New Music – Home Counties | Teenage Fanclub | Galactapus | Gary Numan

New releases – Home Counties, Teenage Fanclub, Galactapus, Gary Numan

Home Counties – Modern Yuppies (single)

Heading into 2021 in style, Home Counties’ spiky new single is just what’s needed to blow the lockdown cobwebs away. Taking a funk-fuelled approach with synths aplenty, the track sees the band lean away from a guitar-led stance and crank up the dance hooks, following in the footsteps of a Talking Heads style stroll along the road to nowhere. Modern Yuppies, out today, is the first of two self-produced singles released via the mighty Alcopop! Records.

Vocalist Will Harrison comments, “Synths and drum machines were already something we were very keen to explore and 2020 provided us with an unexpected amount of free time to experiment. We dialled the disco influences up to the max and totally embraced that 70’s-cop-drama vibe for this pair of stand-alone singles. It feels like a bold declaration of who we are and it definitely gives a clearer taste of where we’re heading for our next EP”.

Home Counties

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Teenage Fanclub – Home (video)

After much anticipation, Teenage Fanclub have confirmed their return with studio album number 10. Endless Arcade is set for release on 5th March via their own label PeMa in the UK and on Merge in the US. As a taster, the band have shared a video for the album’s opening track Home. In true TF fashion, the song proffers mixed emotions, an oxymoron of cheerful melancholy and laid back sophistication. The album looks set to be a welcome relief to the trials of the current environment.

“We were very comfortable with each other in the studio,” says Norman. “I think some of the playing is a bit freer and looser than on recent albums. Dave and Euros’ playing is amazing, and Francis on drums is really swinging. The whole process of making this album was very invigorating. Everyone in the band contributed a lot and the song arrangements came together really quickly. Everything felt fresh.”

Endless Arcade can be pre-ordered here

Teenage Fanclub

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Galactapus – I Intend to Stay (album)

Steeped in mystery with masks to put the rest of us to shame, Galactapus offer up psych-punk with a twist of Euro-pop and costumes straight from the house of glam. Relatively new out of the blocks, this sounds like a project worth keeping an enigmatic eye on.

Their PR states, ‘Galactapus is a recording group who plays and sings space-aquatica punk music. They have asked that their personal backgrounds not be provided, but are excited that their first album I Intend To Stay might find the right ears to hear it.’

If you fall into that particular section of the Venn diagram that captures fans of Can, early Doors and Serge Gainsbourg, then I suspect you may just have the right ears – bend them back and take a trip to the curious world of Galactapus.

I Intend to Stay is available to purchase on Bandcamp

Galactapus

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Gary Numan – (single)

Last but by no means least, Gary Numan still holds a hugely loyal following after 40 years in the business. Pending new album Intruder is due for release on 21st May and the lead/title single and video were shared yesterday. Debuted to live audiences on 2019’s (R)evolution tour, Intruder is a strong track and already a firm fan favourite. The intro takes a more industrial than electronic stance until the instantly recognisable vocal kicks in and there’s a message behind the music too.

Numan explains, “Intruder looks at climate change from the planet’s point of view. If Earth could speak, and feel things the way we do, what would it say? How would it feel? The songs, for the most part, attempt to be that voice, or at least try to express what I believe the earth must feel at the moment. The planet sees us as its children now grown into callous selfishness, with a total disregard for it’s well being. It feels betrayed, hurt and ravaged. Disillusioned and heartbroken it is now fighting back. Essentially, it considers human kind to be a virus attacking the planet. Climate change is the undeniable sign of the Earth saying enough is enough, and finally doing what it needs to do to get rid of us, and explaining why it feels it has to do it.”

Intruder is available to pre-order here