News This Week In New Music (30th November 2013)

Who said the bedroom was a place for inactivity, shame and eating bowls of cheerios while still tucked underneath the sheets? Producers the world over have pretty much taken on the setting as a christian name. ‘Me? I’m not just a producer. I’m a bedroom producer. Drink it in.’

Far from being some source of shame, an insight into some poor soul’s lack of a recording budget, it’s become an expanding tag to attach onto music that sounds vaguely amateur. Hence why it’s picked up a fair few criticisms from pros, and even regular day-to-day listeners who like their kbps to have an actual bite.

But working behind the deluge of beats and poorly acquired samples is a host of bedroom kids in disguise. There’s a professional sheen to their recordings, something bounds of equipment could barely replicate. Neu’s highlights of the past 7 days are all working in comfortable environments. It might be the secret to producing brilliant, tangibly exciting music. All three of the below have this in spades.

TRACK OF THE WEEK
East India Youth - Dripping Down


Call William Doyle miserable and he’d be unlikely to bat an eyelid. His ‘Strife’, which arrives in a form so ‘Total’ on a debut album, is in a state of continuum. Vocals are in a permanent state of melancholy. Instrumental swashes and choral ‘oohs’ do nothing to balk the formula.

In ‘Dripping Down’ however, something switches for East India Youth. He sees the light. Out bursts a synth line that - I shit you not - could come straight from Coldplay’s ‘Mylo Xyloto’ aka Chris Martin’s fuck-it-let’s-go-party record. Back off, snobs. Topping a newfound, glittering excitement of tribal drums and actual soaring choruses is the kind of human sensibility that Doyle seems so adept at providing. It’s an enticing mix that never turns sour. Rarely has so much anticipation been invested in a debut, but ‘Total Strife Forever’ could be good enough to define the next year.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Spring King - Heat Of The Summer


Tarek Musa is a go-to producer for a scrappy bunch of guitar-wielding kids intent on raising hell. They’re all flocking to him. Bedroom-bound, he’s up there with former Test Icicle Rory Attwell in being a muse for fuzz-tastic triumphs. That’s not to do any disservice to his own work under Spring King, however.

In fact, ‘Heat of the Summer’ - a track taken from his debut release - stands out as a piano-led ballad. Spontaneously recorded on the spot, apparently, its namesake video possesses more of a rehearsed spirit. Lush colours bleed into one, with Tarek nodding away alongside a collection of antiques until his emotionally fraught vocal settles right into the scenery. It’s strangely beautiful, contrasting to the notion that Tarek is a child of noisy lo-fi.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
Moonbather
Early Versions EP by Moonbather

Picked out last week in a Neu Bulletin, Caleb Campbell’s Moonbather fronts a sound that sticks to the surface, like a dead fly on a windscreen or a sweat-drenched hand on a mirror. His songs are dirty, gnarly things, disguised as romance-dosed ‘early versions’ that channel Bradford Cox’s recording style (‘Microcastle’ era at full steam) and some of Jackson Scott’s snarling debut of this year. Not one second floats by without a thrashing strum of guitar. Caleb’s music is one for the dreamers - although these empty-headed freaks have some mighty ambition to boot.