Whilst you’ve been busy sobbing about the Brangelina breakup,
I’ve been doing more productive things. Like sobbing over my existence. And discovering
new music on the internet. Here are my findings.
THE BEST:
‘Don’t Feed Me To Them’ – Pool Art
This new noisy single from emerging Manchester pair Pool Art is terrifying to put things mildly. The calm way in which the singer purrs ‘don’t feed me to them’ is already unsettling enough, but it’s nothing compared to the latter half of the track which swiftly plummets into a Satanic abyss of blitzkrieg percussion and eerie ascending guitar squeals. If this is ‘dream’ pop, it’s clearly the nightmare variety.
‘Fresh Hell’ – Greys
Inspired by the acquittal of Jian Ghomeshi and the death of Rob Ford - two people who frontman Shehzaad has referred to in a press statement as ‘total pieces of shit’ - this track sees Toronto punks Greys letting out their anger at the brainwashing of the Canadian public, one minute hating a public figure, the next minute sympathising over them. As you can tell immediately, most of the rock music I’ve been favouring this week isn’t the soft variety. These dissonant guitars are downright ugly and the production’s so filthy you’ll want to take a bath.
‘Poppies’ – KNGDAVD
One of the less moody selections this week, funky distorted synths and theatrically buoyant vocals make up this new single from mysterious Soundcloud entity KNGDAVD. Further research suggests they are in fact a duo from New York. Clearly they don’t like talking about themselves - they don’t even feel comfortable putting the letter ‘I’ in their band name.
‘Really Doe’ – Danny Brown ft. Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt
Backed by a beat made up of sinister pitched bells, Danny
drops a single squawking verse before buggering off, handing over the rest of the track to his awesome entourage of guests. Guests like Ab-soul,
Earl Sweatshirt and some guy you may have heard of called Kendrick Lamar. It’s
an impressive line-up with impressive results. I’ve never been all that hyped
about the gap-toothed pill-popping Detroit rapper before, but his upcoming
album is looking damn exciting.
'Starboy' - The Weeknd
The title isn’t all two dissimilar to a certain David
Bowie song. And I was expecting Daft Punk’s contribution to be more than brief
robotic backing vocals. But even so, this is catchy stuff from the
palm-tree-haired pop singer.
Hear preview here.
Hear preview here.
THE WORST:
‘I’m Vegan!!! Die, meateaters’ – Misha
Protesting against the killing of animals by promoting
the killing of human beings seems somewhat hypocritical, but I guess this
militant vegan is only a kid so his sense of logic hasn’t fully developed yet.
That said, I’d quite happily watch this tuneless brat get slapped round the
face with a leg of ham.