Buzz or Howl Roundup 24/1
The first edition of a weekly series (or thereabouts), with quick reccomendations of music that came out this week and thoughts on some gigs I saw recently.
Songs
Violet (YHWH Nailgun Remix) - Maria Sommerville
This is a collaboration between 2 artists who released 2 of my favourite albums of last year. It’s a bit of a surprising combination: Maria Sommerville’s music is tender and dreamy, while YHWH Nailgun are incredibly loud and abrasive. But I’ve always thought that there was something sweet at the heart of YHWH’s music – their approach to this track from Maria’s 2025 album ‘Luster’ preserves the swirls & haze of the original while bringing out something wild and unkempt.
You Could Have It - Horse Vision
Horse Vision are a Swedish leftfield indie band. They write great songs with great hooks and always bring something unusual to them. On this new single, the acoustic guitar led tune has a bustling undergrowth of manipulated voices and synths. I really love the piano part, its so stirring. The title made me think of Yo La Tengo’s ‘You Can Have it All’, maybe there’s a slightly wonky comparison to be made between the two bands.
I couldn’t found out much about Lex Amarni, this was a pure algorithm find I’m afraid – it came up on my feed after I’d been listening to llondon actress’s song ‘Country’ over and over this week. But I think it’s pretty sick, it’s about 1 minute long and all out from start to finish, super dense and noisy.
When england comes - Pollyfromthedirt
This has the best cover art of the week, a low res photo of steak, chips, peas and gravy. Although the low quality of the photo is kind of misleading, I was expecting something glitchy and slammed but this is actually a crisp and clear indie-pop song, pretty delicate and beautiful – it kind of sounds a bit like Declan Mckenna to me. I love the disintegrating classical sample it opens with, and the subtle shift from driven electric guitar to acoustic. Feels like there’s lots of people writing songs about England and Englishness at the moment - Pollyfromthedirt has quite a few, including ‘There’s no such thing as England’ from last year – here’s a cool Guardian article about them.
I’ve been loving the Brighton band SLAG for a little while, though I haven’t seen them live yet. They’re so bombastic, a bit like man/woman/chainsaw, I enjoy cool, understated stuff but it’s also nice to have bands who make all out rock and roll. This is anthemic and full of riffs, lead singer Amelie Gibson has a great voice.
Black Cat - deer park & Ivy Knight
I covered this briefly for DIY’s Neu Music bulletin, which you can read here.
Marching Music - Charlie Osborne & Worldpeace DMT
This is a mad little song – it has very quietly mixed screamo vocals, a sample of kids chanting and what I think is a recorder playing an upbeat marching tune. The drums flitter between a regular snare roll and chopped-up chaos. It’s strange, fun and completely new.
For further reading: I wrote about WPDMT a bit in my 2025 albums blog post, here’s a cool interview with Charlie Osborne and finally, a podcast with both artists
Is Loser An Emotion You Feel Too? - The Femcels
The Femcels’ debut album ‘I Have To Get Hotter’ released today – it’s really great: manic, funny and moving in places. Lots of the album deals with worrying about being cool or being a loser - and ‘Is Loser An Emotion You Feel Too?’ feels like the sweetest, most earnest investigation of that feeling; I also love ‘Indiest Girl at School’ with its sick surf rock riff, ‘She seems kind of stupid’, and ‘He Needs Me’ - which was released as a single last year. The Femcels are Gabriella and Rowan - of World Peace DMT’s ‘The Velvet Underground and Rowan’ - and the album was produced by Ike from Bassvictim.
LIVE MUSIC and life musings
Last Tuesday I saw my friend Ewan Samms play at Next Door Records in Shepherd’s Bush. I’ve heard some of Ewan’s music before - they have two albums in the can and ready to go - but it was very special to hear them play live for the first time, accompanied by Clari on Cello and Tess making live projected artworks, using one of those overhead projectors from Primary School assemblies. Ewan’s voice filled and held the room – they do a great Nick Drake impression and I was picking up on elements of that at this gig, as well as a bit of Arthur Russell. Ewan killed it and Clari’s cello & Tess’s projections added so much. I love my friends.
Before that, on Saturday night, I’d seen Jonique at MOTH Club - really awesome, ranging from kind of a country vibe to full on arena rock - then dashed to the Shacklewell arms for Lttl Mort, Star City and SILVERWINGKILLER – best set I’ve seen so far from Lttl Mort, super tight and electric.
I saw another great My New Band Belive set on Thursday - the acoustic arrangement with viola and upright bass was gorgeous, I’m also more and more falling in love with the Horse Hospital as a venue.
Going back further to the week before this one – I was blown away by Ellis.D at the Old Blue Last, one of the best, most charismatic performances I’ve seen in a while; and also by Senrab at Pindrop’s event on the 12th Jan - great, greaat band. Finally, a quick mention for Yorck street at Avalon Cafe on the 14th, super inventive and atmospheric, and ended with a knockout Elliott Smith cover.
Will also take a moment to say how much I love the new Westside Cowboy EP - they already proved how good they are as songwriters with ‘This Better Be Something Great’ but this EP still feels like another big development in their sound, can’t wait for an album!
I’m looking forward to Independent Venue Week, I’ll be at the Windmill for Little Grandad with Djank and ‘Michael Morpugo’ - hmmm - then for Manchester legends TTSSFU and Martial Arts, with Brighton legends Goodbye. Also maybe Glass Eel at Morocco Bound - but this is all for the listings page. I’ve got an IVW Crew t-shirt from my job at the George Tavern which I am very proud of.
In other news, I am in a big Silver Jews phase, especially obsessed with ‘Tanglewood Numbers’ and ‘Bright Flight’; I am feeling conflicted about the new Pitchfork subscription model after reading too many articles about it; and I’m excited about Manchester United again.
Love, David