It’s Friday, which means it’s nearly time to go and get drunk at 285 Kent for the weekend (no matter what certain older party-poopin’ journalists might say on the matter), and also to survey the week’s best new music. This week brought the first taste of the new Liars album, which sounds like it’ll be most excellent indeed, along with a sparsely beautiful track from Mas Ysa, the much-hyped Perfect Pussy’s “real” debut release, another track from the new Neneh Cherry (and an excellent remix thereof), and Charli XCX punking it up. All this is streaming for no money at all, so click through and get listening!
Liars — “Mess on a Mission”
A resounding hurrah for new Liars! This is the first single from Mess, the follow-up to 2012’s triumphant WIXIW, and continues their excursions into electronic music — it’s more abrasive than anything on that album, though, and suggests the band might be heading back toward their old headache-inducing ways. Bring it on. (Can anyone understand what Angus Andrew is singing in the chorus, though?)
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Mas Ysa — “Years”
This track from Canadian composer Thomas Arsenault comes across like an opiated Mazzy Star, both ominous and bleakly beautiful. It’s taken from his debut EP, which is entitled Worth, is out in early February and, if this track is anything to judge by, should most definitely be worth hearing.
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Perfect Pussy — “Driver”
Perfect Pussy (or “Perfect P____”, as their press release rather prudishly calls them) are one of those bands who are best appreciated live, an experience that is something like standing in front of a jet engine that’s on full blast. On record, some of that energy is inevitably lost — and interestingly, their initial four-song tape does a better job of capturing it than their debut full-length record, from which this track is taken. “Driver” does its best to retain that DIY charm — it even starts with what sounds like someone pressing “play” on a cassette deck — and it’s not exactly easy listening, but still, it feels like something is ever so slightly lost in translation.
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Neneh Cherry — “Everything” (Villalobos remix)
Well, now. All of the stuff Cherry has done over the last couple of years has been fascinating, and I’m very much looking forward to hearing Blank Project, which’ll be her first solo release since 1996. This song will presumably be on it, and while the original version is perfectly fine, this killer remix by Ricardo Villalobos is even better, reinventing the track as a 10-minute voyage through cerebral techno.
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Charli XCX — “Allergic to Love”
Also on the short, fast ‘n’ loud front: here’s a bracing minute-long blast through a song by Swedish punks Snuffed by the Yakuza. I don’t care, I rather like it.