Alpha Maid shun perfection for punk with ‘Sublime’

Every weekday, DIY’s new music know-it-all Neu brings you one essential new release to get obsessed with. Today’s Neu Pick comes from Alpha Maid. Still feeling bleary-eyed and in need of sweet, sweet caffeine? This rabble, from South East London, should remedy that in an instant, with their abrasive addiction to gear-grinding, cyclical synth-wails, and bold, experimental punk. Fronting Alpha Maid, Leisha Thomas’ vocals trifle about with few pleasantries, instead hitting like an acerbic sucker-punch. Her fuzzed-up tannoy announcements direct every howling guitar and stuttering bleep down the experimental train tracks of ‘Sublime’, and though the well-picked touchstones are plain to see - the likes of Micachu and The Shapes and Deerhoof - Alpha Maid create something biting, physical, and entirely their own. “I’m gonna to be a star,” yelps a frenzied Thomas, parodying fame-world’s obsession with all things celebrity-shaped. Alpha Maid might not care much for the sublime or the perfect, but who needs perfection anyway? This is far more fun. Alpha Maid cut their teeth on the DIY live scene last year, playing late night shows at Lewisham’s (now-closed down) DIG warehouse amid a sea of Shakira-themed toilet cubicles, art installations involving goats, and bring-your-own-booze. Tonight (14th Jan) they play at London’s Servant Jazz Quarters. There probably won’t be any goats, on this occasion. We’re dead chuffed to have the first spin of their new song ‘Sublime’ below, as today’s Neu Pick. We also had a quick natter with frontwoman Leisha Thomas about pizza toppings (naturally) and sacking off perfection.