Round-up This Week In New Music (31st January 2015)

DIY and Neu round-up the best new music from the past seven days, featuring Girl Band and Diet Cig.

Words: Jamie Milton
31st January 2015

2015’s been topped. Call everything off, book the longest holiday of your life, scrap the savings plan. Nothing’s going to match Girl Band’s headline show for Hello 2015 earlier this week. We might as well give up. Following the band around for an entire summer might be financially foolish, but it’ll probably be more rewarding than months and months of trawling the same venues hoping to get a rush as heavy as seeing the Dublin group in peak form.

It’s a post-Girl Band withdrawal that’s defined the past few days, Sinead O’Connor’s ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ ringing out for eternity.

Salvation and healing has come in the source of Scotsman-on-the-loose American Wrestlers announcing his debut album without so much as showing his face. He’s not mysterious, strictly speaking - his road-tripping back story is there for anyone to find - but there’s a big sense of intrigue surrounding his first work. Elsewhere, highlights arrived in the shape of Oscar’s new video, a collaboration between Lxury and Deptford Goth, plus the return of dream-pop specialists Yumi Zouma.

Plenty to dig into, especially below, where no-Girl-Band-blues were cured in an instant. Here’s the best new music stuff from the past seven days:

This Week in DIY Premieres:

St. Tropez, Songhoy Blues, Rozi Plain, Bruising, Ex’s, Cairobi

Ahead of Girl Band’s Hello 2015 headline set, we premiered new tracks from two of the support acts: Ex’s and Bruising. The former sound like they could turn in any direction, be it storming shoegaze or romance-led fuzz-pop. As for Bruising - they sound perfectly assured with crafting spike-encrusted garage punk, defined by college rock staples and an undying sense of fun. We fell in love with the ‘Can’t You Feel’ single.

St. Tropez share a similar mentality. Hailing from Amsterdam, their don’t-give-a-fuck blast of noise fell into place for a debut EP, produced by Spring King’s Tarek Musa. Stuck trying to find evidence of heady noise coming into full bloom? Look no further.

We also debuted the globe-trotting video from Songhoy Blues, for their ‘Irganda’ single, as well as bugging up the psychedelic rush of Cariboi’s new video and Rozi Plain’s latest, which’ll take some topping.

Track of the Week:

Diet Cig - Harvard

Don’t let those jangly chords fool you. Diet Cig are a band with serious, spiteful intent. ‘Harvard’ is proof. On the second take from the duo’s debut ‘Over Easy’ EP, Alex Luciano sets the agenda with a colourful burst of dastardly declarations. “Ivy League sweaters” can’t compare to the singer, she claims, in a tale full-to-brim with self-confidence and a bitter aftertaste. This is angry done right, hate unfurling with perfect poise.

Discovery of the Week:

Babeheaven

Where to begin with Babeheaven? There’s a rogue Palma Violet in their new video. Someone’s also eating pizza. Oh, and there’s a bare-chested karate guru smashing blocks of concrete with his bare hands, while a bunch of tripped-out scenesters look on nonplussed.

What’s more, all the oddities are soundtracked with a star-gazing, glistening style of songwriting, one that goes beyond bad band names and a WTF-factor. It’s knowingly King Krule-esque, this delivery, an oh-so-London sound filtering beyond niche circles. It’ll be loved and hated in equal measure, but Babeheaven’s got plenty to prove.

Tags: Gilla Band, Features, Neu

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