Time for another roundup of the best new music I’ve been listening to recently. If you know of any cool new bands for me to check out, get in touch on [email protected]
IYES – ‘Til Infinity’
It’s been about a year since Brighton-based duo IYES (pronounced ‘eyes’) launched with the very xx-sounding ‘Lighthouse’. They’ve been busy developing their sound since then, and new track ‘Til Infinity’ is a great next step, adding extra dimensions of intrigue and drama to put them more in line with the current crop of electro-pop stars like CHVRCHES.
Honours – ‘Ready To Run’
‘Ready To Run’ is London four-piece Honours’ first track – which makes the accomplished Killers-esque sweeping majesty of it all the more impressive. There’s not much info about Honours about – their Facebook page helpfully advises that they are influenced by ‘80’s pop’ and ‘90’s bands’, and lists the band members as ‘Conkey’, ‘Eddy C’ and ‘Stav’. No doubt we’ll start to learn more about them soon enough.
Drowners – ‘Luv, Hold Me Down’
Drowners are a New York band fronted by native Welshman Matthew Hitt – who for some reason prefers the Big Apple to life in rural Wales. Must be mad! Anyway, their debut self-titled album is out on 27 January (on Frenchkiss Records) and is preceded by the melodic pop brilliance of ‘Luv, Hold Me Down’ – I’m sure there’s a bit of The Cure in here somewhere:
Hockeysmith – ‘Meanwhile’
The fact that two sisters who live in a caravan park in Cornwall make beguiling ethereal music should come as a surprise to no one. The fact (Annie and Georgie) Hockeysmith do it with such mood-altering conviction is nothing short of a revelation – they loop electro beats and distorted layers of noise around enchanting vocals to sound like a kind of Alison Goldfrapp/Burial/HAIM hybrid. I can’t work out whether that’s a good image or not, but it definitely sounds good:
Viscous Liquid – ‘A River’
Rhys Williams aka ‘Viscous Liquid’ emailed me himself urging me to check our his self-titled EP. Here’s what he said: “I write, record and produce everything myself in my house with the crappiest of equipment and minimal budget. Genre wise, it’s difficult to really say but generally I try to write songs heavy on pop melody with a shoegaze/krauty/dream-pop style. Lots of guitars, lots of haziness and lots of noise. mmmmmm noise.” ‘A River’ is taken from said EP and it’s pretty intense – think of My Bloody Valentine with a sprinkling of Godspeed You! Black Emperor:
Post-Ape – ‘The World Is Over’
Last but certainly not least is London producer Post-Ape, who releases his debut single ‘The World Is Over’ on 2 December. It’s got a touch of Tom Vek about it, as well as a very cool idiosyncratic beat. Influences like Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Gary Numan and David Bowie suggest we can expect to hear a lot more experimental new wave stuff from Post-Ape in 2014.
