From Bristol, UK
Recommended if you like Puscifer, Julie Christmas, the Mars Volta
Up next Supporting Every Hell at Bristol’s Exchange, 4 December; playing UK festivals Strangeforms, Noizzefest and Arctangent in 2027
Even a cursory scroll through Sans Froid’s influences will make you expect chaos. In interviews, members of the west country rockers have acknowledged Radiohead, the Mars Volta, the immersive folk of Linda Perhacs and even the haywire opera/metal/breakbeat of French button-pusher Igorrr. Combine that array with the four-piece’s sole collective inspiration – San Franciscan indie experimentalists Deerhoof – and it’s amazing there’s any coherence at all.
Yet the band have emerged as eclectic yet catchy conceptual upstarts. Released in June, their second album, Back Into the Womb, is stylistically all over the place: opener Go On stabs with noise-rock discordance, while the bouncy Bags Packed could enjoy pride of place on any indie playlist. But each song is united in anthemic intent, built around urgent hooks and some hypnotic performances from singer Aisling Rhiannon Trafford. Her wails as Of the Mother builds towards heavy, chord-based riffing would wow any vocal coach.
The lyrics are all centred on life under late-stage capitalism’s patriarchal overlords: “Parasitic industrial movement leaking consistent flaws / Thirty thousand hours so far spent on this losing draw / But I push push push …” goes the single The Exploiter of Art. That overarching theme wasn’t intentional, but it’s even more evidence that Sans Froid have found consistency amid disparate sounds. In the process, they have become one of the British avant-rock underground’s most exciting, and potentially crowd-pleasing, new names. Matt Mills
This week’s best new tracks
Dawuna – Love Is ...
Pitched somewhere between D’Angelo, the Weeknd and Jai Paul, Dawuna blew our minds with his lo-fi debut, Glass Lit Dream, and his songcraft just keeps evolving. This track, at the heart of his new LP, Love’s Arp, is all softly pattering sensuality.
Slayyyter – Hey Boyyy
Catherine Grace Garner’s upcoming companion album to smash hit Wor$t Girl in America is shaping up to be even better than the original: sweetness leaches in and out of this new-wave stomper in such an expert manner.
Sam Girling – Primrose Mountain
Released on powerhouse UK electronic label Hessle Audio, both sides of Girling’s new speed garage 12in are fire, but this has an extra dash of thermic energy from the whomping bass and lurching effects.
D(Juno) – Carré
With her breathy, feathery yet robust voice, this Parisian pop-R&B singer brings bags of character to her new EP, (D), where symphonic funk numbers rub up against slinky Afropop tracks such as the chatty Carré.
Star’s Revenge – Don’t Worry Dynamite
Fronted by Geese’s Emily Green and Sunflower Bean’s Olive Faber, Star’s Revenge will soon be releasing their second album. This lead single is powered by a loopy, punch-drunk riff sent from the indie-pop heavens.
Toumani Diabaté, Sidiki Diabaté, Balla Diabaté & Ahmed Diabaté – Mande
The final album from late kora master Toumani Diabeté is out in January, made in a quartet with his sons. Mande has his signature melodic pirouettes, set to the subtlest of steady rhythms.
Spiral – Fruits of the Earth
UK experimentalists Teresa Winter and Tom James Scott combine for this ambient stunner leading off their new self-titled cassette; Winter locking into a dream-state vocal pattern as watery tones ebb around her. (Available on Bandcamp.)
Ben Beaumont-Thomas
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