Of course it was, we’re England! If you can’t go to Benidorm and tear it a new one while getting cataclysmically pissed and gifting the locals with your pre-packed St George Flags and chimes of ‘Forever Blowing Bubbles’, then where better to do it than on our own gracious land? We deserve a holiday, we’re ENGLAND.

Fear not though dear friends, with their new single ‘Beach Body’, Blanketman have delivered our anthem – a wistful terrace-chanter that not only channels all our incredulity at not being able to ruin another Spanish resort for 3 months of the year, but that it doesn’t matter where we are – we’re still from God’s great land of Blighty and lord don’t let anyone forget it.

Where their debut single ‘Taking You With Me’ was a sinewy dose of sardonicism – the Manchester group have alleviated all our righteousness and sorrow with this taut, bright track – a blaze of sunshine, ice creams and seagulls – everything where it should be. It’s as if we’re already in Costa Del England, pitching our flag in the warm sand and getting out the factor 50, god forbid our bald heads feel the brunt of it.

Header Photo by Through The Eyes of Ruby

Issue Twenty-Seven is out now. Sold Out in print but you can read it online below.

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Following the most disgraceful shit-show of a presidential debate in memorable North American history, it feels pertinent that Canadians Kiwi Jr would decide to embark on their return with a hilarious inditement of the contemporary media approaches to government with ‘Undecided Voters’.

Much like the independent candidates that fill up the quota that is deemed acceptable lawful practice, whatever happens to the undecided voters? Who’s speaking for them? Because in reality, when everything is truly going to shit – we love to focus on the things that truly don’t matter. So Kiwi Jr humorously remind us over their texturally matured chirpy-pop, the sort that you might’ve unnaturally found your colleague at Dunder Mifflin humming unexpectedly but with pleasure none the less.

If their debut ‘Football Money’, which so gratifyingly warmed the sceptics within us with their comfortably layered hooks and dry sardonic perception of the metropolitan dream, was their run for local town mayor  – ‘Undecided Voters’ is their big money shot at the senatorship – Jeremy Gaudet widening his lens from coach-surfing and lost dates in Toronto to scarily prominent surrealistic conceptions on societal relevancy and just why 3D printers are taking our jobs, man.

Header Photo by Jamie Rajf

Issue Twenty-Seven is out now. Sold Out in print but you can read it online below.

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As deep tan explore through their new single ‘deepfake’, the notion of consent is distastefully warped by the perturbed nature of the internet’s vastness, and the deceptive nature of the human condition. It’s acutely felt here – as the group attempt to comprehend how permission can be disregarded in such a way.

The elusive trio have shed themselves of their spectral synth atmospherics for something undoubtably more venomous, yet remain pivotally focused and equally enigmatic. The lyrics veer between calculated, assured French and ghostly cold English – capturing the sheer dismay for the matter at hand – an exasperated examination of the dark fascination with the immoral and threatening  practice of deepfakes.

Whats always been so invigorating about deep tan is their unpredictable and restless songwriting – subtle and fatal in its suddenness. It’s very much on offer here – the track worming itself around your neck, asphyxiating the narrative as it becomes louder and more empowered.

The way in which they channel vilified expression is much more intelligent and coy than the direct forthrightness of many of their contemporaries – and it makes for a constantly intriguing and more impactful listen.

Header Photo by Mélia Beaudoin

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“They’re playing games” they say, and as much as you don’t want to believe it, you know you think it too. Relationships seem to be this peculiar cat and mouse complex – where we’d rather keep someone on the edge of their seat and not express how we truly feel in fear of rejection and overwhelming your partner, in whatever state it may be in.

It’s anxiety inducing – and with new single ‘Talks’ – their first on Ninja Tune imprint Big Dada – PVA have channelled that frustrating discernment into something wound up and utterly assured. Where the loose euphoria and frivolity of their sound induces the endorphins, ‘Talks’ writhes in its immediacy and teetering hyperactivity. They induce the anxiety into nauseous disco and sweltering, precocious moments of incredulity, all administered by Josh Baxter and Ella Harris’ infallible, coaxing vocal delivery.

“The best is yet to come” they both enunciate, not only a distressed and contemptuous jab at the game players, but also a clear and assertive guarantee – PVA are only just getting started.

PVA’s debut EP ‘Toner’ will be released on November 20th via Big Dada. Pre Order here.

Header Photo by Lewis Khan

The brand new issue of So Young is out now. It’s sold out in print but you can read the digital edition below.

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Upon their return, Goat Girl have curated their sound and narrative into something definitively wider-reaching in scope – where before their knotty western jams lingered around Lottie Cream’s insistent and stark narratives, with new single ‘Sad Cowboy’ they explore the possibilities of universalism – channelling the rights and wrongs of the world into considered, cinematic substance.

It fits them well, Lottie’s compelling drawl draws from her abstractions of the world within deep, colourful illustrations – balancing the whimsical cosmic nature of their new found penchant for synths alongside the more familiar windswept earthiness of their guitars. There’s more to latch onto here, you feel a real narrative unearthing itself from within the hypnotic swirl – alluring and demure in equal measure.

You feel they’ve found their place. Where their first record was an assertive and rightfully indignant perception of modern day inertia – they’ve now found a sense of understanding in how to combat that, through a colourful and animated progression in sound and a deeper sense of purpose in the self to find wider empathy. Everywhere might look the same, but don’t doubt its matured.

New album ‘On All Fours’ will be out on 29/01/21 via Rough Trade Records. Pre order here.

Header Photo by Holly Whitaker

The brand new issue of So Young is out now. It’s sold out in print but you can read the digital edition below.

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With new single ‘On Killing a Swan Blues’, Legss reintroduce themselves with feverish discernment on the condition of society and the self. They possess a deftness that defies the pugilist faux-nihilism of the elected voices for something more sinister, acidic and evidently more impactful.

Ned Green churns the gurgling pot of dystopian night terrors and incumbent London realities into a sulphurous, sweating perception of contemporary society. It’s buoyed by the acrimonious divorce of sound that punctures its way into the frame – an itching sore that infects itself instantly and without notice. Starved by sleep and weighed down by the perpetual cycle of the Information Age – it’s vitality reigns in its surrealism, or its stark perception of it within the normalcy of the world.

As we scream primally into nothing for some sort of motivational yet indignant therapy – our consignation from birth just becomes deeper rooted into permanence. This is our lifeblood, are we really even here?

Header photo by Will Reid

The brand new issue of So Young is out now. It’s sold out in print but you can read the digital edition below.

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The problem is, if the capitalistic society we’ve happily allowed to breed over the years had been pulled out at the root, such normalcy wouldn’t simply be blinked at. But you know that, you’re probably sick of hearing it. But there you have it, being indifferent is easier than actively challenging.  Except if you’re DEADLETTER.

With ‘Fit For Work’, they’ve taken on the despicable narrative that has befallen many across the UK, where an unquestionably and categorically disabled person has to go into a battle for benefits, care or even acknowledgement with an individual’s granddaughter who’s just popped out her fifth child before the age of twenty five so she can continue living off the state. Box-ticking at it’s unfathomable, ran by the bureaucracy.

A burly, tempestuous little shit of a track – ‘Fit For Work’ is as antagonistic as it is frustrated itself – there’s no smoke without fire, and DEADLETTER channel that incredulity into something sneeringly provoking but purposeful. While they focus on this through unquestionably compelling subtlety, there’s enough harboured intensity here to truly let loose. The searing trumpet only rears it’s pleasingly ugly head as the indignation hits fever pitch, its reason for being cemented in its heedless unease  – the group finding that tentative balance between harmonious accessibility and ever popular primal noise.

Sure, it’s sardonicism is its matchstick, yet its melodious clamour is the petrol to truly burn it all down.

The brand new issue of So Young is out now. It’s sold out in print but you can read the digital edition below.

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Shame’s potent notoriety precedes them, yet you could argue this is the most incisive and coercive exhibition of it yet. This is the next phase – evidently a sharper yet certainly honed display, this is Shame trimmed and unguarded – wringing out the weight of ‘Songs of Praise’ for something just as insistent yet undoubtably more accessible in its candidness. Charlie Steen goes for something more lucid as he truly loses his composure, glaring straight into your eyes as he froths indignantly, basking in the freedom of personal directness in comparison to the conniving sardonicism of his past narrative.

Perhaps for the first time, despite its simplicity, you feel you see Shame for their true colours – affronted yet still exuberant, less defiant than indifferent of what’s expected of them. This may only be our reintroduction, but it already feels brasher and more substantial – more than happy to craft something fundamentally at liberty with itself rather than try to wrap it in precocious cynicism. As they harmonise loosely with incessant desire – you realise the point of it all doesn’t really matter and it’s the sheer exhilaration in doing it that makes it all worth it.

Shame will play Electric Brixton in London on 22nd April, 2021.

Header photo by Sam Gregg

The brand new issue of So Young is out now. It’s sold out in print but you can read the digital edition below.

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It latches onto you – a life source that emboldens, comforts and empowers. It’s unquestionable, it flows im your veins as if an all encompassing being, burning in the back of your throat with conviction as you tangle with the weight of life and it’s never-ceasing obstacles. It’s your goal, your fulfilment – it’s by your side, a shot of empathy, confidence and aspiration.

When’s it taken from you, it only burns brighter – a sheer desire to never, ever allow it to evanesce. It’s very being only becomes more vivid.

‘I Have A Love’, the introduction from producer, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist David Balfe, is an undeniably stark and searing piece that is not only informed but ultimately catalysed by agony and deliverance.

A primal, unforgiving track – ‘I Have A Love’ grips you in its evocation – it’s seemingly casual vignettes burning an imprint on your being when it’s processed through loss. Balfe sheds himself unequivocally across it’s slowly blossoming, invigorated electronica – aged simply by existence but fortified by the senses of those recollections and the exuberance for possibilities that still remain.

As it effervesces, the present and future rears into view – it’s unwavering, the ambition to find contentment only driven deeper by the pain and suffering of the past. This is a powerful observation of life – and the exceptional force of love.

It will never fade.

Header Photo by Faolán Carey

The brand new issue of So Young is out now. It’s sold out in print but you can read the digital edition below.

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