News Tracks: tUnE-yArDs, Merchandise & More

Spring has officially sprung - even the calendar says it’s true. It’s not the only thing springing, though, because this week has seen a haul of new tracks explode from the internet like sunflowers. With a returns from tUnE-yArDs and Merchandise, a sort of slightly different return from Das Racist, and all manner of other brilliant sounding bits and bobs, the DIY writers have picked out only the best.

tUnE-yArDs – Water Fountain

Like Cady Heron in Mean Girls, Merrill Garbus knows that the limit does not exist. Her musical project tUnE-yArDs has a track record of seizing upon weird percussive rhythms and almost ritualistic playground chants, thrown together with restless bloops and an experimental pop sensibility. The first cut from forthcoming album ‘Nikki Nack’ - ‘Water Fountain’ - creates a landscape that Samuel Beckett would be proud of; a world defined by negatives and nothings. ‘No water in the water fountain/ No side on the sidewalk,’ sings Garba over a stomping, clanging wonder-mess of percussive glitter, while collaborator Nate Brenner brings a pulse of fret-skipping bass. There’s a typical hint of poison in lyrics like ‘Nothing feels like dying like the drying of my skin and lawn,’ too, and whether this is a song about hosepipe bans or a dehydrated relationship, Garba certainly isn’t experiencing a third-album drought. (El Hunt)

Merchandise – Figured Out

Merchandise just keep getting better and better. The Tampa-based band are teaming up with their touring buddies, Destruction Unit and Milk Music – also DIY outsiders that have been thrusted into the spotlight because of the quality of their pulverising noise - for a Record Store Day split release. Propelled by new drummer Elsner Nino, this new song shimmers with romantic lyrics and reverb drenched guitars which make it an immersive anthem that is as perfectly constructed as Carson Cox’s slick hair do. It somewhat fitting then, that their brightest and most poppy moment yet is titled ‘Figured Out’, especially when you recall that only a few years ago these guys were an underground band playing warehouses and their frontman was working in a restaurant. (Samuel Cornforth)

You can stream ‘Figured Out’ over at NPR

The Horrors - So Now You Know

Right now thousands of white-coats are scurrying through laboratories across Britain, desperately trying to uncover how the hell The Horrors can pack so much sonic excellence into one single track. ‘So Now You Now’ is every bit as aurally Herculean as last single ‘I See You’, and glistens in its titanic cloak of chatoyant synths and stomping drums.

It begins dipped in an ocean of beautiful sounds, before it gradually builds up to the kind-of supersonic chorus flecked with a brooding atmosphere that’s omnipresent on their last LP ‘Skying’. Their consistency is simply astounding. Every inch of its wall of sound is more golden than a lightly toasted C-3PO. ‘I See You’ provided the inclination that their sound is still as downright brilliant; now, we know. [Kyle MacNeill]

Jarbird – Such Is The House

Having released their debut ‘More Bad Celebrity Poetry’ back in October, London based five-piece Jarbird are back with new track ‘Such Is The House’. Starting off with beautiful lullaby sighs and an R ‘n’ B tinged vocal, which glides over wallowing, half-ominous synths and Dirty Projectors-esque arrangements – all glitchy clacks and jittery loops – the track comes to a monumental peak half way through with a falsetto so poignant it sends shivers down the spine. Similar to the sparse percussion and ambient, minimal soundscapes that bands such as Fun Adults and Adult Jazz are toying around with; ‘Such Is The House’ builds it all into a lustrous textural patchwork, with Ric Hollinberry and Lana Verney’s croons complementing each other in such a way that makes us believe this band will be very successful. (Laura Eley)

BANKS – Brain (Acoustic)

It’s pretty fair to say that when it comes to darkly haunting Rn’B, BANKS has more or less stolen the show. There’s always magnetic emotion in her delivery, but alongside the monumental swell of impressive production it’s not always at the forefront. On Jillian Banks’ Live Lounge cover of ‘Brain’, though, there’s a heightened streak of raw vulnerability, and with just a guitar, BANKS reconstructs the original from the ground up. This magical acoustic version proves that reducing the talented BANKS to a ‘sultry songstress’ does her a massive disservice. (El Hunt)

Midnight Pool Party - Linger

With the robot-assisted return of Chic last year successfully ripping open a glitzy wormhole to the disco-centric realm of the seventies, the time for thumping mobile basslines and the croons of moustache-toting lotharios everywhere to make their comeback is unmistakeably now. With a wah-soaked funk lick leading into a flashy display of all disco’s most distinguishable tropes, slick Sydney duo Midnight Pool Party serve up a Boogie Nights channeling spectacular that is guaranteed to ‘Linger’ in your noggin for many a groove-filled day and night. Watch out for the side-effect of thinking a mass spandex revival would be a fantastic idea, though. (Joshua Pauley)

Kool A.D. - Open Letter

Long-time Kool A.D. collaborator Amaze 88 produced ‘Open Letter’ and you’ll be thinking the beat is simple and pretty chill, until Kool A.D. straight up says “listen to the beat, it’s way more complex than you might wanna give it credit for”.It is, and when you think about it, this line pretty much sums up Kool A.D.He’s often stated the ‘dumb’ nature of his lyrics, but ‘Open Letter’ shows how smart Victor Vazquez actually is. The track features the most exemplary offering of his flowing consciousness style of rap to date with incredibly intricate wordplay including this mind-bending beauty: “If you’re headed for a wall you better set a course to a door and if there’s no door, you better get a door. If not, just look and see what you saw and with that saw, cut yourself in half. Two halves make a whole, so climb through that.” Listen to ‘Open Letter’ consciously, and when Kool A.D. raps “Black Shakespearian, never read Othello though”, you’ll no doubt be nodding furiously in agreement. (Nathan Butler)

WORD O.K. by KOOL A.D.

Swetshop Boys - Benny Lava

This week marks the return of Das Racist, albeit in considerably different and separated forms. On the same day Kool A.D. leaked his own debut album, ‘WORD O.K.’, Heems debuted his new collaborative project with Riz MC - Swetshop Boys. Whilst Kool A.D. is expanding upon the blunted social commentary and “I’m dumb but I’m hella smart” attitude of Das Racist, Heems is carrying the torch for its original namesake. Produced by Ryan Hemsworth (Heemsworth, anyone?), the razor sharp ‘Benny Lava’ retains DR’s poignant racial commentary, in a rapid-fire fashion those familiar with Heems’ mighty impressive solo material might recall. But, that’s not to say Heems has ditched his sly humour, just peep this highlight of a line for example: “They say stop and try to frisk / I say whoa just suck my dick / I ain’t white but I know my rights / and, you full of shit.” If Run the Jewels and Swetshop Boys have proved anything, it’s that rap duos should definitely be a far more common thing than they currently are. Besides, what’s better than two incredible rappers on one track? (Joe Price)

Gymnast - Geneva

Should you want to discover the finest in new, electronic tinged, indie-pop, you need look no further than the North West of England. Under the influence of Wild Beasts and following hot-on-the-heels of new Secretly Canadian signing Woman’s Hour, come Gymnast with their own brand of refined and sultry modernism. More subtle and fragile than the upfront electro-pop hailing from more Southern parts of the country, the Northerners are making this their own - perhaps there’s something in the water?. With a streak of miserablism running through the track, ‘Geneva’ delivers a punch of irresistible melancholy that you could listen to time and time again. It’ll never get old. (Ian Paterson)