Being a music journalist has always seemed like an unbelievably illogical career path to me, because presumably you would only choose to become one if you loved music, yet, surely to anybody who loves music, the idea of being forced to continuously listen to and pick over an album that you have a real hatred for is something close to Guantanamo Bay levels of torture (not that I’ve been and know what goes down there). And then there’s also the point that you get paid less than a well organised busker, and that whole crisis of people virtually stopping buying physical media. But mostly the first point.

So it should say a lot that I was effectively cling filmed to my chair and forced to write about Loved Ones, and I can still proudly say that, two months down the line, our relationship has grown to a level of maturity where I can safely say that I love them. As you can tell, this is quite an emotional blog post for me.

But it shouldn’t be too tough for you to press play on the two incredibly diverse tracks below and understand exactly why I’m so head over heels for this band. For what it’s worth, ‘Hell’ is a magnificent 5 minutes of eccentrically pitched vocals that worm their way into the brain, laid bare upon tribal beats, pulsating electronics, and the warm glow of the most subtle guitars. It’s the least blatantly beautiful song you’ll hear this year, but take half an hour, batter that play button, and it will become one of the favourites of the year too. It really is something special. And if that sounds like a fawning testimony to you, then you’ll be shocked to hear that I actually am even more taken with ‘Mossman’. But I’ll spare you the graphic details, because you’d probably just hit the big X in disgust, so just take advantage of the fact that this is the internet, mentally tell me to shut up, and listen to the proof for yourself.

Hell (Album Version) by LovedOnes

Mossman by LovedOnes

PS – if you’d like to find out more about Loved Ones then read the article on them that I was ‘forced’ to write for Bido Lito!, it’s got all that background story and all of that that people apparently love. It can be found in this issue, on page 12.

PPS – ‘Hell’ will be available to download on 12th November on Giant Haystacks, which, if my quick research is correct, is the same subsidiary of Label Fandango that released The Heartbreaks’ first single.

Edgy Mancunians Stay+ made one very keen point in this article; at what point did we become so saturated with an excessive amount of information that any band who simply releases their music is thrown mercilessly into the “cynically anonymous” camp. It is ridiculous that when presented with only music, we start to hound bands for being so secretive and obtuse. The depressing irony being that the bands being ridiculed for their supposedly childish secrecy have uploaded their music onto the internet for the entire world to judge and deride. Ultimately, it reflects very poorly on our internet generation that we are not at all happy to hear just a band’s music. It almost seems like a re-printable anecdote in a band’s biography is just as integral to a band’s success as their music is, yet all that should be relevant is their music. And according to that philosophy, we’re very, very excited indeed about No Ceremony///.

All we have heard is the chilling, nihilistic, emotive electronica of “HURTLOVE”, which writhes under the catharsis of an expressive, cut-up vocal, but that alone is enough to have us completely hooked. And that should be enough. Yet it seems inevitable that their unfortunate geography (Manchester), my unfortunate mentioning of fellow Mancunians Stay+ earlier, their impressive imagery and so-far successful publicising campaign will see them plastered with the “deliberately anonymous” moniker, judged simply on the basis that they choose not to make needless noise about the wonderful noise that they do make. I would be less than surprised if it was even suggested that Wu Lyf’s ‘War God’ Warren Bramley was behind the whole thing. Or even that he is Wu Lyf, Stay+ and No Ceremony///. The whole thing is fast approaching a farce, yet at the centre of the storm the music that is being created is unbelievably good. “HURTLOVE” is rare in its deep anguish, the intense and immediate connection that it makes, and the speed of its retreat. We’re left desperately wanting more. Music, that is.

NO CEREMONY/// – HURTLOVE by Not Many Experts

Big Black Delta is the solo project of Jonathan Bates – an outlet for his raw, abrasive, electronica-tinged pop music. He moved on from his last band, Mellowdrone, because he wasn’t sure that it was working, which we can’t quite understand because, for us, having a wikipedia page and being featured on the FIFA 07 soundtrack would be the height of our musical careers. It would be on our epitaph. As a discerning musician, what more can you ask for?

But it seems that Mr Bates is more ambitious than that, and new single ‘Huggin & Kissin’ is more than enough proof that that ambition has been paid off. Its an absolutely thunderous introduction to him, a coarse, hopeless anthem riddled by frustration that sounds like a logical progression from Jai Paul’s ‘BTSTU’. You can download his vicious, Cold-Cave-esq first EP for free at his web-site.

Big Black Delta – Huggin & Kissin by Not Many Experts

I should probably start this all off by going on record stating that I’m not completely into this whole “slacker” aesthetic that Wavves, Best Coast, and all that have created… It might be quite naively attractive and nostalgically childish to pretend to do nothing all day except having very chilled-out sex and smoking weed, but it’s also a load of bollocks. They might have enough knock-off Ray Bans to try to constantly make it appear otherwise, but they’re very hard working musicians, and the net result of their hard work is basically that everybody thinks that it’s very cool to do not very much at all. Great. That’s a philosophy that would stun Aristotle. How far we’ve come in how ever many thousands of years.

So it should say a lot for the unbelievable quality of Total Slacker’s music that I am besotted by them. They’ve got far more than lazy power chords attached to a languid hipster; “Psychic Mesa” might be stretched out but the chorus’ melody nags at the brain in all the right ways, the verse’s vocals are perfectly timed, and the heel dragging chords that announce the song sound incredible shoved against a wall of clumsily ambling drums.

It’s starting to sound like people in the UK might actually hear how good they are, as well; after the Pitchfork-launched “Crystal Necklace” grabbed them a record deal with the Vaccines-launching Marshall Teller Records, their first LP “THRASHIN” will stumble into the public domain in September after a few shows in all the trendy places in London that buzz bands tend to play. On that evidence, it’s looking good for them.

Sure, it would be foolish to argue that Total Slacker don’t embody any of the characteristics that I may have shown my slight dislike for above, but this band are a cut above the rest. They’re destined to be lumped in with the worryingly termed ‘slacker movement’, but there are just so many things about their music which seem to be proof that they’re far more than another scene band.

TOTAL SLACKER // Psychic Mesa

I’m going to be honest. When I first heard “Friend Crush” by Brooklyn band Friends, I assumed that the lyric “I wanna’ be your friend” was just conveying the loneliness of our protagonist. However, if the sultry, brooding and deeply suggestive new video for “Friends Crush” is anything to go by, it seems like she’s after more than a friendly hug. I say ‘suggestive’, but the two female band members are practically kissing, which is probably less subtle than I make it sound. I’m aware that all male readers will now be watching the video below and not reading, which is cool. This will probably be our most popular post ever.

But if your eyes are still on these words because you’re more interested in the music, then you’re in luck, because the only reason we’re writing about this is because the first time we heard “Friend Crush”, our pulse gradually increased**, and we completely fell for their instantaneous Cults-esq harmonies laid over simplistic, dreamy tracks. Just like Warpaint, the whole thing is driven by an immensely powerful bass line, but the end result is more like Sleigh Bells at their least industrial and most intoxicating. It’s more addictive than heroin and a lot cheaper, too, so in these tough economic times, we recommend you go get some.

They’ve just been signed to Lucky Number, too, who brought us Darwin Deez, so Friends should be hooking many more fans in the coming months. The “I’m His Girl” single will be released in September, with an album pencilled in for early 2012.

Friends – Friend Crush by LuckyNumberMusic

Friends – Feelin Dank by LuckyNumberMusic

On a slightly less professional note, is that actor and comedian Omad Djalili in the background of that photo? Multi-talented bastard.

** because blood was rushing to our ears, not where you’re thinking you dirty hobbit.

Back in the confused days of 2010 I posted this, practically a love letter to Samuel & The Dragon, who I regarded as being certain to, at the very least, secure a position in the Cabinet for their adventurous, harrowing electronic pop. Today, in 2011 (in case you weren’t counting), I have been forced into a hasty and embarrassing verbal retreat that only Nick Clegg could match.

Who knows what happened, I’ve done enough hypothesising to know that it’s usually not very wise to get involved in that sort of thing; but I can maintain, and this is in no way a defence, that “Diamonds On A Boat” remains a piece of music that is amongst the most perfectly executed eccentric, left-field pop songs that I’ve come across.

I’m still hanging on for vindication, though, because Samuel has traded in his Dragon for bass producer and Hemlock Recordings founder Untold in a new project named Dreadnought. Without wanting to cause offense to the Dragon, Untold’s vessel-rupturing thuds that announce “By The Wire” are making it hard to get any more nostalgic. The menacing, languid vocals of Samuel Chase stake Dreadnought out as a dub-driven side project of The xx, or even an outlet for Thom Yorke’s dubstep obsession. If you think that sounds perfect on paper, wait until it’s in your ears.

It’s a logical progression; Samuel & The Dragon was always slightly leaning towards the influence of bassline and dubstep, and since we last heard from them dubstep has imploded in the UK, with major labels now searching for dubstep-pop crossovers – but it’s something that Samuel’s been doing for years. “By The Wire” just proves that he’s still doing it with more invention and character than his earnest contemporaries. Dreadnought’s incredible ‘Caroline EP’ is out now, exclusively on vinyl – and you can listen to the jaw-dropping title track below.

Dreadnought – By The Wire by Not Many Experts

Dreadnought – Caroline by Dreadnought

Today’s been a hell of a day for a variety of distinctly boring reasons, so it says a lot of Good Dangers’ thumpingly melodic dream-pop that they actually have the ability to make everything seem at least 50% better. Maybe even 60%. We say that it’s ‘dream pop’ mostly because that’s how their singles label Cosine describe it, and they’re our new infatuation so we’ll stick to that, but to be entirely honest Good Dangers’ music pounds at the temples with accessibility and angst, without the hazy, ethereal qualities of dream pop. At the very least it should be called pop-dream. But that just wouldn’t work. So like we said, we’re going to stick to how Cosine describe it.

Appearing seemingly from nowhere onto various corners of the internet, the band are all alumni of London’s Goldsmiths which has a well earnt reputation for encouraging provocation and the avant-garde, and, quel surprise, the band are already experts in the slightly left-field pop song. In fact, “So Unkind”, released on a split double A-side with Peppercorn, is one of the most intoxicating, quirky and addictive pop songs we’ve had the pleasure of wasting our day listening to recently.

You can find them on twitter, Facebook, bandcamp, YouTube and even the much hated MySpace – in fact, they’ve got so many social networking outlets that it would take flame-haired moral vacuum Rebekah Brooks months to hack into them all*. That said, the band have said that they’re taking tentative steps into the public world; making their material available and letting people come to them. Judging by the clamour of positive reactions so far, and the constantly improving quality of their material, it’s a plan that’s working out very nicely for them indeed.

Good Dangers – So Unkind by Not Many Experts

Good Dangers – Abigail by The Recommender

*experts are predicting that if they had a soundcloud as well the internet may collapse

Follow us on Twitter @notmanyexperts

To sum it all up in a sentence, Cave Painting make reverb-sodden, anthemic, mournful and understated pop songs. Not that it makes an inch of difference in explaining how good the tracks we’ve heard so far are, but the words being splashed around the internet about this Brighton based 5-piece is that people with suits and cheque books in London are well into them. So are we, so when we approached them with the completely illogical offer of possibly releasing some of their music and losing some money in the process* in order to help people have a physical copy of their wonderfully dejected pop music, we were quite gutted to hear that Hideout Records had got in there first and will be making sure that we all hear a lot more from Cave Painting very soon. Somewhat ominously, all we could find on the internet relating to a “Hideout Records” claimed to be experts in the field of “sexy dance music”. We are, however, guessing that it’s unlikely that in the past 3 weeks they’ve turned into lusty beat-pounding maniacs, so expect more of their uplifting, gloriously forlorn atmospheres soon.

So Calm by Cave Painting

Leaf by Cave Painting

You can download both tracks at that link that you just read past.

*because people are generally tight, not because Cave Painting won’t sell.

PS – We massively caved in and are now on Twitter which is either a cause for tears of celebration but you’ll only find out if you give us a shout at @notmanyexperts and let us say bonjour back.

I know almost literally nothing about Stubborn Heart*. That’s right, no longer will I be able to prop up the music with meaningless (yet endearing) trivia. However, if these first couple of sentences are anything to go by, in good old time-honoured fashion, I’m giving it a decent try.

All the necessary comparisons have already been made and they’re exactly spot on: “The three J’s: Jamie xx, Jamie Woon and James Blake”. Now doesn’t that sound like the most intriguingly 2011 comparison you’ve ever heard… They’re nice blokes as well; I e-mailed asking if I could possibly ask them a few questions and they replied with the following lengthy response that put the 822 page Commons inquiry into the Iraq war to shame:

“No.”

Sort of. They actually told me that I could ask them some things, but they might not answer some things until they’ve finished what they’re working on. Fair play, at least they were honest, and let us establish that 1) there’s more than one of them and 2) they’re working on more material which, as your ears will discover below, is definitely good news.

For me, “Need Someone” encapsulates all of the elements that I had vainly hoped for in James Blake’s debut, and instead got most of from Jamie xx’s remix album. It has the soulful vocals, but they’re mixed with a breathless, stuttering tapestry of sounds that weave into a beat. As The Stool Pigeon would say: it’s ‘achingly beautiful’. But it really is. And if it’s anything to go by, it looks like James Blake has started quite a trend; you won’t find me complaining if this is the standard being set.

Stubborn Heart – Need Someone by BOILER ROOM

via Abeano

* Except that there’s at least two of them, they’re from London, they have released a 12” white label single themselves (“Need Someone/Two Times A Maybe”) and you can stream another track here.

PS – …on a slightly more speculative note, they’re clearly already accomplished producers whose names are probably lodged in our heads somewhere. Self-releasing a run of 300 12” records when literally nobody has heard of you and seeing it turn up in all the top record stores? They’ve done this before, or they’re doing the opposite of stealing from record shops and sneaking in to stack their own white label.

I waste far too much of my life combing an enormous mass of misinformation for inspiring music, and far too often, when it’s found, it’s been under my nose the whole time. Never has this reality kicked me more painfully in the balls than when I discovered that art-pop Liverpool band Outfit are actually from Birkenhead, where I willed away the previous hundreds of my years going to school. The entire time, a couple of minutes walk by the feet of even the slowest man would have taken me to Outfit, who were learning their own chilling strain of terrifying pop.

Formed from the ashes of Indica Ritual, and having got the entire Liverpool alternative media (oh, and that small national music newspaper the NME) on their side within the space of three gigs and a couple of forays onto Soundcloud, Outfit splice the eccentric and verbose vocals of Wild Beasts with the haunting refrain of the xx and even throw in the subtlety and patience of Foals, as if they didn’t already have enough pulse-destroyingly exciting reference points. The results are as good as they sound down on paper, and they sound even better when actually being listened to. Get your most stupidly expensive headphones on, properly concentrate and completely appreciate. Just don’t let Outfit pass you by, especially when they’re right in front of you.

Every Night I Dress Up As You by OUTFIT

Killer by OUTFIT

I Break Horses – Hearts from Bella Union on Vimeo.

Like The Radio Dept. without the testes, or Fuck Buttons with hearts instead of heads. Although, we do hear that they also have heads. And by they, we do of course mean the singular Maria Linden who, although producing gloriously unconventional, swirling pop epics, is rather more geographically conventional as she hails from Sweden along with about 90% of our planet’s pop visionaries. As if comparisons to The Radio Dept. and Fuck Buttons wasn’t enough reason to listen to them (and if you did think that that was exciting, then you’ll love I Break Horses), they’ve been signed to Bella Union for almost a year now and things are starting to happen. Expect to hear a lot more from them.*

I Break Horses – Wired (Demo) by I Break Horses

I Break Horses – Hearts by Bella Union

*her! Can’t quite get my head around the fact that just one woman can make such an enormous and tremendous noise (I mean that in an entirely un-sexist way if that is possible)

If you thought that Lonely Galaxy was the pinnacle of the glorious sound of emotional wallowing then, well, we can’t really blame you, but you were probably wrong. We first heard the ramshackle lament “Cannons” here ‘back in the day’ (April) and we weren’t really sure whether we were just on our man-menstrual cycle, but it seemed even upon first listening that Idaho’s Trevor Powers was going to spend the rest of the year making a lot of people very bleary eyed.

He’s got it all. Or, he’s got nothing, and he tells that story perfectly. From the lo-fi wail of “Cannons”, his most immediate song that’s out there at the moment, to the slow burning, cathartic “July” and new song “Montana”, Youth Lagoon proves that it’s only worth being cynical/borderline depressed if you can articulate yourself this beautifully. From behind the slightly fuzzy production we can barely make out what he’s saying, but there’s no doubt that behind his words is genuine passion and raw emotion; a rare combination that makes him a real and complete talent.

Youth Lagoon – Cannons by Not Many Experts

July by Youth Lagoon

Montana by Youth Lagoon

He releases the “Year Of Hibernation” 10” on July 5th via Juno Beach Records – only 500 being made so get cracking.

There’s been an insane amount written about London-based band Theme Park since they popped up out of nowhere last Wednesday. As in, they’re actually making Bin Laden look like small news. I want to be cynical about them; I should be thinking that there must be some Sir-Alan-Sugared business man hanging around somewhere who has deduced that if you paired the Mystery Jets’ vocals and Friendly Fires at their hip thrusting best then you’ll rake some cash in, but “Milk” is just too, too good for me to start thinking that. It’s just amazing. The world is that simple. Sometimes.

Theme Park – Milk by Not Many Experts
PS – “A Mountain We Love” is also top of the range.

A Mountain We Love from Theme Park on Vimeo.

I’ve no idea where to place this Ed Sheeran chap that everyone seems to want to talk about. On the one hand, you’ve got the grime-influenced Ed Sheeran of his chart-bound collaboration with Devlin and self released ‘No.5 Collaborations’ EP – the manifestation of all of my white friends who pretend to be black, except…. talented musically, and not at all irritating (this is, undoubtedly, a tricky feat to pull off). Then there’s the Ed Sheeran of the recent One Take EP, released for free, which depicts a cleaner cut artist who steps neatly between James Morrison and Just Jack, whilst managing to avoid being as forgettable as both of those artists with an impossibly sharp delivery and biting lyrics.

It’s impossible to know the cause of this split in his character. On the one hand, “One Take” is his 10th release since 2005. In summary, he’s written a lot of music, and any artist undergoes a sharp change within 5 years of constant gigging and releasing. Those with a love of cynicism would probably point out that he was signed by Atlantic in January which could well have influenced his transformation to the Ed Sheeran who seems to have removed all of the tedium from James Blunt. From a guy who spits lyrics like “It’s all to do with timing/not the label that you sign with” and “They say I’m up an’ comin’ like I’m fuckin’ in an elevator” over an acoustic guitar and somehow makes it work, though, we doubt it. Sheeran seems like a truly precocious talent, an unbelievably hard-working musician (he played over 300 gigs in 2009) whose hard work is about to be paid off, whichever character he chooses.

Ed Sheeran – You Need Me by EdSheeran

Ed Sheeran – U.N.I by EdSheeran

Ed Sheeran – Wayfaring Stranger by EdSheeran

We suggested that you catch young Ed last month back here – you can catch him at Liverpool Sound City at two different gigs. He’s also performing at The Magic Loungeabout, which, as a luxury boutique festival, does, again, seem like a confusing choice for someone hyped by the underground grime scene. But, then, there is a spa, restaurant, and it’s set in the grounds of a stately home, so you can see why he’d be attracted to going to a festival that has a good line-up, where you won’t go home covered in the multi-coloured vomit of a druggy who understandably mistook you for a strangely shaped basin. 

After a surge of internet scribblings that threatened to make him 2009’s latest buzz-band-fatality, Wolf Gang has played it calmly and slowly, and is now enjoying the benefits of that approach. Yesterday, new track “Something Unusual” surfaced, another track from debut album ‘Suego Faults’ (out 27th June). And it is actually far more unconventional than most hyped artists dare to attempt, stretched out with a languid chorus, before diving into a verse more similar to his usual glam pop theatrics. It may not quite stray into Panda Bear territory, this is, after all, a pop song, but you’ve got to hand him some credit for not writing “Pieces Of You” a dozen times, slapping an album name on it, and letting the record label do their marketing tricks.

The trouble is, many hyped artists are written about solely on the basis of one or two songs, so, for them, where is the incentive to step out of that comfort zone and try something else? Blinded by what seems like success just around the corner, an enormous amount of these artists end up releasing completely lacklustre albums with no depth and variation. By playing things slowly, Wolf Gang’s allowed some time for his sound to develop, managed to avoid the apparently enticing lights of the spectacularly average indie-artist’s lifestyle, and is instead poised to deliver an album that stands a far better chance of justifying the hype than many, many of his contemporaries allow themselves.

After all of that… ‘Suego Faults’ had better be bloody amazing.

Wolf Gang – Something Unusual by wolfgang

We’re still terrified of Entrepreneurs, but with each release he puts out, we’re finding ourselves falling for what Abeano has called his ‘intelli-tronica’. Can’t argue with that. Double A-side ‘Fuck Tactics/Bubblegunk’  stitches together the dark production of Entrepreneurs, FOE’s deranged pop and the quick wit of Ghostpoet, and based on that description, it definitely should have been a very London-based disaster but… What can we say, except that our words can’t do this anything approaching justice; so we’ll just have to call it the finest single we’ve heard all year. And it really is.

It was out yesterday via Fear & Records, fittingly on the same day as FOE’s ‘Hot New Trash’ EP surfaced on Stella Mortos. The synth-laced ‘Bubblegunk’ has been on repeat ever since the ‘U’ve Been Robbed, Joking But Not’ EP was released last year, but once you get your head around the off-kilter swagger of ‘Fuck Tactics’, it emerges as one of those rare moments in pop music where ambition and accessibility are perfectly balanced. A moment of originality and brilliance. He still absolutely terrifies us, but from, very, very far away we’re admiring everything that he’s doing. He even used a swear word in a song title, don’t tell us that guy’s not crazy.

Fuck Tactics feat. FOE & Ghostpoet by Entrepreneurs

There’s a launch party on April 8th at The Macbeth for both Entrepreneurs & FOE.

Nobody’s had this much fun in the North-East since Maximo Park released a decent single. Many a year, in other words. It’s not much to go by in the way of cementing a long-term career, neither does it suggest an album of decade-defining proportions is on the way – it’s just an immensely catchy tune, and an insanely likeable single and we just can’t argue with that. We’re hoping that the release of “Borrowed Time” in April is going to coincide with the national fixation on the Geordie accent caused by Cheryl Cole, and take over the country. For now, though, insanely like-able and immensely catchy just is enough.

Athletes In Paris – Borrowed Time

PS – just looked down and realised that I was wearing a Maximo Park t-shirt for the duration of this post. Filthy hypocrite. I love them really.

Without a doubt this is one of the strangest mixture of bands that I’ve ever put together, and shows a eclecticism in music taste that may make me slightly worried for my mental stability. However, fans of organisation, don’t be scared off, my OCD-like tendencies have forced me to put them into some sort of logical order. Closer to these words you will find the most obvious or accessible, and the more left-field, obscure and unlikely are towards the bottom. As if I even need to mention it, but they’re all predictably brilliant, in my personal opinion, so if you don’t agree then just assume that you’re wrong and move on (for the avoidance of doubt, my tongue is in my cheek). I should also say that I’d love to write many a rambling paragraph on all of them, but one of the things about time is that there is just simply not enough of it. Fact. Over the year, though, we’re going to be following these artists and letting you know whether they prefer Frosties or Corn Flakes, why they chose the name that they chose, which other artists they sound like, and all of those other little details that any music lover needs.

Just to be clear, there were absolutely no criteria, with the one exception that Brother, Mona, and anyone else who is written about purely because men in suits threw cash at them had to be excluded, deleted from my iTunes, and their drum kits stolen to stop the noise. The final measure did not quite go according to plan, though. So instead, fill your ears with the below to keep them safe; 18 new artists who have the potential to make our years. And if they don’t Radiohead will, so it’s win-win.

Fixers – Iron Deer Dream

Kyla La Grange -Vampire Smile

Foster The People – Helena Beat

Sparkadia – Mary

Wooden Heart by The Kill Van Kulls 

Face In by Dutch Uncles

Serious Lover by Solid Gold Dragons

Niki And The Dove: Winterheart

Sometimes It Kills by Visions of Trees

Wise Blood – BIG EGO

Moddi – Magpie Eggs

Evan Voytas – Tomorrow Night We’ll Go Anywhere

Zoo Kid – Ocean Bed

Ensoniq Funk by Chad Valley

Miarches by Forest Swords

No Clear Reason by Gang Colours

Pariah – Railroad

I could go on forever, so I should stop. If this shows anything, it’s just that posting 10 new acts for 2011 that you’re excited just can’t be enough because, in reality, no matter how good 3 demos are, nobody could have really known that the Drums’ record would turn out more tepid than… tepid water. Or that Sleigh Bells’ album would have turned out to be one of the best of the year. If anything, that just makes the prospect of how things are going to turn out this year just that bit more exciting… Following them all closely… But not as menacingly as that sounds…

Foreword: I’ve been out of education for so long that I think I’ve forgotten how to spell and those tricky little buggers like full stops and that so bear (bare? blurgh…) with me.

Well… I guess I sort of have to admit that I started writing this post as a reaction to the BBC’s Sound of 2011 longlist announcement, which was whenever that happened, most of the days have blended into one so I’m not too hot with months and weeks anymore which is equal parts liberating and cripplingly impractical for all of its romantic attraction. Most of the trouble is that I now live here and get paid this to do this, and clearly have been spending the rest of my time learning how to abuse wordpress to waste your time in mildly-amusing, vaguely off topic wanderings.

Speaking of abusing wordpress, if that wasn’t a satisfactory excuse then let me go for the sympathy vote – as always, always happens whenever I set foot outside of a trusty internet connection, wordpress detrousered itself and waved through a hacker of a moral-less, talentless capitalist from Slough (fair enough, he’s probably depressed). He (and we’re assuming it’s a he for stereotypical-villain convenience) thought that it would be a bright idea to trick people looking for new music on a web site into giving said music web-site their credit card details. If depressed Slough resident is reading: you could probably hack this site hundreds of times, but that is never going to work seeing as the success of music blogs is based on the fact that you can get music for free, so that plan is pretty fatally flawed from the start… Cheer up and get a job, or at least steal from the government instead of the general public. Is there no integrity left in thievery?

Anyway… Just to direct us slightly towards what this post was intending to say; yesterday the BBC shocked all in the world of music-dom by announcing the Brit-schooled woman with past chart success as a writer, and present chart success with her own song (which, as far as I can tell, is only popular because Stephen Fry made it so via twitter) as the “Sound of 2011”. Call me cynical, because I am, but… Becky who is 10 and from Milton Keynes and loves X Factor and Zac Efron could have done that for them. This gave me an opportunity to pretend that I had been waiting for the announcement to unleash my own list upon the world, but I think that that dishonesty would probably put me on a level with my friend from Slough, so, instead, have it for what it is; here is a list of artists, all of whom I love, some of whom I think are going to sell some records to Becky next year, and all of whom are well worth spending 3 minutes working out whether or not you like them. You don’t even have to put your card details in, trust me, it’s a brilliant deal.

Wu Lyf – Heavy Pop by Not Many Experts

Still Corners – Endless Summer by Not Many Experts

Jai Paul – BTSU by Hypetrak

Clock Opera – A Piece of String (Radio Edit) by Not Many Experts

Penguin Prison – The Worse It Gets by Not Many Experts

Esben and the Witch – Marching Song by morrisday

Georgia by Yuck

Cults – Go Outside by Hypetrak

MNDR – C.L.U.B by Not Many Experts

Porcelain Raft – Tip of Your Tongue by ITCManchester

Smith Westerns – Weekend by forcefieldpr

Twin Sister: Lady Daydream (Cassette Version) by SUPMAG

Have A Heart by Lonely Galaxy

Blow It Up by The Vaccines

FOE & Com Truise

FOE – A Handsome Stranger Called Death (Com Truise RMX) by Com Truise

Jonquil – Fighting Smiles by 1FTP

‘Ghost Train’ by Summer Camp by seaninsound

James Blake – Limit To Your Love by TheDropFather

Adele – Rolling in the Deep (Jamie XX Remix) by dynmk

Trophy Wife – Microlite by Not Many Experts

Tennis – Take Me Somewhere by forcefieldpr

Entrepreneurs – Hunting Roger Rabbit by Not Many Experts

Chapel Club – The Shore by Not Many Experts

D/R/U/G/S ‘Love/Lust’ by wearemachinemusic

Beaty Heart – Cola by Not Many Experts

Gauntlet Hair – Heave. by Not Many Experts

Is Tropical – South Pacific by Addict Music

Benjamin Francis Leftwich – Atlas Hands by Authority Communications

Back to Back by wolfgang

Grouplove – ‘Colours’ by Tim Chester NME

I’ve been trying to write this post for a while. Truth is, Wise Blood’s music is so unlike anything I’ve heard before it really needs to be heard to be believed. Its mix of soulful vocals, sampling, r&b beats, blues guitar, electronics and even unexplained background noise sounds, in theory, a worse idea than New Labour’s fiscal policy. “B.I.G. E.G.O.”, though, sounds like the template of a future avenue for music. It’s definitely a combination of sounds much more worth exploring than the drudgery of witch-house, and even if it doesn’t catch on, we’re still excited about Wise Blood’s future, because he’s one oddly-minded musician who’s eccentricities are making some of the most pioneering pop music we’re hearing at the moment. Either we’re just spending far too long repetitively watching the trailer for the new Harry Potter film, or this guy’s seriously exciting. Possibly both, decide for yourself.

Wise Blood – B.I.G. E.G.O.

Wise Blood – SOLO (‘4’ CLAIRE)

The new single from Wise Blood is out on Transparent mid November. Which, officially, is now, so it may well be available to buy if you have any money left from the start of the month. If not, a couple of hour’s energetic busking should get you where you need to be.