New Tracks You Have To Hear This Week

Santigold ft. Karen O, Mumford, Deerhunter

Santigold Ft. Karen O – ‘Go’

Not just there for the awe-inspiringly inane Gwyneth Paltrow backslap sessions in life, Jay-Z’s website Life & Times now brings us a surprise new splicing from the two goddesses last seen together bestowing their graces on the NASA album.

Santi’s also waffling her usual nonsense in an interview about the Struggles Of The Artist, but ignore that and jump straight into this brittle and brilliant brawler of a track. Santi first welcomes us into her court as hardened Snow Queen, intoning, “People want my power/And they want my status/Stole my winter palace/But they couldn’t take it” over brutal, rigid, early Adam Ant-ish synth and great reverberating militaristic kettle-drum booms.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-NFrV7-jqE

The chorus melts smoothly into a gleeful, Double Dutch-ish dare of skippy flow via huffing hup-hup route march chants, Santi taunting “You can be the widget to my turbo” before Karen swoops in, bringing hexy back as she chokes and hisses “I’m another instrument to curse you”.

Produced by A Tribe Called Quest legend Q-Tip with scratchy, thorny guitar from Nick Zinner, it’s a far more exciting comeback than we’d any right to expect, but then, we weren’t expecting it anyway. Santi’s described the track as “a challenge to would-be usurpers to come show and prove”. Queen to fU. Check. Your move.

Emily Mackay, Reviews Editor

Niki & The Dove – ‘The Fox’

N&TD’s Malin and Gustaf are in no hurry – their last release was back in August. But when they constantly strike a perfect balance of euphoria and tempering creepiness – as on new EP title track ‘The Fox’’s stuttering cold wave synths and trippy Prince melisma – it’s sure as hell worth the wait.

Laura Snapes, Assistant Reviews Editor

Deerhunter – ‘Nosebleed’

Hear that hissing sound? It’s the nostalgic haze of ‘Halcyon Digest’ dissipating into steam and floating away, while Bradford Cox indulges in some rough-and-ready garage rock instead. All this flagrantly fickle genre-hopping is hard to keep up with, but he’s such a talented bastard that it’s easy to overlook that roving eye of his…

Ben Hewitt, writer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp4xTwso844

Wiley – ‘Numbers In Action’

Everyone loves an internet nutjob, so when Wiley went postal on his Twitter and gave his whole back catalogue away for free, the rubbernecking world rejoiced. It did him a favour, too. Cleansed of the post-‘…Rolex’ comedown that’s dogged him the last three years, he’s back rapping endearing twaddle over bouncy beats.

Mike Williams, Features Editor

Tribes – ‘We Were Children’

“Oh no stranger, you are just like me… we were children in the mid ’90s”. Yes Tribes, yes we were! Only you were clearly taking better notes the first time you heard Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Today’. Hence why you’re now writing your own grunge-pomp classics and I’m still doing the day-job.

Krissi Murison, Editor

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid680550761001?bckey=AQ~~,AAAAABumiUU~,CmZu1qzq0Ny33YG6O8VW7vYEGDm1Nw91&bctid=911619430001

LCD Soundsystem – ‘Live Alone’ (Franz Ferdinand cover)

LCD Soundsystem may have just moved into the indie retirement village, but they’re already at posthumous releases. Covering Franz Ferdinand’s ‘Live Alone’ – the Scots did ‘All My Friends’ in 2007 – James Murphy’s warm, end-of-the-party vocals make us miss both bands. Comebacks/solo projects ASAP please.

Paul Stokes, Associate Editor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUjFM2O2Ixg

Cass McCombs – ‘The Lonely Doll’

In which Cass McCombs displays how anything his farts come into contact with are of more emotional substance than those of nearly every other living singer-songwriter. The next single from his stunning fifth album is a deceptively sweet slice of Americana, with troubled forces at work beneath its coy game-face.

Jaimie Hodgson, New Music Editor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9DNY2oN-f4

The Antlers – ‘Every Night My Teeth Are Falling Out’

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a band whose debut dealt with the joyful theme of terminal illness, The Antlers return with a beautiful, string-plucked epic named after night terrors and recurring dreams. Next single? ‘Naked In Front Of The Whole School’. Look out for it. Should be a treat.

Tim Chester, Deputy Editor, NME.COM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfQ_qPFI1Ro

Mumford & Sons – ‘Lovers’ Eyes’

Another new song destined for the follow-up to ‘Sigh No More’, this working-titled nugget has everything one could wish for from a Mumfords song: melodrama, harmonies and a man kicking the shit out of a kick drum while another batters an acoustic guitar. Not going to make them any smaller, this…

Liam Cash, writer

This article originally appeared in the April 30th issue of NME

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