Neu This Week In New Music (8th September 2012)

If you’re an avid reader of Neu, you might have come across our Bulletins this week. They’re essentially small daily guides, commanding you to go to certain shows across the country and urging you to check out The Next Big Thing™. Or they’re just updates on what some of our favourite artists are up to. Regardless, read one a day and you’ll be a much more informed, content individual, we can promise you that.

This week Neu profiled some excellent emerging acts: Casablanca’s heart-throb indie; Petite Noir’s show-stopping soul experimentalism; Tidal Wars’ liking for the Pokemon franchise. It was all there.
Here’s our rundown of the best songs, videos, and new bands we came across this past week:

TRACK OF THE WEEK Dead Times are fast becoming one of the most exciting acts around. Every song they produce spins the formula inside out and leaves it flat-faced and ashamed. ‘Centuries’ is up there with the L.A. act’s best so far. Listen here.

On Wednesday we survived a Brummie stampede of new music. B-town represented itself in magnificent fashion, with Peace, Swim Deep and Victories At Sea (via. a Neu premiere) all sharing new tracks and videos in the space of a couple of alls. So they all came close to the brilliance that is Dead Times, but this is a heated competition: Nobody shares the spoils. You lose, you schmooze.

VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Replace the word ‘Week’ with ‘Year’ and you’ll be about halfway there to correctly labelling the BEST VIDEO OF ALL TIME, as Kanye may attest. Though Kanye’s unlikely to have stumbled upon Daniel Woodhouse’s music just yet (though we must never underestimate his royal Yeezy), those who did take time to watch the new Deptford Goth single ‘Life After Defo’ completed the experience with a silent weep. It’s one of the strongest, more candid clips we’ve seen for some time. A grown man shakes. That’s emotional.
Splashh also sent us into dizzy glee - as they tend to - with the clip for ‘Headspins’. It showcases the band’s heady live energy with absolute perfection.

DISCOVERY OF THE WEEK
You read the name The Death Rays Of Ardilla and you immediately think of some kind of N64 platform your hipster friends forgot to tell you about. But this band, they mean business: Currently supporting Deap Vally on a few scattered dates, their sound is one of post-punk extremity, every split-second feeling like an intense hit of adrenaline. We’re really loving this. Songs are streamable on the band’s tumblr.
They play the Seabright Arms in London on Monday, and Bungalows and Bears in Sheffield, 29th September.