Not Many Experts

#1 Katy B

Well, we’re going to start with Katy B for two very good reasons. Firstly, she has already “made it”, and secondly, we don’t really like her at all. The premise of dubstep, its genius, was echoing the dark, paranoid and innovative streets of South London. Brit-Schooled packages designed to exploit and mine the ridiculous hype that has accrued around the term “dubstep” over the past year is not within its original ideas. That said, the development from “Untrue” to the stage where floppy haired Libertines-loving Eton boys were joining groups on Facebook called things like “dubstep choones so filthy u’ll need a SHOWA!!” made this sort of inevitable, and her success will only eclipse itself. Preferable to young Mr. Bieber but, still, slightly sickening. (Hope you won’t mind if we point you towards the shockingly good Benga original from 2009 just to demonstrate the extent of Katy B’s input)

Katy B – Katy On A Mission by NotManyExperts

#2 Rosanna

Where in the past inclusion on the BBC’s “Sound of…” longlist, BRIT award nominations and being championed by Neon Gold may have been the common precursors to success, the decision of pop music’s true connoisseurs, Pop Justice, to launch a record label under the recognisable guise of Pop Justice Hi-Fi has established their intentions not only to forecast great pop music but to launch careers themselves. Smart bets would certainly be on them succeeding; Pop Justice Hi-Fi look set to become pop’s next benchmark of quality.

Early evidence comes courtesy of the innocuously titled Rosanna, who released her “Waterfall/Runaway” single on the label last week. Superficially, she seems the perfect package; predictably Swedish, blonde and beautiful. And, for once, the superficial seems in no need of being contradicted, as she’s equipped with a set of heart-tearing vocals mapped out over intricate production most in evidence on the incredible Rocket Boy version of her equally incredible b-side, “Runaway”. Whether in 2010 or 2011 is irrelevant, things are certainly going to start happening for her.

Rosanna – Runaway (Rocket Boy Remix) by NotManyExperts

Rosanna – Waterfall by NotManyExperts

#3 Clare Maguire

An obvious choice. But it’s the very fact that this choice is obvious that makes us the more certain that success lies in her path. Having earned herself a major label deal without huge amounts of exposure thanks to her reputably jaw-destroying voice, she followed this up with those enormous amounts of exposure thanks to a combination of her impressive, albeit not genre-pushing, music and the fact that she had been signed by a major label. Early indications in the form of “Strangest Thing” and a short clip of her Polydor debuting single “Aint Nobody” (download the former and watch the latter here) promise much. We can’t wait to hear more and you can be sure that Polydor will make sure that we all hear a lot more from her when the release date creeps closer.

Clare Maguire – Strangest Thing (Bloodshy & Avant Version) by NotManyExperts

Last week we declared that Entrepreneurs’ “Uv Been Robbed (Joking But Not)” EP was the best we’d heard all year. This week, we can’t stop listening to Pariah’s “Safehouses” EP and are considering challenging last weeks assertion… Word of mouth spread the name of Pariah late last year wide throughout the music community, with many suggesting him as the obvious successor to Burial, and he is now even described on his press release as “hotly tipped”. We were finally turned onto him via the home of moody electronic atmospherics, No Pain In Pop. Now, however, Pariah will be releasing his “Safehouses” EP in October on the already legendary R&S records, early home of Delphic and James Blake.

Comparisons to Mount Kimbie, James Blake and other post-dubstep artists are easy to make, but Pariah’s quivering, optimistic tone is distinctly his own. There’s nothing flashy or ostentatious about the music he’s making, not an enormous wobble in sight (luckily), but the genius of his music is that he’s doing relatively simple things exceptionally well, with the result that it has an instant appeal that has eluded many of his peers. It’s almost indecent to choose a favourite on such a strong EP, but “Railroad” is a powerfully percussive track will stutter and shake its way into dark, sweaty basements everywhere come the end of the year. * More importantly, though his press release only claimed that he was “hotly tipped”, the evidence on this EP suggests that Pariah has already justified early whisperings and established himself as one of the most skilled producers around.

Pariah – Railroad by NotManyExperts

*(Fittingly, “Railroad” was also the soundtrack to me sat on the floor of the inexplicably rammed train from London back up to Liverpool late last night, and at the exact moment this track came on somebody running off the train knocked one of my shoes onto the track. I feel sort of inclined to blame Pariah, but I guess it may have been a coincidence.)

I’m of the opinion that any artist creating under the alias of “a vessel containing liquid in which something is immersed” is worthy of a few minutes of my time. I’m certainly glad I stopped by The Typanogram and found this beauty.

Will Wiesenfeld, aka Baths, released debut effort “Cerulean” back in late June, however, due in no small part to my ability to completely overlook many great albums until a few months later, I’ve only just started listening. It is hard to describe the genre of music in which “Cerulean” would fall into, but maybe that is one of the great strengths of the record: Wiesenfeld seems to have taken strands of pop, dance, ambient and shoegaze and sewn them together into a cohesive and thoroughly pleasant auditory experience. The visual for upcoming single “Lovely Bloodflow” was released a few days ago, which you can find below. Who would have known that the death of a Samurai could be so poetic and beautiful when soundtracked by a Bath. As for the rest of “Cerulean”, you can stream the album here, before you buy here. And you will buy.