New music review with singles from The Null Club ft. Faris Badwan and Sextile
- Julia Mason aka The Decibel Decoder
- Apr 10
- 4 min read
Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her new music review with singles from The Null Club (ft. Faris Badwan) 14 Hours and Sextile Kids
Artist: The Null Club
Track: 14 Hours
The Null Club have released their self-titled debut EP and shared final single 14 Hours featuring The Horrors' Faris Badwan. The guitarist of Gilla Band, Alan Duggan-Borges has spent the last few years writing and producing music using an array of old synths, drum machines, and guitars, leaning into noise, techno and experimental hip hop, as well as post-punk.
This project is a collaborative one where different artists have contributed vocals to each track. The result is this debut EP which features guest vocals from Faris Badwan (The Horrors), Valentine Caulfield (Mandy, Indiana) and E L U C I D (Armand Hammer). All instrumentals were performed and recorded by Alan in his home, and his rehearsal studio in Dublin, Ireland, with vocals being recorded in a mix of places; New York City, London, and Manchester (sometimes in studios, sometimes in the artists' homes).
Alan says on 14 Hours: "Faris had reached out to Gilla Band to say hello a while back and I managed to convince him to guest on this track. I've been a massive fan of The Horrors since I was in my teens so it was really cool to work with him on this. I flew over to London to hang out with him for two days and we wrote and recorded the melody in his apartment during that trip. He re-recorded the vocals later.
This track uses an MRK drum machine for the beat. This is a piece of gear I have long been obsessed with and when I got one, this track came together very quickly."
Opening with crisp percussion 14 Hours quickly moves on with a heavy drum beat and an edgy slice of static. The vocal of Badwan, midway between sung and spoken, is the perfect accompaniment to the soundscape. The metronomic atmosphere with its twitchy repetition is hypnotic, the experimentation in the instrumentation utterly beguiling.
The EP is available on a limited run of 500 12” white label records, each hand stamped by Alan and released independently on a label run by his wife and himself, with the EP mixed by Daniel Fox (Gilla Band) and mastered by Jamie Hyland (M(h)aol). There will be a number of solo shows across Ireland and England where Alan will be reworking the tracks from the EP live along with a number of unheard pieces of music. There will be numerous synths, noise machines, guitars, and many pedals on stage all being looped into different amps to bring the songs to life in a live setting.
The Null Club Live Dates
2nd May - The Workmans Club - Dublin, IE
13th May - Corsica Studios - London, UK
14th May - Rough Trade - Bristol, UK
16th May - Yes, The Basement - Manchester, UK
* * *
Artist: Sextile
Track: Kids
Sextile are a Los Angeles-based duo set to release their forthcoming album yes, please. on 2 May via Sacred Bones. New single Kids sees Mel Scaduto reach new heights with her voice over a soaring chorus that also features Izzy Glaudini from LA trio Automatic.
Scaduto shares: "The song is about being a teenager where you start to figure out who you are and feel misunderstood by your family but the feeling you get of finding your people and music for the first time that is yours. Similar to myself feeling depressed at that age then sneaking out and going to raves and shows and realising I was gonna be alive elsewhere and the future looked hopeful rather than bleak."
Kids winds up quickly and never looks back. Pulsating beats, this is a slice of techno inspired electronica perfect for the dancefloor, if you can keep up. Kids oozes youthful exuberance, encapsulating the thrilling joy of rave. The glorious outro is stunning, perfectly echoing the end of the rave and the re-emergence into the day.
The accompanying video was directed by Boy Harsher's Augustus Muller, who comments: "This track MOVES. I wanted to design something that could match the energy. On set we kept asking how do we make this faster?”
The LA duo comprising Melissa Scaduto and Brady Keehn ply their trade with a lust for life and a love of everything from no wave to hardstyle. Sextile's new album yes, please. promises to fuse anarchic electro fire with raw personal recollections. yes, please. is an album of contrasts: a vulnerable record that bares its soul as much as it revels in excess, showing just how far you can push your sound when you shake off your inhibitions. To learn that yes, please. is "an action-packed dance record stuffed with wild, heady roof-raisers but is in the same breath a testament to living, and never looking back" is intriguing indeed, and sounds like just what we need in these turbulent times.
Sextile Live Dates
May
1 - DTLA, LA - Lights Down Low ft Sextile Record Release Party
23 - Wide Awake Festival, London, UK
24 - Dot to Dot Festival, Bristol, UK
25 - Dot to Dot Festival, Nottingham, UK
27 - Stereo, Glasgow, UK
28 - The White Hotel, Manchester, UK
30 - Dust, Brighton, UK
31 - Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK
June
1 - Where Else?, Margate, UK
3 - Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, FR
4 - Trabendo, Paris, FR
5 - Le Tetris, Le Havre, FR
6 - Les Mouillotins Festival, Saint Point, FR
7 - Art Rock, St Brieuc, FR
10 - Altstadt, Eindhoven, NL
11 - Paradiso Upstairs, Amsterdam, NL
12 - Rotown, Rotterdam, NL
13 - Schon Schön, Mainz, DE
16 - B72, Vienna, AT
17 - Durer Kert, Budapest, HU
19 - Blind, Istanbul, TR
21 - B-Sides Festival, Lucerne, CH
23 - Zirka, Munich, DE
24 - Bumann & Sohn, Cologne, DE
25 - Molotow, Hamburg, DE
26 - Modus, Berlin, DE
28 - VooDoo, Warsaw, PL
30 - Gwarek, Krakow, PL
July
3 - Rock Wertcher, Wertcher, BE
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