Ones To Watch: Deaf Club to Maya Jane Coles
14-year-old boys will go doolally over Brooklyn rapper Mr Muthafuckin eXquire while in the same borough TEEN take psychedelic synths to create twee bliss. In the UK, Deaf Club embrace the dawn and Maya Jane Coles reenergises house.
When we hear echoing drums and reverbed chorus effects, there’s a good chance it’s going to be another shoegazy chill-goth band, but this Welsh-London five piece are the kind of noir-gazers who will happily embrace their inner sunchild. Forthcoming single Moving Still combines 2:54’s rock gloom with the jangly euphoria of a solstice hallucinogenic. Their enchanting atmospherics are a summer’s night bus, with dawn shimmering through its window’s condensed smears of urban debauchery. Polly Mackey’s gorgeous dry ice serenade captures post punk’s nihilism which enables their shy melodies to emerge from the shadows for a shameless boogie without losing face, probably at a Warpaint gig.
Californian songsmiths have it easy. Even when they are busking on street corners the sun beats down on them and, presumably, in-line skaters whizz past shouting “gee, that tune’s rad dude” in between rounds of Hacky Sack. But Grammer’s had to work the streets properly, expertly learning to beat-box purely to get attention and scrapping songs that didn’t get the rent-paying dimes. The result is a self-titled album of Jack Johnson goes Maroon 5 pop-rock gems which are as familiarly addictive as One Tree Hill and seductively catchy. In America he’s topped best newcomer polls, and now with a Radio 2 playlist under his belt, he will quickly become a name you’ve seemingly always known.
Since leaving the superb Here We Go Magic Teeny Leiberson has recruited her sisters (Lizzie and Katherine) and BFFs (Jane Herships and Maia Ibar) to invent the twee Liars. Forthcoming single, Better, is the sound of The Slits going Gary Numan, with hooky chants ganging up on moody synths which pulse with sentience- no doubt thanks to Sonic Boom from Spaceman 3’s mastering. TEEN are pretty much what the Human League would have sounded like if they ditched the neon cocktail bars and drank moonshine in Brooklyn lofts, with the faux posing superseded with psychedelic electro folk. The repetitive nature of their looping synths and loose drums sound like the score to a Fassbinder coming of age movie. They are brilliant.
It is obvious from the name eXactly what this chap sounds like- he is the reason those Parental Advisory stickers came out in the 90s. There’s nothing subtle about the relentless obscenities, anti-social antics –“drunk driving on a Wednesdaaaay” and large ladies’ privates, but there’s no denying his lyrical ability and vintage beats. El-P and Das Racist are key collaborators, giving eXquire a key role in New York’s hip hop reinvention, where brutal rhymes about the everyday cushion innovative beats and crunching electronica. Not that the 14-year-old boys erupting over eXquire’s jams will care about the musical nuances. But eXquires brash exterior shouldn’t blind you the exemplary skill in contemporary hip hop he displays on his latest mixtape ‘Lost in Translation’.
Despite dance music’s pre-occupation with EDM’s immediacy and crippling desire to be hip to the east London set, there’s wave of looping tech-house currently capturing dance floors. Maya Jane Coles leads this with her ability to energise house though beautiful tech beats and incorporation of minimal dub into her piano loops. Her production skills have attracted remix demands from The Orb, Florence off of the Machine and Lianne La Havas. Coles’ latest 12”, Watcher, crawls with warped bliss which shimmers with a galaxy of complementary loops. The 24-year-old east Londoner has already won best newcomer in Ibiza, been nominated for countless awards and is quickly making Fabric her own personal DJ booth.
Tagged in: Andy Grammer, Deaf Club, Maya Jane Cole, Mr Muthafuckin eXquire, music, teenMost viewed
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