New Music Monday Issue #11

Christmas is here! No wait, it’s just a festive John Lewis advert that aired at the beginning of November. How mean of them to trick us like that. No wonder everyone’s upset?

In the mean time, here’s a New Music Monday that you don’t have to cry over.

Banks – Better

[video:https://youtu.be/uOsGx25HvmI]

Daniel Sturridge’s favourite RnB songstress has made a dramatic return to the spotlight with the first song to be taken from her sophomore album.

Whilst still very much in the synthetic, The Weeknd-esc mould of her first album, ‘Better’ marks a much more emotional turn for Banks. The song is predominately low key and sombre with a sample of Banks’ voice providing the main accompaniment to the vocal melody until a sudden, howling crescendo;

‘I can love you better than she can.’

It’s shiny, modern RnB soul music at its finest.

The Japanese House – Letter By The Water

We first featured The Japanese House six weeks ago as the first glimpses of her Clean EP were made public. With the EP now released in full we’ve got three more tracks to treat our ears with, including this one titled ‘Letter By The Water’.

The luscious sound of The Japanese House has already been mentioned here on Kettle; what’s more apparent on this track is her songwriting style. Despite coming from a mostly electronic artist, the track is strangely reminiscent of those by Ben Howard – someone who prides himself on his emotive song writing ability. The acoustics are dark and spacious and the overall feel has those rainy-sea-side vibes that Mr. Howard carries with him. It’s one of the reasons we feel The Japanese House is one of the most exciting artists around at the moment.

Weezer – Do You Wanna Get High?

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Wu6lI-42w]

‘Do You Wanna Get High?’ must be at least Weezer’s eighth comeback single. The much-loved nerd-rock band have seemingly been playing catch-up with themselves since 2005’s Make Believe proved commercially successful but left hard-core fans leaving a little… flat.

This time however, fans seem to be on side – just ask My Chemical Romance’s Gerard Way. The raw, grungy sound has returned and the slightly cringe-worthy themes on Hurley and Raditude are gone, it’s about as close as they can come to fan-favourite Pinkerton sound as the band could manage.

Could this finally mark the return of a Weezer album up to the standards of the Blue or Green album? Only time will tell.

London Elektricity – Artificial Skin

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbXJ1PaRrQQ]

London Elektricity, AKA Tony Colman, is a legend in the drum and bass world. Not only is he a founding member of the Hospital Records label, but also he’s released six albums over a sixteen-year career.

‘Artificial Skin’ comes from his latest record, Are We There Yet?

Whilst London Elektricity has long been straying towards the more liquid side of drum and bass, the extra polished sound to Are We There Yet? gives the impression he has taken a step further in that direction. The smooth, spacious aesthetic on the track lead the beat to become almost hypnotic – helped by the soothing vocals of Emer Dineen.