19
New Music
GIRLPOOL
BRITNEY Edinburgh based Britney describe themselves as a Buff Scottish Beef Combo but trust us, there’s more to them than that. Their sound sits somewhere between the abrasive, disjointed hardcore of fellow scots Take A Worm For A Walk Week and the angular, futuristic grindcore of The Locust. Their aesthetic, meanwhile, borrows from gaudy Anime, ironic logo appropriation and the sort of digital rendering that’s more akin to the East London art set than a band of burly Scots who chuck out earfuls of pummelling, jagged, avant-garde, unlistenable oddness from every possible angle.
Cleo and Harmony, the ridiculously awesome duo who make up Girlpool, achieved teengirl utopia with their self-titled debut EP on Wichita last November. Drum-free since circa ’96, the LA-via-Philly band’s confessional misfit indie is built around interweaving guitar and bass and voices which merge with uncanny ease, inhabiting nonemore-bratty, no-fucks-given bullshit detection and tender ruminations on adolescent woes. The recent, 25-minute road movie Things Are OK captured the band’s first US tour in all its shrieking glory, as well as serving as an intriguing document of a burgeoning friendship solidified by creative telepathy. We love them. You’ll love them too.
O American Beauty 1 Hunx / Skinned Teen : girlpoool.bandcamp.com
O Gaping Maven 1 Holy Molar / Drive Like Jehu : britney.bandcamp.com
TRUST FUND Last month the internet got acquainted with Trust Fund via a pooch-strewn music video for their new single. What some people may have failed to notice (among the maelstrom of “aww cute” comments) is that Cut Me Out – the song beneath the loveable furry creatures – is impossibly good. “I think every song I write is a hit,” Trust Fund’s mainstay Ellis Jones jokes coyly, “I write for the canon.” While his tongue may be stuffed inside in his cheek at this point, Trust Fund’s upcoming album is, we can confirm, something pretty special; a collection of building, buzzing lo-fi pop that flits between resonant acoustic tracks and breezy, feedback-driven pop with delicate precision. We quizzed Ellis on his recording technique for an insight into the album’s loud-quiet dynamic. “Some was full-band, and some was solo overdubbing,” he told us, “so there’s a wide scale in terms of size.” Size is the right word – Ellis’ songwriting sometimes towers, rushing into blissful oblivion; other times it lays low, bubbling just beneath the surface. Each song balances skilful songwriting with poetic, relatable lyrics. “Sorry if I definitely, deliberately lied/Every night for 18 months of your life/I don’t know why I did that” Ellis sings on Cut Me Out. It’s thoughtful, everyman lyrical insight, something which propels virtually everything he writes to a level that trumps his peers. With Trust Fund Ellis Jones is still finding his feet, and it remains to be seen what will become of the Bristol musician and his rotating cast of friends. Early signs are looking good though, and he sweet-talks us when we ask about his career highlights thus far, “I never thought that I’d get famous enough that Crack Magazine would want to interview me.” Modest, charming. Sure to go miles.
O Cut Me Out 1 Weezer / Elliot Smith : trustfund.bandcamp.com DESERT SOUND COLONY Known to nurture artists from the ground up, Brooklyn-based label Scissor & Thread have some fresh talent on their hands with newcomer Desert Sound Colony. Their debut EP The Way I Began, released on the label run by Francis Harris and Anthony Collins, is a gentle introduction to their enticing style; chugging basslines, soft vocals and rich, cushioned electronics. Throughout the EP’s four tracks its organic, velveteen sounds will win over fans of Caribou’s charming intensity, the melancholic drag of Warpaint and the bright flourishes of early Four Tet. Dreamy pop fluff which is subtle, hypnotic, and at times, truly blissful.
SNOOTIE WILD
KACY HILL As co-signs go, they don’t get much better than Kanye West. Rising star Kacy Hill’s fragile, lofty aural oddities have recently been blessed by the power of West, who snapped up the singer for his G.O.O.D Music label, where the LA based Hill now rubs shoulders with the existing roster of Pusha T, Q-Tip and Big Sean. Disparate in style from those acts, the freckle-faced former American Apparel model’s debut single Experience is stripped back future pop about the subtle nuances of human consciousness, fresh from the FKA twigs school of falsetto. Expect big things from this pop-star in waiting.
Snootie Wild has got off to an excellent start. After T.I. appeared on an unofficial remix of the Memphis singer-rapper’s 2013 debut single – the infectious cocaine anthem Yayo – Yo Gotti decided he wanted a slice of the pie, and subsequently signed Wild to his CMG label while contributing a verse to the re-release version for good measure. There’s not much music in Wild’s catalogue that precedes his breakthrough, and only a few autobiographical details have surfaced: he gave up his teenage dreams of being an athlete after being stabbed in the knee, he embraced rapping after four years of incarceration and his pretty looks have earned him an appearance on VH1’s reality show Love & Hip-Hop. But considering his unforgettable hooks take influence from Rich Homie Quan, Future and bootyeating genius Kevin Gates, there’s a good chance that we’ll be learning a lot more about Snootie Wild in 2015.
O Made Me 1 Future / Kevin Gates : @SnootieWild
O Experience 1 Kelela / Jessie Ware : @kacyhill
O The Way I Began 1 Manitoba / Junior Boys : @DSColony
Issue 49 | crackmagazine.net
O Listen 1 File Next To : Online