Our weekly roundup of essential new music.

Westside Cowboy – ‘Alright Alright Alright’

In an interview on the shores of Brighton for The Great Escape Festival, Westside Cowboy tell us three things the public should know about them. Shielding their eyes from the East Sussex sun, the Billboard camera zooms in on the band atop a grey picnic table as they proclaim: “we like guitars, and that’s one of the big bits of this band.” On ‘Alright Alright Alright’, this truth is self-evident and oh so pertinent. Westside Cowboy’s third single is a spangly, sub-two-minute, psychobilly freakout of teeth-chattering proportions. Packed as tight as a gnat’s arse, with rockabilly drums, slippery slide guitars and lyrics invoking the outlaw sneer of a Johnny Cash/Matthew McConaughey love child, here the four-piece are sharp, fiery and full of six-stringed flare. Westside Cowboy have shot into the indie limelight with speed and anticipation, but with ‘Alright Alright Alright’, they defy naysayers and prove their mettle. Believe the hype. (A. L. Noonan)

Jerskin Fendrix – ‘Beth’s Farm’

With ‘Beth’s Farm’, Jerskin Fendrix has announced his long-awaited second album, ‘Once Upon a Time… In Shropshire’, coming five years after the release of debut ‘Winterreise’. The delay was notably lengthened by Fendrix’s work on the soundtracks for Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Poor Things’ and ‘Kinds of Kindness’, but we may also safely assume that the detail that goes into these songs is also rather time-consuming. Following the release of ‘Jerskin Fendrix Freestyle’ and ‘Sk1’ – also confirmed tracks for the coming album – ‘Beth’s Farm’ comes built around a cut-up combination of an unnaturally looping processed vocal hook and a building string arrangement, over which a composite of modern pastoral memories is sung. The lyrics reach their climax on the refrain, “We’re all driving to Beth’s farm / Nobody dies on Beth’s farm”. The nakedness of that affirmation does nothing to rob it of mystery. Paired with the strangeness of the music, one is tempted to interpret this in the mode of the Tubbs’ immortal line in the League of Gentlemen: “We didn’t burn him!”. That said, the very conscious nostalgia of the verses and Fendrix’s avowed aim for this album to capture an ossified portrait of “something that once existed – a rose-tinted childhood and the lives that made it”, suggest that this is rather an exploration of the safe allure of nostalgia and the preciousness of a sheltered upbringing, implying by omission the terror of the adult world beyond. (Lloyd Bolton)

casual smart – ‘Cranes’

Cardiff’s casual smart share their third single and first release of the year, ‘cranes’. Building on last year’s traction that earned the young group support slots for acts such as Man/Woman/Chainsaw and Porridge Radio, on ‘cranes’, the quintet delve explore how love can overflow into other areas of life, anchoring heavier timbral dimensions into a sound that radiates with heartfelt tenderness. Rolling piano softly trickles down like water onto a jagged rock, leading into a sun-drenched stream of melodies. A swaying flora of saxophone rolls amongst a bedrock of drums, and guitars bring forth a gentle illumination before the vocals cascade in with a crashing, waterfall-like urgency. The track’s relatively tranquil beginnings erupt into a surging storm of heavy rainfall, kicking dirt and debris toward its surface and turning waters from clear to murky as it reaches a vigorous instrumental close. (Otis Hayes)

Shaking Hand – ‘Over The Coals’

Like a garden, tended and fertilised with quiet persistence, ‘Over The Coals’ sees Shaking Hand enkindle the perfect conditions for their tiny sonic seedlings to blossom into a verdant flora of introspective post-rock misted with glimmers of Midwest emo. The Manchester trio, who have been steadily building traction with their engrossing, thoroughly locked-in live performances, released their debut single this week via tastemaker label Melodic Records. Weaving intricate guitar melodies that steadily build in intensity, the track moves through a series of different weathers; resting at first in a misty dawn stillness, the initial contemplative instrumental drifts into bright, whipping winds of propulsive rhythms and lyrical wisdoms, with Shaking Hand reflectively repeating “Life’s not linear” at the track’s stirring dynamic precipice. (Hazel Blacher)

Just Mustard – ‘POLLYANNA’

Just Mustard are back with their first sonic offering in three years, and ‘POLLYANNA’ sees the Dundalk quintet performing at their ever-expansive and atmospheric best, crafting an intense and ethereal wall-of-noise that earmarks them as one of the most exciting shoegaze outfits around. With the very definition of a ‘Pollyanna’ being an overly optimistic or cheerful person, the song is said to be “part-inspired by a sense of “toxic happiness”, and the group beautifully blend both the heavenly and the visceral in a blissed out, bittersweet sonic package. Alongside their much welcome return, Just Mustard have also announced a run of intimate shows in September, seeing the shoegazers heading to New York, Berlin and Paris, before finishing in London at Hoxton Hall. (Brad Sked)

heka – ‘Cantavi d’amore // Each Spring’

Those who are not yet aware of heka (aka Francesca Brierley) might be familiar with one of the many artists she has worked alongside: Skydaddy, GG Skips, Tapir!, Gently Tender, Saint Jude and Drug Store Romeos, to name just a handful. Even so, those who haven’t clocked on to her solo project probably should – bilingual double release ‘Cantavi d’amore’ / ‘Each Spring’ is a gorgeously spell-binding affair of intimate, piano-tickling songwriter magic. Embellished by the sensuous bowed strings of Louie Barby’s cello (Slow Cooked) and Evie Hilyer-Ziegler violin (cusk, fen), the former is a mournful Italian-language ballad of “love, loss, and artistic expression” sparked through with bird song samples, while the latter will have the hairs standing on the back of your neck as each notes drips from the sky like raindrops, nestling in the soil and nourishing life. (Elvis Thirlwell)

After London – ‘In Your Bedroom’

Having released a smattering of singles over the past few years, After London are finally closing in on the release of their debut album, ‘antimatter’, out on 4th July. ‘In Your Bedroom’ has the sound of a band that have firmly found their feet. It drives along with a pumping rhythm set against the ambiguous clang of a keyboard, while vocals flow over it all, tight and full of attitude. The gritty verses give way to a chorus that has a dream-rock spaciousness which nonetheless holds onto the tension and anxiety of the verses, aided by whirling synth oscillations and punchy bass. (Lloyd Bolton)

Gag Salon – ‘Backing Track’

To see Gag Salon live is to witness theatrical mastery in an art-rock guise, but to have this replicated on wax is a treat to be relished. Reading-via-London transplants, Gag Salon return to star-studded form with ‘Backing Track’, the first single to be teased from their upcoming debut LP ‘You Have Been Killed’. Marrying a synthed-out and spiky B-52s bounce with paranoid confessions and cabaret keys, ‘Backing Track’ is a manic caffeine jitter of anxious art-punk. Candy-coloured synth lines fly above bloated guitar drives and the kinetic jive of the group never fails to cut through the chaos. To experience Gag Salon is to be truly blessed, and how lucky we are to be only at the beginning of their floor-filling journey. (A. L. Noonan)

Los Palms – ‘Sorrows’

Hailing from Adelaide in Australia, psychedelic-outfit Los Palms are back with their latest desert-psych blues ballad ‘Sorrows’. One for saddling up the horse and traversing across arid desert plains after a lonesome whiskey or 10, ‘Sorrows’ makes for a spaghetti western-esque odyssey akin to fellow Fuzz Club cosmonauts Night Beats, or perhaps ‘Eyes Like The Sky’ era King Gizzard. If you find yourself returning to the Red Dead Redemption series, it’s safe to say Los Palms would be well placed to provide an appropriately fitting alternative soundtrack with this new cut. The Australian psychedelic outfit have also shared news of their self-titled sophomore album, set for release this August via Fuzz Club Records. (Brad Sked)