Neu The Neu Bulletin (Mary In The Junkyard, Unflirt, The Umlauts and more!)

Welcome to your new favourite band. Dropping their debut single ‘Tuesday’, Mary In The Junkyard already have us hypnotised. Lead singer Clara’s vocals are at once sickly sweet and uncanny, coasting through the track with flavours of PJ Harvey, beabadoobee and Ellie Rowsell all mixed up into one. While the instrumentation swells from stripped back shoegaze into a grungy crescendo, the lyricism in this 5-minute long tale is an adventurous opener to an exciting new name to know. Building up a cult following off the back of some hyped shows at Brixton Windmill, it seems the band are finally ready to burst out of the London live scene and into the world. And if ‘Tuesday’ is anything to go off, they’ll be shooting right to the top. (Lucy Harbron)

BCMB’s lead singer Wes Leavins, we’re told, was brought in by Baz Luhrmann to help record vocals for the recent Elvis biopic, such is his winningly authentic ‘50s croon - a fact that rings out in spades in the Chicago band’s second offering, ‘Impressively Average’. But while Leavins brings the Roy Orbison factor to the decidedly better-than-average nugget, around him sit the sort of immediate indie guitars that could line up next to the mid-‘00s peak of The Vaccines, Spector et al. Baby, it’s a delight. (Lisa Wright)

A new dreamy girl anthem just dropped thanks to Unflirt. Delivering a wistful soundtrack for the opening of autumn, ‘Someday’ is primed and ready to be added to your yearning, staring-out-the-window-pretending-to-be-in-a-music-video playlists. Putting Unflirt’s angelic vocals front and centre, ‘Someday’ is just as personal and intimate as all her other tracks, but swells to new and beautiful heights. With real classic touches that feel picked straight from Alanis Morrisette or The Cranberries, this is the sort of song you'd expect to hear on an iconic 00s film soundtrack. (Lucy Harbron)

Considering the current state of the world, it often feels like it might be preferable to climb into a sensory deprivation tank and firmly shut the lid. Anyone else? Well, never fear, because Deary are here with the sonic equivalent - meditative and ethereal, the layered instrumental of 'sleepsong' envelops the listener such that you feel as if you could be floating, suspended in that liminal space between consciousness and dreams. Recalling Mazzy Star or Mac DeMarco at his most laid back, it's an utterly blissful four-minute escape. (Daisy Carter)

The nine-strong, pan-European outfit The Umlauts have released their latest cut ‘Mad Blue Love’. The faintly eerie, DIY take on post-punk marches to an eclectic combination of dizzying drums, wailing synths and – at least from the sound of it – a triangle. It comes ahead of their delightfully named debut album ‘SLAGS’, set for release later this month. From the trajectory of their singles to date, it’s due to be one of the most interesting European exports in quite a while. (Caitlin Chatterton)

“Everything is fucked,” begins Canadian / English duo Shelf Lives on ‘All Grown Up’ - a track that suggests their attitude to age advancement is one of reluctant acceptance rather than easy contentment. Over warped guitar growls, twitchy beats and skittering vocals, the answer, they suggest, can go one of many ways: “Take your meds”, “Get an addiction”, “Break your legs”. We’ll not go on record as co-signing the latter two, but we’ll give a thumbs up to the darkly unsettling vibe of the track nonetheless. (Lisa Wright)

Arriving by the still-technically-under-wraps label Cool Online, Aussie-born and London-raised Yasmin Hass dropped her first single this week, as well as announcing her debut EP ‘Worst of Me’ (due for release in November). “I don’t wanna lie on the tracks, train coming / I’m dying, I’m dying to be someone else,” Yasmin sings on ‘Cleo’, a warmly atmospheric declaration of breaking out of her comfort zone. It’s a more than impressive offering for her first time out the gate, and promises great things from the rest of the project. (Caitlin Chatterton)

With his debut EP 'God Save The King' dropping today, Peter Xan is fast cementing himself as one of London's most exciting underground prospects. Boasting tracks that feature the production chops of Dan Carey and Grian Chatten, the project is a blistering six-track statement of intent. While pre-release singles 'Pressure' and 'Hostage' (on the 2024 EA FC soundtrack) are rightly lauded, a new gem comes in the form of 'Rejection Anthem': tinged with desperation, teetering on the edge of chaos, it lands squarely on the right side of contemporary, intelligent, indie-rock. (Daisy Carter)

Born and raised in Zimbabwe and now in New York via Europe, Ananya penned the underrated song of the summer with the bouncing, feel-good pop cut ‘bad for you’. It was followed by September single ‘macy gray’, and today her debut EP, ‘i woke up one night’, arrives to fill in the gaps of her musical dreamscape. “I’m capable and I’m happy / I’m standing right where I should be,” Ananya declares on record closer ‘i feel so new’, her voice gliding over airy synths. It’s clear that Taylor and Olivia don’t quite have a monopoly on the ‘teenage girls in their 20s’ market: Ananya is here to stake her own claim. (Caitlin Chatterton)

Tags: Brigitte Calls Me Baby, Deary, mary in the junkyard, Peter Xan, Shelf Lives, The Ümlauts, Unflirt, Neu, Neu Bulletin