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A bumper edition of our top singles from the past two weeks, also including Ninush, Spanish Horses, pyncher, Drum Tower, MM’99 and cosign. |
| Words: Elvis Thirlwell, Lloyd Bolton, Grace Palmer, Marty Hill, Hazel Blacher | SILVERWINGKILLER by Paris Seawell |
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SILVERWINGKILLER – ‘WORLDSTAR’ |
Announcing news of a second EP cosily entitled ‘DESPERATE STRUGGLE’, the all capitalised, all guns blazing, nuclear-grade Manchester two-piece have made a new song built around a loop of 70s Somali Disco, and it slaps. An iconic moment in their electric live show with something close to a sing-a-along chorus, SILVERWINGKILLER have delivered the kind of tripped-out hip-hopping track that you listen to while smoking some mutherfuckas in Grand Theft Auto, fingers greased in Doritos, firing ‘gun fingers’ in the air and shouting “World Star! World Star!”. The band also have announced dates opening for Fat Dog in Europe and Gilla Band in the UK, and those are bills. Relating to travel, culture, and vocalist Yushang’s interest in anthropology, speaking more about the track she says: “we took that idea and made it completely excessive instead. The whole track is basically a massive flex, moving around the world like you understand everything.” (Elvis Thirlwell) |
HMLTD – ‘I Used To Ride In Limousines’ |
‘I Used To Ride In Limousines’ captures HMLTD confidently doing what they do best, transcending the scars left by the journey it took to get here. The band have explained that in the long gap between 2023’s ‘The Worm’ and new album ‘FANGS’, they spent a label advance on ‘making an “indie” album which they ultimately came to feel ‘embodied everything we have always been against… safeness, obviousness, conservatism, not to mention self-pity’. The earth-shaking pulse of this single forcefully kicks that style aside, while the ‘self-pity’ is translated into a productive foil which negates redemption in its deliberately uncomfortable candour. A jarring line about ‘having wet dreams [about] Chloë Sevigny’ could feel like a tiresome attempt at Isaac Wood-ism in the ‘indie’ context they mention. Here, however, screamed over the music and paired with other awkward lines like ‘I used your kindness as a fleshlight’, it confesses its pathetic impotence without expecting our sympathy. The result is a thumping, haunted floor-filler. (Lloyd Bolton) |
Steeped in the wistful recollections of the quotidian, Ninush’s latest single ‘Neighbours’ is, in her words, “a love letter to the village I grew up in.” Following her debut EP, ‘The Flowers I See You In’, released earlier this year, the new track reflects Ninush’s signature warmth and tenderness. Rich with storytelling lyricism like “there’s a million ways I could go, just to prolong going back home”, it embraces childhood curiosity and a sense of exploration. Only featuring an acoustic melody and soft piano notes, the opening is stripped back – conjuring hazy summer evenings. This gentle instrumentation gives way to a synth-driven, pastoral arrangement at the climax. Accompanied by crescendoing marching drums and distant harmonies, the conclusion revels in a feeling of hope, joy and endless possibilities rooted in hometown experiences. As Ninush emphasises, “it’s not said, it’s the very best.” (Grace Palmer) |
Spanish Horses – ‘Hey Man (Hey Man)’ |
The debut single from London-via-Paris outfit Spanish Horses delivers on the promise and anticipation building around the band with an assured and subtly addictive single. As the name perhaps suggests, ‘Hey Man (Hey Man!)’ has a laid-back ease, brought into focus by a tight rhythmic drive. Sharp, stage whispered vocals have something of Bradford Cox about them, particularly recalling Deerhunter’s ‘Fading Frontier’. Behind this, languid guitars and carefree backing vocals give the whole thing a sunset glow while drums and pert organ stabs keep things rolling. The perfect soundtrack to the fading of the golden haze of summer. (Lloyd Bolton) |
pyncher ft. Phoebe Green – ‘Love You Better’ |
“I wanna feel like I’m new again / I just need time to work it out,” hums pyncher’s Sam Blackely as a breeze of whirring mellotron and gently grounding bass introduces ‘Love You Better.’ Asking himself to be better to those around him, a yearning for interpersonal reinvention could easily be a reflection on his band too. Having sprung up as a noisy and moody garage rock outfit, pyncher have gradually become subtler in their arrangements and more introspective in their lyrics. ‘Love You Better’ takes another step in that direction: it compels with woozy electronics, warm duetting vocals (Phoebe Green provides the second voice on the track) and a further embrace of clean-cut melody. A beautiful single and a really promising glimpse of this increasingly refined version of the band. (Marty Hill) |
For UK heads that have been voraciously dining on the lavish victuals of NYC’s verdant experimental rock scene (Fire Talk Records, I’m looking at you), the phrase “we’ve got food at home” has never rang more true than in the case of intriguing London newcomers Drum Tower. Combining math-rock sophistication with an off-kilter post-punk experimentalism recalling fellow NY contemporaries Robber Robber, the quintet’s debut single ‘Junkyard’ wobbles on a strange, gut-churning tightrope between torpedoing dissonance and stark, brutalist order. “Junkyard is a ballad that unfolds as a dual narrative dealing with the harsh leftovers of romantic discardment”, vocalist and trombonist Rachel Fonsecca Burtt explains. “Moving from the initial sting of aimless, exhausted wandering to finding a surreal comfort in the city’s dump.” (Hazel Blacher) |
On her intoxicating new single ‘S4M’, MM’99 paints spectral figure-8s through the gauzy neon of the dancefloor, apparitions of emotional discord glistering through a lens of feverish, witchy electroclash. Casting a narcotized, dry ice fog around the Crystal Castles-esque electronic revivalism shared by contemporaries such as Bassvictim or Snow Strippers, here the rising London-via-Poland artist poises brassy vocal textures atop a plunging, propulsive electro ambience that throngs with late-night abandon. “S4M’ is a song about processing trauma and going through the stages of recovery like the stages of grief”, MM’99 explains. “Even though the song is about one of my darkest and saddest experiences, the lyrics firmly reject the position of a victim, reject the suffering and disallow pain, so there is only space for expression and freedom.” (Hazel Blacher) |
cosign – ‘Too Far For What’ |
The project of Belfast artist and producer Martha Greer, cosign embraces the unique intersection between intimacy and innovation. Her latest single, ‘Too Far For What’, sees this connection explored to its fullest potential. Seemingly emerging from a dream, the track’s opening is interminable and atmospheric. Evocative of Oklou’s blend of mellifluous vocals and MIDI synthesiser, Martha’s voice merges with the electronic track, becoming one harmonious voice. The refrain “taking it too far” repeats like a mantra, supported by pulsations and distortions that ripple beneath the chorus. As the track concludes, it relinquishes to its internal battle between the emotional and the electronic, embodying, as Martha states, “the friction between self-awareness and self-destruction.” cosign will bring her introspective experimentation to Left of the Dial Festival in October. (Grace Palmer) |
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