5. Lou E, Lou E, Oh Yeah!

Lou E is the pseudonym of 18 year old South Londoner, Louis Milburn. His debut double-A single is out today via the excellent Beech Coma. This week he shared the video for one half of that single, What Do You Do It For? The video features Louis and his sickeningly young looking friends messing about on the tube, playing gigs and eating cream eggs. The video is laced with a happy go luck spirit that also translates into his music.

What Do You Do It For, which was recorded in a combination of his bedroom and a friends garden shed, is a delirious lo-fi shamble, equal parts The Kinks and Tame Impala. Louis has suggested the track is about the rise of faux-spiritualism and cultural appropriation by people travelling the world in an attempt to find themselves, surmised in the cutting line, “go find yourself some more”. Promising stuff from an artist who despite his youth has apparently already got three albums worth of material ready to share with the world, it is definitely worth keeping your ears out for Lou E.

What Do You Do It For?/Next Time is released 26^th February via Beech Coma.

4. Well Hush Me That’s Won-Deerful

Deerful, the recording moniker of London based multi-instrumentalist Emma Winston, have this week confirmed details of an upcoming double A-side single, and shared one half of it in the shape of new track, Hush Me. The release, which will also feature another new track Moon Maps, will be Deerful’s first to be pressed to vinyl, and is being produced by the always fascinating Where It’s At Is Where You Are label. This is the first of a series of 7″ inches the label are pressing, each from an artist who have never previously released anything on vinyl, you can find out more about that HERE.

Hush Me builds on Deerful‘s previous work; synth lines interweaving into rich sonic tapestries, music that builds with the sensitive contemplation of post-rock, from minimal electronic flickers into hushed walls of sound. It is music where every detail seems to have been considered with the care of a painter’s brush; from the gentle processing of the melancholic vocal to the subtle pulsing of the backing, this is music to get lost in. With an EP due later in the year, we can’t wait to see where Deerful take us next.

Moon Maps/Hush Me is out April 7th via wiaiwya. Deerful play Scared To Dance’s gig night in London, April 8th, click HERE for details.

3. King Of Garden Centres

Garden Centre is the new project of Max Levy, who previously performed under the solo moniker King Of Cats, and also features members of Keel Her and Joanna Gruesome. This week they’ve shared their first single, Scrap Yard, which is lifted from an upcoming album, also called Garden Centre. The band have described the record as, “loosely based around the memories and experiences of a group of people who hang out at an abandoned plant nursery”.

If Scrap Yard is anything to go by, then we’re delighted to see that the music of Garden Centre is just as idiosyncratic, exciting and crucially, fun as any of the members previous output. Spectacularly bombastic guitar playing, the constant squelch of synthesised bass and a delightfully stumbling drums, provide a suitable backing to Max’s Daniel Johnston meets-Avi Buffalo vocal performance. The band have also confirmed a handful of live dates, don’t worry if you can’t make them though Max has confirmed he is looking forward to being in this band for 100+ years, or even 1000+ if our generation can achieve immortality, so there should be plenty of chances to see this talented bunch in action.

Garden Centre play The Shacklewell Arms February 28th, before supporting Palehound & Amber Arcades in Brighton March 7th.

2. Waltz With The Animals

Montreal’s Plants and Animals have this week shared the video for their new single Stay. The fabulous video features three dancers, in settings from the sunny streets of Tel-Aviv to the snowy forest of Montreal, each of which was given freedom to create their own routine inspired by the track. This freedom has allowed the video to capture something visceral and beautifully human.

Stay is lifted from the bands upcoming album, Waltzed In From The Rumbling, which will see the light of day later this year via Secret City Records. The track starts with a lilting Lambchop like acoustic-ballad before exploding into life with the expansive sound and unrestrained energy of Here We Go Magic or Modest Mouse. The band have suggested Waltzes In From The Rumbling has been influenced by music as wide ranging as Van Morrison, Serge Gainsbourg, J Dilla and John Coltrane, if the albums as good as this single that melting pot of ideas might just have produced something spectacular.

Waltzed In From The Rumbling is out April 29th via Secret City Records. Plants & Animals’ only UK show to date is at The Hoxton in London, May 31st, click HERE for details.

1. Strangers In Love

To the sound of much rejoicing, American songwriter Marissa Nadler has this week confirmed details of her upcoming album Strangers. The follow up to 2014’s exquisite July, the upcoming album, her seventh, will be released later this year through Bella Union. The titular strangers are the voices of the songs, a series of character staring at the end of the world and reacting in their own unique way, and Marissa has suggested the musical tone is suitably apocalyptic to match.

This week Marissa has also shared the albums first single, Janie In Love. The track is one of her most dense and rich songs to date, bringing crashing drums and twanging gothic-Americana guitars to fore, alongside her jaw dropping vocal performance. Janie In Love is at once beautiful but jarring, cataclysmic but alluring, and quite possibly her best single to date.

Strangers is out May 20th via Bella Union.