Neural Newscast

[00:00] Julian Vance: From Neural Newscast, this is Stereocurrent, Sound, Culture, and the Systems That Shape Them.
[00:05] Sloane Rivera: The air is thick with ghosts of the avant-garde this week, Julian.
[00:10] Sloane Rivera: We're seeing a fascinating collision between the ancient and the hypermodern.
[00:15] Sloane Rivera: I am Sloan Rivera.
[00:17] Julian Vance: And I'm Julian Vance.
[00:19] Julian Vance: It's that sweet spot where the analog tape hiss meets a 2,500-year-old melody.
[00:25] Julian Vance: We've got some deep textures to wade through today on stereo current.
[00:28] Sloane Rivera: Um, starting with something truly hypnotic.
[00:32] Sloane Rivera: Bebe and London producer Paul Elliott released their album Two Moons yesterday, and it feels
[00:39] Sloane Rivera: like a cinematic ecosystem.
[00:41] Julian Vance: It's a masterclass in balance, Sloan.
[00:43] Julian Vance: You've got the Guzhang and Guqin, these incredibly traditional Chinese instruments leading the
[00:50] Julian Vance: way through a forest of vintage synths.
[00:52] Julian Vance: The title track, which we actually got a glimpse of last November, sets the tone.
[00:57] Julian Vance: It's atmospheric bliss with a lo-fi heartbeat.
[01:00] Sloane Rivera: I'm particularly taken by Silk Suare.
[01:03] Sloane Rivera: It has this jazz-ready Guzhang melded with a string-laden drive that feels heart-rending but modern.
[01:11] Sloane Rivera: It's like refined, Julian, but there's a tactile rhythm to it that keeps it from becoming just another ambient wallpaper.
[01:18] Julian Vance: Yeah.
[01:19] Julian Vance: Even the finale, Midnight Bazaar, has this suave baseline that anchors the dreamy plucks.
[01:25] Julian Vance: It's a bridge between errors that doesn't feel forced.
[01:28] Julian Vance: Speaking of bridges, we have a major update from the ruins of the London math rock scene.
[01:35] Sloane Rivera: The post-black MIDI vacuum?
[01:37] Julian Vance: Cameron Picton has finally surfaced, and the name of the new vessel is My New Band Believe.
[01:44] Julian Vance: It's cheeky, it's irreverent, and it's very rough trade.
[01:48] Julian Vance: They announced the debut self-titled album on Friday, set for an April 10th release.
[01:53] Julian Vance: The backstory is pure rock lore.
[01:56] Julian Vance: Cameron was battling an illness in a Chinese hotel room, hallucinating flashes of text,
[02:01] Julian Vance: and My New Band Believe was the phrase that stuck.
[02:04] Sloane Rivera: A literal fever dream.
[02:05] Sloane Rivera: They shared numerology, which interestingly isn't even on the standard album.
[02:10] Sloane Rivera: It's a bonus track on the 10-inch and CD editions.
[02:13] Sloane Rivera: It's a bold move to lead with a song that's essentially an extra, but Picton has never been one for the linear path.
[02:19] Julian Vance: No, and the lineup is a heavy hitter list.
[02:22] Julian Vance: Kieran Leonard, Steve Noble, Andrew Cheatham...
[02:24] Sloane Rivera: ...that the dance floor needs a bit of the Wild West.
[02:27] Sloane Rivera: Her new single Ride just dropped, and it's a disco western that actually interpolates
[02:32] Sloane Rivera: any Omori-Kone's theme from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
[02:35] Julian Vance: It's brilliant.
[02:37] Julian Vance: She first teased this at Glastonbury back in 2024,
[02:40] Julian Vance: but we're finally getting the studio version ahead of her album Super Bloom in April.
[02:44] Julian Vance: James Ford and Stuart Price are on production, so you know the polish is immaculate.
[02:49] Sloane Rivera: It's cheeky, Julian.
[02:51] Sloane Rivera: She's playing with dress-up and glamour, but that Mori Cone whistle against a clubbeat,
[02:55] Sloane Rivera: it's a sharp take on escapism.
[02:57] Sloane Rivera: It reminds me of the confidence we're seeing in the new Eugene McGinnis video for Icarus,
[03:02] Sloane Rivera: which also premiered yesterday.
[03:04] Julian Vance: Eugene is a fascinating case.
[03:06] Julian Vance: He was a Domino Records darling, then he almost walked away from the industry entirely.
[03:11] Julian Vance: Now he's back with Eugene McGinnis versus the Universe coming in April.
[03:15] Julian Vance: Icarus has this specific Liverpool swagger, glossy confidence, but with a smirk.
[03:20] Sloane Rivera: It feels like a storyteller's track.
[03:23] Sloane Rivera: He's taking the Icarus myth and treating it like a metaphor he can just toss in the air.
[03:27] Sloane Rivera: The production has that vintage guitar chime and sweeping strings.
[03:31] Sloane Rivera: It's smart without being smug.
[03:34] Julian Vance: It's part of that tight-knit liver duel community, recorded at Dockland's Speed Shop.
[03:39] Julian Vance: It's warm, organic, and honestly just good to have his voice back in the mix.
[03:43] Julian Vance: Between him, Jesse, and Cameron Picton, April 10th is looking like a very busy day for my
[03:49] Julian Vance: turntable.
[03:49] Sloane Rivera: A crowded calendar for the cultured ear.
[03:52] Sloane Rivera: That's the roundup for today.
[03:54] Sloane Rivera: You can find more at stereocurrent.neuralnewscast.com.
[03:57] Sloane Rivera: Keep your needles clean and your takes sharp.
[04:00] Sloane Rivera: I'm Sloan Rivera.
[04:01] Julian Vance: And I'm Julian Vance.
[04:02] Julian Vance: This has been Stereocurrent.
[04:04] Julian Vance: Catch you on the flip side.
[04:06] Julian Vance: Neural Newscast is AI-assisted, human-reviewed.
[04:09] Julian Vance: View our AI transparency policy at neuralnewscast.com.
[04:13] Julian Vance: This has been Stereocurrent on Neural Newscast.
[04:16] Julian Vance: Sound, culture, and the systems that shape them.