Plus essential releases from Sleaford Mods, deary, DEADLETTER, TURNSPIT, Omertà, Restless Taxis, The Dream Machine and Hemi Hemingway.
With the year suddenly in full swing, we’ve had a huge selection of great singles released this week. This week on Tracks, we pick through our favourites in a very busy week of new music.
Pem – ‘milk, blue’
An esoteric ballad of the liminal, ‘milk, blue’ is the song from your lover lost in space. The new single from multidisciplinary singer-songwriter Pem, aka Emily Perry, is a touching meditation on the planetary; rising violin chords and her signature analogue sound designs flow beneath gentle vocals. Clear moments of honesty – “will you tell me when you land” – are woven into the verses, punctuated only by a simple guitar arpeggio. The yearning refrain of the song’s conclusion mulls over the sliding acoustic notes before culminating in this textural echo, with the final whispers of Pem’s voice lingering in the air. Perhaps best listened to staring at the glow-in-the-dark stars plastered on your childhood bedroom ceiling. Ahead of her third EP, ‘other ways of landing’, releasing 25th January, ‘milk, blue’ is a glimpse into the tenderness on display in Pem’s new work. (Grace Palmer)
Fcukers – ‘L.U.C.K.Y’
Fcukers have released their third single from upcoming album ‘Ö’, set to arrive on 27th of March via Ninja Tune. Infusing a hard-edged, propulsive house beat with a pop sensibility, ‘L.U.C.K.Y’ is an infectious track from the New York duo Shanny Wise and Jackson Walker Lewis. The melodic dreaminess of the pre-chorus bursts apart with their eruptive dubstep style, inviting listeners into their world of uninhibited fun. Filled with infectious hooks like “Y.O. UR mine” and the titular “L.U.C.K.Y”, the track embodies an early 2000s ‘Fergalicious’ attitude (and its proclivity for spelling). The arcade-style mix of the song’s conclusion, combined with Wise’s sultry vocals, catalyses this self-affirming anthem for the effortlessly cool cosmopolitan girl. Fcukers bring their compulsive energy to the UK in May, performing in Bristol and at Nottingham’s Dot-to-Dot Festival. (Grace Palmer)
ladylike – ‘Rome (in progress)’
In the day to day, aphorisms like ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ typically induce collective eye-rolling. Simply banal platitudes or conversational filler, these short phrases tend to be discarded as quickly as they are said, but given space and thought, they can be surprisingly pertinent. ‘Rome (in progress)’, the latest release from Brighton’s ladylike, unravels these idioms, noting how beneath their surface lies an earnest truth that should be learned and imbibed. On ‘Rome (in progress)’, ladylike call for patience and openness when contending with the difficulties of building something wholly good. Trickling acoustic guitar arpeggios drip over skipping hi-hats and reverb drenched electric counterparts while Georgia Butler whispers ‘Rome wasn’t built with retired lungs/and heavy holding on to friends’ old words’. Metre and tempo shifts playfully jumble the sonic texture of the track, evoking the liquid structure of The Microphones’ early work but with a folk-inflected post-rock bent akin to caroline. A lulling and gentle chip of innovative indie-folk unafraid of experimentation or sentimentality. (A.L. Noonan)
Sleaford Mods ft. Aldous Harding – ‘Elitest G.O.A.T.’
Aldous Harding joins Sleaford Mods on the final single taken from the duo’s latest record ‘The Demise of Planet X’, which came out today. The combination is a dazzling juxtaposition, perfectly suited to the song’s subject matter. As Jason Williamson’s verses lament the gritty day-to-day experience of trying to earn a living, Harding’s detached interjections suggest an outward self-representation covering up that struggle. ‘And now my life is much better’, she sings, the words falling into place with a kind of lobotomised serenity. The title refrain, ‘It’s all about me, the elitest G.O.A.T.’, could serve as a brutally honest bio for any of our Instagram accounts. It captures the designed mindset of the subject of neoliberal order, detached, alienated, selling as much of our time as possible, and then glossing it all over in the way we talk about ourselves. The phonic elision of the slightly mangled wording ‘elitest’ with ‘elitist’ is surely intentional, seeming to underline this critique of terms in which we represent ourselves online. (Lloyd Bolton)
deary – ‘Seabird’
Like the sharp, salty sting of coastal air in your lungs, ‘Seabird’ is an exhilarating, crystalline rush of curative deary magic that will take your winter woes and spin them into starry silver. A lush midair infinitude of refractive dream pop harmonies buoyed on the loose mechanics of trip-hop, the new single is a truly sublime first teaser from the Brighton-via-London group’s dually announced debut album ‘Birding’, due for release on the 3rd April. Announcing their signing to Brighton tastemaker label Bella Union in tandem, the trio are well placed for a big year ahead, taking the celestial introspections of dream pop charged shoegaze and making it into something entirely their own. Elaborating on the lyrical origins of the track, deary comment: “Seabird is like a fable, a story of a person pleading to an omnipotent bird and asking, ‘when does it all get better?’ We wanted to recreate that kind of majesty, feeling insignificant to the wider world. It is the perfect introduction to the rest of the record in that regard” (Hazel Blacher)
DEADLETTER – ‘It Comes Creeping’
‘It Comes Creeping’ is less about what is coming than the sinister manner in which it arrives; a saxophone coils through the track like a warning. An eerie haze of woodwind textures opens the song before a percussive attack and raw bassline snap it into focus. Rooted in post-punk intensity, DEADLETTER push deeper into experimental territory, equally punchy and sleazy, while retaining the biting edge of screeching guitars. The production is deliberate and assured, amplifying the band’s growing confidence. Zac Lawrence’s vocals are hypnotic and menacing, balancing threat and warning as he delivers lines that linger like a shadow: “Better keep an eye or half / On nothing but this stalker / Before it skins you, hangs you out / And wears you like a sweater”. Feverish rhythms, sharp instrumental textures, and eerie feedback coil together, creating a visceral sense of unease. The Yorkshire-born, now London-based six-piece release their most ambitious track to date with ‘It Comes Creeping’, the second single from their upcoming album ‘Existence is Bliss’, out February 27th via So Recordings. (Isabel Kilevold)
TURNSPIT – ‘HAVE A HEART’
Ahead of their headline show at the Windmill on January 17th, Leeds electronic duo TURNSPIT have released ‘HAVE A HEART’, a sleek, blissed out and clean offering led by an insistent synth line that carries its restless energy. Through breathy vocals and emotional intrigue, the track recalls electronic artists that play with desire – the Robyns and Jessy Lanzas of this world. The pair say the track is about “unfinished business,” holding onto this sense of anticipation as it builds steadily in complexity throughout. Sitting at the intersection of darker edged, synth-led electronic music and a decidedly pop sensibility, ‘HAVE A HEART’ is concise, heavy and a little addictive. (Eva Karl)
Omertà – ‘Gay Hitler’
Among a new crop of London bands vying for the title of ‘most shock value since Country Teasers’, Omertà are perhaps the most visceral. Debut single ‘Gay Hitler’ captures the distilled chaos of their live show in a pounding three minutes. Not simply reliant on the invocation of its titular character, the track is perfectly paced, structured in danceable bursts of energy. A sleek bass riff courses through the chorus, guiding its payoff, while synth buzzes and blisteringly picked guitars add to the sense of elation. Completed by theatrical builds and breakdowns, this debut single captures a band having a lot of fun. If you like this, try and catch them live. Some sets have been filmed but, as you might imagine, these are rather vulnerable to the powers of arbitrary social media censorship. (Lloyd Bolton)
Restless Taxis – ‘Maggie’s’
Building a word-of-mouth following from their eviscerating live show, ever-exciting DIY London risers Restless Taxis are back with new single ‘Maggie’s’. Eminently profound, and with much emotional resonance, the track title namechecks a centre in the grounds of St Bartholomew’s Hospital where guitarist and vocalist Michael Asukyle would visit with their mother before chemo during her battle with cancer. ‘Maggie’s’ begins as a jangled dreampop/space-folk stunner, resembling the sonic angst it was birthed from. It offers a melancholic moment before a psychedelic space-rock frenzy explodes. Incredible stuff once again from one of the most interesting new acts around. (Brad Sked)
The Dream Machine – ‘Things That Make Us Cry’
The Dream Machine cast their net towards the past in their single ‘Things That Make Us Cry.’ Ahead of their third album, Fort Perch Rock, released next month on Run On Records, the single’s music video captures fleeting moments of the band’s life together in a vintage-looking home movie. So far, so nostalgic. This being said, rather than the track feeling kitschy and derivative, the band instead comes up pure of heart. Centring the lyrics on both the generalities and specificities of emotional life, the idea that moments in life can be equally bleak and wonderful emerges through open ended songwriting and a sun-drenched sound. ‘Things That Make Us Cry’ functions not only as a throwback moment but a gentle reminder that these ‘things’ are eternal, and beautiful moments await in the analog world. (Eva Karl)
Hemi Hemingway – ‘This City’s Tryna Break My Heart’
Ahead of their next full length offering ‘Wings of Desire’, New Zealand artist Hemi Hemingway has returned with ‘This City’s Tryna Break My Heart’ via PNKSLM. Following their country-soaked noir-Western splendour ballad ‘Oh My Albertine’, the new single takes a sonic left turn into new wave-leaning synth stylings: Gary Numan, but with the amplification of the cinematic. Akin to a late night odyssey cruising through illuminated city streets, ‘This City’s Tryna Break My Heart’ makes for a neon fantasy. Enveloped in a cyberpunk atmosphere, Hemingway’s latest offering is a hypnosis-inducing groove-feast that builds into the anthemic. (Brad Sked)
Hard Of Hearing Magazine 