New Boots editor Phil Moore takes you through the best new music tracks this week.
Arlo Parks ‘Black Dog’
“It’s so cruel/What your mind can do for no reason”. A timely sentiment, as its Mental Health Awareness Week. The young west Londoner continues to make incredible, tender songs in the short time she’s been releasing music. This wise-beyond-her-years trippy, cinematic indie-folk will appeal to fans of Laura Marling, Beth Gibbons, and Bon Iver. She is tipped for big things, and its not hard to understand why.
IDLES ‘Mr. Motivator’
One for the moshers, the first single from the upcoming third album by Bristolian post-punks. The band want to “encourage our audience to dance like no one is watching and plough through these dark times with a two-tonne machete of a song”. And there’s no doubt it’s a slaying track. “Let’s seize the day!/You can do it!” After hearing this you will fell like you can pretty much do anything.
Flyte ‘Easy Tiger’
Previewing their LA-recorded second LP, the London folk-rock trio are still as wispy as ever. A band which keeps building their fanbase [you may have caught live at the Roadmender [2015] or The Black Prince [2017]], they weave a chugging guitar motif and warm vocal that’s a little reminiscent of Eliot Smith. Singer Will Taylor said he was “exorcising shame, heartbreak, jealousy” with this one, and it’s bleak realism does a notable job in reflecting such emotional dissonance.
Pottery ‘Hot Heater’
This, on the other hand, is a backs-to-the-wall art-rock attack of which we haven’t really heard in a while. With band members drawn from across Canada and the UK, they mine from the same well of mounting tension and shifting time signatures as the likes of Television and Talking Heads. If it wasn’t so well executed you might shout ‘pastiche’, but it possesses enough joie de vivre to simply be utterly lovely.
CB ‘Tell U’
Charlie Borthwick is a producer possessing much skill, harnessing the club vibes and taking things in whatever direction he feels like. On this garage number it’s a slightly restrained throwback to the classic ’90s sound, with spacey female vocals and plenty of peaks and troughs to take you on a sonic journey.
Ray Gemini x Li-Likeisaid ‘Fake Love’
Another soulful Harlz production, this Northampton three-way is the latest in a working relationship that’s been harnessed over time and now flies. The flow never stops between these two upcoming rappers, and if you can keep up with the pace you’re in for a treat.
Torus ‘The Feeling’
Second official single from the Milton Keynes/N-Town group featuring prolific musicians Alfie Glass and Harry Quinn. Thick and sludgy like the best grunge/stoner rock trios are, there’s no escaping the heavy attack and overwhelming sense of being smothered in hot grease. The small amount of vocals on this one are heavily distorted, with dirty lo-fi garage vibes preferred to diamond-bright melody. Note: you must see live when all the shitness is over.
Hxrmz LB ‘Baddest’
Liam Berry’s third single, another Northampton rapper with great collaborative work with the likes of Napps and Dreadz, and part of the ‘Lay It Down’ scene. A fan of the vocoder and a sexy beat, this one, with production from Mayan, is a full-on lush dancehall club sound.
Teenage Waitress ‘You Ain’t Got It Bad’
Southampton bedroom production from Daniel J. Ash [not the Bauhaus guitarist!], this Colorama Records release is his third single, all from a future album called Mucho Gusto! It’s a sweet, synth-heavy psychedelic-pop winner, using layered sounds and repetitive phrases like a half-forgotten nursery rhyme. You’ll be humming this one for days.
philclarkful ‘Wither’
“Watch the weather outside/While you wither inside”. Born out of a small skit from Boris Johnson’s lockdown announcement speech, this first release from Northampton-based Phil Clark is a catchy ode to the fucked up times in which we live. Crisp production and ’90s sensibilities make this a wide jeans wearing, Odelay-style winner.
