News Tracks: Vampire Weekend, Lauryn Hill, Julio Bashmore, And More

What’s that we can sense round the corner right there? Oh, it’s festival season! Just metres away now, and almost within sight, it’s that final slog of desk work or revision. Before we know it we’ll be hauling on our wellies and novelty onesies and listening to amazing music together in a muddy field somewhere in rural England.

This week we’ve got not one, not two, but three long awaited comebacks - Mariah Carey is back on belting form, Lauryn Hill is as relentless as ever, and oh, a certain band from New York have ditched chinos in favour of grittier stuff. Our writers have also trawled the interweb for hidden gems, and there’s plenty of those too in this week’s goldmine. Don’t we spoil you rotten, ey?

Vampire Weekend - Ya Hey

Despite sounding like an homage to a certain Outkast song, the latest single to be released from upcoming album ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’ is actually a documentation of Ezra Koenig’s growing disdain for god. ‘Ya Hey’ may sound like nonsensical sentiment, but in fact it’s a reference to Yahweh, the national god of the Iron Age kingdoms of Isreal and Judah. Yes, really. “I can’t help but feel that you see the mistakes, but you let it go” sings Ezra, who lists the nonbelievers as the faithless and the zealous hearts. If this latest preview is any kind of sampler for the new album, it seems Koenig and co. have replaced the tales of college campuses, taxi cabs and traditional rice drinks for more sombre and serious themes. Ezra’s said in interviews that ‘Modern Vampires Of The City’ is the final installment in the Vampire Weekend trilogy, but if the album continues down the path that ‘Ya Hey’, ‘Diane Young’ and ‘Step’ have paved, it looks like it might not be a very happy ending. The song is accompanied by a video of various monks and members of the band spraying champagne from a rooftop (of course) which you can watch below. (Rosie Lord)

Lauryn Hill - Neurotic Society (Compulsory Mix)

The first Lauryn Hill single in over a decade is a bracing shock to the system. Stark, direct and brutally aggressive it sees the enigmatic singer and rapper pulling no punches. ‘Neurotic Society’ is a swirling stream of consciousness in which Hill berates the destruction of modern society. From the opening line of, “We’re living in a joke time, metaphorical coke time.” Hill’s rhymes are spat out with audible disdain. The music is electronically processed and matches the soul-less almost military like relentless surge of the music. The music is akin to an El-P production in the way it forgoes any sort of pop melody in favour of futuristic mechanistic sounds to complement the quick fire rhymes. Hill is angry through this record, Greed, social degradation and distorted power imbalances drive the anger in her voice. It’s undoubtedly a scattergun approach but it’s indicative of a curious artist that operates in her own singular world. It’s unclear where it may lead to, Hill states she was legally required to release this to meet a deadline, but for now, this is an astonishing comeback single. (Martyn Young)

Julio Bashmore x Kowton - Mirror Song

Julio Bashmore is the West Country’s indisputable king of dance, purveying a jittering, oddball take on UK Garage. Helped out by fellow Bristolian Kowton, the bass here is as thumping and propulsive as you’d expect from such a collaboration. ‘Mirror Song’, with agitated tinny urgency and plunking bass, is hyperactive, sherbety weirdness. The video flickers between black and white snapshots, playing out like a surreal and confounding Dali vignette, and the whole effect is music that just can’t sit still. It’s more restless than that final leg of the bus journey when you’re just itching to get onto the dance floor. “Look in the mirror,” goes the refrain, but unless you enjoy the experience of your own extremely sweaty reflection after 4 and a half minutes of manically flailing your limbs, maybe you should just hit repeat and carry on dancing the night away with blissful ignorance. (El Hunt)

Oliver Wilde - Flutter

There’s been a creeping excitement the past 12 months about Oliver Wilde. No one seemed quite ready to scream it from the rooftops, but whispers were afoot that the Bristol artist might be something a little bit special. Momentum has steadily built and, though he’s still very much under the wider radar, the announcement of his debut album (Howling Owl Records in July) this week and the unveiling of a new song lifted from it got a good few people a little bit excited. It’s understandable - ‘Flutter’ is up there with the likes of Atlas Sound and Kurt Vile. Acoustic guitar is carefully built upon with subtle electronics and Wilde’s hushed vocal, all coming together to create an woozy, experimental pop delight. Don’t shout it too loud, but Oliver Wilde might just be the real deal. (Jake May)

Du Tonc – Surging Memories (Cheap Thrills)

Mighty Mouse and Matt Van Schie, of Van She, are the two electronic dance masterminds behind Du Tonc, bringing a bit of sunshine to life with the pulsating ‘Surging Memories’. Eking into existence with a soft syncopated throb, the hazy and sweetly melancholic vocals of Van Schie creep into the music, punctured by stabs of synth. Similarly, little guitar riffs, that I’m pretty darn sure come straight from George Michael’s smash hit ‘Faith’, worm their way into the melody. I can only seem to imagine poolside beauties, sipping rum cocktails in tiny bathing suits besides crystal clear infinity pools when ‘Surging Memories’ hits its stride (take from that what you will), surging forth in a wonderfully visceral embodiment of its title. As soon as the cloud breaks and the rays pour through, don your swimming gear and start posing to some Du Tonc. (Adam Parker)

Mariah Carey x Miguel - #Beautiful

There are some voices in pop that remain instantly recognisable. Mariah Carey’s melismatic breathy tones have been in a fixture in R&B pop for over 20 years now, however it has become a rather more sporadic and fluctuating presence as the singer has concentrated on numerous extra curricular activities. ‘#Beautiful’ a duet co-written with last year’s soul sensation Miguel is an understated and perfectly measured comeback. Miguel takes the first verse over a low key, shuffling beat aligned so some xx like guitar licks before Mariah takes over and the song moves up a gear. It’s unabashedly joyous and tender; a symbiotic beauty links both voices together wonderfully. Even the lamentable # in the title cannot dilute this excellent sweet summer jam that suggests a late period renaissance may lie ahead with Carey’s forthcoming fourteenth studio album due later this summer. (Martyn Young)

The Indelicates- Not Alone

Now four albums in, The Indelicates have always mated ambitious musical arrangements and concepts (their last record was a concept album about David Koresh and the Waco siege. You don’t get that with the Mumfords) with lyrics which veer from witty to the downright savage., It’s a heady cocktail, which they themselves refer to as their ‘trademark Brechtian theatricality’. Well, quite. Latest offering ‘Not Alone’ – taken from latest record ‘Diseases Of England’ - is a haunting, beautific piano-led affair where the protagonist offers reassurance while simultaneously expressing frustration at not being able to do more. Building to a choir-assisted crescendo, it shows there’s always a place for ambition and theatricism. Bravo! Encore! (Gareth Ware)

The Sixth Station - Before the Snowfall

Incredibly harmonious garage rock has reappeared in wondrous forms over the last few years from the chaotic likes of Ty Segall to the beach bliss of Kurt Vile and Mikal Cronin. However, Numero Records are due to unleash an unlikely progenitor for the genre in an Illinois based priest from the 1980s. Yup, a priest named Tony Trosley learnt guitar after becoming a man of the cloth and, influenced by 60s and 70s psych folk, recorded a record in a tiny chapel under the pseudonym The Sixth Station. ‘Before The Snowfall’ showcases this lo-fi, garage bedroom atmosphere with that inescapable pulse of superb, gritty riffs and a dreamy vintage vocal that floats on wafts of superheated summer air. Unfortunately, a second LP never appeared but it’s time to recapture the spiritually scintillating garage folk of Sixth Station when the reissue of ‘Deep Night’ is released on 24th June. (Adam Parker)

Without Feathers - Nawlins

If the past week has shown us anything it’s that summer is desperately trying to poke its head out from them there clouds and give us a bit of sun. Perhaps sensing this, young upstarts Without Feathers (a new project featuring songwriters Emma Kupa, Nat Johnson and Rory McVicar) have released a couple of suitably summery videos, with a set of demos also scheduled to be up by the time you read this. The Kupa-led ‘Nawlins’ is a joyous, Jonathan Richman-esque blast packed with nuances and harmonies belying a band taking its formative steps and leads you into a world featuring a Catholic boy ‘who’s ready for anything’ and where you end up ‘drinking spirits behind the bar, with some resting actors’. Without Feathers, then – ‘plucking’ (arf!) something special seemingly out of nowhere since 2013. (Gareth Ware)

I Is Another - Queen Of Swords

I Is Another are a new duo from the other side of the Atlantic comprised of Jonah Matranga and Ian Love. With this partnership it was clear from the start that this would become something special as both have an incredible history within music: from Far to Rival Schools. Pressing play on ‘Queen Of Swords’ it feels like we have been thrown into the middle of a super 8 film – as a reassuringly rich and gritty guitar takes us straight into the melodic opening of a track that somehow feels instantly recognisable. Deep down however, we know this is new ground. It displays a clear honesty – nothing is forced or out of place and it feels as though it has been effortlessly put together. Simply brilliant. Let’s hope the album isn’t too distant on the horizon and that the pair tour the UK very soon! (Joe Dickinson - @DickinsonSound)