Silver synthetic

Before The Future LOST SOUND TAPES/SELF-RELEASED 8/10

From the noisy streets, community cafés and surprisingly verdant cemeteries of Southeast London have risen CAROLINE : a confoundingly brilliant eight-piece band with no obvious frontperson, fusing choral folk with fractured post-rock and experimental pop. As Sam Richards discovers, they haven’t made life easy for themselves. “But there has to be a vulnerability of some sort. Otherwise, what’s the point?”

The Fateful Symmetry MUTE 7/10

U.S. Girls ★★★★ Scratch It 4AD. CD/DL/LP ...

THIS MONTH’S FREE CD

With 28 albums’ worth of songs to choose from, “hopefully there will be some surprises”.