Sounds on the Ground #24: 2010 Special
By: Dan Monsell
So that was 2009 ay? The decade’s final year sure as hell threw us quite the assortment of new kings and queens to rule the roost. It was a big year, yet a confusing one - gems from all places a plenty, but in hindsight (and we love the sight of a good hind), 12 months cumulatively hard to place.
The next dozen are as difficult to predict as ever too, if we’re honest. But what the bloody heck, here are ten predictions of artists we think might do great things in 2010 all the same. As it’s based on our own admiration rather than in-depth market analysis, come the end of the year this lot might not be huge, but they’ll sure as hell be good. Watch them closely:
ESBEN AND THE WITCH – Beautifully haunting pop-noir with a big ol’ dose of Portishead, Kate Bush and fellow Brighton luminary Bat For Lashes, this excellent trio emerge in 2010 as bright hopes for innovating new British music. Comfortingly place-able yet fiendishly original, Esben are a fantastic new band with the world and their feet, and in amongst a confusing mass can easily inspire odd devotion with some ease.
FRANKIE AND THE HEARTSTRINGS – What’s seemed to be missing from any recent Eighties revival is some kind of great new indie-pop band in a Smiths like tradition to make what’s essentially underground indie-pop that everyone likes. Frankie and The Heartstrings indicate all these things. Some great songs, and an old fashioned love for some classics from the Fifties (and I’m sure before) right on through to present day, Frankie and co are a good old band for new times.
FICTION – London’s got a whole load of scattered musical differences, and who knows what to make of them. Fiction are a young quartet with the intricacies of early Foals thrown in with a dose of Adam And The Ants, Orange Juice and noughties (yes I did just refer to a decade’s sound already) electronica in the mix. Still early days for this band, but they’re a great symbol of how to keep it interesting for a new bunch of men brandishing guitars, drums, electronics and more in the capital today.
ISLET – Not having a MySpace or really much record of yourself online is a tough decision to take for a band these days. How the hell are people going to find out about you in a time where people have so much delivered to them with so much ease and so much choice? Take that down your throat sir. Go buy that madam. Well, the answer is to be good enough that other people tell people for you. So here you go. Head over to fansite www.thisisislet.com and go see a show to appreciate some great progressive rock and flipping roll.
DIVORCE – “You’re always f**king up my life” shouts Vickie Mcdonald over-and-over on ‘Dissatisfiktionpaqued’. It might seem at times that the world’s gone mad with box-fresh escapism, but Glaswegian five-piece Divorce are one of the heaviest, most thrilling and very real new punk bands to hit our ears for some time. Doing their best to confront the intensely worrying reality we often do our best to not focus on, little has been said about them so far, but something is wonderfully head-shakingly good about what we’ve heard that we feel that 2010 bodes very well for them indeed. We look forward to witnessing their suitably rawkus live shows in the New Year.
PULLED APART BY HORSES – We’ve spread our love for these chaps all over these pages many a time in 2009, but it’s with the release of their debut LP in 2010 that we expect to see the band’s potential to be the proper rock stars we know they already are kick off proper. Their potential is mighty and their rock is hard. Arguably the best live act in the UK right now?
SURFER BLOOD – Friends of The Drums, but for the most part a different type of proposition altogether, it seemed only a matter of time before hot new bands from the States started to reference the likes of The Pixies, Weezer (don’t worry - early!) and other slacker rockers, whilst still being a grand ‘ole modern day new indie band to hang your hat on. Surfer Blood are such incarnation, plus there’s also some great Spector style 60s pop in there, which explains their namesake and surf-rock scene thing bandied around about them.
OTHELLO WOOLF – Do we need another Bryan Ferry? Well if takes the well-tailored pop styling of the great man and dusts it off with early Talking Heads jiggery in a way that doesn’t feel at all pastiche or too contrived, then yes thanks very much. Tracks like ‘Stand’ have the potential to be super radio smashes and soundtrack a glamorous yacht party like in Duran Duran’s Rio video. They can also make the club kids happy as Larry all at the same time. Fashion-pop made by a young well-dressed man with a clearly nicely extensive record collection a la The Mystery Jets. Surprisingly tasty in a way that doesn’t even leave you feeling like you’ve done a bad thing after
GAGGLE – An alternative choir of 22, Gaggle are a fantastically innovative new band. Being an all girl vocal group, backed by dubstep beats, and all decked out in matching robes, honestly, what’s not to like? Their originality and very fact they managed to assemble themselves together deserves applause alone, and hopefully this year will witness them dazzle us all with their intriguing possibilities for performance and music making at their disposal.
ANNA CALVI – Beautiful young folkstress Anna Calvi has both a touch of the new British folk explosion and slightly more haunting PJ Harvey type timeless song craft to make her a great new artist to keep some eyes squarely on. Don’t you look away now. There's also an element of Jeff Buckley or even Elvis, in her deep heart-renching croon. A recent tour with Johnny Flynn saw her make an army of new fans set to grow in spades in the coming year
Artists in this article: Divorce, Islet, Fiction, Surfer Blood, Othello Woolf, Pulled Apart By Horses, Gaggle, Anna Calvi, Frankie and the Heartstrings, Esben and the Witch