Round-up This Week In New Music (29th November 2014)

The week’s best new tracks and discoveries, featuring Hannah Diamond, Sylas and Silverbacks.

Words: Jamie Milton
29th November 2014

The week began with news we’ve been sitting on for a few weeks: The announcement that Girl Band, The Magic Gang and Demob Happy would be involved in our beginning-of-year new music showcases.

Our London ‘Hello’ series hosted early shows from Wolf Alice and Honeyblood, and with every will in the world, it’d be brilliant to see every band on the 2015 bills taking off in similar ways. These shows follow 2014’s first ever DIY Presents Tour, headlined by Flyte - formidable nice jumper sporters and catchy song-penners. Their new track ‘False Alarm’ stepped out with a completely refreshed take, and they weren’t the only ones to shun expectation this week. Alex G turned heads with a mere b-side in ‘Soaker’, the songwriter adding further fuel to the belief that he might be one of this generation’s next big songwriters. There was also Trust Fund, Bristol gems celebrating a big deal on Turnstile with the announcement of their debut album, plus new track ‘Cut Me Out’.

Elsewhere, highlights came in the form of Aquilo’s storytelling video for ‘I Gave It All’, and Sylas’ Brian Eno-featuring choral calm, ‘Layer’.

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

THIS WEEK IN DIY PREMIERES:
Annika Zee

Debuts on DIY were mostly reserved for established names this week. Noel Gallagher and The Phantom Band are several albums in - they’ve seen it all. Annika Zee however is viewing the world with fresh eyes. Dreaming its way into floaty paradise, there’s a smoothed out quality to her ‘Asleep in the Heat’ single, which picked up initial Sharon van Etten comparisons when coming online - but there’s more to it. “I’m tired of being tricked to solve your confidence,” she spits in a second verse, deceptively moving from sweet relaxation into a bitter aftertaste. If prompted with a full-length, you’d imagine Zee capable of telling some fascinating stories.

TRACK OF THE WEEK:
Hannah Diamond - Every Night

Now that most everyday folk (a small niche of Twitter) have found themselves accustomed to PC Music’s searingly sharp, sugar-dosed tones, what’s the appeal of Hannah Diamond? A big brains behind 2014’s go-to label, she’s been responsible for designing and conceptualising the majority of PC’s ‘look’. She’s also penned the catchiest songs to emerge from a squeaky clean. ‘Every Night’ isn’t the best she’s put her name to - it doesn’t possess the same online break-up relevance of ‘Attachment’, or the sheer shock factor of ‘Pink and Blue’, but thrown into a club set it still has the potential to be a spanner in the works. Given how over-saturated PC’s output threatens to become, it’s no small feat to see Diamond turning confused and celebratory heads in unison. Twelve months is a long time for a hype act, but the wheels keep turning.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK:
Silverbacks

Far from being a fad, Dublin’s Silverbacks are the kind of band with long-term potential. They pen songs that live somewhere within the alternative ‘90s heyday of Modest Mouse and Pinback, and they throw in a healthy supply of wit to match. We picked out the band in a Neu Bulletin earlier this week, noting a “Andrew Savage quality” to the lead vocalist. But there’s a ton of overlapping lines to bask in, here. By the end of ‘Fad 1995’, a swarm surrounds the scene, and it’s like trying to pick out the best line in your favourite book.

Tags: Hannah Diamond, Listen, Features, Neu