TWO things are certain at the beginning of every single week in that each day will end with a Y and we’ll come out the other side with a hail of great new material added to the archives of modern music.
As regular as clockwork, drained and sleep-deprived artists will emerge from the studio and prepare to deliver their work to the masses for either widespread swathes of praise or critical scrutiny. Although we’re well aware that you often have to traipse through the mud in order to get to dry land, we’ve once again taken it upon ourselves to make this process a lot more efficient with another edition of our new music radar and have highlighted the tracks that demand your unbridled attention.
Spinning Coin- Tin
A by-product of Glasgow’s DIY scene that have deftly climbed out out of its confines and into the hearts of music fans from down south and further afield, Spinning Coin’s persistence and work ethic has certainly began to pay off over the course of the last year or so.
Presently on their way to SXSW in order to win over even more converts and spread their music as far as possible, the band have followed up the tremendous ‘Raining On Hope Street’ with new B-side ‘Tin.’ A frenetic track that evokes the spirit of The Modern Lovers’ seminal debut, ‘Tin’ is built upon lo-fi textures and irresistibly rugged guitars. With one eye on the slacker rock of days gone by and the other gazing forward towards the clear cut nuances that make their sound such a fresh prospect, ‘Tin’ acts as a prime example of the duality between the band’s inclination towards ornate beauty and the healthy undercurrent of raw aggression that comes to the fore on this outing.
The Orielles- Sugar Tastes Like Salt
There’s something about the intermingling of dance-based influences and jagged post-punk that seldom fails to strike gold and this is most certainly the case on the debut single from The Orielles. Somewhere between the dissonance of Gang Of Four and the immersive sounds of New York’s DFA collective, the Halifax-based trio have made a ploy for the world’s affections and they’re likely to get them if there’s more where this came from. Citing the work of Quentin Tarantino as a major influence, it’s not hard to imagine that this track could be summoned from the bowels of his blood-splattered, amoral and unrepentantly fun universe or manifest itself in the vampire ridden dystopia of he and Robert Rodriguez’s ‘From Dusk Till Dawn.’
Black Honey- Somebody Better
Capable of spawning colossal alt-rock offerings as if it were second nature to them, Black Honey’s ‘Somebody Better’ definitely registers as one of their most uncompromising tracks yet. Shimmering with that unique spark that you occasionally catch wind of and can’t help but be drawn to in a band, it’s hard to fathom that anyone would lay ears upon this hulking mass of meticulously crafted rock ‘n’ roll and not unreservedly pledge their allegiance to Izzy Philips and co.
Ultras- Team Handed
Challenging perceptions of everything from masculinity to the culture of violence that’s ingrained into the young Scottish male from his formative years, the first track to be taken from Ultras’ upcoming debut album is one that is fraught with poignancy. Pinpointing frontman Gav Prentice as an artist that’s undeterred from approaching delicate subject matter or uncomfortable truths and can do so whilst assigning them a fittingly touching backdrop, let’s hope that there’s more of the same to come.
