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Essential new singles also ft. Bleep Test, Doom Club, Biita Houdei, Starcleaner Reunion and ANYX. |
| Sarah Meth by Milly Cope | Words: Grace Palmer, Hazel Blacher, Lloyd Bolton, Elvis Thirlwell, Brad Sked |
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An intimate portrait of untameable creatures, ‘Horses’ is an anthem of complex love, yearning and separation. This latest single from London singer-songwriter Sarah Meth is a playful yet piercing reflection on heartbreak. The track opens with a shimmering ethereal synth melody, which supports her nostalgic recollections of a love lost. Centred around a gentle, stripped-back acoustic guitar, ‘Horses’ confronts you with the intoxicating poignancy of Meth’s lyricism. Lines like “there’s a box in my body only you know” and “and I’ll kiss bye that city each time I have to go” acknowledge the fleeting nature of comfort in love. As much as ‘Horses’ resonates with the broken-hearted, it is also a pathway to acceptance; like wild horses, love is inherently untameable. Why should we expect it to be otherwise? (Grace Palmer) |
Gilla Band – ‘Placeholder’ |
In many ways engineered for the club – that is, if the dancefloor was ablaze with sweaty, unbridled fury and the adjoining chillout room was blasting musique concrete shellers at eye-watering volumes – Gilla Band’s new single ‘Placeholder’ is gut-punching frenzy of noise-rock mastery. The Dublin band seem to be leaning further into the squirming electronic abrasions of industrial noise, perhaps partially influenced by guitarist Alan Duggan-Borges industrial-techno side project The Null Club. Their latest offering seamlessly shapeshifts through the kind of fraught sonic vulgarities found in that late night body-horror flick that you couldn’t peel your eyes and ears away from. ‘Placeholder’ is taken from their upcoming new album ‘Pugnello’ (out 25th September via Rough Trade) which will is sure to be a 2026 highlight if it comes anywhere close to the band’s brilliant 2022 record ‘Most Normal’. (Hazel Blacher) |
Bleep Test – ‘Eyes Wide Open’ |
Hailing from Manchester’s DIY scene, newcomers Bleep Test, freshly signed to PRAH Recordings, recall the manic new wave and male/female vocal alliances of erstwhile labelmates Pozi but with more wires, and an extremely baritone, and extremely gothic vocal that’s like Bauhaus x 5. Landing with de facto debut single ‘Eyes Wide Open’, Bleep Test deliver a restless, urgent and luridly coloured call to arms. For a band that started as three housemates writing an anti-landlord anthem when they lost their deposit (I bet the process of ‘natural wear and tear’ was overlooked), ‘Eyes Wide Open’ is fittingly barbed with political intent too, commenting on the UK’s silence and complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The single also heralds a debut EP, ‘Out of Breath’, due for release on 11th September. (Elvis Thirlwell) |
Doom Club – ‘World Wide On It / No Sense Makes Sense’ |
Already pivoting away from their drum machine-centred beginnings, Doom Club’s new double single offers one last taste of those early days, in which they seemed to threaten to become London’s modern day answer to Deee-Lite and Beastie Boys. ‘World Wide On It’ in particular captures that spirit of ’90s overlap between hip-hop, electronica and indie rock (Beck’s ‘Odelay!’ is another key touchstone). ‘No Sense Makes Sense’ is more a freewheeling jam which hints at the band’s more recent direction. Sprawling around a winding guitar line, this track underlines the band’s ability to playfully make the most of any core musical idea. Whatever comes next, these two tracks, plus previous single ‘Love Connection’, leave the mark of Doom Club’s infectious and inspired beginnings. (Lloyd Bolton) |
Biita Houdei – ‘The Ground Here’ |
Baked in the utopian glow of a balmy summer’s eve, Biita Houdei’s new single ‘The Ground Here’ is a dazzling cut of golden psych folk wonderment. A sparkling sonic melange of Fleet Foxes-esque indie folk instrumental and bright, strawberry-sweet vocals recalling a timbral likeness to Swedish art-popper Susan Sundfør, the track is a beautiful introduction to Missouri-born, now LA-based artist. Inspired by the stunning natural beauty of California’s Topanga Canyon, and featuring Big Thief guitarist Buck Meek, ‘The Ground Here’ is the latest teaser from Houdei’s debut record ‘This Bed Was Made For Me’, due for release on the 18th September via Basin Rock / Father Daughter. If that wasn’t enough to pique your interest, the new record is said to have been shaped by the production magic of friend and fellow indie-folk auteur Haley Heynderickx too. (Hazel Blacher) |
Starcleaner Reunion – ‘Never Odd or Even’ |
Two years on from an incredibly cool 2024 debut EP ‘Café Life’ that was all Fishmans and 90s-shoegaze influences, New York via New Jersey quartet Starcleaner Reunion waft away the gaze and the haze to embrace their inner flower child on their latest release. Newest in a long line of acolytes to embrace the utopian spirit of Stereolab, ‘Never Odd or Even’ shifts from driving krautrock jangle, to swung, slow and squelchy loungetronica. (In ‘Stereolab terms’, this translates to: From ‘Mars Audiac Quintet’ to ‘Dots and Loops’ – real ones know.) Impressively self-produced by the band in drummer’s Adam Kenter’s garage with gear bought off Facebook marketplace, the track comes from upcoming debut album ‘Umbrella’, due for release on 25th September, which promises to be one of this year’s stand-out psych-pop releases. (Elvis Thirlwell) |
ANYX – ‘Window In Your Eyes’ |
Berlin-based artist ANYX has shared stunning spectacle ‘Window In Your Eyes’ ahead of her debut album ‘Starlink’, set for release August 28th via La Rubia Producciones. With ‘Window In Your Eyes’, ANYX draws us into an ethereal realm, the slow-burner coalescing the grandiose and the minimalistic. The juxtaposition is never anything but exhilarating. A cinematic avant-garde-pop powerhouse, this single casts a string serenade across ANYX’s majestically spectral vocals, which continuously build into something wonderfully cathartic. (Brad Sked) |
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