Essential new singles also including Westside Cowboy, Formal Sppeedwear, Cusk and Ballet.

Mandrake Handshake – ‘En Vol’

Returning with their first release since last year’s debut ‘Earth Sized Worlds’, Oxford/London ‘flowerkraut’ collective Mandrake Handshake take flight on ethereal floater ‘En Vol’, their new single released via Tip Top recordings. Dipping their toe into the somnolent waters of trip hop, the lush track sees the group entwine dreamy psych grooves with weightless spacepop ambience, a swirling reverie suspended somewhere between the clouds and star-smattered stratosphere. ‘En Vol’ marks an evolution in their sound, expanding their pool of influences and growing in exciting new directions. The band explain, “Inspired by the velvet atmospheres of 90s trip-hop and, in particular, a transcendent live performance by AIR, the song drifts and glides through clouds of analogue warmth before unfurling into something brighter and more reckless. Here, the Mandrake becomes an aviator of her own mythology: all nerve, elegance and aspiration; like Icarus before the sun has compromised his intentions, she is untouched by consequence and intoxicated by possibility.” (Hazel Blacher)

Adult DVD – ‘Cowboy on Aisle Three’

Leeds mosh-makers Adult DVD have at long last announced their debut album – a self-titled record due on the 25th September via Fat Possum – and their new single ‘Cowboy on Aisle Three’ is a bold, raucous statement of intent from a band dead-set on making the perfect tune to enthusiastically spill your entire pint to. Recalling the dance-punk maximalism of UK contemporaries Fat Dog, the new track rollicks with riotous abandon, ferocious synth stabs and propulsive drums laying the foundations for vocalist Harry Hanson’s anthemic chorus lines. A feast of energy and fun, thematically ‘Cowboy on Aisle Three’ is just as eccentric as the title suggests. “I came up with the idea when I was in Lidl.” Hanson explains. “I’m sure everyone has thought, ‘Imagine if I just went nuts now,’ to get out of doing the big shop”. (Hazel Blacher)

Westside Cowboy – ‘Pin Up Boys’

The first time I saw Westside Cowboy, I went into it incredibly excited, but equally apprehensive that their other songs might not live up to ‘I’ve Never Met Anyone I Thought I Could Really Love (Until I Met You)’. The only song they had put out at the time, it was my favourite debut single in years, and for the rest of their music to be half as good as that would’ve been impressive enough. When they played ‘Pin Up Boys’, it was immediately obvious that any initial trepidation was misplaced, and before me stood one of the country’s most ascendant guitar bands. Vocalist and guitarist Reuben Haycocks has spoken of how the song grew “heavier and more agro” over its countless live outings before being committed to tape. A masterclass in Pixies-adjacent loud-quiet dynamics, those snarling moments are balanced perfectly with gorgeous harmonies atop sparse guitar compositions. In news that will surprise absolutely nobody reading this, Westside Cowboy have done it again. (Marty Hill)

Formal Sppeedwear – ‘A Concise History’

Calling all weird, arty misfit kids with a hyper-specific appreciation for 80s new wave deep cuts – it’s time to fire up whatever obsolete music consumption technology you are using to “go analogue”: Formal Sppeedwear just dropped another sprawling, eccentric heater. Ushering back in-vogue the quirked-up eccentricities of the past via the friskiest basslines you might have ever heard, ‘A Concise History’ follows on from the virtuosic angularity of their previous offering ‘Who Needs Spain Ball?’ (seriously though, who even needs Spain Ball?). Dishing up jagged, off-kilter grooves festooned with enough spasmodic melodic bursts to defile a chord sheet with endless illegible scribbles, ‘A Concise History’ is yet another face melter from one of Stoke-On-Trent’s most exciting emerging acts. The new track serves as the second teaser from their debut record ‘Punch Card’, due for release on the 11th September via Melodic Records. (Hazel Blacher)

Cusk – ‘Dooms banjo’

‘Dooms banjo’ – the latest single from London duo Cusk – might as well have been called ‘Fucked-up Tripped-out Banjo’ as a more accurate descriptor, to my ears at least. Coming from their forthcoming self-titled debut EP, due for release on 14th August via The Bird Records (the label incidentally cofounded by BC,NR drummer Charlie Wayne) – the banjo in question is just one cool element of this storm-cloud-gathering, folky alt-rock tempest of a track, also marked out by its baying violins and windswept vocal dramas. Comprised of actress-musician Esme Creed-Miles (she was the lead in Amazon Prime Drama ‘Hanna’) and Evie Hilyer-Zigler, if Cusk are set to continue their form of naming their tracks after abstract descriptions of a prominent instrument (‘Blu tac piano’ and ‘Dooms banjo’ are now locked in), what will be next? Soap dish Cor Anglais? (Elvis Thirlwell)

Ballet – ‘Past Life’

Perennial sunglasses-users and LA quartet Ballet this week unveiled their latest collection, ‘Ballet II’, arriving just under a year after ‘Ballet I’ (and their social media seems to indicate the production of a ‘Ballet III’, excitingly). Where ‘Ballet I’ relished in the slender synth punk sparsities a la Suicide or The Vacant Lots, their latest collection – heralded by new single ‘Past Life’ – betrays the strong anglophilic representation in their liked songs libraries. As ‘Spring Riot’ directly lifts from Stereolab’s ‘U.H.F – MFP’, and the trip-hoppping ‘New Ecstasy’ tries out Primal Scream for size, ‘Past Life’ reveals another string to an already strung-to-fuck bow. With dinky synthesisers, clacking drum machines and melancholic vocals, here Ballet channel the British New Wave, resembling Ian McCulloch fronting OMD. And despite their vintage influence – felt across their monochrome visuals too – the music is fresh, hypnotic and borderline magical. The soundtrack to your new favourite high school teen drama. (Elvis Thirlwell)