This Week In New Music (27th September 2014) • Neu • DIY Magazine

2015 can’t come soon enough. Not because it’s fun to get the wheels turning for “Sound of” chatter - just because everything on the brink of blowing up right now is downright weird. It the likes of Kero Kero Bonito, Spooky Black and the PC Music bunch can somehow define the next twelve months without being a flash in the pan success, we’re in for a fun year. Spooky Black picked up a Zane Lowe play last night, so who knows - perhaps these internet successes are ready to step out into the real world.

Saint Pepsi is another internet phenomenon capable of stepping outside. Still, he’s arrived with easily the funniest/best remix of the year with his take on Drake’s ‘Worst Behaviour’. Nothing will live this down. Nothing was the same.

Another gem that didn’t make it into this week’s new music round-up - SALES’ debut EP. This Florida duo know everything there is to know about producing sharp, simple but intoxicating pop. Take note.

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

THIS WEEK’S DIY PREMIERES:The Harpoons, Blonde Bunny, Boxed In, Cancer

This week we’ve been delighted to share the debut full-length from Aussie oddballs The Harpoons. Their slick, reduced take on R&B flirts with all-out pop, but on ‘Falling For You’ they prefer to inhabit strange corners. The same applies for Blonde Bunny, in some senses, despite this new Peterborough outfit being way more psych-inclined. Their debut single ‘While We’re Sleeping’ is schooled in the same burst of energy-preferencing blast that Toy and The Horrors so blatantly adore, but it’s picked up attention this past week by offering a different side to a well-oiled machine. With Oli Bayston’s Boxed In project, he backed up promising solo numbers - an extension from his work as a producer - with his biggest single to date. ‘Foot of the Hill’ doesn’t mess around, instead getting to the point in a brilliant flash of inspiration. Cancer are more in The Harpoons camp when it comes to the immediacy vs. weirdo-pop divide. Their debut mini-album arrives just as autumn steps in and introspective nights are a must.

TRACK OF THE WEEK: TĀLĀ — Alchemy

Every time TĀLĀ shares a track, it’s as if she’s opening up a different corner of the world, showcasing a side that barely existed beforehand. ‘Alchemy’ takes the snapping, scatterbrained kitchen sink approach of her electronic pop and refines it somewhat. That’s until a chorus steps in - one lifted straight from a morning ritual, a Tekken fight scene the apocalypse all at once. It’s amazing that despite the maximalism of her music, she manages to avoid a see-what-sticks approach. There’s been a reduction at play here, even if ‘Alchemy’ can sometimes mimic the sensation of a head exploding into smithereens.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK:Alex Burey

With his debut track ‘Unspoken’, Alex Burey pretty much picks up a damp cloth and clears the whiteboard of his past. Not that this is the intention - there’s zero shame in being raised up around grime in South London. In fact, it makes the woozy, intelligent numbers he writes today all the more eye-opening. King Krule comparisons are inevitable - there’s a hint of jazz in there, they’re both from South London - but Burey’s first track is more a simple, romantic ditty than a grand mission statement of where he’s been, where he stands and where he’s going. “We have an unspoken beautiful thing,” he sings, and it’s clear that whichever way he’s headed, simplicity is the running ethos.

Tags: Features, Neu, Listen, Tāla