Essential new releases, also including singles from Takeshi’s Cashew, Hank and Why Horses?

Dana Margolin – ‘Big Beautiful Sound’

Dana Margolin, formerly of Porridge Radio, makes her solo debut with the beautifully restrained ‘Big Beautiful Sound’. Xylophone, spare but cavernous backing vocals and bass tenderly augment the song’s core of vocal and fingerpicked guitar, such that every lyric falls with the entirety of its due weight. There is a hymnal quality to the composition, appropriate to lyrics that celebrate the redemptive quality to be found even in life’s darkest moments. The ‘big beautiful sound’ promised by the title is not generated by the instruments themselves but rather the hushed profundity evoked by the arrangement’s minimalistic beauty. The sentiment is perfectly captured by an accompanying video directed by Mike Mills (‘Beginners’, ‘20^th Century Women’, ‘C’mon C’mon’), which foregrounds the strange, private joy hinted at by the lyrics. (Lloyd Bolton)

ladylike – ‘Borrowed Time’

ladylike’s new single ‘Borrowed Time’ strikingly demonstrates the Brighton group’s brilliant command of dynamics. A stirring intro build collapses into an opening verse accompanied only by sparse guitars. Then, the sense of release felt as the band come back in juxtaposes interestingly against the refrain ‘we keep passing’, obliquely evoking unexpected joy, or perhaps only relief. Against scattered vocal details, the band crash together toward the song’s climax, an abstract portrayal of inner turmoil, before pulling back once more for the final line, barely enunciated: ‘I’m still losing things’. (Lloyd Bolton)

Takeshi’s Cashew – ‘Sessellift’

Just in time for the ‘Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’ remake, self-branded “psych medieval Nintendo Core” outfit Takeshi’s Cashew have unleashed ‘Sessellift’, another slice of flute-laden, psychedelic funk that’s all filtered through a glorious retro-tinged, 16-bit rendering. Evoking some sort of Jumanji-like sorcery, Takeshi’s Cashew’s latest in ‘Sessellift’ is akin to being pulled into a console itself and standing in a skeleton-filled stronghold amidst wizards, goblins and ghouls, before taking down the multi-headed hydra boss. An amalgamation of King Gizz, Yin Yin and the ‘Super Castlevania IV’ soundtrack, it’s a whimsical psychotropic thrill-ride fantasy, coalescing the sounds of retro-console-hardware, psychedelic-funk and medieval sounds for something fun and refreshing. The Viennese shall also be unleashing their third record on October 30th, fittingly titled ‘Planet Odyssey 64’. (Brad Sked) 

Hank – ‘Claryn’s Song’

London-based noisemakers Hank are back with grunge-pop ballad ‘Claryn’s Song’. A melancholic marvel, its honeyed-vocals croon over scuzz-filled guitars, which ultimately erupt into a majestic, cathartic cacophony over the chorus. The short and sweet two-and-a-half-minute marvel sees the quartet serpentine between the tender and the raucous. It’s in parts, Nirvana-like with its almost hypnotic, bass-driven downbeat jangle. Then, in the final stretch, fluttering violin from Ash Cooper – predominantly the band’s drummer – brings one into a somnolent slumber, before the beastly wrath of the chorus once again pummels one into nothing but pulp. It’s exhilarating stuff from one of the capital’s most exciting outfits. (Brad Sked)

Why Horses? – Cat’s Cradle

Addressing Kurt Vonnegut, with regard to his novel ‘Cat’s Cradle’, Why Horses? single of the same name asks over and over, ‘Is there truly no purpose?’ The rumbling absurdist anxiety laid out in speak-sing lyrics is redoubled by the tense swell of the musical backing, fiddle straining over hard-edged guitar lines. At the midpoint, singer Gabriel Austin Lester puns, “And you may find yourself listening to David Byrne”, the perfect description of a modern alienation which is reinforced by a perceived breakdown of the contemporary in the unmutable presence of our past. Vonnegut’s novel remains the main focus, however, and song’s fragmentary climax is interspersed with scattered plot points. Another taste of what makes this band so arresting ahead of the release of their second EP ‘These Hands’ next month. (Lloyd Bolton)