Features Tracks: Bring Me The Horizon, Rilo Kiley, Fainting By Numbers And More

Hey you, how’ve you been doing? Are you ready to fill your ears with all the brilliant new music that you might have missed this week? Because our writers and radio presenters, they’ve done yet another stirling job of picking some tracks out for you. Just for you. Yes, you.

Anyway, without any further ado, let’s get down to the nitty gritty; this week’s Tracks.

Bring Me The Horizon - Antivist

This is only the second cut that we’ve heard from their forthcoming album ‘Sempiternal’, but it already has Bring Me The Horizon proving themselves to be quite the masters of metalcore. Filled with pulverising drums and blistering guitars, this three-minute taste of anarchy - just have a closer listen to the lyrics - will no doubt either have you head banging, or running for the hills. Just imagine what it must be like for those poor lot trying to censor it over at Radio 1… (Sarah Jamieson)

Rilo Kiley - Let Me Back In

It’s been almost five years since we last had anything new from Rilo Kiley, and even if this is an outtake, a mere momento from that time when Blake Sennett and Jenny Lewis (and the others, of course, ahem) wrote beautiful beautiful music together, then we’ll take it. A reminder of just how gorgeous Lewis’ vocals are, as the string section competes with guitars, you just can’t help but wonder how this ever ended up on a cutting room floor. Previously known to RK fans from live outings as LA, hopefully the rest of ‘RKives’ will be as glorious as ‘Let Me Back In’, and not just rubbish outtakes, right? (Simone Scott Warren)

Listen to ‘Let Me Back In’ at Spin.com

Fainting By Numbers - A Stone In The Ground

With Hot Chip enjoying a well earned rest following last years excellent ‘In Our Heads’, frontman and vocalist Alexis Taylor has teamed up with German electronic producer Justus Köhncke to form Fainting By Numbers. The duo’s first release is a cover of John Lennon’s ’Watching The Wheels’, but the first piece of music to emerge is that singles b-side, the impossibly lovely synth ballad ‘A Stone In The Ground.’

Over the course of a celestial seven and a half minutes, Taylor provides his very best heartfelt and tremulous croon that is deeply affecting. He sounds achingly bereft as he sings, “Don’t try to defend me, I know that you cannot try.” The bubbling deft electronics in the background provided by Köhncke are a perfect accompaniment, both voice and electronics combining to make a supremely soulful piece of emotive electronica. (Martyn Young)

Hesitation Wounds - A. Smith (The Death Of A Teenager)

What happens when you get together a bunch of artists whose CVs boast the likes of Touché Amoré, The Hope Conspiracy, Trap Them and Against Me? Well, this would be the answer, and goddamn, is it good. ‘A. Smith (The Death Of A Teenager)’ stands as an already impressive, but increasingly refreshing foray into hardcore. In what feels like a two minute fifteen burst of electricity into your veins, the first song to come from the project is utterly cathartic and gives as good as you’d have hoped with this line-up. (Sarah Jamieson)

Cut Ribbons - Luna

Remember the time guitar music died? That moment in history when there wasn’t a decent new guitar band rising up through the ranks in the UK? No. Neither do I. Perhaps the person who started that vicious rumour ought to have spent some time in South Wales – or more specifically, Llanelli. Cut Ribbons latest track ‘Luna’, their sophomore release on cassette tape label – Kissability; is a melodic anthem smothered in their unique blend of rich guitar tones, can’t-help-but-air-drum-along percussion and of course their duet vocals. A band that seems to let track after track of catchy and infectious ear worms into the wild – is it any wonder that these guys have had support slots with Dry The River and fellow Welsh musicians, The Joy Formidable? To be enjoyed loud and on repeat. (Joe Dickinson - @DickinsonSound)

Marika Hackman - Retina Television

In advance of her mini-album due next week, Marika Hackman muses on the most awe inspiring of human physical attributes, often described as ‘windows to the soul’. The space within ‘Retina Television’ allows Hackman to interpret discreet idiosyncrasies in emphatic detail. Layered harmonies paint a still and serene background, with complete silence befalling the song on occasion to allow a momentary reflection. Delicate and heartfelt, Marika Hackman is one of our finest young emerging talents as she’s shown us on many an occasion over the last year. (Ian Paterson)

Cyril Snear – How Presidential Of You

More concise and accessible than anything from their cult debut ‘Fluent in Seven Types of Monotone’, the new track from Cyril Snear, ‘How Presidential Of You’ is a big departure for the band. Emblematic of their newly sharpened songwriting on eagerly-anticipated second LP ‘The Riot of Colour’, the track recalls first-album Tool with some of the sparring guitar mathematics of the first Oceansize record. Far from being just a think piece for the bearded alt-scene however, the track balances itself well between its math and metal tendencies; that is to say, there’s something here for heavy rock fans as well as devotees of bands like Don Caballero and Battles. Where other bands could fall on the sword of eclecticism, Cyril Snear play it convincingly enough that a crossover following will no doubt follow. (Alex Lynham)

How Presidential of You by Cyril Snear

Swimming In Speakers - Teach Yourself

Initially I thought this was a London Grammar track…but, no. Meadow’s beautiful vocals cut through with a happiness that her London likenesses don’t have. Brand new, out of New York, this is an ambient synthy sound topped with beautifully smooth vocals. Unlike other bands in this vein though, I’m happily listening through to the other twenty or other tracks on soundcloud and realising that we’ve stumbled across a quality gem. In the same way I got a bit of a tingle when I first heard ‘Paradise Circus’ by Massive Attack, this is a beautiful song. (Elise Cobain - Alive And Amplified)