Ideals

I have a theory.  It goes like this: if you see a relatively well-supported or well-tipped band/singer and their frontperson doesn’t look like a model, then they must be good.  Shallow, yes, callous, probably, but true?  Regularly.  It means – girl and boy bands aside – that said singer is there on talent alone.  My stupid little theory is given more credibility by emerging London/Ipswich band Ideals; while handsomer than me, gap-toothed singer Andrew Major isn’t exactly Johnny Depp - but gee, he sure can sing well enough.  Be it teeth-brushingly fresh falsettos or bruising baritones, his vocals put the perfect polish on some soaring, perfectly-executed indie rock.  Keep an eye on Intruder Records for news of Forever Leisure, the next single.

Ideals – Significant Other (mp3)

Dels

(photo by Chloe Hayward)

DELS, aka Kieren Dickins, is someone you’re likely to hear a lot more about; discovered aged 16 by one John Peel and a refined re-mixer, his own two-step garage/hip-hop bangers are now being produced by Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard.  This makes for, as CAMP’s recent PR neatly put it, a “mishmash of squelchy basslines, tinkering keys, syncopated drum patterns and the occasional steel pan”.  Quite right.  But does it work?  On Trumpalump, I’m not so sure: DELS’ meaty riffs seem a bit too chalk when paired with the cheese of Goddard’s bouncy beats (although the ‘Quiet Remix, also by Goddard, featuring Ghostpoet and available below, is musical cocoa).  But things are far happier on Shapeshifter, a catchier number in which the two tribes sound better aligned.

Keen for more?  You’ll have to wait.  DELS’ debut EP, to be released by Greco-Roman, is due in early 2010.

DELS - Trumpalump (Joe Goddard’s Quiet Remix Feat. Ghostpoet) (mp3)

Best of 2010

So 2010′s creaking to a freezing, food-filled conclusion and, as ever at this time of year, there’s lots to reflect upon.  My own year started majestically and ended in a slightly-depressed funk, but I still feel elated when looking back at some of the highlights: a wonderful woman, a wedding in Edinburgh, the stag night with a dwarf, visits from an uncle…  And I think that’s the trick – bathe in the warm memory of highlights, and just put any shit moments out with the trash.

Musically, the year saw the 2009 synth pop charge slowed, at least until The Naked & Famous showed up.  A more subtle, but no less powerful, invasion came instead from the lo-fi, DIY brigade, perhaps inspired by The xx: the Kieran Hebden-inspired Caribou produced the year’s best album, while muddy rock from the likes of Yuck and Best Coast, and a basic, blissful pop sound pioneered by Cults, Tennis and many others dominated the blogwaves.  Eclecticism was definitely in, and female voices ruled: everything from Veronica Falls to Warpaint.  Mashups continued to be popular, but so too were mixtape-style fusion tracks, the best of which came from Hard Mix and Pretty Lights.  Sweden’s grip on perky pop proved intractable, with jj and The Radio Dept. emphasising the range and refreshing simplicity of these offerings.  The former, together with Cults and London acts Vondelpark and Summer Camp, played on the mystery element; eschewing typical things like MySpace pages in favour of the odd Bandcamp song, or not even that.  As music truly went viral, good old folk hit the backburner - although Freelance Whales carried on producing outstanding sounds.  And over in the electro sphere, dark and primal murmurings seemed to be the thing, with Salem especially demented.

As for SOIWT’s own London scene, Hackney bands (Wash, A.HUMAN) continued to determinedly provide a dingy, raw rock sound, as classier rock trappings arrived from all over (and just outside) the M25 (The Good Natured, Chad Valley).  Still more producers and wavemakers came to the party (Magnetic Man, Clock Opera), while Summer Camp and Hype Williams led the oddpop contingent and the female singer-songwriter bus showed no signs of a reduced service (Sunday Best, Speech Debelle, Claudia Georgette).  The order of play for next year seems to be a Britpop-inspired basic indie and a colourful army of multi-instrumentalist, genre-surfing mavericks - but more of that in a forthcoming post about 2011 tips…

First of all, here’s a playlist of my favourite sounds of 2010.  I’ve tried to be representative, and to include a good amount of UK stuff:

Finally, a word of thanks.  I wanted to get a playlist encrypted on this page, but unfortunately I know as much about technology as keeping Italian girlfriends.  Happily, with the patience of the dead, my friend and genius David Bushell has helped me with this stuff, out of sheer kindness.  Particularly avid readers will note the wonderful Mr B has already helped me get streaming for mp3 files…  He also specialises in Google Adwords management, so hit him up if you need to up your ranking, or just want to hear why he’s thinking of leaving his wife for Rafael Van Der Vaart.

Predictions for 2011 to follow before the year burns itself out…

Thanks for reading,
Richard

Deptford Goth

This is perfect for a bloated Boxing Day… languid, gentle and unintrusive.  It won’t nag if you want to play with your presents, but it will be there if you need to a nurse a hangover or fret over lovers lost.  I’m in thrall to the screwy keys loop and floaty, almost-fairytale intro.  Meanwhile my mother, who is an expert on most things, opines from along the sofa: “I wouldn’t say it’s outstanding, but it’s pleasant”.  Wise old dame, that one.

Deptford Goth – Real Love Fantasy (mp3)

Santa Of It Was True

Many PRs, labels and artists have been offering Christmas presents  during Yuletide, but the best of the bunch came from those Swedish mystery maestros jj, who produced Kills, a guns-and-glitter themed mixtape, bursting with their love for US hip-hop.  It’s available on Sincerely Yours here.

Happy Christmas / Cosmo Jarvis

[http://jagger.presscdn.com]

… but life goes on, and now I feel a bit cheerier.  I have plenty of Christmas posts planned – including a Best of 2010 playlist – with my laptop pointedly packed for my festive jaunt to Parentsville.  First of all, though, a fond Merry Christmas to all readers, and here’s an early cracker in the shape of this funny-but-sweet new song from London maverick Cosmo Jarvis.  He’s long been tipped, but perhaps, as play on the last two nights’ Xposure show indicates, his time is finally now.  Let’s hope so.  Yo ho Sebastian.

Monday Music – 20 December 2010

Today I don’t feel happy so there will be no intro and little chatter.

The Soft Moon – When It’s Over (mp3)
You fight and fight them for days and years, but the monsters in your mind are still there, persistent, and one day you’ll drop your guard and they’ll inevitably take over.  This is more psychopathic than psychedelic.

Acid House Kings – Are We Lovers Or Are We Friends? (mp3)
Best be clear: there’s no acid house on offer either.  Instead it’s insatiable, irresistible pop.  I’m not even sure it’s that good: I just can’t resist it.  Actually I take that back; I’m pretty sure it’s bloody great.

Faith & Mark – Dance Close (mp3)
Under throbbing lights you thrash and make shapes and weave and twist and two-step… then the song ends, and you realise you haven’t even left for the club yet and maybe you took the first one a bit early?

Expensive Looks – Found Out (mp3)
This sounds like a rock band performing inside a car wash; you’re outside, and it sounds groggy, grim, great.

Dead Man’s Bones – My Body’s A Zombie For You (mp3)
There’s something slightly alarming about a school choir, or whatever this is, singing such a fucked-up lyric as ”my body’s a zombie for you” so sweetly.  Did I say alarming?  I meant fantastic.  They even get some spelling practice towards the end, so what’s not to like?

Claudia Georgette

A London songstress telling mundane, urbane stories in a chatty style with kooky arrangements… sound familiar?  Probably yes, and it’s because we’ve been here before: Kate Nash, Speech Debelle, Adele… the list is long.  So what does Claudia Georgette do that her predecessors don’t?  She’s much more theatrical and knowingly middle-class, that’s what.  Where the above minstrels talked of Brixton and Basildon, Claudia’s queuing for Fabric and watching daytime TV.  I’m all for a little flatblock realism, but the Sloanes deserve a voice too - even if, as in this case, that voice comes undermined by a Skins-style tra-la-la sarcasm.  Other factors in Claudia’s favour are that she’s gorgeous, which always helps, and she’s an antiques dealer, which is indisputably brilliant.

See what you think, anyway… There’s a video and separate download below, but I fully recommend checking out Superstitious Sally on her MySpace - that’s my favourite.

Claudia Georgette - Chat Shows (mp3)

The Welcome Committee

Found on the pioneering Strummerville website’s roster of new bands, Southend duo The Welcome Committee bring a plaintive, philosophical rock to the party, a leaf-falling, tourists-gone-for-the-season sound appropriate in these times of pavement-skating and blizzards.  It’s a bit gritty, a bit bitty and a quite a lot pretty.  Shut the curtains, put on five jumpers and your thickest wool socks, warm up some tomato soup and hole up under that duvet…

The Welcome Committee - The Brave (mp3)

The Milk

Originally plotting to be punksters, Essex quartet The Milk have instead trotted down a modern Motown-kinda-route.  Kinda because they’ve recorded with DJ-remixer Brad Baloo (of The Nextmen fame), and because there’s a little electro funk going down - ”dance kicks, soul snares,” as the band cutely put it.  Now admittedly this isn’t the first white-boy-soul act ever spawned - but songs like All I Wanted Was Danger come laced with the kind of grunt that the Hucknalls of this world can only dream of… Simply Rad, you might say, if you weren’t very funny.

Listen to The Milk here, with even a Toots & The Maytals cover for free download.  It is Christmas, after all…