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Essential new releases also including wing!, Swapmeet, Murex, Mixol and Candy’s Room. |
| Photo: Clémentine Schneidermann | Words: Marty Hill, Grace Palmer, A. L. Noonan, Elvis Thirlwell |
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Westside Cowboy – ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’ |
Westside Cowboy started as an antidote to the “more abstract” styles of music that its four members had been playing, committing to a much more instinctive style of songwriting. They prioritised chemistry and joy, trusting that anything else would come later as long as those things were ever present. ‘Kick Stones (The Boys)’, the first single from their debut album ‘It Goes On’, reflects that mission statement perfectly. Forged in the gorgeous middleground between widescreen rock and warm folk stylings, it finds the most ascendent guitar band in the country managing to flex their breadth of ideas, melodic refinement and embracement of repetition at once. A more languid take on a song that has been used as a barnstorming live set opener for some time, it also provides a fascinating insight into how their songs have evolved to fit the record. “We thought we couldn’t record it like that or people would think we wanted to be a stadium rock band”, bassist and vocalist Aoife shares. As they gear up to release their highly-anticipated debut album ‘It Goes On’ later this summer, Westside Cowboy are at the peak of their powers. (Marty Hill) |
mary in the junkyard – ‘New Muscles’ |
Ahead of their debut album, ‘Role Model Hermit’ – set to be released on the 3rd July via AMF Records – London-based trio mary in the junkyard unveil their most captivating single yet. ‘New Muscles’, which can only be described as the band’s ring walk-out anthem, is a fearless, bold addition to their catalogue. Opening with their signature bewitching melodies and David Addison’s dynamic percussion, ‘New Muscles’ exudes an adrenaline-charged energy – the perfect pre-workout fix. Lyrically, with lines like “I embrace the thunder and lightning” and “numerous sores all over my back”, the band displays a more confrontational spirit than ever before. The combination of the choral melody with Clari Freeman-Taylor’s vocals in the pre-chorus creates a cinematic pulsation that leads into the chorus. ‘New Muscles’ is the band’s pre-fight chant, a ritual of conquest, defeat and ultimately survival. mary in the junkyard bring their grit and mettle to the UK with an in-store tour in July and a headline tour in September. (Grace Palmer) |
wing! – ‘HOLD THEM TO IT’ |
A common descriptor for darker music is nocturnal. Tunes that lean into more dance inspired influences are regularly branded with this signifier, but it would be remiss to limit this labelling to the club. Nocturnal music can evoke a silent, introspective loneliness that is all encompassing and dense while being forlorn and ethereal. On the latest single ‘HOLD THEM TO IT’ ahead of his second EP, wing! bottles the elusive and ghostly sound of the night. Both skippy in its drum processing and spectral in its choice of samples, wing! shifts away from the more trip-hop inspired leanings of his previous EP. Layered breaks and hissing snares build in intensity while rising pads loom over like highrises and ghostly vocal samples peak through like distant lights in windows. This nightly mist builds until metallic and rolling jungle breaks pierce the miasma like morning light peeking across a city skyline. A master of subtlety and mood, on ‘HOLD THEM TO IT’ wing! further substantiates his status as one of the UK’s most ruminative and progressive producers working today. (A. L. Noonan) |
Helen Sun – ‘Bureau de Change’ |
There’s earworms, there’s instant earworms, and then there’s the music of Helen Sun. Despite having only played one live show thus far, the London-based singer/songwriter is already building a noteworthy online buzz off the back of last winter’s debut EP ‘talk with your Teeth’. Mixing in a Superorganism/Worldpeace DMT-esque sense of wide-eyed naivety with the sultriness of the contemporary trip-hop/downtempo rival (James K, Smerz et al), Helen Sun’s music is accelerating in an upward trajectory, and new single ‘Bureau de Change’ is only quickening the pace. With tasteful beats, pop-art lyricism (“put the sugar down your gas tank”), smart song-structures, and melodies that shimmer with bittersweet brilliance and heart-piercing maturity, it’s a listen 3-7 times in a row situation, if there ever was one. The B-side ‘Bite it’ is also so good. Long live Helen Sun. (Elvis Thirlwell) |
“What if we just went really loud once we ran out of lyrics?” That’s the formula that Swapmeet stumbled upon when fighting for attention from happenstance spectators in Adelaide bars when they were starting out. It’s a blueprint that serves them very well on ‘2 C U’, the second single from their forthcoming debut LP ‘Mount Zero.’ The fast-rising Aussie four piece revel in soft/hard dynamics, tightly-wound guitar lines and slacker delivery on their latest cut. Blasts of fuzzy guitar dovetail with a flex of calm restraint to put forward as strong of a case for straight-cut indie rock as you’ll hear all summer. (Marty Hill) |
Murex’s new track ‘Massacre’ engulfs you like a bracing rush of icy cold air, goosebumps like constellations blinking to life in a bewitching, nebulous unknown. A gripping, entrancing slice of otherworldly avant-pop, the magical debut offering from the Swedish artist arrives alongside news of her signing to the coveted Young – whose roster includes FKA twigs, The xx, and more recently Tommy Barlow. Self produced in her Stockholm studio, the track’s aqueous rhythmic propulsion, tinctured with dubby delay effects, underpins twinkling synths and Murex’s spectral vocal, calling to mind contemporaries like Kassie Krut in its embrace of the textural eccentricities of electronic music. Keeping her identity partially obscured as a means of “loosening the grip of appearance, and letting the work exist without being defined by it”, Murex is choosing to approach her artistry on her own terms, and it’s safe to say that ‘Massacre’ more than speaks for itself. Gorgeous. (Hazel Blacher) |
Speaking to the quirked up Tumblr-era misfit that lies dormant in many of us, whose late night excursions on our parents’ clunky desktop computers led us to artists like Grimes or Naomi Elizabeth, ‘bibiboobiboo’ is an epic, nectarous confection of lively pop maximalism. The new single arrives from Mixol, a budding singer-songwriter based in Beijing, and it recalls the zigzagging art-pop eccentricity of canonical voices like Fiona Apple or early Regina Spektor with a fresh theatrical twist. Sung in a mixture of English and Mandarin, ‘bibiboobiboo’ whirls with a strange whimsy, veering from MIDI horns to festooned orchestral flourishes with footloose conviction and flair. I don’t think there’s much that sounds like this coming out at the moment – very interesting stuff. ‘bibiboobiboo’ serves as the latest teaser from Mixol’s debut EP ‘The Fool’, due for release on the 24th June. (Hazel Blacher) |
Candy’s Room – ‘Blue Corduroy Skirt (Galya Mix)’ |
The off-kilter blue-eyed funk and soul of Candy’s Room has for several years now been a curious delicacy in several close corners of South East London grassroots scene. With a prospect of a new album on the way sometime in the near future, the band tease us this week with a rework of 2025 cut Blue Corduroy Skirt, remixed by the band’s own Galya Lukoyanova. Snapping the summery indie-chops of the original into a sparse, fuzzed-out freak-zone of hacksaw guitars and lo-fi drum machines, this new mix evokes an imagined futuristic disco on some Rick and Morty-like extraterrestrial planet, where the aliens there have three different mouths and are supping three different cocktails at the same time, all the while wearing excellent sunglasses. (Elvis Thirlwell) |
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