAMS - Mexico


Make no mistake: Parquet Courts get hyped to the heavens because they’re a really good band. Because they make people want to get sweaty and grubby and freak-out happy to their songs. But they’re not the only guitar-wielding types blasting out mucky sounds like it’s some form of closure. That’s probably why PC hate doing all these ‘why are you such a good band’ interviews. ‘TRAAMS exist’, they want to say. ‘Go bug those guys.’

These new Fatcat signings really upped the anti with ‘Mexico’, a standalone track that’s whetting the appetite for a debut EP out later this year. We premiered the song so obviously we adore it, but we’ve barely been able to listen to anything else since Monday, such is the track’s incessant ability to make gruesome noise seem like something to rejoice in.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Young Fathers - I Heard

Young Fathers - ‘I Heard’ from anticon. on Vimeo.

Even though every band is cited as being the ‘standout’ of SXSW, I saw more genuine eureka moments associated with Young Fathers than anyone else. The Scottish trio, signed to the beloved Anticon, are a perfect fit for their label of choice. Yeah, the music’s laced with hip-hop tid-bits that ease the flow of every song, but the real onus is on invention. ‘I Heard’ - and its accompanying video - shows skill in placing daring feats into a three-and-a-half-minute, hook-filled track. It’s something few bands would try, let alone get away with.

‘TAPE TWO’ is released on 11th June.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
Wardell


Wardell have existed for a good two years. One of them’s hung out in Nico Jaar’s studio. They’re siblings, with a very famous Dad, and the Spielberg duo have likely had A&Rs hounding them for months. ‘Opossum’ isn’t a new song by any means, but even with the announcement of a debut EP on go-to label National Anthem its re-emergence seems almost uncanny in terms of timing. It’s probably been the sound of the summer for the past two years, we just haven’t been paying enough attention.

The debut EP’s out 3rd June.