Neu This Week In New Music (3rd August 2013)

It seems ridiculous to even consider such things at this midway stage of 2013, but who exactly’s planning on soundtracking just about everything come 2014? DIY Weekly’s recent ‘Heatwave’ issue concerned itself with such matters. The now-usual suspects of Chloe Howl, Lorde and Bipolar Sunshine jumped to the fore as potential household names - in fact, the office chatter centred on the fact that Lorde might not even be eligible for the ‘BBC Sound Of…’ sensationalism come January, she’s so likely to land a top 10 hit in the remaining months of the year.

Anyhow. The below are names who’ll be the very focus of many listeners’ habits for the remainder of 2013. Niche tastes run riot, granted. The likelihood of your dinner table conversations being centred around FKA twigs are extremely low. No top 10 hits here. The ‘Discovery of the Week’ might sneak one at some point, but our other two choices are pandering to the critics who sip spirits and play songs until the early hours in near-darkness. Like we said: Niche tastes. But niche reigns supreme on this occasion: Here’s the best of what happened this past week in new music.

TRACK OF THE WEEK
Jensen Sportag - Bellz


All your disco music dreams come true, with ‘Bellz’ on. You could imagine this new Jensen Sportag track backing some robot face-off in an anarchic metropolis. Androids clash heads and hearts and onlookers egg each opponent on, robot-juices raised the air. Sportag are a production duo prone to distancing themselves from the real world. ‘Bellz’ is the wildest, most imaginative they’ve sounded to date. Visions are maxxed out, turbocharged extremes, all put together via some of the smartest production tricks, the kind you couldn’t draft up on through reading mere textbooks. Nashville’s finest are showing off - it’s due time someone did.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
FKA twigs - Water Me


It seems like Twigs (now FKA twigs), Arca (Kanye collaborator and all round futuristic maniac) and video artist Jesse Kanda are working like quite the team. Everything about ‘Water Me’ is synchronised, from the dystopia vibe of the song itself to the head-bopping video that ties twigs’ motions in tandem with the track. Clever stuff, all tied together by producer du jour Arca’s super-intelligent, out of this freaking world adventurism. Nothing comes close to this right now.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
Banoffee


Throw all the banana/pie jokes at the wall and you won’t come close to describing the sugar-sweet potential of Banoffee. Martha Brown’s debut ‘Ninja’ track ticks all the boxes, adds some more boxes and ticks those too. It brings some punk-spirited energy to the fore, blasting out lines like “I’m a fuckin’ ninja” in case you weren’t already floored by the debut song’s punch. Add some dropkicks, uppercuts and stealth moves and that’s Banoffee in a banana-coated nutshell.