NME‘s Radar Roundup is your weekly reminder of the rule-breaking rising artists you simply can’t afford to ignore right now. From interviews to reviews to track recommendations, here is where you’ll meet your favourite new artist.
Interviews
This week, Bradford heroes Bad Boy Chiller Crew insist they’re more than a joke, NLE Choppa praises the spiritual awakening that altered his path and Rose Gray on why Britain’s ’90s dance scene have been so formative for her.
Bad Boy Chiller Crew
2020 has been a struggle for many musicians, but BBCC will happily admit that it is turning out to be the best year of their young lives. The trio have stayed something of a Yorkshire-kept secret for the best part of a year, growing followers with their Instagram comedy sketches, and while their Jackass-meets-Little-Britain banter won’t be for everyone, what is more undeniable is the increasingly-separate music. Read the full interview Jenessa Williams
NLE Choppa
A global star and not yet legal, NLE Choppa is Memphis’ new prized possession. At just 17 – and despite a polarising debut – the rapper has established himself as one of the South’s most explosive new names. But the once-brazen, gun-toting bad kid now embraces a Buddhist regime to work through life. Read the full interview Kyann-Sian Williams
Rose Gray
Influenced by Britain’s explosive dance music scene in the ’90s (Primal Scream and Massive Attack, are key touch points) Rose Gray wants to capture that scene and add “a modern twist”. In fact, her upcoming mixtape’s ‘Save Your Tears’ gleefully reworks the groove from Primal Scream’s ‘Loaded’, while ‘Same Cloud’ is a head-in-sky wig-out of mammoth proportions. Read the full interview Ben Jolley
Reviews
Never let a killer new release fly under your radar. This week, there’s new releases from A. Swayze, Sinead O’Brien and Gus Dapperton.
A. Swayze & The Ghosts – ‘Paid Salvation’
A. Swayze makes it all too clear throughout this album that he’s intent on attacking serious matters in life, whether big or small. Perhaps most importantly, he’s managed to morph his frustrations of the world into engaging and frantic material that packs serious spirit. Key track: ‘Mess Of Me’ Read the full review Rhys Buchanan
Gus Dapperton – ‘Orca’
Since his first few EPs, Gus Dapperton has embodied pop culture in all its guises. From garnering internet fame across Tumblr in the early days and now on TikTok thanks to his feature on BENEE’s viral hit ‘Supalonely’, the bowl-cut-sporting New York musician is at the forefront of Gen Z subculture. It’s where anything goes, and he’s taking that in his stride. Now with his sophomore album ‘Orca’, his slacker-pop is less relatable storytelling and more of a cathartic insight into his vulnerabilities around touring in your early twenties. Read the full review Key track: ‘Get Out’ Becky Rogers
Sinead O’Brien – ‘Drowning In Blessings’
Irish-born, London-based O’Brien says the new EP is “about spaces, claiming personal space in the city, naming things, bringing them closer,” and – just as she planned – these four songs play out like an instruction manual for finding inspiration and forward motion in a world designed to keep you running in circles. Read the full review Key track: ‘Most Modern Paintings’ Will Richards
New Bangers
NME’s New Bangers is our weekly-updated playlist that’s full of the essential new tunes you need in your life. Here are some highlights…
Sault – ‘Free’
And the mystery rolls on. Scarcely a couple of months since the recent release of ‘Untitled (Black Is)’, the collective hold their cards out of view and keep the details private. For them, the music, always, does the talking. But ‘Free’, a highlight from their new collection ‘Untitled (Rise)’, has plenty to say. Masterful stuff, yet again.
Rachel Chinouriri – ‘Give Me A Reason’
Having sat on her new EP since February, the Londoner has finally shared the first taste of it with ‘Give Me A Reason’, a trippy examination of a relationship in terminal decline.
Pom Poko – ‘My Candidacy’
Trying to make heads or tails of a Pom Poko song is almost always a waste of time. So just whack ‘My Candidacy’ on bloody loud and see where your mind ends up. Don’t try to understand it, just feel it.
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The post Radar Roundup – September 18, 2020: The killer new music you need to hear this week appeared first on NME Music News, Reviews, Videos, Galleries, Tickets and Blogs | NME.COM.
