I Must Be Irresistible

Lynks “New Boyfriend”

“New Boyfriend” effectively sounds like a queer version of LCD Soundsystem, or maybe more generally the classic 00s DFA aesthetic. Much in the same way The Dare’s “Girls” was a revelation for just sounding like “what if LCD was really horny?,” this shift in perspective is enough to make the style sound fresh again. James Murphy’s music may be physical and sensual but it’s never particularly sexual in tone, since his lyrics are almost exclusively focused on exploring his neuroses. Lynks goes light on anxiety but heavy on humor as he tears into a guy who won’t leave him alone. At first it seems more like a general “I’m not interested, fuck off” sentiment, but the plot thickens in the third verse: “I don’t want stay on your sofa because then I’ll stay in your bed and if I stay in your bed we’re definitely gonna have sex…and I don’t want that.” Ah, so there’s the stakes!

Buy it from Bandcamp.

O. “176”

O. are an unusual sort of rock duo – a saxophonist and a drummer playing fairly aggressive mutant instrumental rock music. Sax player Joe Heywood utilizes effects pedals to allow for a wider tonal and textural palette, but even when he’s making his instrument sound more like a guitar or keyboard it’s still peculiar to hear a fuzz guitar sound with a blustery woodwind attack. “176,” the first proper song on their debut, has Heywood alternating between melodic parts that sound like drunk jazz and distorted blasts that emulate the pummeling force of macho alt 90s stuff like, say, Jesus Lizard or Unsane. Tash Keary’s drumming sounds very tight and controlled, at some points sounding more like a DJ cutting up beats than someone at a kit.

Buy it from Bandcamp.