New music review with Drahla and No Windows

Our weekly fix of the best new music as Julia Mason (aka The Decibel Decoder) brings us her review of new singles from Drahla Second Rhythm and No Windows Fibbs

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Artist: Drahla

Track: Second Rhythm

Credit Drahla and George Brown

Leeds-based art-rock experimentalists Drahla have released Second Rhythm the second single from angeltape, their second album due out 5 April via Captured Tracks.

This is one of those tracks that captures the ears from the very start. It opens with Luciel Browns vocal interspersed with a pounding beat. The guitars and drums combine somehow to provide a tension within Second Rhythm even though the pace is upbeat. Indeed it is the instrumentation that dominates here. The saxophone adds another layer of intensity, thrown into the mix and increasingly worming its way into the song as it progresses.

According to vocalist and guitarist Luciel Brown: “Second Rhythm is the twisted reprise to our 2019 release 'Primitive Rhythm.' It simultaneously represents the link and disconnect between the two albums Useless Coordinates (2019) and angeltape (2024). From reaching the handsome landscape to no longer being able to find it, but finding something else instead.”

Drahla find a great source of inspiration in the joy of playing music together, as bassist Rob Riggs adds: “When the four of us are in a room, we each bring separate things to the table. Sometimes, a session would start a little bit disjointed but then we find a way where we could all interlock together for a moment in a song and then disperse again.”

That comes across in their most recent music. There will be plenty of opportunities to see Drahla live as they will out on tour across the EU and UK this May / June, their first since their European dates in 2023. Their reputation as a fervent live act is ever-growing, having toured across the world and shared stages with the likes of Parquet Courts, Ought, and Buzzcocks.

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Artist: No Windows

Track: Fibbs

Credit Rosie Sco

Sound Of Young Scotland award-winning Edinburgh band No Windows have shared new single Fibbs. The duo, comprising 18 year old multi-instrumentalist Morgan Morris and 19 year old vocalist Verity Slangen, are now signed to Fat Possum Records with their second EP Point Nemo due out 3 May. 

Fibbs is a beautifully crafted track with an ethereal soundscape and the lead vocal is full of emotion.  The vibe is shoegaze, but tinged with an edge.

The effortless musical chemistry of No Windows comes from the tight relationship at its core. Verity and Morgan met as young teenagers at school in Edinburgh, after Morgan came across Verity who shared videos online of her singing. They quickly established a friendship and an artistic bond, with Verity adding her emotionally charged lyrics to Morgan’s bedroom recordings.

The duo have evolved since the release of their 2022 debut EP Fishboy.  This luscious new track engulfs the listener. We all need moments of calm and this is a song that will cast a spell and draw you in.

Speaking on the track, Verity says: "Fibbs is my favourite song on the EP, it was written in a time where I was very emotionally charged, and I decided to create a new habit of writing in this state. It was originally written by me just playing very simple chords on guitar and singing and then sending this to Morgan. The song ties in well with the rest of the EP as this was written in October, at a time when relationships in my life were becoming much more strained. I wanted to depict the self-destructive loops that are very easy to get in, and I managed to break one by writing the guitar melody and lyrics for this."

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