Breaking More Waves

Holly Miranda - Ones To Watch 2010 #9

2009-12-09T00:01:00.002Z

Holly Miranda is a New York based singer and musician who has recently signed with XL Recordings, a label who continue to bring a diverse but high quality range of artists to the airwaves. Her debut self released EP Sleep On Fire attracted significant attention, being in places brooding, tense and beautiful although not necessarily perfect. It acted as a perfect teaser for the way forward. Her debut single proper, Forest Green Oh Forest Green was released in November, and Holly is due to release her debut album early in 2010. In the build up to the release of the album Holly has been supporting Breaking More Waves favourites The Antlers and The XX in the United States.

Miranda has been compared with Cat Power, Norah Jones and Feist. She was formerly in a band called The Jealous Girlfriends and for her solo work Dave Sitek of TV On The Radio has been involved with production duties. Her dreamily atmospheric guitar based songs are certainly not the kind of tunes that are going to infiltrate the pop charts, but provide for a smouldering and sleepy listening experience that could potentially provide long term satisfaction.

Mirrors - Ones To Watch 2010 #8

2009-12-08T00:01:00.004Z

The dense ambient pulse-pop of the Mirrors reflects the sounds of early OMD, Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode, continuing the electronic revival that invaded the charts like knotweed in 2009.

However unlike many of this years synth gang, the garden that Mirrors have grown in is matted in darker, woven textures. This makes the Brighton four piece a less obviously commercial proposition but none the less an interesting one. The bands live shows are rapidly becoming a talking point, their measured performances featuring minimalist abstract video projections with the suited band displaying an air of haughty high-brow coolness behind keyboards and electronic drum kit.

Mirrors were formed by two previous members of the indie band Mumm-Ra, but their sound is very different from that previous incarnation. There have already been criticisms that the group are just blatant plagiarists, taking reference points that are all too obvious, but then the same could be said of White Lies this year, who the band remixed A Place Too Hide for. Such criticisms certainly didn’t affect White Lies commercial popularity.

Mirrors have been slowly growing their sombre electronic profile in 2009, having played sets at Latitude Festival, Loop Festival and The Great Escape reviewed here They have also released two singles, the self funded Look At Me and Into The Heart on Moshi Moshi and in November started their own club Un Autre Monde. Early next year they will be out playing some support slots with another one of our ones to watch Delphic.

Fear Of Drowning

MIRRORS | MySpace Video

Stornoway - Ones To Watch 2010 #7

2009-12-07T00:01:00.005Z

Do you remember the first time you fell in love ? The giddying butterflies and excitement of that romantic high ? Today’s choice of a band to watch in 2010 produces that seem feeling. Stornoway bring an adoring nature loving ideal to your ears, that could easily make a number of people swoon and gush with warm affection, in much the same way that this year Mumford and Sons found people ooh-ing, ah-ing and generally salivating at their gorgeous songs.

Stornoway are a five piece pastoral folk pop band from Oxford. We’ve already written about them several times on this blog. The band have released two self funded singles in 2009, Zorbing (reviewed here) and Unfaithful (here) both of which are tender and absorbingly beautiful.

What we can say about Stornoway with absolute certainty is that these two singles are just the tip of the iceberg. Lead singer Brian may look like an intense rabbit in the headlights when he performs, but his band possess bulging suitcases full of the most perfect melodies. When he stops singing Brian possesses the educated intelligence to pull off some of the most bizarre but charming on stage banter. For example, at Wychwood Festival earlier this year he talked to the crowd about how beavers were returning to Scotland. We really can’t imagine your average rock band engaging in such knowledge.

2009 was topped off for Stornoway by being the first band in history to play the Christopher Wren designed Sheldonian Theatre in their home town, normally reserved for recitals of ‘serious’ music and an appearance on Later With Jools on BBC2. 2010 looks set to get even better and the band will be stepping out on tour again in February. At this moment they remain unsigned. Catch them if you can.

Clare Maguire - Ones To Watch 2010 #6

2009-12-06T00:01:00.006Z

Way back in January 2009 we first posted an article about Clare Maguire, an artist that we had seriously considered putting on last years ones to watch list, but eventually decided it was just too early - Maguire having played a handful of shows and only just signed a record deal. You can read the article here . Instead we put Marina and the Diamonds on the 2009 list, which in retrospect was also a little bit early.

Since that article there has been absolute silence from Clare Maguire. Her Twitter has yet to twitter. Her Myspace has no songs on it to listen to. There is no You Tube footage to view. A Google search reveals very little at all about her that we didn’t know in January. To our knowledge she has played just the one show this year - a support slot in Glasgow back in January, but since then absolutely zilch.

There are however a few rumours. We’ve heard that she has been working with uber pop producer Richard X as well as ex-Longpig Crispin Hunt, but at this moment in time this is just idle gossip and certainly does not come with any certainty.

Then in October, two days before we were about to publish an article entitled Whatever Happened to Clare Maguire, Paul Lester from the Guardian jumped up and wrote a piece about her on the Guardian web site, which suggested that although her record label, management and PR company were keeping very tight lipped about her, 2010 would finally see a release from the reclusive lady.

So let us remind ourselves why we fell head over heels for Maguire in the first place. It took us just one listen to the demo’s that we heard at the start of the year to realise that Maguire has a simply staggering voice. It is huge and gutsy, full of powerful Celtic soul, blues and jazz influences that puts her right in line with big singers such as Amy Winehouse and Adele. Not bad for a former shop checkout worker from Birmingham. Throughout the year we have often returned to those demo’s and each time we listen the songs of Burn, Strangest Thing and Butcher Boy we are astonished at how punch in the stomach incredible they are.

If a 2010 release from Clare Maguire arrives and it comes anywhere near the quality of those demos, we predict she could win a lot of fans. She has to be one to watch.

Delphic - Ones To Watch 2010 #5

2009-12-05T00:01:00.016Z

If this year has been the year when synths and electronics finally became fashionable and exciting again, then we see no reason why in 2010 things will change, although there is no doubt that the sounds and ideas will progress, possibly towards a darker edge. Whereas many of the acts who have been heading the electronic resurgence are solo artists, we think it is high time for some more bands to get behind their computers. Delphic are one such band.

Delphic are from Manchester. This comes as no surprise as their sound follows a logical progression from other Manc favourites such as New Order and Happy Mondays, in that their futuristic numbers conjure up images The Hacienda, Factory Records and illegal raves. It’s heavily dance based, but they are not just a faceless dance act. The term is of course indie dance. Although the hazy images of Manchester past may be evoked by Delphic this is a band who are also looking forward rather than simply trying to replicate their favourite influences. Oasis they are not.

Formed out of the remnants of another band named Snowfight In The City, Delphic have already released two singles, the Orbital-esque looping Counterpoint and This Momentary through Kitsune, a song which takes you on a euphoric journey of tribal drums and floating vocals to a state of blissed euphoria. Next up is Doubt released Jan 4th 2010. It sounds a little less New Order and more Friendly Fires in its jittery dance workout with a chorus owes a small debt to the Klaxons

Delphic create music that is full of both club bound hedonism and headphone introversion, which has the potential to deliver some big rave-tastic moments come summer festivals in 2010. It is for this reason we have selected them for our Ones To Watch list. Not because of musical uniqueness or commercial crossover, but because we can imagine Delphic creating a perfect indie dance summer vibe in fields across the UK, although probably not wearing silly festival hats.

Unicorn Kid - Ones To Watch 2010 #4

2009-12-04T00:01:00.002Z

Unicorn Kid is Oli Sabin. At eighteen years old he has only just reached the age where he can legally enter a club that might play his music, which is an insane blend of pumping pulsing eight bit chip tune that brings to the ears delirious fanfares last heard on your Nintendo DS. We first blogged about him in August here. His bleepy arpeggiation is the kind of music that should you be considering jumping off a cliff will either push you over the edge or make you turn round and run wild to the local youth club rave, frothing, babbling and incoherent - but with a massive smile on your face.

The Scottish wonder from Leith has been through a variety of musical phases and arrived at the dance party a couple of years back. He is now a genuine internet phenomenon with over one million hits on his Myspace page. His music sits, or should we say bounces in the fourteen to nineteen year old demographic, his gigs not fuelled by alcohol but sheer natural youthful adrenalin.

Unicorn Kid has talked about manoeuvring his casiomental sound to a more commercial place and there are even rumours of guest vocalists. Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters is known to be a fan. With an appearance at next years South by South West booked and an album tentatively scheduled for release next autumn, Unicorn Kid is riding on a starship.

To the uneducated ears of an over twenty five year old or a solemn indie rock purist, the sounds of Unicorn Kid will just be considered bad music, but for his growing army of fans his electronic urgency is simply something that makes you happy. Enjoy it whilst it lasts because Oli has already intimated that he doesn’t intend to be doing this for the rest of his life and when the fun is over wants to go to college to study his other passion of art.

We suspect that in 2010 lion hats are going to be one of the must have fashion items. Roar to the Unicorn Kid.

Beth Jeans Houghton - Ones To Watch 2010 #3

2009-12-03T00:01:00.017Z

Beth Jeans Houghton is our next choice of one to watch for 2010 and probably the most likely successor to the princess of alt folk pop crown currently held in the UK by Laura Marling (who will release her second album in 2010) Mind you Houghton recently told the NME “I did an interview once where they asked me if I thought me and Laura Marling had anything in common. I said, ‘No, unless you want to hear about my vagina.’”

So let’s forget about even what sex Houghton is and talk about what makes her special.

Houghton very much has her own vision, musically and visually. She may only be 19 but she is making sounds that could have come from one hundred years ago. Delicate, echoing, folkish chamber pop, the stuff of flotation tanks and strange dreams. In September she released her Hot Toast Volume One EP and has been working with Ben Hillier ( Blur and Doves ) for her debut album. Houghton claims that she was “born in Transylvania to a pack of albino werewolves,” but alas the reality is somewhat more ordinary, having spent her formative years in a terraced house in a Newcastle suburb. However, the exaggerated claims of her birth are part of the humorous package that Houghton brings, with her afro wigs and unique style - she’s the only girl around that is playing folk in hot pants and mini dresses.

Quite where Beth Jeans Houghton will fit in 2010 we’re not exactly sure, but she has the voice and the songs to ensure that she can carve out her own space.

Hurts - Ones To Watch 2010 #2

2009-12-02T00:01:00.016Z

Hurts are the first of two acts on our ones to watch list for 2010 that threaten to bring an ostentatious, stern, eastern European look back into fashion for bands. There was a time before brit pop and grunge when many a group that marched out of art school brought obscure literary references, intense synth darkness and an aloof composure to the stage that has been all but forgotten these days. Certainly visually Hurts are likely contenders to bring it back. They are also the only band on our list who are not afraid to drop a saxophone solo into the middle of one of their songs.

With such a tasteful visual aesthetic that includes perfectly formed haircuts and smart suits - we're thinking young Gary Kemp from Spandau Ballet here - together with a Myspace blog that posts excerpts of Larry Cuba’s 1980’s film Calculated Movements with its animated computer programmed grey white geometric trajectories - what is surprising about Hurts is how accessible, radio friendly and commercial their music sounds. It's modern, (and by modern we mean modern production values with a hint of 1987/88 to it) lush synth pop that more than justifies its existence, whatever the bands image. Rumours abound of songs that hint at Violator era Depeche Mode, or Ultravox when they were good, but for the moment the bands label are keeping many of these songs very much locked away.

Hailing from Manchester Hurts are Theo Hutchcraft and Adam Anderson. They have a past history with the two of them previously having been in the band Daggers. They are currently putting the finishing touches to their album in Sweden and are due to play a handful of special shows in February, including a church and a hidden crumbling old London theatre. We will be watching for them with interest in 2010 to see if the public push them chart bound. We suspect there is a chance. A pretty good chance.

Ellie Goulding - Ones To Watch 2010 #1

2009-12-01T00:01:00.012Z

Ellie Goulding may not be the most surprising choice of our ones to watch for 2010 , but it is exactly for this reason that we are putting her first on the list. From when we originally featured her as an unsigned artist way back in February here she has followed what is now becoming the music industry norm for breaking a new act that wants a little more credibility than a mainstream pop artist. The artist signs up for a debut release on a tiny, hyped up ‘cool’ indie label such as Neon Gold, Moshi Moshi or Kitsune (and this is not a criticism of any of these labels as we are in most cases a fan of all three) usually sometime between September and November. The release is a quirky, less obvious limited edition single, generating significant blog and hip press buzz that translates into some radio play, a small fan base, possible TV appearance (in this case Later With Jools) and positioning on lists such as the BBC Sound Of List - and we'll see if she is on that list in a few days time. Then once the tastemakers have done their job, the artist is pushed out to the mainstream via a major label, the development of the act being seen as more organic, the drip feed slowly saturating the media. It happened this year with Little Boots and La Roux, and next year we suspect it may also occur with Marina and the Diamonds (not featured on this list as she was on last years - see our explanation of criteria blog yesterday and the video for Marina's new single Hollywood) and Ellie Goulding.

Ellie Goulding has followed this model to the letter and we have blogged previously here about being cautious with her and not over hyping, as this could lead to expectations which are not realistic. How many new developing bands or artists are there that swagger along fully formed, complete and absolutely perfect ? Very few, and this is the danger of the hype machine. It can chew up and spit out out fast.

With her quivering girlish vocal, an acoustic guitar, neat lyrical phrasing and stuttering laptop electro beats, Goulding could deliver commercially - but nagging away in the back of our brain is a thought that the songs we have heard probably don’t have enough variety to endear long term. Only time will tell if she is what the public wants.

For these reasons Ellie Goulding has to be one to watch. Will the cool pop indie / blog buzz model work for Ellie or will it be a case of hype over content and a commercial failure ? There is talent there - you only have to listen to the acoustic cover of Robyn's Be Mine she did recently with Erik Hassel to hear what a distinctive sweet voice she has. There's also the songs - Starry Eyed, The Writer and Guns and Horses are all favourites of ours - but is that enough? We will be watching with interest.

Ones To Watch 2010

2009-11-30T00:01:00.023Z

Tomorrow we publish the first of our Ones To Watch for 2010. At the start of October we sat down and drafted an initial list of the music artists that we considered we might identify as likely candidates. In total we wrote down thirty seven names. Some of those thirty seven we have posted about before in detail, others in passing and some not at all. Over the next month we whittled the list down to the final ten that we are about to publish. It was harder than we thought. Right up to yesterday we were still altering the list, deleting blogs and writing new ones. We probably care too much about these things; but we want to get it right.

Let’s define what we mean by ‘get it right.’ We don’t mean that we want to produce a list of ten artists who we believe are all going to be commercially successful. Far from it. In fact this year there seem to be fewer bands out there with big crossover potential on our radar. The criteria for our Ones To Watch list is a list of new bands and artists that we believe possess the ability to do something that is worthy of attention. Hence the title Ones To Watch 2010. In some cases this may mean having commercial success, for others maybe a critically acclaimed album, some fantastic live shows or creating something a little unusual or ground breaking. It may even be that we are just fascinated with the media buzz about the band and want to see if the artist will rise to justify the hype or drift into a backwater. One thing is clear though, from what we have heard of these artists (and in several cases it is a very small number of songs) we like them all.

Although our list features ten artists, this is only because ten is a nice round number. It would have been easiest to publish sixteen Ones To Watch this year. However, some of the artists that we haven’t featured at Breaking More Waves yet, who didn’t quite make our list will almost certainly form the basis of future posts in 2010 and if you have been paying careful attention the last month or so has seen a number of posts about some of those who didn't quite make the list.

So besides the qualitative criteria for choosing artists for the list described above, there were certain other rules that we have applied.

1. The artist(s) must have not yet released an album or mini album. For example, The Drums 7 track EP we consider a mini album and so we discounted them from consideration. It also meant that a band like The Antlers who are to many in the UK a new band, couldn't be included.

2. Solo artists who have had commercial success as part of a band will not be counted. We loosely consider commercial success as a top 40 single or top 50 album. For example ex-Sugababes could not feature. Nor unfortunately could Rose Elinor Dougall as she was a member of The Pipettes who had a minor top 30 hit with single Pull Shapes and an album that charted in the Top 50.

3. Acts that we have featured in past Ones To Watch lists either on this blog or previous incarnations of this blog cannot count. So for example Marina And The Diamonds and Yes Giantess who we featured in last years list and whom are still bubbling under cannot be featured again, much as we would like to.

4. Soap stars or reality TV stars, including X Factor don't count. Sorry Jedward.

5. The artist must be relatively new to the public at large. There's no point predicting that U2's performance at Glastonbury will be one to watch.

So by following those rules and the criteria above, tomorrow we present the first of our ten Ones To Watch 2010. Enjoy and let us know what you think.

But before all of that here is the new single from an artist that would have been on our list, except for the fact she was on last years list here. Here is Marina and the Diamonds with the fabulous Hollywood. We're loving the lyric "Oh my god you look just like Shakira. No no, you're Catherine Zeta. Actually My Name's Marina." Funny. In a way sneaking the video for Hollywood in at the bottom of this post is a little bit like extending our ones to watch list to 11 and breaking our own rules, but hell, this is our blog, we can do what we want. Creating rules for a blog list and even explaining them is a bit absurd anyway, it's hardly as if this list is the BBC Sound Of 2010 list, even if we were involved in the voting process of that particular list. More of that later this month though. For now enjoy Marina and the Diamonds, a star who has been gradually rising all this year.

The Antlers @ Brighton The Hope

2009-11-29T00:01:00.002Z

It’s Brooklyn’s The Antlers second visit to Brighton in just over three months, this time selling out The Hope some weeks before the gig was due. The reason for the full venue is simple - their album Hospice. With Hospice The Antlers have undoubtedly produced one of the most absorbing and sonically powerful indie rock recordings of the year. It has attained significant critical acclaim and continues to slowly build a profile in the UK, much of it through word of mouth and recommendation.

For this live show The Antlers concentrate on material from that album, the sound raw, evocative and if anything more cataclysmic than the recorded versions. Drenched in reverby guitar work that glides in and out of focus and carried by lead singer Peter Silberman’s haunted scratchy falsetto, the songs from Hospice provide a bleak but strangely euphoric emotional resonance that leads to at least two grown men hugging each other for comfort in the crowd. The Antlers live sound is not just something to listen to, it’s something to feel, to completely and utterly immerse yourself in.

The opening songs of Kettering and Sylvia, probably two of the most powerful pieces on the album, open the set and seem almost throwaway compared to what follows thereafter. Tense stabs of guitar are matched with moments of quiet, sad intimacy to create a superb show that really makes us want to use words such as epic and awesome to describe the three piece; except that these days those words are so often over used that they lose meaning. However this is exactly what The Antlers are like live. Epic, awesome, and worthy of such words. Live, Antlers produce the kind of music that grabs your heart and envelopes you in its howling grief. When Silberman sings “There’s a bear inside your stomach, a cub’s been kicking from within. He’s loud, though without vocal chords, we’ll put an end to him,” on Bear, it’s desperately sorrowful, yet because of the music seems poignantly beautiful.

As the bands set climaxes with expansive layers of guitar noise the audience, who at the start seem particularly reserved will not let them go without an encore. It’s utterly deserved and when Silberman returns with Epilogue and sings “So I lie down against your back, until we’re both back in the hospital. But now it’s not a cancer ward, we’re sleeping in the morgue,” before the song progresses and swells to a dramatic conclusion, it’s impossible not to be drawn in, the same way we slow down to watch a car crash on the motorway - brutal, tragic and yet darkly mesmerising.

We suspect that the next time The Antlers visit Brighton they will have to play a significantly larger venue than The Hope.

Ones To Watch - How Did We Do ?

2009-11-28T00:01:00.006Z

It’s almost December. Which means it’s time for a look back as well as a look forward. Over the next month we’ll be blogging our way through our favourite ten albums of the year as well as listing ten artists that we believe could be ones to watch in 2010.

In a change from 2008 we’re going to start with a look forward. The reason being that last year just as we began publishing our list of Ones To Watch the BBC went and published their Sound of 2009 list earlier than normal. To our surprise six of the artists we had chosen were in the BBC’s long list of fifteen. So this year to avoid any criticism of just copying the BBC list we’re making sure our list appears early. Mind you this year we actually had a tiny influence over the BBC list as we were asked by the BBC to be one of the participating voters in their Sound of 2010 poll. We're not sure how many bloggers get asked to participate, we know of at least one other (a list of those who voted will appear on the BBC website soon) but we guess it's a bit of an honour, effectively being recognised as having some degree of expertise in new music. The three artists we voted for in the BBC poll feature in our own list of ten, but we'll leave you to see if you can guess which three we voted for.

Not that we expect all of our list to be the same as the BBC list, particularly as some artists such as Marina and the Diamonds, who we fully expect to be on the BBC list, don't qualify for our list (read next Mondays blog for our explanation of why).

But before the gate opens, let’s have a quick recap of our Ones To Watch 2009 list and see how they fared.

#1 La Roux

We said “What sets her apart from a multitude of dance floor kids is a pop sensibility that knows how to deliver a half decent tune.”

In For The Kill became a genuine pop phenomenon, slowly climbing from number 11 to number 2 in the singles chart, whilst Bulletproof went one better. The eponymous debut album went to number 2 in the UK, 7 in Ireland and 8 in Canada.

#2 Little Boots

We said “Little Boots is exactly what we want our pop stars to be.”

Little Boots topped the BBC Sound of List but failed to capitalise on its exposure, finally releasing the very average New in Town in May which went top 20. The album Hands entered the charts at number 5 but quickly fell away, only re-entering the lower reaches of the Top 40 when the far superior Remedy was released as a single. The initial quirky charm that we heard on Stuck On Repeat and saw on her bedroom You Tube cover versions seemed somewhat diluted by the end of the year, but if her record company keep going with her we still think there is possible unfulfilled potential.

#3 Passion Pit

We said “They will bring a lot of smiles, and if there is any justice Sleepyhead will be one of the songs of next year in the UK.”

Sleepyhead was never released as a major label single in its own right in the UK, (there is no justice) and although the band didn‘t achieve commercial highs, their debut album Manners received much critical acclaim and charted at number 55. The band grew as a live act during the course of the year, playing bigger shows as the year progressed, plus there were several festival appearances including the main stage at Bestival.

#4 Giantess

We said “It’s very early days for this band but Breaking More Waves reckons their Myspace friend count will soon be on the way up.”

The band renamed themselves Yes Giantess, put out a white vinyl 7" single, supported Little Boots in the U.S and were picked to play on the NME Radar Tour in the UK in October. They’ve recently been recording with a number of big name producers including Pascal Gabriel (Ladyhawke, Dido, Little Boots, Kylie) in France and have had some major label interest. In November one of their number (Karl) announced he was to leave the band, his parting gift a superb downloadable mix tape. Yes Giantess continue into 2010. Their Myspace friend count has indeed risen significantly since we first wrote about the band and they have a bag of big tunes ready to go including that hooky as hell No Reason.

#5 White Lies

We said “Have potential to be a commercial success.”

The bands debut album went to number 1 in the UK and White Lies have played many big gigs and festivals including Glastonbury, T in the Park and Reading and Leeds. Personally for Breaking More Waves our opinion is that the album was too contrived and weakened by schoolboy lyrics.

#6 Skint and Demoralised

We said “No doubt many young lasses will fall for him.”

If they young ladies did fall for Skint and Demoralised they forgot to buy his records. The single Red Lipstick picked up some Radio 1 play but come October the record company had ditched plans to release a further single or the album that was ready to go. Matt Skint got his hair cut and started presenting football reviews on You Tube. In February our review of his poorly attended live show at Brighton Audio commented that it was only when he dropped the music and delivered an anti BNP poem without a microphone that he came into his own and that “Maybe this is where his future lies.”

#7 Alessi’s Ark

We said “Unlikely to find huge commercial pop success, but is certainly an act to be championed.”

As predicted Alessi didn’t find huge commercial pop success, but her album Notes From The Treehouse was an endearing and sweet record. At the time we described the record as having “A sense of music wonder and magic.”

#8 Florence And The Machine

We said “An exciting proposition.”

Florence exceeded our expectations, her album Lungs being a triumph musically and it attained significant commercial success, remaining at number 2 in the album charts for five weeks, held off the top spot only by Michael Jackson. Her live shows became more focussed and as a result got better and better, with her performances at Camp Bestival and Brighton Concorde being two of our favourite gigs of the year.

#9 Mumford and Sons

We said “Will warm you deep inside.”

Mumford and Sons profile grew slowly over the course of the year. They proved that the old fashioned virtues of playing great gigs and having good songs will deliver you a loyal fan base. The band signed to Island Records and the subsequent release of their debut album, Sigh No More, at the start of October, saw the band hit number 11 in the UK charts. Not bad for a folk / bluegrass act. Bellies were warmed.

#10 Marina and the Diamonds

We said “This maverick cat has already ruffled a few feathers with her blogs on Myspace, which she has now removed declaring that she will never open her mouth again.”

Marina has released two critically acclaimed singles on the Neon Gold label and has now signed a major record deal with 679/Warners, releasing Mowgli's Road in November. An album is due for the early part of 2010. She back tracked on her promise of keeping her mouth shut and has a fully functioning, active, entertaining blog.

Now let's move on up.

It's almost time for this years Ones To Watch list. On the 30th November we shall explain our criteria for selection and rules of engagement. Then on the 1st December enjoy our musical advent calender as we reveal who our Ones To Watch are, each act hiding behind a different musical door on the countdown to Christmas. This will the be swiftly followed by our Top Ten albums of the year list and then, well, that's pretty much it till next year except for a few random articles that we have floating around that we haven't yet posted following our 'one blog a day' rule. Go !

Blue Roses - Does Anyone Love Me Now ?

2009-11-27T00:01:00.001Z

After we gushed like someone who had just discovered romance a few days back about the wonderful Blue Roses and their show at Brighton's Prince Albert, Shipley’s finest release a new single on XL Recordings. Does Anyone Love Me Now? is a limited edition 4 track 12” EP which is out around the start of December. The lead song is taken from the debut Blue Roses album and is a simple folkish piece where Laura Groves wraps her nimble fingers around her acoustic guitar and sings of wanting to believe a lovers lies and the disappointment of the relationship. “Two nights in a row I didn’t see the moon hanging in the sky, and I need its cool pale face, to believe in this place and believe your lies,” she sings delicately before adding later “I will just lie in wait, if only to hear the stories, you don’t seem to know how to tell.”

The EP also features a new version of one of Breaking More Waves favourite songs of the year, the hauntingly gorgeous Doubtful Comforts recorded live with the band Grammatics. Whilst the original was untouchably perfect the new version is robust enough and demonstrates the singers vocal off to fine effect. Two further new songs also feature. Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) is a cover version of the Irma Thomas soul classic. It’s a bold move to attempt such a song, with Laura Groves giving it a strange spectral Christmas-like weirdness, a long way from the tracks on her album. The other song First Frost Night loses a little of the minimal beauty of other Blue Roses tunes being more traditional indie created through the addition of proper drums and a hint of Bat For Lashes meets Clannad foggy mysticism.

Here’s a live session version of the lead track from the single.

The Cordelier Club - White Walls

2009-11-26T00:01:00.001Z

We’ve posted several times this year about The Cordelier Club a group who have not yet gained any significant attention, and are unsigned. However the brother and sister led act have been worming away writing some stomping and catchy as hell middle of the road pop songs. Now, middle of the road may sound like a horrendous categorisation to throw at a band, but The Cordelier Club embrace a sound that we suspect shows a refreshing and unusual love for Fleetwood Mac and later day Eurythmics when they left the synths at home and became a bra ripping pop rock band.

The Cordelier Club played this years In The City event in Manchester and following on from their slot at this years Bestival (review here) have just recorded a session for Breaking More Waves favourite Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank, which is due to air on the November 28th. The band are also lining up more gigs. But before all that here are The Cordelier Club performing a softer acoustic version of their song White Walls for your listening pleasure, which has recently been added to their Myspace along with cover versions of Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Nicks songs. Check out the strength of Alice’s vocal and the perfect matching of the harmonies.

White Walls

The Cordelier Club | MySpace Music Videos

Mumford and Sons - Winter Winds

2009-11-25T00:01:00.003Z

Picture the scene if you will. A minimalist office building with a line of crookedly hung Pulp gold discs on the wall. It was a glamorous place at the end of the 90’s. Tired looking record label staff sit around their CD and crisp packet littered desks, wondering how long they will remain in a job. They curse with humbug like bitterness the illegal down loaders and the evil Simon Cowell empire that has brought their industry to its knees. It looks like after Christmas a job in McDonalds may be a realistic career option.

“What we need is a Christmas Number 1,” says one bedraggled once hipster indie kid turned label marketing man, his grubby Libertines T shirt soiled with excessive nights out in London town. He swings round on his chair and kicks a pile of CD’s balanced between a discarded cardboard cut out of Duncan from Blue and a pile of unread faded NME’s. They topple and one lands face up. It’s Mumford and Sons Sigh No More album. He bends down to pick it up, readying it to throw frisbee like into the bin. Indie bluegrass folk ain’t his thing.

Then his eyes catch hold of something. Some words forming a title. Winter Winds. A thought crosses his mind. Winter Winds by Mumford and Sons He smiles knowingly. He remembers The Pogues Fairytale Of New York. He remembers Del Amitri. Could this song be his salvation ?

Winter Winds by Mumford and Sons is released on December 7th. The Christmas number one is highly unlikely, unless the band sneak onto X Factor, but in an alternate world not far from our own we could just about imagine it. Here's the video.

Charli XCX - Do It Well

2009-11-24T00:01:00.005Z

We’ve been trying to avoid Charli XCX . Why? Because up until now we’ve found her blowsy breed of Atari electro rioting just a little bit novelty act and lowest common denominator. She has written a song called Neon Fashion and Glowstix. This says it all really. The mockney rapping on Francheskaar made us shudder at the thought of nineties girl power group Shampoo doing grime whilst watching Skins and pressing the airhorn button last used on the Klaxons Atlantis To Interzone. Plus we’ve never really been sure about a young teenage girl who proclaims “Give me unicorns and fairgrounds and cupcakes and jam and dreams and clouds and curls and bubbles and beats and nights and noise and oceans and disaster...please.” It all just seems a little too over excited, like Charli has spent a night pumping herself full of jelly tots with her friends at a sleepover. Which due to her age she may well have done.

So it comes as a bit of a surprise to find that we really like the new song Do It Well by Charli XCX. Do It Well pops a sedative in the girls mouth and calms things down a little, bringing a Lily Allen LDN styled vocal to the dance floor with softly menacing synth sounds and dark aloof beats. Charli has already been compared with everyone from Lady Ga Ga through to Kate Nash and M.I.A so we’re not talking about anything particularly fresh or imaginative here - if we were going to be insulting then derivative would be the word. However with her flamboyant imagery hitting a variety of tastemakers taste buds and having played a number of well received shows this year including supporting Frankmusik, Charli XCX may well be on to something. We will be interested to see what comes next, although we still find it difficult to see anything particularly long term with her. Early days though, early days.

There’s no video for the song at this moment, and her record company seem to be doing a fairly stern job on ensuring that any unauthorised clips are taken down from the interweb, so instead here’s a video where Charli reveals her love of the Spice Girls and, well, not a lot else really. The song is currently up on her Myspace so go there using the link on her name above for a listen.

Charli XCX - Rankin's DESTROY from Youth Music on Vimeo.

Blue Roses @ Brighton Prince Albert

2009-11-23T00:01:00.001Z

There’s a moment during Blue Roses set at the Prince Albert in Brighton when Laura Groves drops her guitar with a noisy clatter. The phrase ‘you could hear a pin drop it was so quiet’ seems to have been taken to a new level. It is the only point in the show that isn’t utterly graceful and perfect in every way. Blue Roses are really quite extraordinary.

Laura Groves may only just be escaping her teenage years but the music she creates has a significantly mature emotional resonance. Laura plays a mix of gentle plucked acoustic guitar, classical piano and electric guitar arrangements, all sparsely layered with accompanying violin and soft pitter-patter drums. Then there’s her vocal - full of a serene childlike beauty that is underlain with something of a deeper and more powerful tone. It’s the stuff of candlelight, churches, romance and quite possibly what heaven would sound like. It caresses and sonically stimulates the ears with the most tender of embraces. As she sits at the piano, her eyes almost shut, Laura seems utterly immersed in the music, the soaring highs of Greatest Thoughts justifying musical comparisons with Kate Bush. Elsewhere her voice floats and rises effortlessly like a younger sister of Harriet Wheeler from The Sundays or Joanna Newsom. Lyrically however Groves is of a different mettle to the aforementioned Bush. The songs of Blue Roses are very much those of a typical young woman singing of emotions, love, loneliness. There is nothing kooky or odd about the music of Blue Roses. Just raw honest beauty.

Every song played is utterly compelling. The heartfelt torch light gentleness of Doubtful Comforts would in any just society be topping end of the year lists. The closing Moments Before Sleep with its ethereal choral folk and looped guitar sound somehow manages to retain the endearing rarity of many other Blue Roses songs whilst sounding big, broader and more wonderful than life itself. If our gushing of Blue Roses in this live review seems just a little too much, we are not apologising. For there is nothing to apologise for. Stunning.

Vampire Weekend - Cousins

2009-11-22T00:01:00.002Z

First out of the traps in terms of big releases for 2010 is Vampire Weekend with their album Contra. Following the free giveaway of Horchata the first single proper is Cousins which sees Vampire Weekend buzzing along with an almost cartoonish abandon and possibly more beats per minute than any other song that will be released next year. It fizzles with the kind of fun that will make detractors hate them even more, but should keep fans eager for the album which follows on January 12th. It’s going to be interesting to watch drunk indie kids dance to this two minutes and thirty seconds of zany structured mayhem. We hear rumours of ballads on the forthcoming album, which will be needed just to catch our breath.

Kitsune Maison Compilation 8

2009-11-21T00:01:00.010Z

Do you remember that girl at school? The obscenely cool, outrageously super confident, super attractive one who all the boys fancied? Well at the age of twenty one she was a burnt out single mum, pushing a pram, attending drug dependency clinic once a week. She still got out of her council flat now and then for a night of drunken debauchery with her best friend, but even those nights out felt awkward and forced, her cool factor replaced with a hint of desperation. Sometimes when the lights were shining behind her it was possible to see what made that girl so attractive in the first place, but you had to be standing in the right location.

Rather like that girl, the French electro label Kitsune Maison compilations have always held their place as the super confident, super cool taste forming albums. But with their 8th release there are signs that things have gone a little off track. The label isn’t pushing that pram yet, but there are signs that it could happen. Kitsune’s compilations are focussed on bringing the hipster party to the home stereo, but there are a number of times on this album when the music sounds as if too much time has been spent trying to make it sound hip and not enough on bringing quality in inventiveness to the dance floor.

There are still plenty of hits, but in places the quality control is urinated away, leaving things sounding cheap and shabby. Have Kitsune Maison taken their eye off things a little? Maybe. This is the sound of electro pop getting a little too drunk, sliding up against the wall of the nightclub, flashing its knickers and snogging the first laptop carrying cool kid that passes by.

That’s not to say it’s full of duffers though. Memory Tapes create something fresh and dreamy with Bicycle. It pedals its way with a blissed out groove and adds snatches of New Order / Cure like guitar together with a choir sample over its trippy loopy backing. Maybe it’s more of a home listening track than a club banger, but it’s a languidly beautiful tune. Our only complaint is that it would have been better positioned right at the end of the album. This Momentary by Delphic with its washes of keyboards, soft chanted vocals and crashing warlike drums has a tidal build that grows and grows into a dry ice and strobe induced moment of Hacienda glory. Even if the track sounds more like a remix than a song on its own right it’s still very good. The Drums Let’s Go Surfing has been well documented on this blog previously here and seems a little out of place on an electro dance album, but it remains a fun whistle-a-groove-along pop song. French Horn Rebellion also succeed by whipping out the cheesy synths, camp vocals and keeping a pop sensibility that cheers easily on their lead track Up All Night.

But then there’s the bad. Le Corps Mince De Françoise are just too wacky for their own good. Like a nursery rhyme CSS, they may be fun to listen to once but the second attempt leaves us slamming our head against the wall screaming “No more.” If electro pop is made for the clubs, Le Corps Mince De Françoise were out the back popping far too many pills. Even worse is I Love London by Crystal Fighters. An infuriating mix of percussion and dirty synth bass it’s as if Bonde Do Role were tasked with recording the most annoying sounding hipster track ever. This song is that girl we mentioned just as she got pregnant. So full of confidence, it forgets what it is doing, jumping up and down shouting "Cool kids please love me." It is utterly terrible. Further tracks by Parallels, Jolie Cherie and the Crystal Castles gone even more wrong of Heartsrevolution are all the kind of toss that hipsters will proclaim are the future of music, but we can’t imagine anyone listening to any of these tunes in six weeks let alone six months.

Come on Kitsune Maison. This is not the essential electro collection that we know you can do. Your vision has become blurred. We don’t want you ending up as a sad single mum yet.

Lisa Mitchell @ Portsmouth Cellars

2009-11-20T00:01:00.005Z

In September we questioned if maybe Lisa Mitchell was mysophobic, with her song Neopolitan Dreams featuring on a well known washing product advert and her new single being called Coin Laundry. We may have been somewhat joking, but now we’re thinking this is serious. On arrival at The Cellars in Portsmouth, a makeshift washing line has been strung up in the corner. Luckily it is only to display merchandise for sale and not because Lisa has been on a crazed soap and suds frenzy.

It’s a strange gig for Mitchell. In Australia she may have had a top ten album, but in the UK she is virtually unknown. That said the pub venue is sold out, although there seems to be no particular buzz in the room, the applause being strangely reserved. In fact when Mitchell starts to play a significant number of people appear completely indifferent to the fact she is on stage and continue chatting despite the signs at the bar asking for quiet. In spite of her young age Mitchell appears outwardly unaffected, casting out a set of quirky acoustic pop tunes such as the whimsical Coin Laundry, the gentle intimate confessional Love Letter and a solo acoustic cover version of Dire Straits Romeo and Juliet to draw punters in. Unfortunately her Lenka like soft slightly kooky girlish vocal is not always commanding over the talking punters, who don’t seem to care for the fact that they are in a live music venue. As a result the show lacks substance. If only Lisa wasn’t the polite professional announcing that “Because you’re all so nice, I’m going to play you a love song. It’s just us,” and instead had said “If you’re not going to listen can you please leave,” the show may have been more compelling. By the time she finishes her set the expected applause for an encore only lasts as long as it takes for her to exit the stage. Her return a minute or so later feels rather forced and subdued.

Lisa Mitchell is certainly talented and has some sensitive almost daintily sweet acoustic pop songs, but with an audience who seemed somewhat ambivalent to her presence it probably wasn’t her best day.

Dan Mangan - Robots

2009-11-19T00:01:00.001Z

Last month we posted Dan Mangan's The Indie Queens Are Waiting for your viewing and listening pleasure and subsequently reviewed a live show (here) We also hinted that his single Robots would be released in the UK soon.

Now the video for Robots has arrived. Inspired by early eighties gang movies it tells the story of two rival groups who engage in their own back-alley version of robot wars, pitting one robot against the other in a battle to the finish, but when one robot chooses compassion over malice, the gang members are forced to question their own hatred and animosity towards one another. It’s love over war in the same time it takes to make a cup of tea. Who needs blockbuster movies?

The song shows that it isn’t only electronic bands that can sing about robots and androids, bringing Mangan’s trademark gruff pirate vocal and acoustic sounds to a chorus that is silly yet deeply sincere, even if you have to wait for two and three quarter minutes for it to float in. You’ll probably be humming it all day long. The tune has just been nominated in the Candian Radio 3 Bucky Awards for best song, and Mangan himself has also picked four other nominations for best lyrics, vocals, live performance and sexiest musician.

It seems a shame that at this moment Mangan is getting so little buzz or press in Breaking More Waves home country of the UK, when he is a singer songwriter of such quality. Maybe this will change next year when his second album is officially released in the UK. For the moment though, we’ll keep Dan Mangan as our own little rough diamond.

Clock Opera - White Noise

2009-11-18T00:01:00.008Z

Back in July (here) we got very excited by the magnificent Clock Opera, a band who in a bubble of passion we stated that we loved more than our own children. Offspring upset duly followed. We then followed it up with an interview with the man behind the music - Guy Connelly -in August. (Read it here.) At the time Guy told us that recordings were ready to go and that there would be news of a release soon. That time is now as Clock Opera release their debut single White Noise.

White Noise is a radioactively shimmering sound collage fused with experimentalism, as is a thundering rhythm heavy remix of the song that has been produced by Django Django. Connelly sings with a melancholy beauty of an accident he nearly had with a speeding riderless motorbike whilst electronic sounds slide in, out and over each other. This engineered soundscape never sounds like it has been created by white lab coat wearing scientists though, White Noise holds a warmth through its melody even when it startles by adding grooving funking drums and bass towards the end.

If White Noise wasn’t good enough on its own, then things get even better with the twinkling b-side of Alouette which sounds like Radiohead stepping through cascading fairytales. With both White Noise and Alouette, Clock Opera have created something just a little bit unique meaning that our kids are going to be feeling rejected again. Our love affair continues with Clock Opera.

White Noise can be purchased exclusively through Pure Groove here. Keep an eye out on the internet soon for a remix that Clock Opera have produced for Marina and the Diamonds as well. Here's the video for White Noise.

Clock Opera - White Noise from Killer on Vimeo.

Luke Haines @ Brighton Hanbury + Resident Records

2009-11-17T00:01:00.002Z

A CD plays as Luke Haines steps into Resident Records shop in Brighton for a pre Hanbury Club mini acoustic warm show. “Kill the music, because that’s what I’m about to do,” he announces with a wry smile. It sums Haines up perfectly - witty, funny, knowing and eccentrically miserable. He’s carved himself a neat niche which has endeared him to an audience since the early nineties when his original band The Auteurs almost made it. Their biggest two singles hit forty one and forty two in the charts respectively and they were allegedly runner up in the Mercury Music prize for New Wave. Fifteen years on and Haines is now being lauded by a number of critics as one of Britain’s greatest and most under rated singer songwriters. When he ends his set at Resident Records with the line “Life is unfair, kill yourself or get over it,” and then adds afterwards “That’s an inappropriate ending if ever there was one,” we’re inclined to agree with those critics.

It seems that so are many others. The Hanbury Ballroom is very busy and the reception Haines receives is warm and friendly - the conquering hero returns again. Placing a glass of red wine to one side his band launch into a career spanning set with a song that Haines acknowledges will be the happiest he sounds all night - the gentle Suburban Mourning. It’s a ballad where the loathing biliousness is laid aside as Haines sings in his soft murmur of a voice of couples getting married, a missing child being found alive and “There’s no evil in the everyday, just good honest people who pay and pay.” It’s as close as Haines gets to bringing the sunshine. It’s followed by the stop start indie of The Auteurs Show Girl a song which demonstrates that Haines has always been an accomplished guitarist as well as a lyricist to be heralded. “I’m Luke Haines, thank you and goodnight,” he states cheekily after those two numbers. A career in stand up could possibly follow.

Dressed in a suit and sporting a carefully coiffured down-turned moustache Haines takes his audience on a journey of murder songs such as Freddie Mills Is Dead, waffling rants linking Gary Glitter and Ricky Gervais fans, through to the should-have-been-a hit-but-wasn’t rock riffage of the self proclaimed meta-Motown-Dad genius Lenny Valentino. At the end his encore lasts all of ten seconds as Haines decides it is too much hassle to leave the stage. He just carries straight on, such is the perverse and almost disobedient nature of the man. It is this personality and character that people love as much as his songs, particularly in the live environment, but never let it be said that he doesn’t have the tunes to back up the persona. Luke Haines shows Brighton that he may have not won the Brit Pop war with The Auteurs, but that sometimes the losers are the real long term winners.

Local Natives - Gorilla Manor

2009-11-16T00:01:00.005Z

It is almost impossible at this stage in the bands career to write about Local Natives without mentioning two other groups. So we will do it right at the start and then we can be on our way. A groovier Fleet Foxes? A folksier Arcade Fire? Yes. Listening to Gorilla Manor it’s easily possible to hear snapshots of both of these reference points in the groups US indie folk rock sound.

Gorilla Manor was christened after “creative bursts of musical exploration, disgruntled neighbours and one dwelling to tie them all together.”

If Fleet Foxes are the starting point then Local Natives take their template and try something a little stronger sounding. We imagine a bunch of friends who have had a few drinks and fancy a bit of a party, using more electric guitars than soft acoustic sounds. Gorilla Manor is a self assured, mature, playful and often ambitious collection of songs built from the architecture of tangential structures and agile musicianship that warrants investigation by anyone interested in this genre. It never reaches the dizzying heights of the bands previously mentioned but if it were an alcoholic drink it would be mulled wine - warming, charming with just enough sugar and spice to keep you entertained.

Gorilla Manor is a consistent album in so far as there isn’t a weak song on it, but neither is there the obvious hit single or track that could take the band to a wider audience. Maybe this is a good thing, giving the band time to develop and not be crushed under expectation when and if album number two is recorded. The closest to a commercial radio friendly song is World News which takes a singular stomping beat and a simple jangling guitar riff and builds layers both instrumentally and vocally until the song finally soars with sky bound chants of oh oh oh’s. Did we mention Arcade Fire? Oh yes, sorry we won’t labour the point then. Stranger Things opens with a snatch of violin before a clattering rhythm, vocal harmonies and mass clapping row the song oarsman-like to a quiet piano moment halfway through. You’re never quite sure where the song is going to next, a trick that the band play several times on the album including on the stocky and organic Sun Hands which lollops and grooves along before suddenly veering at right angles into a shouting crashing dynamic rock wig out three quarters of the way through. Elsewhere the band play it straight though, such as with the driving clickety clack beats, straight indie rock guitar and shades of fiddle on Camera Talk, a song where Local Natives sound more like Local Natives than anyone else.

Earlier this year this group was one of the buzz bands of the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. Whilst Gorilla Manor is unlikely to continue the buzz, neither is it going to lead to criticisms that the excitement wasn’t worth it. It’s a solid start that should the band choose to do so could lead them off into an exciting musical journey with future recordings.

Unicorn Kid - Animal City

2009-11-15T00:01:00.003Z

Welcome to the jungle. Here’s a new video posted a few days ago from Unicorn Kid for his track Animal City. Even if you cannot stand Unicorn Kids bleepy Nintendo meets Commodore 64 rave chip tune, this film is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, particularly if you enjoyed Trigger Happy TV and the fighting cuddly animals created by Dom Joly. The video is a fan made piece by one Melissa Katz who understands in the same way The Flaming Lips do that big cuddly animals dancing will always make people happy.

Back in August when we first wrote about Unicorn Kid we confessed a warped love of his music, even though his tunes are made of the stuff that any ‘serious’ or ‘self respecting’ music fan would despise. We also said that this love would probably only last five minutes. That was August. It’s now November.

This will not be the last post about Unicorn Kid. We still don’t understand it ourselves. We can’t stand Basshunter, who there are similarities to, yet this we love. When you consider yourself a ‘serious’ music fan, but still want to be moved by music emotionally rather than just intellectually, sometimes you have to accept that even if your brain is saying hate, you just have to dive headfirst no matter what the depth of the pool, and show the love. We’ll be posting more on the issue of ‘serious’ music lovers soon and will hopefully be stirring up a debate, but for now enjoy the raving panda, lion etc....“Pawsome!” As the man says himself.