Pulse: New Music You Need #19 – ArcTanGent Special

Quadrilles

London-based four-piece who describe themselves as ‘a band’, and they certainly are that. I literally can’t argue with that description. However, I can elaborate upon it, maybe even embellish a little bit, because that’s what I do, don’t you know? Here; Quadrilles are a band who create entirely pleasant music. Elaborated.

That’s not to say they make music that inspires ‘n’aww, isn’t that nice’ thoughts followed by sighs. No, when I say they make entirely pleasant music, it’s because it is just inherently pleasing to listen to; pitch perfect vocal harmonies, short sharp indie gems for songs that still manage to fit in instrumental interludes, a sound quality that’s in the sweet spot between sunny lo-fi and melodious math rock. They’re just grand.

 

Gum Takes Tooth

Electronic experimentalists Gum Takes Tooth really do enjoy emphasising the mental in experimental. They also like to class themselves as a ‘two man everything machine’, but it’s really not hard to see why when listening to them.

When the duo get together with their clearly bottomless bag of electronic instrumental odds and sods, the clatter they make sounds kind of like a universe size machine coming apart at the seams, or whatever god machines might have in place of seams. This robotic breakdown, though, crazy as it is, is endlessly enthralling; equally mesmerizing as jarring, Gum Takes Tooth gives you every reason to leave, but they give you so many more reasons to stay.

 

USA Nails

USA Nails may sound like the relatively straightforward name of an American cosmetics brand that specialise in, you guessed, nail-based products. However, USA Nails actually sound like brilliantly straightforward, and alternately brooding and manic, post-punk.

Comprising current and former members of bands like Oceansize, Hawk Eyes, Silent Front, and KONG, you may expect a technical and dense end product, but no, what you get with USA Nails is the promise of rough edges, stripped down sounds, mood-driven and emotionally energetic performances priding passion over precision, and a slap to the face for your troubles.

 

AK/DK

AK/DK makes everything A-OK. They just do. I double doggy dare you to listen to AK/DK and not feel alive with the glory of love for life, the universe, and everything in between. The music AK/DK make is nothing short gloriousness riddled with joy. Effervescent electronica. In many was unadulterated ecstasy.

A touch too hyperbolic? I don’t think so, and I don’t think you would either, were you in my shoes listening to them whilst writing this. The Brighton-based duo are all-terrain synthetic instrumentalists and compose dizzying tracks that it’s impossible not to get caught up in the momentum of. However, it’s not all roller-disco across an electric rainbow, because AK/DK will often delve into more atmospheric territory or sometimes frightening losses of grip in the mania.

 

Emma Ruth Rundle

Many may primarily know Emma Ruth Rundle for her playing with post-rock super group of sorts, Red Sparrowes, or her fronting of both Marriages and Nocturnes, singing and playing guitar on both counts. However, more recently Rundle has been craving out quite the solo career as a folk/country singer-songwriter, of the experimental and sometimes shoegazey persuasion.

In the context of these comparatively more stripped-back songs, Rundle is really able to draw out the raw emotion she clearly has pent-up inside. There is a very apparent catharsis running through the core of her music, her singing, and her lyrics that is deeply passionate and affecting. It’s hard not to get hypnotised in it all, partner to the pain, but imbibed with an underlying hope that can see a way out of here.