| Essential new releases also including Goodbye, thistle, The Slow Country, she's green, Night Swimming and Ken Park. | | Pollyfromthedirt by George Vicary | Words: A.L. Noonan, Hazel Blacher, Brad Sked, Elvis Thirlwell, Marty Hill, Isabel Kilevold | | | Pollyfromthedirt – 'Don't shoot now' | | Major cities are commonly seen as the hubs for artists and creative scenes. Containing the highest density and variety of venues, spaces and collaborators, cities like London or New York steal the spotlight while suburbia is scoffed at and considered parochial. This is in no way the case when considering Darlington's Pollyfromthedirt, an artist seemingly fully formed and with a knowing grasp of the internal guts of contemporary Britain. Pollyfromthedirt's latest release 'Dont shoot now', is a hypnagogic and glitched cut of warped electronic bedroom pop, blending the skunked out synths of cloud rap with alt-R&B inflected vocal writing. Dreamy and bright but with a solemn melancholy dancing beneath, 'Dont shoot now' is both swaddling and uplifting in equal measure, melding delicate descending synthlines with phasing synth pads. One of the country's most interesting new artists to break, Pollyfromthedirt is in a world of their own, carving out a solitary, stylish and uncompromising position in contemporary British indie. (A. L. Noonan) | | Bathing Suits – 'Empathy' | | A bruising 7 minute onslaught of sweltering industrial-trance oblivion, Bathing Suits' 'Empathy' will chew you up, spit you out and shower you across the throbbing dancefloor in tatters, all to the merciless, unyielding thump of its kick drum. Serving as the inaugural release for brand new record label Underplay Recordings (via Virgin Music), the single sees the fast rising group ascend the hallowed sticky basement parties of the thriving Leeds DIY scene. Coalescing the bristling post-punk noise of bands such as Model/Actriz or Gilla Band with a pummelling, glassy eyed club endurance – aided by the production wizardry of Leeds via Berlin producer DJ Subaru – the new track is a "cold, angry, suffocating and tense" apocalyptic exhortation on empathy, or a lack thereof. Are the walls caving in or are they just sweating? Am I being visited by a higher power or are the strobes just blaring in my face? Who knows, who cares, someone pour me another drink – I'll see you in the pit. (Hazel Blacher) | | Brighton newcomers Goodbye have returned with new single '13a' ahead of their upcoming debut EP 'These Things Take Time', due for release on the 26th March. The quintet's sophomore single is an entrancing and saccharine serenade between dream pop and shoegaze that revels in the ethereal. Evoking both early Warpaint and the jangled-goth-pop of Cocteau Twins, Megan Wheeler's vocals wash over a glorious wall-of-noise, making for a spellbinding stunner. The latest offering from the emerging outfit is further proof that the hype is in fact real. Goodbye will be joining Lime Garden on their upcoming sold-out tour, and for those who missed out on tickets, they will also be touring their otherworldly live show across the UK, including a night at The George Tavern on the 7th April. (Brad Sked) | | Marking the announcement of new EP 'backflip', due 29th May via REX RECS (ugly ozo), Northampton's thistle. deliver their tightest and most exhilarating recording to date with new single 'pieces'. Building up their TAGABOW-esque shoegaze/emo walls of glittering sound, breaking them down into intimate guitar/vocal verses before building, yes, another wall of full-blown rock-out onslaught, 'pieces' mixes sparkles with razors, ponderous like a wistful gaze out to sea. They are also achieving a near constant state of touring: a tour with humour last November preceded an Independent Venue Week tour with little grandad in January, with the band gearing up for their biggest headline run in May.!(Elvis Thirlwell) | | The Slow Country – 'Firing Line' | | A long-standing highlight of their excellent live show, it's about time The Slow Country committed 'Firing Line' to tape. The kind of folk-leaning indie rock that the Manchester and London group make is certainly not of short supply at the moment, but few can claim to have a firmer grasp on it than them. Their latest effort, produced by Bill Ryder-Jones, and their first on Heist or Hit, ties rich guitar and string melodies to a blunt lyricism that represents the idea that "when you're in the throes of anxiety and depression, you don't see the beauty of the world around you". Each of the seven members of the band contribute significantly to the maximalist composition. Fitting all seven of them onto a stage comfortably seems to be their only real struggle at the moment, but if they keep releasing songs this good then small stages won't be something they'll need to contend with for very long. (Marty Hill) | | she's green weave a nature-laced sound through reverb-soaked guitars and ethereal vocals, letting the melody breathe before it bears its weight. The Minneapolis five-piece channel frustration and discomfort into resilience and release on their new single, 'mettle'. The track brims with atmospheric post-punk textures pulsing beneath a shoegaze haze. Intricate guitar lines and propulsive percussion steer the band between dream pop's weightlessness and indie rock's grit. Both lyrically and sonically, the band lean into a tactile quality, where layers drift and collide with jagged edges. The melodic dreamscape floats momentarily before sharp, dissonant instrumentation grounds it in something visceral. With 'mettle', she's green craft a sound that balances atmosphere, abrasion, and emotional depth in equal measure — an eerie mist giving way to a cathartic burst of feedback. (Isabel Kilevold) | | Night Swimming – 'Poison Berry' | | It's certainly a week for dream pop bands from cities based in the south of England announcing their new EP's. Bath dream poppers Night Swimming are joining the club with the news of their second extended play 'Melting, Sometimes Bleeding', due for release May 22nd via Venn Records. They mark the occasion with their new single 'Poison Berry', a winsome and bewitching wonder that makes for a more jovial and buoyant Slowdive or Lush. A much needed sonic dopamine hit for those times of melancholy, the serene marvel serves as an "amalgamation of" vocalist Meg Jones' "experiences with men and how they have made [her] feel in relationships". She elaborates: "'Poison Berry' details the state of being acutely aware of your partner's emotions, although they seem distant, and the loneliness (or bitterness) of feeling like that isn't reciprocated." (Brad Sked) | | Like gleaming, salty ocean bubbles refracting against the softened twilight, Ken Park's stunning single 'Crawl' is grounded in the quiet scenic enchantment of life's subtle interludes. Released this week via grassroots indie label TODO, the rising NYC artist's new track arrives with his self-titled debut EP, packed with plunging, melodically rich lo-fi atmospheres that demonstrate a clear songwriting talent at just 22 years old. Recalling the grittier, pared-back intimacies of Elliott Smith, 'Crawl's glimmering acoustic ruminations flicker with a grainy, filmic glow that could turn the dreariest day into a cathartic fuzz of romanticised introspection. Speaking on the track's lyrical themes, Ken Park elaborates: "Written right after leaving high school, the song channels the thrill of chasing freedom alongside the thoughts of discarding an old life. It's about a coming-of-age reflection about leaving comfort behind, rebuilding yourself from the ground up and slowly becoming who you were meant to be." (Hazel Blacher) | | | | |
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