Round-up This Week In New Music (6th December 2014)

DIY rounds up the best tracks, discoveries and premieres from the past seven days - featuring Clarence Clarity.

Words: Jamie Milton
6th December 2014

This week (and next) is devoted to the Class of 2015, acts set to define the next year. On these pages, they’re already a permanent fixture - Deers, Years & Years, Kwabs and Shura have all been Track of the Week previously in this very column. Outside the Class Of, there’s still been room to see which names look capable of reaching similarly heights with equally amazing feats, the latest being Girl Band signing to Rough Trade. Hot on their tail is Theo Verney, a similarly scuzzy force who - barring some kind of supernatural disaster - will set 2015 alight. He’s set to play a DIY Presents gig next month, with very exciting news around the corner.

Elsewhere this week, Shy Girls returned with a curious, streamlined slice of pop, Royce Wood Junior put himself in the frontline as one of the UK’s best new producers, and Oceáan served up one of the EPs of the year. Another highlight came in Shivum Sharma’s ‘Surprise’ - he’s an artist that looks to have almost intentionally avoided the Sound Of chatter etc., but don’t be shocked to see him spring up as one of next year’s most talked about new artists.

Here’s the best of this week’s new music, where we round up tracks, discoveries and DIY premieres:

THIS WEEK IN DIY PREMIERES:
Flyte, Chandos, RÉN

This week, we debuted new material from Flyte, who make up a part of the Class of 2015. Every time they’ve spoken to DIY, all four seem to have a ridiculously level-headed approach to where they currently stand as a band. Without being cynical, it’s as if they’ve watched how things work from afar for many years, before diving in when the timing’s right. Their latest video documents the early days, of bedroom sessions, ideas buzzing around. It also brings together footage from the DIY Presents Tour of this year, which makes it the undisputed Video Of The Year.

Newly signed to Carpark Records, Chandos probably don’t plan things out quite like Flyte. They take the raging bull approach, storming into the spotlight without a second glance. Their ‘Cobra Points’ track previews a 2015 debut similarly cutting in character - venomous in name and nature, it’s an exciting first glimpse.

TRACK OF THE WEEK:
Clarence Clarity - Bloodbarf

There are twenty songs on the debut album from Clarence Clarity. An endless supply of bonkers that’ll either make it one of the most exciting or most unlistenable debuts of 2015. No doubt it’ll be full on, but on ‘Bloodbarf’, madness is compressed into a new flavour. Yes, it arrives with a video showing Justin Timberlake magazine covers with the eyes scratched out and yes, that’s slightly terrifying, but the song itself is a clever piece of alt-pop. Let’s just hope the song on his debut called ‘Porn Mountain’ is similarly expectation-flipping.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK:
KLOE - Grip

It’s reductive to compare KLOE to CHVRCHES, but at the same time it’s hard to escape the Scottish-tinged melodrama of her debut single ‘Grip’. Like anything on the arena-touring giants’ debut album ‘The Bones of What You Believe’, this Glasgow newcomer manages to make sad, harrowing themes out to be a source of wonder. Glossy production does half the work, but it’s also down to bitterly honest lyrics circuiting ‘Grip’ that help it become a genuine triumph - hearing this across an entire record is already an enticing possibility.

Tags: Clarence Clarity, Listen, Features, Neu