AFTER the brief malaise that inevitably follows the excess of the festive period, the music industry has exploded back into life and with it comes a deluge of brilliant new music.
Featuring tracks from throughout the course of January, here’s our inaugural edition of New Music Radar for the year.
Rascalton- Told You So
Brimming with the innate confidence that can only come with knowing that your band is well and truly on the ascendancy, Rascalton are back with brand new single ‘Told You So.’
Clocking in at just over two minutes, the latest track from the Glasgow-based punks sees them enlist their rambunctious brand of euphoric rock ‘n’ roll to tell the tale of watching a unrequited love interest fall for a reprehensible individual. Built around brash guitars and crazed vocals that inhabit the middle ground between Pete Doherty and Joe Strummer, the track explores the dichotomy between prideful boasting and empathy whilst remaining every bit as riotous as their earlier work.
Fauves- Headspins
After firmly gaining a foothold in our affections with their wholly unique and vibrant sound, Fauves have prefaced their debut EP with new single ‘Headspins.’
Containing all of the central attributes that not only gained them a place on the 2017 edition of Tenement Trail but also on our Ones To Watch list for the year ahead, the latest excerpt from Les Fauves sees the band deliver a refined take on an enduring live favourite and make some notable progression in the process. With Ryan Caldwell eschewing his trademark falsetto in favour of a thoughtful drawl that inhibits the vocal stylings of Jonathan Richman and Julian Casablancas, this marked change sees the band adopt a more sedate tact without diluting the vividness of their distinct and serene take on indie-pop.
The Orielles- Blue Suitcase (Disco Wrist)
Wholly lovable and brazenly original, fast-rising Halifax trio The Orielles have quickly gained a reputation as one of the UK’s most exciting young bands. Having completed work on their debut album Silver Dollar Moment which is due to arrive in our laps shortly, the band have kicked off the year with the release of yet another deeply engrossing track by the name of ‘Blue Suitcase (Disco Wrist)’.
A thrilling combination of sweet pop melodies, angular riffs and swirling post-punk, it’s a song that sees the band completely let loose as they pay heed to their favourite disco songs of the past. Another gleeful and wildly inventive insight into upcoming album, The Orielles make the rules up as they go along and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
Discussing the track’s origins, the band said “The lyrics fuse together an anecdotal story of spotting an unaccompanied case on a train platform, and the allegorical discussions and theories that followed. This included topics ranging from Schrodingers Cat to James and the Giant Peach!”
Alice Short- Harvey Weinstein Is A Prick
A seering deluge of anger distilled into just under three minutes, East Midlands lyricist Alice Short’s latest offering takes explicit aim at the maligned and condemnable culure of institutionalised abuse among Hollywood’s elite. With former producer Harvey Weinstein acting as the focal point, Short intertwines the starkness of the beat and the vicousnessness of her rightfully vitriolic tirade to great effect and marks herself as prospect in an era where spoken word has began to garner more mainstream acclaim than ever.
The Vaccines- Nightclub
The latest excerpt to be taken from their much-anticipated new LP Combat Sports, The Vaccines continue to reinvent and reimagine the parameters of their sound on new single ‘Nightclub.’ One of their more frantic and unhinged offerings to date, it bustles with the restless energy that would suggest that this is a band that wishes to break from the past and usher in a new era of prosperity.
Che Lingo- Same Energy
With Grime and UK hip-hop placed in the glare of the limelight like never before, South London’s Che Lingo’s ardent perservence and overarching talent seems primed to pay off in 2018. Placed over a dark, brooding beat that recalls the heyday of menacing New York rappers such as Mobb Deep, Onyx and NAS albeit with a modern British twist, his verbosity and charismatic delivery ensures that new single ‘Same Energy’ sounds more like a mission statement for the year than mere braggadocio.
Beta Waves- I Think I’m Melting
Unearthing exciting new talent is what drives us on a daily basis at TENEMENT TV; especially when that talent sprouts from within our nation’s continuously flourishing music scene. Hailing from Dundee, the rather mysterious BETA WAVES were the latest outfit to pop up on our radar when they released their scintillating debut single ‘I Think I’m Melting’ at the start of the year.
Oscillating between blissful ambient tones and vibrant psychedelia, the track is a glistening introduction to the outfit; a bold statement of intent that was enough to place the duo on our ‘Ones To Watch’ list of 2018. Anchored by a massive synth-riff which sets the track alight and quickly wiggles its way into your consciousness, a combination of warm nostalgia and cosmic futuristic vibes distinguish the duo as fledgling descendants of modern psych bands such as Jagwar Ma, MGMT and Tame Impala. Wholly refreshing and accomplished in execution, it’s a bright start to what is surely going to be a very intriguing journey indeed.
