Pulse: New Music You Need #10

Now, in the last two editions of PULSE (which you must immediately check out HERE and HERE if you have not already), we CULTURED VULTURES gave you somewhat of a bumper pack of acts you need in your life this year. Well, as luck would have it this year is just the year that keeps on giving as we’ve rounded up even more NEW MUSIC YOU NEED. How great is that?

Great, the answer is great. So, yeah, here’s a PULSE for you to sink your ear-teeth into with a real smorgasbord of new bands and artists to really satisfy that big ol’ ear-brain-belly of yours. That kind of real weak analogy escaped from me much quicker than usual. Anyhow, get excited and enjoy.

Satellites

Transylvanian two-piece Satellites are guitarist Cosmin and drummer Dorin, who both share vocal duties, and you don’t know how hard it is for me to not lazily start marking Dracula references and/or vampire analogies. I’m being a brave boy though.

The duo pride themselves on a less is more approach, and in their case less really is more. As with so many great two-pieces, in spite of their minimal manpower they more than make up for it with musical power. Satellites walk the line between pop and post-rock, with soaring melodies and catchy indie rock choruses coming flavoured with teaser tastes of expansive atmospheres and rise and fall dynamics.

Hombre Malo

Hombre Malo (‘bad man’ in Spanish as I’m lead to believe), or as their individually known The Muerto, Joakim, Boris, and Tom, are a four piece currently based out of Oslo, Sweden. The tail end of last year saw them release their sophomore effort, Persistent Murmur of Words of Wrath, which found the band really coming full stride into their own and channelling an even messier beast than they had done previously.

The band take a no frills approach to the heavy end of the spectrum, bringing together bludgeoning aggression of hardcore, the body-shaking, low-end grooves of stoner metal, the filth and the fury of sludge, the punishing abrasion of noise rock, and straight-up black metal dementia. If the evolution the band have made since their debut is anything to go by, this foursome is going to get nastier and noisier the longer it goes.

DOLLS

When a band pride themselves on making ‘a sound that would make Robert Johnson crawl out of his grave for a dance’, you know they’ve piqued my interest – if that isn’t some damn fine imagery too. The two-piece, fronted by guitarist and vocal wolfwoman Jade Ellins and backed up by pounding percussionist Belinda Conde, recently released their debut single after extensive slog of gigging.

Now, the promise of some corpse-reanimating rock’n’roll is a tough one to live up to, but DOLLS do it like they’re not even trying. Low slung riffs that could easily have fuzzed their way out of an amplifier that Tony Iommi and Jack White were fighting over? Check. Rhythms that groove as doomily as they are danceable? Definitely. Powerhouse vocals that smoulder in the smoke as  much as they howl in the blaze? Of course.

NRVS LVRS

This San Franciscan six-piece may not be all that keen on vowels, and they may be a little bit nervous in the bedroom, but they are not shy about making magic happen musically. NRVS LVRS are barely a year old and they have already started drawing comparisons to the likes of Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene. It’s not to hear why they’ve garnered such high praise upon first listen to their debut track ‘City Lights’, itself a taster for their up and coming debut album, The Golden West.

You can hear in ‘City Lights’ that the band started initially as a foray into musical experimentation, but more than that you can hear why experimentation has lead to a fully formed sound that necessitated the need for fully fledged band to follow it. Immediately delicate and dream like the band play around in intricate details but deliver them in euphoric haze. Magical.