Essential new singles also including TV For Cats, Yoshizawa and Baby Berserk.
Opus Kink – ‘Low Roader’
Opus Kink return in the aftermath of debut album ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ with new cut ‘Low Roader’, reportedly recorded ‘at breakneck speed’ amid the chaos of the album release. While ‘The Sweet Goodbye’ represented the culmination of years at the coalface honing their signature brand of scuzzy jazz-inflected punk, this new single offers perhaps their clearest intimation to date of what lies beyond that. Angus Rodgers carves out a trad-style melody fans may better associate with his work as Painted Bird which contrasts starkly against driving rhythms and a restless earthy synth. The band’s signature horns take a back seat, bursting through to provide flashes of counterpoint to the murky backing. All in all ‘Low Roader’ provides an exciting vision of a next phrase probably long on the minds of the band as their debut came to its slow completion. It also comes as a timely reminder of the bands singular forceful power on the eve of their biggest UK headline shows to date, which kick off next week. (Lloyd Bolton)
Falle Nioke & FROID DUB – ‘Happiness’
Falle Nioke is the vocalist of Margate-based multi-genre carnival Pigeon, a band whose 2026 was a breakout year following critically acclaimed debut LP ‘OUTTANATIONAL’. On this single, however, he joins forces with Parisian duo FROID DUB. The collaboration has resulted in the wonderful, ‘Happiness’, the first single off of their joint EP, ‘Yam Soup’ out January 22nd via PRAH Recordings. A heady dub fantasy, ‘Happiness’ is a bewitching and somnolent affair. A pleasant excursion into the consciousness, this languid, hypnotic odyssey coalesces bass-laden, serpentine dub-stylings with psychotropic electronica and elements of ambient. If you’re a Boomtown regular and you’re feeling a little angsty that you need to wait until the summer for your return, get on this – it will take you right back to Winchester at 4am. Glorious stuff. (Brad Sked)
Vaseline – ‘Lotus Leaves’
A glitchy, fucked up slice of dazzling electronic avant-pop surrealism, limping along like a freakish netherworld robot garbed in quirked-up, high end South London vintage couture, Vaseline’s new single ‘Lotus Leaves’ possesses a singular, addictive strangeness. Made up of sisters Riot and Enga – known by their stage names Ditzy and Rabit – the London duo’s aloof digital footprint traces a number of trendy, leftfield appearances across the capital over the past year, bridging pockets of underground scenes, from anti-establishment gen Z artists like Worldpeace DMT to more experimental bills with YHWH Nailgun and Astrid Sonne. The brilliantly sharp and scissory rhythmic misshapes of ‘Lotus Leaves’ might just explain why – we’ll be looking out for their next London show. (Hazel Blacher)
TV For Cats – ‘Name Badge’
Morpheus might’ve stomped around the Matrix looking hot to ‘Name Badge’, if, instead of being born into a sealed pod of goop connected to an omnipresent supercomputer, he were a flower child with an extensive history of psychedelics and prized bucket hat collection. The new track from London newcomers TV For Cats is a fun, shimmering helping of dancey, indie psych-pop escapism, brimming with whimsical melodies and all-out, Madchester-esque breakbeats. Speaking on the new single, the band explain: “Name Badge was written in a one-and-done blitz. A bass line loop that I couldn’t stop playing over and over and over and over. Patiently building the parts around it and slowly but surely emerges a song. The feeling of consistently being a day late and a dollar short. The only guy in the room without a name badge. Gary Numan would be proud of the synth lines and Stereo MCs would be happy with the beat.” (Hazel Blacher)
Yoshizawa – ‘Empty Space’
Leeds group Yoshizawa announce new album ‘For Tomomi’ with new cut ‘Empty Space’. The single builds out from an isolated synth loop into a dazzling nexus of interlocking melodies, which lull you towards its intense, driving climax. Musically this draws from jazz and prog references, but not in that tiresome way that insists only upon virtuosity. Instead, every melody is lyrical, and slots into the whole with seemingly biological harmony and necessity. (Lloyd Bolton)
Baby Berserk – ‘French Manicure’
It only takes about 20 seconds of listening to ‘French Manicure’ before you might feel compelled to chain smoke an entire pack of Vogues at the roller disco dressed up in the sexiest, least practical garments you own. A playful, Franco-Dutch masquerade of groovy indie disco-sleaze, the new single from Baby Berserk is an infectious follow up to their 2024 record ‘Slightly Hysterical Girls With Pearls’ – USB owners that exclusively DJ indie parties, take note. ‘French Manicure’ serves as the lead single from the Amsterdam trio’s upcoming third album ‘Psycho Dance Sleaze’, due for release on the 16th March via Les Disques Bongo Joe and Mothland. (Hazel Blacher)
