The Buzz – Five New Bands You Need To Hear This Week

1. Let’s Eat Grandma – a couple of frighteningly eclectic teens


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ndv1XtiLrU

Norwich duo Rosa Walton and Jenny Hollingworth played Latitude a couple of weeks ago and had people walking out of their set open-mouthed. Friends since the age of four and both aged 16 now, their track above, filmed for BBC Introducing Norfolk at the end of last year, is a total thriller, like Lorde meets Kate Bush meets those evil twins from The Simpsons. They’re not wholly ensconced in music either – they flit between various creative worlds, making edgy pop music one minute, and something way more leftfield and performance-based the next. Like Kate Tempest, Dean Blunt and Micachu, they make this look remarkably easy, but unlike them there’s also an awe-inspiring ability to write music that sounds utterly mainstream. Eclectic as hell, their other material calls to mind everything from Bjork to Rufus Wainwright to Taylor Swift. But me name checking these other artists is pointless – whether Rosa and Jenny even know about or care for any of them is debatable. The bottom line is that there’s an amazing burgeoning talent here. Shows at east London’s arty hangout Café Oto and an upcoming release on Hand Of Glory Records (Mary Epworth, Kiran Leonard) bode well, and in September you can see them at Festival No.6. For now though, check out the sublime ‘Deep Six Text Book’ above. (MW)

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2. Palehound – lo-fi art-punk from Boston

“Too stoned, taking antibiotics, I feel my infections wrestling my bones”, sings Ellen Kempner on ‘Healthier Folk’. It’s a lyric that sums up this trio’s resigned sound well. Lo-fi production, trebly guitar tones and a casual attitude towards tuning are the cornerstones of the band’s forthcoming debut album ‘Dry Food’ (released August 14 on Exploding In Sound) – a softly clattering record that finds a superb middle ground between Pavement’s laid back indie and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ blistering art-punk. “You better stick with me”, Kempner sings on stormy album opener ‘Molly’, and you needn’t merely take her word for it. (JB)

3. Model 86 – experimental and genre-mashing electronica

If debut track ‘Friend’ is anything to go by then Model 86 might just be the most eclectic producer in London at this given moment. A schizophrenic mixture of chopped samples, twinkling synthesizers and percussive hip hop beats, it’s a track that reeks of the kind of electronic lunacy better associated with Flying Lotus. Manchester-born Matthew James Wilcock is the name behind the innovative new project, and he cites MF Doom, Boards of Canada and even the cryptic works of David Lynch as among his key influences. 10-track EP ‘Self Help Dance’ is currently in the pipeline; it promises to warp minds at the very least. (JB)

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4. Arbes – majestic Melbourne indie

Although the kind of “tropical” indie (sorry) ushered in by bands like Peace a few years never really managed to mutate into anything spectacular, it wasn’t totally without merit. Musically there are hints of that scene in Arbes’ music – the guitar sound is reminiscent of Wu Lyf and Alt-J’s early material – but with vocalist Jess Zanoni, the Melbourne trio channel something not a million miles away from Elizabeth Frazer’s Cocteau Twins. Their debut EP ‘Swimmer’ is out today on Sports Day Records. (MW)

5. Lupo – Hook-filled psych-pop from London

“Moonshine chic” trio Lupo blend the sounds of old and new on their debut track ‘It’s Another Day’. Swirling strings and heady guitar tones create an atmosphere akin to the trippier experiments of The Beatles, but the track’s call-and-response chorus is more reminiscent of contemporary Britpop revivalists like Superfood. Regardless of which era it’s set in, the song’s catchy psych-pop hooks and cryptic lyrics (“The water’s like a mirror talking at me, what have I done?”) make for an enchanting combination. The band’s “supersonic” single launch takes place on August 6 at The Waiting Rooms in London. (JB)

Words: Matt Wilkinson, James Bentley

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