Now Hear This: New music from Chilla, NSG, Carlie Hanson and Whenyoung, plus spotlight artist Ralph Pelleymounter

While the UK seems intent on distancing itself from the rest of Europe, music fans seem more and more appreciative of non-English language songs. So I’ve thrown some of my favourite new French-language releases into the mix (Chilla – a Lyon-born rapper with a beautiful voice – with “Pour la Vie”, and Brussels-based Polydor signing Kobo, who just released his debut album Periode d’essai) on this week's playlist.

That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of British music worth listening to as well. You’ve got east-London rap collective NSG's “OT Bop”, which was mixed by J Hus collaborator Jae5. The Amazons have a new album out, Future Dust, which is a big step up from their 2017 debut thanks to a bigger, bolder rock sound that takes cues from the likes of Led Zeppelin and Howlin’ Wolf. Irish rock outfit Otherkin have another slick, Liam Gallagher-esque single called “On & On” that wouldn’t be a bad contender for the new Bond theme. I love Honeyblood’s seething “Gibberish” from her forthcoming new album In Plain Sight. Limerick-formed band Whenyoung’s “A Labour of Love” is on my playlist from their debut album Reasons to Dream, which is definitely worth spending some time with.

I spent the weekend immersed in Flying Lotus’s first album in five years, Flamagra, which our reviewer Ellie Harrison aptly described as “a playful yet melancholic, skittish yet meditative 67 minutes of cosmic genius… one of Flying Lotus’s most accessible releases”. It features brilliant guest features such as Anderson. Paak, Solange and David Lynch, and is a swirling, psychedelic mix of jazz, funk, soul, electro and hip hop.

I’m excited by the wave of young women shaking up pop for the better, whether it’s LA singer Miya Folick with “Malibu Barbie” or the Wisconsin-born Carlie Hanson, whose track “WYA” falls somewhere between Taylor Swift and Post Malone. It sounds weird, yes, but it works.

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There are some great live music events coming up that you should check out if you can – All Points East in London’s Victoria Park is obviously already underway (read our review of The Strokes’ headline set here, and Christine and the Queens here). The ultimate pop extravaganza Mighty Hoopla is coming up (8 June) if you enjoy lots of glitter and the joyful nostalgia of acts like Chaka Khan, All Saints, Jamelia and Liberty X (seriously). There’s even a George Michael Disco.

My spotlight artist this week is Ralph Pellymounter of To Kill a King fame, who just released his debut solo album Dead Debutante’s Ball. It’s quite different from anything else released this year (he describes it as anti-folk which I like), and it's beautifully arranged, with instrumentation built on fuzzy electric guitar and yearning violins. Plus there are two songs about lobsters, which can never be a bad thing.

I had a quick chat with Ralph about the record to see how things are going. Oh, and you can watch the premiere of his video for "Get Drunk, Get High" below!

Hey Ralph! How's your 2019 so far?

Well, Game of Thrones was a bit of a let down, but I feel like times of great tragedy brings out the best art in people, so I’m looking forward to seeing what I write next. Probably something with a slower tempo.

Tell me a bit about your solo project, when did you start and where did the term “anti-folk” come from?

So I started writing the songs about just over a year ago, then last summer I bagged ten days at a mate's studio and convinced some very talented musician friends to come play on it. There's a real who’s who of people I know on the record and I am very thankful to them and Gethin Pearson for producing.

Anti-folk is a mix of folk and punk really, I think the album walks that line. Scrappy guitar driven tunes cut with short, sharp emotive moments brought on by the strings and brass. I wanted the album to feel like an angry Wes Anderson film, with the camera slowly moving from one room to the next, passing from perhaps a lone guitarist to a full orchestra to a garage band, always a bit of a surprise and constantly moving on. So the album is a fast paced 14 tracks in 32 minutes, hopefully moving too fast for people to hit the skip button.

Why was one song about lobsters not enough?

Lobsters are happiest in pairs.

Did you find while you were writing the album that themes of hedonism and anxiety ended up going hand in hand? Thinking of tracks like 'Get Drunk Get High' and then something darker like “Wild Beast”

Yeah I think this is a really good point, damn, I need a moment of quiet contemplation. They definitely are bickering friends aren’t they? Yeah, I could see these two themes skipping down the path on this album, stopping perhaps to look at the aforementioned lobsters or attend a lecture on a brief history of line dancing. The history of line dancing is another track on the album just to be clear to your readers.

What are your plans for the rest of the year?

I’ve got my first UK tour in October (dates if we can say them) and before that I’ve got my first headline show in London next month, really touched it’s sold out already. I’ve also just finished my first score to a short film, Eugene Vs Humanity. It should be hitting some festivals sometime soon, so I’ll be hopefully catching that somewhere.