The BBC ‘Sound of 2010’ long list is up and we can now all breathe easy knowing who and what will be big in the coming year. The list is 15 acts long and is a good indicator of the coming year in music (or at least the first six months). Looking at it and comparing to my own (which is essentially why I did my own in the first place), then 6 out of my 10 made the long list. A ratio of 60%, which is acceptable.
The Long List (in alpabetical order)
Daisy Dares You
Delphic [got it]
Devlin
The Drums [got it]
Everything Everything
Giggs
Gold Panda
Ellie Goulding [got it]
Hurts
Joy Orbison [got it]
Marina and the Diamonds [got it]
Owl City
Rox
Stornoway [got it]
Two Door Cinema Club
The list is pretty much the usual mix of landfill- indie rockers (The Drums and Two Door Cinema Club), token rapper (Giggs), post-punkers á la Joy Division (Delphic), new folkers (Stornoway), synth poppers (Hurts and Ellie Goulding), etc.. This time though, they have thrown in a few leftfield electronic acts who probably won’t be huge commercial successes, but will probably strike a chord critically (Gold Panda and Joy Orbison). Still, to be honest, some of the acts featured are kinda… well, shit. Three in particular are really shit.
It is that time of year again. The leaves are falling off the trees, the weather is getting cold(er) and soon all kinds of music magazines, blogs and the like will publish their end-of-year lists as well as their predictions for what is going to make it big in the next year. Trying to predict what is going to be big "next year" is always going to be sketchy business, especially as most lists act as selffulfilling prophecies as the journalists themselves have much to say in who will "make it". Luckily, my blog is small and insignificant so I have no such worries. I win again! No? Damn...
This year has seen some excellent hiphop releases with personal hightlights being Mos Def’s The Ecstatic, Raekwon’s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Part II and Lushlife’s Cassette City. The latter has especially struck a chord with me, mixing chamber pop with old school early 90’s east coast hiphop influences. Taking influence as much from DJ Premier as Burt Bacharach. The album has an impressively cohesive feel and it is obvious that a lot of thought and heart has gone in to the making of the record. A great album that really deserves wider recognition.
The song that ignited my interest for Lushlife was The Kindness. The song sounds like a J Dilla production – which is quite a compliment in my book – and immediately caught my attention. From the weaving soul sample to the chopped strings and harp, it is extremely well produced and executed.
Lushlife – The Kindness
Another song that really deserves a mention is Meridian Sound [Part Three], which combines a Beach Boys sample with a drum beat heavily influenced by The Ronettes' Be My Baby. Your average piece of hiphop it is not. What it is though is really clever and I love it.
My two favorite songs at the moment are both songs of overblown proportions. Songs that are drenched in massive big synth, bubbly bass and soft-the-hard-way drums. I don't know if it says something about my current state of mind, but these songs are just on constant repeat at the moment.
VEGA - No Reasons
VEGA (spelled all capitals) is Alan Palomo. VEGA is great. Succinct and to the point.
VEGA is also the guy behind the first of my two current favorite songs. No Reasons is unashamedly catchy and just bounces happily along. I love how it sounds like the french touch house of yore, such as Mojo and Stardust (and more recently The Phantom's Revenge and Louis la Roché), but in an edgier post-Justice less polished sort of way. It sounds like an old soul song has been sampled and chopped for the song (the gorgeous and so-simple-yet-so-effective "can't live without you"), and yet it blends so well with his own voice that I'm not sure. The song in itself is not too complex with the bass and drums pretty much just bouncing along together, but that is also what I love about it. It does not try to hide the fact that in essence it's just a great pop song. The sort of song that just makes you smile.
Siriusmo - High Together
Similarly, but even more explicit, High Together is clearly new wave french touch house. I love french touch, because it's such a feel-good genre. Most of the music (bar Justice) is filled with these great warm sounds, which feels like being hugged by this big blanket of synth.
Siriusmo (a name I was always forget how to spell) has thus far gone under my radar in favor of other acts such as MSTRKRFT, Yuksek, LifeLike, Pilooski, etc., but this song just grabbed my attention instantly. How could it not? The way it opens up with the faded and chopped salsa beat, which suddenly breaks and explodes into an amazingly lush sounding synth and bass. Once it explodes, it does not pause for a break - it just goes on and on. It is relentless. It is euphoric. I have no idea what the voice says and I really do not care. Just listen to that synth. Can you say aural orgasm?
James Brown & The JB's - Give It Up, Turn It Loose
That is so tight. Damn! Kinda makes you wish you were alive back then so you could have danced along. Then again, what's stopping you from dancing now? Turn it loose!
Sounding like a cross between Arcade Fire and Langley School Music Project (great music and great story) this is the perfect song for Halloween. My Body Is A Zombie For You (song title of the year?) is just one of those great songs that remind you that music does not have to be complicated to be great.
Dead Man's Bones is a band consisting of Ryan Gosling (yup... that guy) and Zach Shields. Two guys who actually can't play instruments. This is not hard to hear, but that has not stopped from making great songs. The music is simple yet very effectful. Some of it is down to Gosling's great trembling voice, but what really does it is L.A.’s Silverlake Conservatory Childrens Choir. There is just something endeeringly creepy about a whole choir of children singing about zombies. A gem of a song.
Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest has been universally lauded since its release and rightly so. It's a terrific album with great melodies, harmonies and pretty everything you could want. Definitely one of the albums of the year, but that is really not a surprise.
Having had the album for a while now I'm glad to see that the choice for second single is also my personal favorite track (well, one of two fav's with Ready, Able being the other). Good on you, Grizzly Bear.
While You Wait For The Others is a true break-up song filled with heartbreak and big emotions. The song builds terrifically and hits you right where it hurts. Right where you want it to hurt. Something we all can relate to now and then.
“YACHT is about group consciousness. YACHT is about the individual man or woman. If you believe these assertions to be contradictory, consider the Triangle: it is both a collection of points and a shape.” (YACHT mission statement)
YACHT makes electronic dance-y music in the classic DFA vein (which incidentally also happens to be their label). Their songs have the spoken vocals over dance-y music á la LCD Soundsystem, which just seems to work really well and projects a sort of effortless cool.
The Afterlife is, to me, their best song to date. The song is jampacked with little details and really showcase their ability to mix all kinds of weird (for lack of better words) sounds to create what is essentially a party/pop song. Not your conventional pop song, but a pop song nonetheless. I am particularly partial to the lyrics of the song as, with a subject such as death, it could easily become cheesy and contrived. Rather, on this song the lyrics come off almost, well, insightful. Sample lyric: "It's not a place you go It's a place that comes to you And it's not about who you know or who is in your heart It may come as a surprise, but you are not alone All that you have is not what you own"
Internet hype is a weird thing. Bands seem to come out of nowhere to be the next OMFG-this-is-better-than-if-Jesus-played-in-the-Beatles. The XX are one of those bands and who am I not to rave about them? Exactly. So I'm just gonna go ahead and jump on the bandwagon. They are awesome! Like like like... like Jesus featuring Hot Chip doing indie-ish rock with an R'n'B twist. Now strike the Jesus-reference. Better.
I haven't actually heard the full album yet - creatively titled XX - , but judging from reviews then it looks really interesting. Not being one to jump the gun (right) I'm just gonna go out on a limb and claim this to be one of my favorite albums so far this year... sometimes you just know, okay. Presumptious as I clearly am.
I've had a really hard time (read: scratched my head a few times) trying to pick between their two singles/videos so I took an executive decision and now I'm posting both. Yup, that's a class in Decision-Making 101 for you there.
The songs are called Crystallised and Basic Space, and they're minimalistic pieces of indie-pop brilliance. It's bare-bones kind of stuff with no superfluous effects or anything. Timid voices singing deeply intimate lyrics, sterile sampled drums played live and then great warmth from the weaving dual guitar play. Suffice to say that on the evidence of these songs, I like this band. *Hype Alert*
Wild Beasts released one of last years best albums in Limbo, Panto and they seemed to have followed it up with an even better one in Two Dancers. Marvelous. The first single of the album is called Hooting and Howling and it is truly one of the best songs of the year so far.
Personally I'm big lyrics kind'o'guy, and in the case of this song the lyrics are mindblowingly good. Hayden Thorpe not only possesses a great voice and impressively nuanced falsetto (which he puts to great and often use), but also some serious writing chops. Every line is genius, beautifully describing a late night brawl as if it were - to quote the song - "a bovver boot ballet".
It's like reading something by Fitzgerald - simply awesome. Enjoy the lyrics in their entirity below the video. Wild Beasts - Hooting and Howling
Carry me hooting and howling to the river to wash off my hands of the hot blood, the sweat and the sand Any rival who goes for our girls will be left thumb sucking in terror and bereft of all coffin bearers
A crude art, a bovver boot ballet - equally elegant and ugly I was as thrilled as I was appalled, courting him in fisticuffing waltz. Now I'm not saying the lads always deserve a braying. And I'm not saying the girls are worth the fines I'm paying.
We're just brutes bored in our bovver boots. We're just brutes clowning 'round in cahoots. We're just brutes looking for shops to loot. We're just brutes hoping to have a hoot
