The New Cue #468 February 21: The Murder Capital, John Glacier, IDER, Dean Blunt, Spill Tab, Perfume Genius, Sam Fender, Unbelievable Truth

"He likes me cos I don’t butter his toast"

Don’t call it a comeback!

Well, you could, technically, call it a comeback because I - Ted, good morning - have been away from New Cue duties since December. You probably haven’t noticed because Niall has done such a brilliant job with all the heavy-lifting throughout this time, but I’ve not been here. I’m back now. Gently easing myself into the recommending game this week…

What’s that? You wonder where I’ve been? Oh, well I’ve been writing a book with legend of rock Hamish MacBain called A Sound So Very Loud: The Inside Story of Every Song Oasis Ever Recorded, which is published by Pan Macmillan on July 3 (and Pegasus in the US). Story here. Cover…

Yes, of course it can be preordered. Do that here. More to come on this nearer the time. Until then, this commercial break is over, so on with today’s edition. We’ve got a lovely spread of music picks for you to get stuck into and Release Valve Q&As with The Murder Capital and IDER.

Thank you to our loyal paid subscribers. Ever considered joining them? You can do that below this playlist Niall has made from today’s New Cue.

And here it is for the Apple Music crew.

Enjoy the edition everyone,

Ted and Niall

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Recommender Pt. 1

Ted Kessler

I really love Oasis, but it’s been a relief and a pleasure to listen to new music this past week for the first time in a couple of months. Mainly, that has meant the incredible Like A Ribbon, a debut album by a nameless, ageless female songwriter, rapper and producer from Hackney, East London who trades under the moniker of John Glacier. Reminds me of a combination of Dean Blunt’s smokey, mysterious menace, Earl Sweatshirt’s abstract future-hop with some of the nightbus romance of Sampha, who pops up as a guest on Ocean Steppin’. Thirty highly recommended minutes.

As I wrote Dean Blunt’s name above, I thought I should check what he’s been up to and, as usual, it appears I missed his most recent release, an EP that came out exclusively on YouTube last month made with the Iceage frontman Elias Rønnenfelt and the electronic producer Vegyn. It’s called lucre and it’s much more like The Cure or some 90s American slacker band than anything that the trio have made separately before, but it’s excellent and also now on Spotify.

The Korean-French pop song singer/songwriter from LA called Claire Chicha who releases music as spill tab has put out a handful of tracks from her debut album called Angie which is out on May, and none of them have sounded as if they’re recorded by the same artist. I like them all for different reasons. Pink Lemonade because it sounds like ecstatic pop music, De Guerre because it’s a bit like Grace Jones’ version of La Vie En Rose; and the title track which came out on Thursday is like a modern, Gen Z Fleetwood Mac. Excited to hear the whole album.