Holy Esque

Following in an excellent recent tradition of Scottish musical intensity come Holy Esque, sprawling instrumentation and tremulous vocal delivery ensue to wonderful effect.

ROSE by HOLY ESQUE

Deaf Club

The word 'Gothic' can have ugly connotations when used as a descriptive term for a band but Deaf Club carry a gothic edge which adds just the right accent of darkness to their songs rather than any unintended comedy.

Deaf Club - Lull by GilesThomas

Slow Magic

Another conjuring themed moniker from this mysterious act apparently based on a 'minor outlying' U.S Island. For a friday afternoon it is appropriately euphoric in an understated way.

Corvette Cassette by Slow Magic

Young Magic

The scale is huge and the sound is luscious on this New York based bands second release for Carpark Records. The album will be along in early 2012.

Night In The Ocean by Carpark Records

Wild Beasts

New Beasts is always a cause for celebration, 'Thankless Thing' is a non album track taken from the 12 inch of 'Reach a Bit Further'.

Wild Beasts - Thankless Thing by DominoRecordCo

Swim Deep

More Midlands denizens but this time with a nice line in dulcet wistfulness. They stand somewhere between Wild Nothing and long forgotten mid noughties mopers Levy.

Santa Maria (Demo) by SWIM DEEP

Twin Shadow

His first release since last years fantastic album 'Forget'. This is a cover but it fits right in with his expert recreation of eighties synth pop though its a little housier than past work. Roll on album number 2.

Twin Shadow - Changes by acid stag

A Cold Night For

Ideas, and particularly good ones, are at a premium in music and this young Birmingham band have them in abundance. They veer between Foalsesque math pop on 'Garrison' and new Motorik on 'Pinnacle' but each way they do things with an inventiveness which is too often lacking.

Garrison by A Cold Night For...

Pinnacle by A Cold Night For...

Gem Club

Beauty through fragility is Gem Club's stock in trade and 'Twins' and the title track of their debut album proper 'Breakers' are a masterful showcase of what they do so well.

Breakers by Gem Club

Evenings

Cripes, you go away for a few weeks and end up way behind the eight ball. It looks like Evenings aka Nathan Broaddus, has been hard at work releasing and re-releasing a cornucopia of hazy delights on to Bandcamp.
'Lo Velo' first surfaced in August, whereas 'Friend' has been around for a year or so.

Evenings, "Lo-Vélo" by The FADER

Evenings-Friend by Evenings

Loved Ones

Alongside the obvious pure pop heritage of Merseyside, there has always been a healthy leftfield scene bubbling under, spawning the likes of criminally underrated masks wearers Wave Machines and the surgical gear sporting Clinic. I'm not sure whether these lads ever wear any obfuscatory headwear but their warm electro folk is certainly supremely promising. Apparently album recordings are well advanced.


Loved Ones album sampler II by LovedOnes