Tracks Of The Week, 05.05.16 - GigslutzGigslutz

It’s easy – and far too common – for electronic music to be criticised. The use of computers is instantly dismissed and dubbed as lazy or a lack of talent. And while it’s by no means my favourite genre, it’s always so refreshing when someone comes along to change perspectives.

Nerve Leak – the moniker of Sam Friedman – is doing exactly that; bridging the gap between human and computer, and in doing so proving just how much talent he has. With his latest single ‘DR34M5’, Friedman tells tales of new love and unhealed wounds, his poetic lyricism and falsetto vocals allowing for emotion far beyond that of a computer.

Coming a year after Friedman’s self-released debut EP, ‘DR34M5’ is a reminder of just how exciting music can be.

Connect with Nerve Leak: Soundcloud // Facebook // Instagram // Twitter

Oh, to have a twin to write songs with. Better still to have the talent to write such songs from the age of just 17.

Bitter jealousy aside (just about), The Van T’s are bloody cool. With the twins in question – Hannah and Chloe Van Thompson – teaming up with Joanne Forbes and Shaun Hood, The Van T’s were born and their latest track ‘35mm’ perfectly encapsulates their incredibly driven 90s grunge sound, given a lift by the twins’ sun-drenched duel vocals.

It seems easy to describe music as ‘driven’, but ultimately that’s what ‘35mm’ is – it’s energetic and noisy, and feeds the desire to manically dance along.

A Coming of Age by The Van T’s is released 10 June 2016 via Bloc+Music.

Ahead of their second album I Am My Own Rainbow, New Jersey-natives Marjorie Fair have shared the first track – ‘Songbird’. Talking of the song, lead singer and songwriter Evan Samka says:

“I tried to do what I attempted on the first record which is to find a balance of textures and tones that the things that have inspired me have shaped, while allowing the songs to remain fully open, vulnerable and as free as possible within that framework.”

Despite the inevitable intricacy and depth in his songwriting, the finished product is beautifully easy listening. Both lyrically and musically, ‘Songbird’ seems to mirror Samka’s personal modesty; for something that could (and has) been described as psych-pop it remains so admirably grounded.

I Am My Own Rainbow is out now digitally via Pyschic Bully Records.

Giving us the first taste of new music in 2016, Happyness have shared their latest track ‘SB’s Truck’. Though the track, in the band’s words, “has something do with [the late, famed, 80s wrester and actor] André The Giant as a teenager having to be taken to school in Samuel Beckett’s truck because he couldn’t fit in his dad’s car”, this fact, while interesting, is almost entirely irrelevant.

What ‘SB’s Truck’ really is is Happyness staying true to their name and inspiring happiness. The track is so sunny it transports you instantly to a beach/festival/wherever you find yourself as soon as the weather improves just a little bit – and with its carefree vocals, ‘SB’s Truck’ is the ultimate heatwave track.

Happyness are currently joining The Dandy Warhols on their May 2016 tour.