This Week In New Music (2nd August 2014) • Neu • DIY Magazine

Before addressing the best new music to reach these pages in the past week, it’s worth noting that a good chunk of the agenda’s belonged to one song. It’s not something to sip on, is ‘Lemonade’, by opinion-dividing producer SOPHIE. Not only does it maintain his fucked-up take on pop - it also (successfully?) turns away those who sat on the fence beforehand. Sickly sweet - enough to rival even the most forthright J-poppers - it’s a mini-triumph that’s loved and hated in equal measure. This week we’ve focused attention on newbies from completely different corners, from excitable psych to pristine pop to god-knows-what-you-call-it alt-R&B. There’s also been a handful of gems in the form of GEORGiA’s debut EP, Bloody Knees’ grazed latest number, and Fantastic Fantastic’s err, fantastic new single.

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

TRACK OF THE WEEK:Sunboy — Nu Religion

Usually the track of the week spot’s reserved for a song that’s sped past the 100k mark, stormed the web and beyond, turned heads in unison. Not intentionally. That’s just usually how it goes. With Sunboy, somehow, their psych-meets-Britpop blast of energy in the form of ‘Nu Religion’ has fallen just shy of the 2k mark. That won’t stop them being one of the most exciting US bands around, undoubtedly the recipients of feverish label chit-chat, but it does seem slightly short of its deserved audience (ie. just about everybody). It’s a song that takes staples of the previous decade and moulds them for the band’s own purpose. In this case that’s world domination, becoming fixtures of festival stages.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK:Vaults — Lifespan

There’s doom and darkness to this lone streamer of a video from London trio Vaults. It makes the idea of a ‘casual river stroll’ seem a bit sinister, to be honest. Mind you, it does add fever to Vaults’ fledging reputation as night creatures with a cause, nocturnal souls who spent every waking hour in gloomy, windowless studios.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK:Tama Gucci

In part inspired by the creepy, beautiful familiarity of a Twin Peaks soundtrack, Tama Gucci is equally a product of 2014. His dreamy, tear-soaked R&B is like Frank Ocean gone cuckoo after too many hours spent online. Linked up with fellow post-internet newcomer Spooky Black, he represents a trap beat-favouring, tender-hearted pack of exciting new voices who manage to pierce through feeds, hashtags and short attention spans with something www. can truly call its own.

Tags: Features, Neu, Listen, VAULTS