How did 2012′s hot tips fare?

Imminent over the Christmas period are both a playlist of SOIWT’s favourite tracks of the year, and a compilation of tips for 2013, including my own.  But first, let’s revisit the tips of 12 months ago, and see how accurate they turned out to be.  I didn’t have the guts to nominate Next Big Things, but plenty of others did…

BBC Sound of 2012
Tips: Michael Kiwanuka (winner), Frank Ocean, Azealia Banks, Skrillex, Niki & The Dove, ASAP Rocky, Dot Rotten, Dry The River, Flux Pavilion, Friends, Lianne La Havas, Jamie N Commons, Ren Harvieu, Spector, Stooshe.
Accuracy: I wrote last year that the Beeb’s Longlist was “much more daring than the 2011 version”, and perhaps that explains its relative lack of aptitude.  Kiwanuka had a biggish year, and Ocean and La Havas became big.  ASAP Rocky and Skrillex too, but they were established by then anyway.  Lots of the others have vanished into the musical ether.
Score: 4/10

MTV
Tips: Charli XCX, Lianne La Havas, Angel, Michael Kiwanuka, Clement Marfo & The Frontline, Conor Maynard, Delilah, Lana Del Rey, King Charles.
Accuracy: Picking Lana Del Rey was like picking Spain in a World Cup.  Charli XCX was a good choice, although one suspects her time will really, finally come in 2013.  Angel and Clement Marfo have disappeared off the planet, however, and Conor Maynard’s been a tad less big than everyone anticipated.
Score: 5/10

BRITS Critics’ Choice
Tips: Emeli Sandé (winner), Michael Kiwanuka, Maverick Sabre.
Accuracy: Pretty good,albeit by picking three near-dead-certs.  The scale of Sandé’s success was proved by my Coldplay-loving Dad namechecking her yesterday, while Maverick Sabre’s now so firmly established that he’s able to lend a heavyweight “featuring” presence to songs by newly-emerging hip-hop stars like K Koke.
Score: 8/10

The Guardian
Tips: Conor Maynard, Cold Specks, Dot Rotten, The Staves, Ren Harvieu, Spector
Accuracy: Hmmm.  Maynard’s a credible star but see above; Cold Specks is arguably no bigger now than a year ago (more’s the pity) and the rest… well.  Not a finest hour for the generally spot-on Grauniad.
Score: 3/10

There Goes The Fear
Tips: Films of Colours (winners), Morning Parade, Willy Moon, Strangers, Cashier No. 9, Kyla La Grange, Don Scannell, Starlings, Worship, The Stowaways
Accuracy: Er..
Score: 1/10

The Music Fix
Tips: Blacklisters, Dry The River, Erin K & Tash, FOE, Jodie Marie, Random Impulse, run WALK!, The 2 Bears, The Civil War, Tribes, Trogons, We Are Augustines
Accuracy: TMF deserves acclaim as it always picks long-shots, rather than any obvious frontrunners.  That being said, and keeping up the equestrian terminology, none of these punts came close to emerging from the pack.
Score: 1/10

Female First
Tips: Spector, Azealia Banks, Clams Casino, Lana Del Rey, Frank Ocean
Accuracy: Clams Casino was a bold and good shot, and Frank Ocean delivered.  Azaelia and Spector less so.  Mixed bag.
Score: 6/10

The Sun
Tips: Lana Del Rey, Azealia Banks, Emeli Sandé, Michael Kiwanuka, Frank Ocean, Conor Maynard, Little Mix, Spector, Tribes, Alt-J, Clock Opera, Youngman, Skrillex, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Flux Pavilion, Dot Rotten
Accuracy: One of my favourite lists, and one that truly came in from leftfield.  They covered themselves by naming shedloads of names, but still: almost no-one else had later-Mercury Prize winners Alt-J, and who’d have expected The Sun to be so smart.  Props for TEED too; he’s had a monster 2012.
Score: 7/10

Virgin Media
Tips: Emeli Sandé, Michael Kiwanuka, Ren Harvieu, Daley, Tanya Lacey, King Charles, Jodie Marie, Murray James, Conor Maynard
Accuracy: Tanya who?
Score: 4/10

musiceyz
Tips: after several guest-tips, the editor plumps for Skrillex, Loick Essien, Maverick Sabre, Stooshe.
Accuracy:  Blah.  I still haven’t heard of Loick Essien.
Score: 4/10

Freedom Spark
Tips: Hero & Leander, Factory Floor, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Azealia Banks, Lana Del Rey, Theme Park, Alt-J, Woman’s Hour
Accuracy: The other oracles which named both Alt-J and TEED.  Hero and Leander kinda bombed, though, and Woman’s Hour took all year to release another, albeit brilliant, song.  Theme Park never quite achieved lift-off, either.
Score: 7/10

So there you are.  It’s a bloody capricious game, to be fair, and each of these deserve praise regardless simply for being brave enough to stick their neck out.

Famy

Sometimes when I was young and really dreaded something happening the next day, I’d just stay up and stay awake.  If I stayed awake, I didn’t go to sleep, and if I didn’t go to sleep then tomorrow couldn’t come.   A similarly dreamy wisdom and wonder underpins the spacious, soulful sounds of Famy, three Brits and one Italian originally from France but now based in London.  They toured with Wu Lyf in 2011, and the Bury band’s Evans Kati was involved on this debut EP, currently available via Rough Trade.

MOTHER BENITA/DOGG DOGG by FAMY

Buildings – Eyes On Sunrise

One of the most elegant London rock bands around, Buildings‘ latest single is terrific: a potboiler that grows and grows, gaining layers and shedding skins, before a devastatingly sudden ending.  It’s fulsome and yet spacious; a cloak of noise to wrap cosily around yourself.  In the band’s own words, the song documents an intoxicated summer’s night with new love, reddened eyes and the unwelcome arrival of a new day.

MP3: Buildings – Eyes On Sunrise

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Teen Image

Men kill men, cars crash, babies don’t wake up and sometimes the world is a terrible place.  The best advice is to huddle in a dark room and play the psychedelic electronica of new London act Teen Image at a deafening volume, safely cocooned inside its feverish beats. (via Don’t Die Wondering)

 Teen Image - Coming Soon (mp3)

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Plant Plants

I’m at Waterloo, sauntering down the escalator to the tube.  I hear an impending clatter of feet behind me, and move aside to let the hurrier past. But no-one passes.  I turn around, and there’s no-one there, no-one at all, going up or down.  I shrug, and resume my amble.  And there is the sound again, picking up pace, about to come alongside me, and I turn around again, grim-faced, and there’s still no-one fucking there and I can’t take much more of this.

Listening in full to London duo Plant Plants‘ self-titled EP (available to buy here), and its typically strange mesh of robotic drones, longing rock, sparse ballads and tripped-out electronica, makes me recall that freaky episode. Which maybe tells you all you need to know?

Plant Plants – She’s No One (mp3)

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