Iain Woods
With some brutal Slovakian blues, the best of Italian shoegaze and some lush London art-pop that’s pushing all the right boundaries, Getintothis’ Patrick Clarke has the first of 2015’s weekly roundups of only the finest new tunes.
In typical Unknown Pleasures style, we kick off the new year with an absolute banger that… well… we don’t really know anything about. Chasbo Zelena of Slovakia (we think, going by a slippery Bandcamp location), is essentially entirely anonymous on social media; all we have are some barnstormers of superhuman standard.
Letting loose the most devilish of twisted blues in merciless spurts of scratch, fuzz and fire, Zelena recaptures the heart of rock ‘n’ roll at its most deliciously primitive, infusing electronic smatterings and the fiercest of licks across a whole gluttony of undiscovered gems, From Four til Late in our playlist below just one of his myriad mini-masterpieces.
London’s Iain Woods, meanwhile, has his own concoction of delicious delirium underway in the form of his debut Psychologist LP, appearing on new year’s day. Art-pop at it’s most quite genuinely mental, it’s a Lynchian rabbit hole of trip-hop samples, luscious neo-soul and soaring orchestration that’s already set the bar for new talent this year.
It is no understatement to laud this release as something quite marvellous, eleven tracks of faultless production erratically propelled to all corners of influence by their auteur yet forever tied down by a singular vision of pop at its best; from the Winehouse meets early Scott Walker of Smoke, to the shadowy soul of closer When Particles Collide, its an impeccably accomplished effort, madcap lead single Fiend in particular a moment to be savoured.
My Drunken Friend
Finally, if 2014 was the year psychedelia saw its greatest recent resurgence, from the evidence of groups like Parma trio My Invisible Friend it’s one that’s still going the distance this year. Sculpted around caterwauls of static, a gloomy, emotive cool of Mary Chain proportions and a gargantuan post-rock explosion or two, whose debut self-titled EP is a promising listen.
Eyes takes a confident tone of fuzzed-up, buried euphoria that unravels in a luscious wall of sound, while Dear Mary sticks impeccably, if a little too closely, to a Psychocandy lurch (clue in the name, perhaps?), yet it’s O.N.S. that’s the pick of the bunch, where the threesome unleash a dense, droning wonder of a tune to rub shoulders with Rocket‘s best – one hell of a way to start the musical year.
