New British bands that are good.

drahla are the one for me. properly love their debut album. real sonic youth vibes. don't think they'll get much love on here but i really love the w.h lung debut from this year too.

excited for the black midi lp dropping and the early singles from squid have been intriguing.

Am seeing Drahla in the summer. I like what little i’ve heard.

There are four young Laaandan bands properly rocking my boat at the moment.

Black Midi
Dry Cleaning
Black Country, New Road
Squid

Black Midi are the absolute best live band i've seen in a decade, maybe even ever, just raw intensity all the way through, odd bizarre arrangements and structures and weird vocals, blasts of noise and then moments of softer, jazz inspired stuff. The drummer is a beast, anyone you speak to that has seen them will say the same thing 'The drummer is unbelievable' and they'd be correct. And they're all about 12 as well. And i've never heard them say a word on stage.

Dry Cleaning, they've got songs, proper songs, the rhythm section drives everything and the guitarist weaves these spidery lines over the top. The singer stands dead still in the middle and has this sort of soft, spoken word delivery, with really cool and acerbic lyrics on top.

Black Country, New Road, they're odd, they really shouldn't work. A seven piece band, but all seven members look like they should be in a different band. They're not a million miles away from Black Midi a sort of less frantic version. Their songs are generally a bit longer and have these odd turns and shifts, but they're also happy locking into a groove and building around a monotonous beat, with very subtle nods to afrobeat and funk here and there, but definitely still a post-punk band. The drummer is a metronome, reminds me a bit of Stephen Morris. They have a violinist and a saxophonist who trade melodic lines and the singer has a more dry, half spoken delivery. They used to be called Nervous Conditions, but just as they'd released one single and when all the #meetoo stuff was blowing up, the singer was accused on social media by a handful of women, so the the band ended it and fucked him off. So they are essentially the ashes of that band and the old guitarist took over vocal duties.

Squid, so much fucking fun live, but also, proper serious musicians as well, they definitely have confident chops. They are definitely a guitar band, but they do sit a bit in the LCD Soundsystem place, but more because they're probably channeling similar influences. They often drop into driving motorik beats, and again, some funk beats as well, with the ryhthm section sitting at the back of the beat. The drummer is also the main singer and he really gives it 100%. They use keybaords and synths a bit as well and have Trumpet in a few songs, sometimes remind me of that sort of Stereolab synthy take on Krautrock. I reckon they could really kill it at festivals.


Those four are leading the pack for me at the moment, Karl and I have been going to see all of these a fair bit recently, there have been a few of these all day, multi venue style 'mini' festivals popping up this year, just small affairs and all of those bands have been playing at these sorts of things. Also, with the exception of Dry Cleaning (at the moment) They have all released singles on Dan Carey's Speedy Wunderground label and all have strong connections to the Windmill in Brixton. Black Midi's album is coming out in just over a month, on Rough Trade and produced by Carey.

There are a couple of other bands floating around as well that I like, but think they might need some more time, Hotel Lux and Italia 90 who are both quite similar in what they do, post punky, but not afraid to lean into a poppier area. The front men from both bands seem quite interesting, not afraid to get up there and be a bit political. Interested to see how they develop.

As mentioned above, I've seen Drahla a few times aswell, supporting other people, and they're definitely intersting. Need to spend more time with them. Also a band called Egyptian Blue, who i've seen live a few times and they're always pretty good, but the stuff they have recorded so far is pretty underwhelming.

There's also a band called Sports Team, who i love almost everything about except.. they have no songs

They're a right Motley Crew as well, do not take themselves seriously at all. Really remind me of early Britpop, the singer could be an absolute star, he ha all the charisma of Jarvis and Brett Anderson and a bit of the arrogance of Damon and Liam and he prances around the stage like Jagger. They could be massive, I just wished i liked the songs.

how the fuck did i forget about dry cleaning.

Just found this, i'm in it a lot


Biggest chorus for about 15 years


Bit Gang of Four by way of mid noughties inide..

Oh yeah, these guys 'Duds' are also a spectacle live. They're from Manchester. Proper angular and funky.

Give me a shout when you recommend one that can't be described as dry or angular.

Now that's what i'm talking about! Cheers Kev la.

heard a few black midi tracks and already in love. kev you going to their hackney gig? i mean, of course you are.

Indeed! Grab a ticket, mate.

was meant to be in brum that week but your write up and the tracks i have heard have got me thinking how i can reschedule - 90% likely to be going i think, will let you know when I can sort the tickets!

What Kev said

Though Black Country New Road I'm not 100% sold on like I am the other three.

It has been really nice to have some good new bands to go see for under £10, these new bands (plus the ton of wonderful Australian artists popping up over the past year or two) have really gotten me back into live gigs again.

I like that Drahla record quite a bit, though it could do with a little more variety. Wouldn't mind catching them live though.

what australian artists would you recommend karl?

Seen them live twice now and they were shit both times. Which is really annoying as I like their tunes.

Go and see em tho, would be nice to know if I was right

These chaps sound interesting:




I saw them at the Great Escape, albeit at 12am so was a little tired by that point, but they've just put out their new EP on Memphis Industries.

Four piece from Leeds, got some Pavement vibes, but with a sort of funky rhythm section thing.

So Black Midi are Brit School alumni along with Katie Melua, Jessie J and The Feeling.

This definitely means Kev is a Katie Melua fan.