News Tracks: TOY, Jungle, Tycho & More

Hello everybody, good noole and a happy end of week to you all!

If you were planning spending your weekend playing solitary tiddlewinks and crying because it’s the Great British Bakeoff final next week, do not despair. The wonderful DIY writers have worked their magic, and had a good old chin-wag about which of this week’s tracks we should deliver to you on a velvet cushion of featurey loveliness, and this is the outcome. Why, it’s better than a steaming hot cuppa and a roaring fire.

TOY – Join The Dots

How could London psych kids TOY follow up their universally acclaimed self-titled debut? By sounding bigger, more polished and intense than ever, of course. Follow-up, ‘Join The Dots’ is scheduled for a December release, and this title track shows the band at their explorative best, stampeding over anyone who’d dare to stand in the way of their psych freakout pursuit. (Emma Swann)

Jungle - Lucky I Got What I Want

Remaining tight-lipped and lurking in the shadows, it’s easy to forget Jungle are actual human beings, not some collective of clever-clog music robots. Their latest track is concerned with being forgotten, which is fitting given how much heat is being sent their way. Hype can only last so long, but Jungle are looking likely to outlive it with songs like ‘Lucky I Got What I Want’. (Jamie Milton)

Tycho - Awake

Some things never seem to reach saturation point. There you are thinking that you’re done with gauzy, chemtrail blissout laptop-Balearica, that you’re finally bored of hearing Manuel Gottsching style guitars arcing and undulating over ethereal banks of synth-splash. Then something like ‘Awake’ comes along and you forget yourself and remember that these attempts at aural evocation are pure pleasure and you think about how much you love records like ‘Transfer Station Blue’ or ‘My Boss’ and you’re back and you’re finding yourself falling in love with Tycho and never wanting the waves to stop crashing over the glistening pump of its upright bassline, the staccato lead guitar lines or the submerged half-breaths that puncture and punctuate the track. Its crying out to be heard on some faraway beach at an eternal dawn that could never be. Or something. (Josh Baines)

Homeshake – Dynamic Meditation

When he’s not cooking up something good on the guitar for his friend Mac DeMarco, Peter Sagar records his own songs under the name, Homeshake. Unlike his previous output, ‘Dynamic Meditation’ is a sprawling and hallucinogenic song that is hard to pin down. Over the course of nine minutes, he manages to conjure up otherworldly, lo-fi guitar chimes and funky soul sections that are as hypnotic as the songs title suggests. This meditation session finishes with a sound bite of an instructor telling you that you should have a feeling of “peacefulness and stillness”, which is something that Peter Sagar has expertly induced. (Samuel Cornforth)

DYNAMIC MEDITATION by HOMESHAKE

ILLLS - Coma

Following on from the codeine spiked haze of last year’s ‘Dark Paradise’ EP, ILLLS are back; coating every delicious melody with a hearty swipe of the lo-fi brush. ‘Coma’ sounds more expansive and wider in scope than previous material. Richly coloured synths construct sunset washes over nonchalantly meandering guitar lines. This sounds like the kind of music Debbie from The Wild Thornberrys might like - a little bit sulky and relentlessly pounding. (El Hunt)

Mausi - Body Language

Mausi’s transition from promising pop-enthusiasts to all-out giddy chart-botherers is complete. They’ve found a sugar-dosed end goal in ‘Body Language’, a track taken from a forthcoming ‘mixtape’. Draped in handclaps and synth twinkles, it’s a post-Passion Pit dose of energy that can’t be tamed. (Jamie Milton)

Charm - With You

Since we all ditched ballbearings-in-the-washing-machine minimal for late disco/early house, there’s been a glut of labels like Stafford’s Rogue Cat Sounds popping up, propogating the - fairly-undeniable - myth that slap bass, stiff drum machine workouts and pleading vocals riding over luminously funky synth lines is a the only kind of music worth listening to. This 12” is one for the heads out there: ‘With You’ is a premium slice of slow-rolling, slinky 80s-looking boogie; all earworm synth magic and brain-burrowing groove, Charmaine Baines’ gorgeous vocal happy to bob over the chug of the track.Rub’n’Tug main man and current king of the edit Eric ‘Dr Dunks’ Duncan all but removes Baines’ presence on the B-side and turns in a dusty, gritty, dubby mix that takes things into proto-cosmic territory. (Josh Baines)

The Death Of Pop – Tasteless

Following up the charming off-kilter pop of ‘Sun In My Eyes’ comes the latest installment from London-based jangle-pop, shoegaze types The Death Of Pop. A lengthy, washed out, fuzzed-up number - ‘Tasteless’ shimmies through rippling guitars and saccharine sighs, surfy melodies and lashings of reverb – all topped off with an aptly trippy video. It’s beachy yet psychedelic, noisy yet mellow, oddball yet makes perfect sense - far from tasteless, it’s actually quite a treat. (Laura Eley)

Radio Radio – Fine Young Capulet

When it comes to a band referencing Shakespeare, it’s probably hard to look any cooler than a trainspotter who’s just added the DLR to his adrenaline-burning list. But London up and comers Radio Radio have completely pulled-it off with new track ‘Fine Young Capulet’ – a blistering mix of cutting guitars and fast-paced vocals that sizzles more than Peppa Pig in a pool of magma (Sorry for that image). Containing traces of the Libertines’ brash indie rock, it’s the most immediate the fourpiece have been – especially the golden ‘Don’t try and tell me not to get in a fight’ pre-chorus – and like an electric eel that’s taken up a spot of boxing, it combines high-voltage vocals with a certain sting and punch that was missing on their previous tracks. It all leads up to a tongue-twisting bridge, which crosses them over into newer, greater territory; that’s why the word ‘Radio’ isn’t the only thing on repeat. (Kyle MacNeill)

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Kutosis – Fear of Flying

Cardiff trio Kutosis premiered this – the first track off album two ‘Dream It Away’ – on Monday, ahead of their Saturday set at Swn (what a tongue-twister). ‘Fear Of Flying’ perfectly channels the band’s notoriously BLOODY LOUD live performance through a three-minute thrashing of off-kilter rhythms and offshore ambiance. Soaked through with reverb and drenched in distortion, this is surf-pop for the colder waves of the autumn. Moving away from the haunting psychedelia of Welsh Music Prize nominated debut ‘Fanatical Love’ has opened Kutosis up to a whole new world of pop sensibility – and their upcoming full length is sure to be all the better for it. (Tom Connick)

Fear of Flying by KUTOSIS