THE BEST OF NEW ORDER

THEY CRAFT TUNES THAT RECALL THE SOUNDS OF THE ANALOG-HEAVY PRE-2000S AND STAND FOR THE UNDERDOGS. UNLIKE ALTERNATIVE MUSICIANS OF THAT ERA THOUGH, THEY ARE QUINTESSENTIALLY POST-GEN X IN THEIR COMMITMENT TO COLLABORATE, NOT JUDGE AND UPLIFT THE COMMUNITY (THE YOUNGEST IS 19; THE OLDEST, 29). KENG YANG SHUEN SPOTLIGHTS FOUR NEWCOMERS TO THE SINGAPORE MUSIC SCENE THAT ARE REDEFINING THE WAY WE MAKE GOOD OLD INDIE ROCK, POP AND EVERYTHING ELSE IN BETWEEN.

- JONATHAN CHIA

TALEDROPS 

WHO: The all‑female alternative progressive rock quintet made up of (from left) guitarist Zijun Kan, drummer Kiara Tan, vocalist Pearly Tan, keyboardist Ang Qian Shan and bassist Hong Jingmin

STARTED: Earlier this year. Before that, the girls were already playing together (they met in secondary school) under another name, with a more casual aesthetic – something they prefer to keep in the past to focus on the edgier and more stylised sound and look that they identify more with today (and that got us noticing them).

THE SOUND: For anyone into female rock groups of the 2000s, the five young women who make up Taledrops (they’re all in their mid‑20s)  ought to be your new heroines. Like their own musical idol Muse, they fuse alt and prog rock with bits of pop and lots of impassioned lyrics for one aggressive yet symphonic affair. Cue the debut single Kafka, a blistering anthem written to remind themselves to never lose sight of what they love even as they confront the mundanity of corporate life (“Sign away bits of our lives / Contracts keep us alive / Hands are searing from this drought / Who cares that I am sucked dry?”) – Olivia Rodrigo fans would dig the brazen candour.