This is music direct to your ears. A light shone on uncovered gems. Here’s the very best of 2021.
nu-wave
“It’s ugly and pretty, both frantic and easy, as much aimed at stages with wide open space as it is claustrophobic and acrid. It’s almost a shame to pick through this release to expose all its working internals…”
“It’s conviction that saves this, again and again, through the only-just-slightly too over-touched sheen of its 80s hair-glam rawk production…”
“As we fold in Crystal Castles, Heartrevolution, and recall the charred chaos of Cabaret Voltaire, what comes out is a cold blend of agropop sonics with a sly twist of hardcore macabre…”
“An album that swerves between romance and violence, that tricks and takes us someplace other…”
“If every homage and throwback was this good and faithful, you’d swear this was original sin.”
They live in a haze of accidentally anthemic self-made and self-assured angst, where webs and threads of Bona Drag and Juju clean-jangled guitars (from Morrissey and Banshees respectively) weave like a network of nerves up and through.
Rats on the Run 