Beat Week 5 With New Music

COSMO GODFREE gives his suggestions for new music refreshing enough to lift anyone’s blues.

charli xcx danny brown disclosure flume Music night works schoolboy q virals week 5 blues Wolf Alice

Feeling the mid-term trauma? Need a little lift? Try a taste of new music by some upcoming bands and artists. Here is a special shortlist of eight new hopefuls, collaborated by none other than Cosmo Godfree.

 

Disclosure

Making pop music at the intersection of house and UK garage, brotherly production duo Guy and Howard Lawrence are only 21 and 18 years old respectively. Perhaps best known for the single ‘Latch’ and their incredible remix of Jessie Ware’s ‘Running’, their long-awaited debut album is pencilled in for March. ‘White Noise’, their recent collaboration with AlunaGeorge, will surely be a highlight.

 

 

Virals

Nothing could be more tiresome than the decades-old ‘Are guitars dead?’ debate. Virals are not the saviours of guitar music any more than The Strokes, or The Vaccines, or [insert current NME darlings here]. They’re bloody great though, as evidenced by the ‘Coming Up with the Sun’ EP, which sounds like Dinosaur Jr at a sunny beach party. Essentially the project of one Shaun Hencher (ex-Lovvers), expect new material to continue in the same vein.

 

 

Schoolboy Q

Schoolboy Q represents one-quarter of the Black Hippy group (other members: Ab-Soul, Jay Rock and superstar-in-the-making Kendrick Lamar). With a series of good-to-brilliant releases already under his belt, new album ‘Oxymoron’ should see Q further refining his particular slant on West Coast hip-hop. Expect a ‘who’s who’ of guest features including Kendrick and A$AP Rocky.

 

 

Danny Brown

Detroit rapper Danny Brown has been in the game for a while, leading up to the wickedly funny and often downright salacious XXX mix-tape. That was over a year ago, and now, having appeared on a near-endless stream of guest features throughout 2012, Danny is preparing to drop his debut album proper. With beats from Rustie and Purity Ring among others, it’s apparently a more serious affair with ‘less dick-sucking jokes’. Hmm. Doesn’t sound like the Danny Brown I know.

 

 

Charli XCX

Having sampled Gold Panda for ultra catchy new single ‘You (Ha Ha Ha)’, Charli XCX has shown off her incredible pop nous once again. Poised to break into the mainstream, she’s just at home under the radar, releasing low-key mix-tapes for her fans. Fans of Robyn will not be disappointed.

 

 

Wolf Alice

We’ve only got a few songs to go on so far, ‘Fluffy’ and ‘White Leather’ being the best of the bunch. We know they’re equally capable of sounding like Sonic Youth circa ‘Goo’ as they are at penning tender surf ballads. Having started as a folk outfit before morphing into a grungy juggernaut, hopefully they’ve got even more great costumes in the wardrobe.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLsdcc-L9YI

 

Flume

Already topping charts in his home country, young Australian producer Flume (real name: Harley Streten) is bound to achieve similar success when his album drops over here. His best single ‘Sleepless’ is racking up millions of YouTube hits. His music is certainly very busy, in line with the maximalist trends being set by Hudson Mohawke and Rustie, but it comes across as far less frenetic, and much more suited to home listening.

 

 

Night Works

The new project of Gabriel Stebbing (ex-Metronomy, Your Twenties) is a much more subtle and refined affair than his previous output. The small tasters we’ve heard are distinctly nocturnal, with glossy production and soulful vocals. He hasn’t lost his knack for writing great pop melodies, though. Definitely one to keep an eye on.