My Ultra Violet
Another week, another batch of essential underground sounds, it’s what Unknown Pleasures was designed for and Getintothis’ Mike Stanton is once more your erstwhile guide.
It’s the season of bright and breezy summer pop and My Ultra Violet deliver with their single Islands. Floaty and melodic, it is so effervescent it could be composed of cobwebs of bubbles. The melodies are dreamily winsome with an easy-listening vibe like they’re caught in the breeze and have been swept along its four minutes run. Islands is pure alt-pop with smooth vocals and a melancholic yet cheery melody that builds to a bold and mesmeric chorus.
Fronted by Magic Wands singer and songwriter Dexy Valentine, alongside collaborators Coleman Moore and Phil Galloni, My Ultra Violet have perfected convivial and precisely constructed pop. Islands boasts a verse so jaunty and boppy it skips without a care in the world while the chorus is to swoon for.
“Islands is a summer song about falling in love for the first time…” say the band.
The three met up in LA to record their debut EP Wilde (a nod to Oscar Wilde) and it promises to be collection of similarly cleanly stylized old-pop with plenty of warmth.
Islands is out now.
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Burning House (Photo Credit George Evans)
Burning House fuse elements of shoegaze and 90’s American indie to produce their stylized shimmering pop. Peach is smooth and clean recalling much of the college rock that came out of the US during the 80’s and 90’s.
Peach is a multi-layered track of strumming guitars, steady rhythms and lo-fi melodic arrangements giving it an introspective yet upbeat feel. Having previously explored deeper, more opaque shoegaze diversions, Burning House have shaped their sound to become poppier, almost more radio-friendly with this latest release and it works.
“Peach explores that feeling of impermanence and precariousness when we allow ourselves to fuse with another, often at the expense of our own identity” vocalist and central figure Aaron Mills explains, “It also concerns the distant idea of happiness portrayed in holiday brochures and billboards, the kind that make happiness an impossible ideal…”
Peach is out now.
New Luna (Photo Credit Max Bamber)
Having established themselves on the Manchester underground scene, New Luna have continued to produce hugely atmospheric dream pop and post-indie songs that are intelligently realised and very catchy.
Channeling the likes of Radiohead and The Twilight Sad, New Luna combine mature and self-aware songwriting with exhilarating live performances to push their star ever higher.
Knew Too is the latest release in their pantheon of widescreen rock; guitars shimmer, building into poetic flurries as nuanced drumming cuts through the melody. Deep set synths add a swirling atmosphere and a density that is a plunge-pool of glittering ambience.
Discussing their release, guitarist Zack Bamber stated: “Knew Too is our first fully self-produced track and one of the newest songs we’ve written. It’s one of the most sinister tracks we’ve ever written and gives off a feeling of ritualistic isolation while the lyrics talk about a steady breakdown in the minds of two people”.
Knew Too is out now.
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