Beau NYC – One Wing
They’ve been written about as Beau and as Beau NYC, so I’m not entirely sure which will stick. They’re a pair of New Yorkers, Heather Boo and Emma Rose, whose self-titled EP is released by Kitsune on 3 May. And if you happen to be passing Brooklyn on 27 April, they’re playing the Kitsune Showcase Party at Baby’s All Right, alongside Mothxr and Buscabulla. This track, One Wing, will surely shush the gossiping hordes – expect the city’s cognoscenti to be there, such are the duo’s arty connections – because it’s got all the right elements, in roughly the right order: equal parts folky and LA AOR, with a Lana Del Rey-ish quality that is positively penumbral, and a keening vocal that isn’t afraid to reveal its imperfections.
Desert Sound Colony – Cracks In My Soul
Desert Sound Colony sounds like it might be the name of a Queens of the Stone Age-type rock band, but it’s actually the front for a London producer who released his first EP, The Way I Began, back in October 2014. His latest release, Cracks In My Soul – from his new EP, issued 27 April via Scissor & Thread – is rhythmic and electronic, but with a reverb/delay-heavy guitar figure all the way through, while DSC whispers huskily about “twisted logic” and not wanting to go home. Intriguing.
’77 – Stay Away From Water
’77 are a rock band from Barcelona named after the year that saw the release of Let There Be Rock – they love Bon Scott-era AC/DC. It shows; not specifically that they love AC/DC, but that they’re in hock to 70s rock in general. Hard rock, not speed or death metal. It’s all very unreconstructed and pre-Metallica/Anthrax. The four-piece have released three albums on Spanish labels Listenable and Kaiowas, and have just inked a worldwide deal with Century Media. Their music, if Stay Away From Water is any measure, is just this side of excessive, verging on the preposterous (as with the Darkness, you can’t tell at first whether they’re in parody or homage territory). Still, if you’re into hirsute riffing, squealing solos and lyrics about “living on borrowed time”, you probably won’t mind either way.
Ji Nilsson – Encore
Ji Nilsson is another great new artist from Scandinavia. She attracted some attention late last year because of the alleged similarity between Baby Don’t Lie, the single by Gwen Stefani, and Heartbreak Free by the blue-haired Swede signed to Best Fit. Encore is an electronic pop ballad with synth strings, handclaps, a breeziness reminiscent of La Isla Bonita (See? All good pop music is light-fingered) and a lyric (“Come dance with me … when the song is over, so are we”) perfect for doomed summer romances.
LA Priest – Oino
LA Priest (pronounced “Lah Pree-st”) is the new guise for Sam Dust, formerly of indie-tronic types Late of the Pier. He’s been using that moniker for a while, but he’s been too busy elsewhere to record any follow-ups – apparently, he’s been in Greenland “studying the effect of the Ivittuut region’s electro-magnetic phenomena on recorded sound” (course he has). That’s about to change. He’s just signed to Domino, with an album due out later this year, and if Oino is any measure it will be well worth checking out. Oino is what David Byrne might be doing today if he was 25 and working with Hot Chip. Everything about this track – the superb percolating synth-bassline, the keyboard micro-melodies, the lyric about rewinding time – demands repeat listens.
