New Music: A Few Favourites From The Last Few Weeks

Breaking More Waves has been on a rather extended break whilst I enjoyed a summer holiday and attended Glastonbury and Latitude festivals. Before I get back into regular posting let’s take a dive into a handful of tracks that nearly got away. Ranging from sultry disco pop to intense indie, these are the ones I’ve been playing out a lot.

Rosalía – F*cking Money Man

As the Guardian pointed out, Rosalía's ultra-modern take on flamenco has been embraced by ‘the kind of websites that make it their business to write earnest articles about the socio-political significance of pop stars’ and that those sites have indeed ‘begun writing earnest articles about her socio-political significance.’ There’s probably a whole bunch of reasons for this but most importantly it’s probably because Rosalía’s album El Mal Querer is rather bloody brilliant and that she’s become such a big star in Spain it’s impossible to ignore. She was as sharp as a blade at Glastonbury this year and now her latest track F*cking Money Man (released whilst I was basking in the sun by the pool in Torrevieja) piles on the sass. It’s also managed to upset a few language purists as she mixes a few ‘Spanishisms’ in amongst the mainly Catalan language lyrics.



Alice Jemima – Dancing in Love

Having been out on the road supporting Sophie Ellis Bextor recently, Breaking More Waves long term favourite Alice Jemima creates a new genre with new single Dancing in Love; I’m calling it soft disco. It’s played in the sort of club where you sit on extremely comfortable low-slung modular sofas, the music is never too loud to give you tinnitus and everything wraps up before midnight so that we get a good night’s sleep and no hangover. Trust me, this is the best sort of club. There’s no kebab on the way home either, just a healthy handful of berries and a small spoon of yoghurt.

The song is the opening track to Alice’s forthcoming second album Everything Changes (does anyone else immediately start singing that Take That song when they hear that title?) which includes a tune called Binge Love You, which I guess is better than binge drinking at least. She’s out on tour later this year and has more dates with Ellis Bextor (who co-wrote the track with Alice) in autumn as well.



Walt Disco – Past Tense

Glasgow based Walt Disco are one of the more interesting new wave bands out there. Are they goth? Are they pop? Are they indie? Are they New Romantic? Are we all bored of trying to put music into specific category boxes? Whatever they are, they’re magnificent. It’s why I booked them to play Dials Festival in Portsmouth this October on the same stage as other Breaking More Waves favourites The Blinders, Another Sky and Saltwater Sun (tickets for our tiny baby all day festival can be found by clicking this link – a bargain at £20). Much has been made of singer James’s Potter’s extravagant and theatrical vocals and correctly so. It’s nice to have someone singing with such gusto. The video features a girl coming to terms with the death of a friend, which leads me neatly on to the next selection (it's almost as if I planned this)...





The Murder Capital – Don’t Cling to Life

Whilst we’re talking of coming to terms with death, Ireland’s The Murder Capital give us the cheery title Don’t Cling to Life for their new single. One of the most intense yet strangely tender groups I’ve seen live in 2019 The Murder Capital matter. Clocking in at just two minutes and thirty-two seconds long, this is a demonstration of why.



Abbie Ozard – Heartbreak Radio

‘Heartbreak Spotify Playlist’ doesn’t really have the same ring to it as a song title does it? Radio is still more romantic.

I was pleased as punch to see Abbie Ozard’s newbie Heartbreak Radio sneak its way onto the Spotify New Music Friday UK playlist last week. Having posted Abbie’s tunes a couple of times on the blog (first back in 2018 with the song Average Disguise) it’s nice to know that someone else out there is taking notice. Heartbreak Radio is one of those snappy uptempo indie pop numbers that hammers along with a playful tunefulness and finds Abbie linking memory of past relationships to music. She’s improving with every release.

Introducing: Walt Disco

Here at Breaking More Waves Towers I have an imaginary box where I file away many of the new artists that I hear, ready to post about them at some point in the future. However, this box is always stuffed full and a lot of music gets lost in the crush. So, this week I’m emptying it out, writing about some of my favourites, then starting afresh with an empty one. This means a series of Introducing posts for the next few days; apologies if you’re an avid new music fan, most of these acts may already be known to you, some have been sitting in the box for a while.

First out from the pile are five sharp glitzy boys from Scotland called James, Dave, Lewis, Calum and Finlay and they create a brutal beautiful indie punk sound under the name Walt Disco.

Having met at university Walt Disco have been gradually putting out tracks and picking up the praise for their vitally raw and energetic songs, marked in particular by a flamboyant vocal croon that many people have already compared to Billy Mackenzie from the Associates - I don't disagree. In amongst the dark melee of their edgy art-pop you might be able to hear early 80’s new romanticism, punk and even the blackest of styles – goth.

Current single Strange To Know Nothing has hints of early Simple Minds, Talking Heads, Orange Juice, Duran Duran and Franz Ferdinand all fired up with extra spice and these references continue through to the wonderfully titled My Pop Sensibilities, a song for all the people who feel like they don’t quite fit; it’s about being yourself and not having to be 'normal'. The slower Dream Girl #2 meanwhile is the sound of three glasses of red wine and a staggering waltz around a velvet lined cabaret club with the opening line “Like a Disney Princess, I’ll sing every ballad to you, it doesn’t matter how short your hair, I’ll act all shy coy and unaware.”

Walt Disco’s songs are sometimes (but not always) raw, almost angry sounding, but like the title of one of their tracks, there is a pop sensibility in there as well. You can hear it on the frantic Drowning In Your Velvet Bed. It’s a storming, flailing brilliant grunt of a tune, but just when it seems like it’s all getting a little too intense, on the recorded version, the band throw in a smooth come to bed saxophone as if we really are back in the 80’s. It’s moments like this that make Walt Disco stand out amongst the current crop of angular new indie punk bands, of which there are many. They seem to have more than one idea up their sleeve. Let's hope they continue to reveal more of that as time goes on.

Walt Disco has already been out on tour with Sports Team, played the Great Escape and Live At Leeds this year and you can expect to see more of their impetuous glamour and action as 2019 progresses. 

Get involved with Walt Disco now, if you haven't done so already.

Walt Disco - My Pop Sensibilities

Walt Disco - Dream Girl #2 (Video)



Walt Disco - Drowning In Your Velvet Bed (Live)