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.)

As a rule; free things are always, constantly and without exceptions absolutely depressing. By definition, they’re usually designed to make you buy other things which, obviously, is detestably sneaky and therefore worthy of hate. They’re almost by some unwritten rule of thriftiness underwhelming and weak, like that Chemical Brothers “album” of remixes by drugged up bedroom hermits that the Sunday Times seems to give away every week, and that watered-down free shot of beer brewed solely to force you to feel guilty about not buying an entire bottle. In fact, the only free thing that I’ve received recently that packed a punch was, literally, a punch in the face from a terrifyingly furious chav for trying to protect my idiotic friend who, quite predictably, had made some sort of perhaps unnecessary comment about said chav’s mother. I preferred it to the shot of beer, anyway.

I’ll have to admit at this point that I am actually lying. The term “without exceptions” above was probably misleading. There is an exception. Now, I think you probably know where this is heading. Except I’m not going to lead this into an anticlimax by giving you away a free impotent remix of a fey, untalented indie band who’s manager happens to be an old friend of mine. Downloading music for free, legally, is no longer new or exciting. Thousands of artists are struggling to grab your attention right now, each one trying to convince you to steal their music with their consent like some sort of musical self-flagellation that has become necessary to build a following of interneted music geeks, but I can barely remember the last time that a free EP was worth the listening time alone, let alone two enormous paragraphs of frankly irrelevant pre-amble.

London’s rising producer of the minute Entrepreneurs has definitely changed those perceptions. Of course we’d seen the name flung across all of the right places, and recently come across him again in the guise of FOE’s producer, but not once did we consider that it was possible he’d release an EP of ball-swallowingly terrifying industrial pop that, quite simply, is the most original, breathless and focussed EP we’ve heard all year. Somehow, it manages to be both as accessible as Lady Gaga pummelling her record label execs to death with the heel of her shoe and weirder than, well, Lady Gaga. For that feat alone you are sort of obliged to download the EP. And if you don’t agree with us, well, you can have your money back; because this is 100% guaranteed to be better than a punch in the face, but hit you just as hard.

Entrepreneurs – Hunting Roger Rabbit by NotManyExperts

I get myself into this situation often. I’ll try to claim that I’m just making attempts at achieving some sort of perfect-seasonal alignment for the tone of the band name, but the truth probably lies nearer to my being quite busy most of the time. So I feel stuck between feeling like I should have posted about Summer Camp a few months back, and being “too late” and just bandwagon jumping. But the whole one-upmanship of trying to post about bands before everybody else is blatantly ridiculous. So it’s late. But it’s here.

The unpretentiously shining pop music that Summer Camp are making sounds like all of those teenage summer months condensed into three minute rays of burning nostalgia, fleshed out with a sense of purpose, not-giving-a-fuck and bursting raw drums that all pull them back from the wrong side of twee and excessively sentimental. That said, if you’re looking to exercise your macho-ears then you’re better off slobbering over the knuckle dragging legacy of Britpop; Summer Camp are unapologetically fey at times, but their bravery to attempt something completely different is far bolder than aping 1995, and as a result they are only something to be admired. And if they’re anything like as good live as we have been hearing, then it won’t be long before every crevice on the internet will be declaring their keyboard based love. Bleeding bandwagon jumpers.

Summer Camp – Montgomery Avenue 1984

Summer Camp – Was It Worth It

Summer Camp – Ghost Train

Without a doubt; the most exciting new band I’ve heard all year. Now I don’t want to plunge into hyperbole, although I might have done already, but equally I’m just worried that I won’t be able to do this song justice. Lucky, then, that with the internet and various crafty little plugins what I say is actually quite irrelevant because you can listen to Trophy Wife’s “Microlite” yourself and then try and find words to describe its soaring Foals-ian disco pummelling.

Comparisons to Foals are, I hope I have proved, inevitable, yet they go beyond a shared heritage in Oxford and actually practicing in the rooms next-door to Foals’ house (apparently Yannis used to trot round and ask, very politely we imagine, if Trophy Wife could turn down that fucking racquet). Luckily, the noises that Trophy Wife were making were not a racquet, illustrated by the 3 songs present on their myspace, which we were directed towards by this writing here.

Well, this is the end of the post. I’m conscious that I started with a promise to avoid hyperbole, yet the amateur music journalist in me is screaming out to just call them “the best new band in Britain” or state that they “will be on the cover of NME within months” and be done with it, but we’re just too early on to be making assertions like that. Yet this isn’t what matters; if the tracks we’ve heard prove anything, it’s simply that Trophy Wife have the talent and potential to go that far if circumstances combine to carry them. Grounded and boring, but true. Sorry.

Trophy Wife – Microlite by NotManyExperts

Although Tanlines’ recent EP “Settings” is more irritating than it is consistent, its one redeeming feature is the magnificent “Real Life”. But even as redeeming features go, this is one pretty special punch of afro-disco, with a coasting chorus that’s as infectious as MRSA, if slightly less deadly. Here’s hoping that the expected album will deliver the fatal blow.

Must of these posts centre around the unlikely premise that we know exactly what is going to happen in the “music industry” in the next few months, but this one, focusing in on Brooklyn two piece Savoir Adore, is more of a confession that we’ve completely missed what’s been going on. Whilst we were still trying to figure out whether Hurts were an evil tentacle of a major label or a genuinely decent pop duo (verdict: more evil than Darth Hitler on mephedrone; consistently shit boy-band-rejected songs dressed up as cutting edge “Italo Pop” only confirm how pretentious, talentless and contrived they are) back last September, Savoir Adore released their debut album “In The Wooded Forest”. Casting our eyes back to what the internet was saying about them back then, it seems that all the right people with their eyes in all the right places were of the opinion that Savoir Adore were the best thing to happen to the Brooklyn music scene, well, ever.

As I said, at the time we were wasting precious minutes scouting out obscure Hurts songs, so we have only recently come to this conclusion. There are a couple of important points to make, though. Firstly, I’m pretty sure that Savoir Adore actually floated under most people’s radars, and are only just picking up pace after some great SXSW performances. Secondly, we do have the chance to repent as April 26th sees the release of their debut UK single, “Bodies”. To all those not in the UK, well, sorry, but you’re going to hell.

To call Savoir Adore an “indie” band could barely be more of an insult, but is just about the long and short of it. Though to most of us the word “indie” conjures up unpleasant memories of a foolish youth listening to major label approved spotty kids with telecasters and bad jokes, Brooklyn just doesn’t do things that way. Fortunately, Savoir Adore are more interested in brilliantly soaring melodies and enormous amounts of variation and originality than embarrassing haircuts and repetitive power chords. Creativity literally falls out of every song like an alcoholic out of a pub. But with more finesse.

If you have managed to avert your gaze from their steady rise to recognition then let the couple of mp3s below end that. No excuse exists; you can download three of their songs for free here. Finally, I’ve just found out that the debut album was never released in the UK, and its actual physical release is pencilled in for 5th July. Music related hell narrowly averted, no redemption necessary. Now officially New Noise, and one of our highest hopes for the year.

Savoir Adore – We Talk Like Machines

Savoir Adore – The Garden

The premise of it is less than attractive. Dubstep infused ethereal pop. Nothing could sound more like it was simultaneously humping the success of The xx and dubstep in general. When you read it all down in words, anyway, it just sounds unbelievably contrived. Like a balding A&R executive at one of our beloved majors has mind-mapped out what is “cool” today to a room full of excessively earnest interns and spineless phallus massagers and sent them out to assemble the most relevant group possible.

However, one listen to Glass Animals’ “Golden Antlers” and all cynicism will evaporate. Whilst it may be tentatively stepping into corners of music that haven’t been completely explored before, there’s nothing contrived about it. In fact, with dubstep spreading its influence further and further into pop music, it was only a matter of time before bands starting following The xx’s lead and pushing things a little further.

All this endlessly sought after “progression” would be completely worthless were it not for the fact that Glass Animals are writing some of the most touching and affecting songs that I’ve had the pleasure of encountering recently. Striking a mix between the acoustic and digital with the same success that made “xx” so essential, Glass Animals are without a doubt one of the most exciting prospects in new music today. I’m not the only one to think so either, the music industry is understandably interested and These New Puritans’ manager is rightfully keeping a close eye on them. Forget whoever it may be that you’re being told to get excited about right now, bands like Glass Animals occur very rarely and a properly-headphoned listen to “Golden Antlers” should confirm why they deserve the attention that is sure to come.

Glass Animals – Golden Antlers

Got to say that I think “Rad Pitt” is the absolute worst way you can introduce yourselves to the incredibly talented Egyptian Hip Hop. Not that it’s a bad song, and it’s perhaps purposefully laid back, but it does drift from being lazily brilliant to just sluggish, in parts, though it’s easy to see bags of potential if it’s tightened up, and we should remember that we are just listening to early demos. To be fair, I think I’d almost be more disappointed if their early demos were strangely polished, finished pieces of music; the possibilities with this band are endless.

If anything, that early potential has already been realised in their first release, which you can exchange your meaningless human pounds for on 1st March. Far from the languid stroll through their own musical ability that “Rad Pitt” was, “Heavy Heaven” and “Hazel Groove” nail down a complete and confident sound without forcing themselves into a constraining pigeon hole too early on in their very young career. From this incredibly textured foray into subtly electronic tinged indie, not only does further success beckon, but, most importantly, almost anything is possible. It’s almost that lack of knowledge of which way the band are going to turn next that marks them out from their contemporaries, and possibly explains why so many people are beginning to have their heads turned from this extraordinary young band.

Egyptian Hip Hop – Hazel Groove by Pure Groove

Egyptian Hip Hop – Heavy Heaven (Demo)

Pre-order the EP from Pure Groove here, could be worth a lot of money in a year’s time!

I’m pretty sure we didn’t forget to mention this, but we’re now on Twitter so follow us for extra news and information!

Recently was on the receiving end of a mysterious e-mail from a PR that was completely empty, save for an attached mp3 from a band called The Shimmer. If anything, the absence of a laboured description was far more interesting, and didn’t run the risk of pissing me off within three stubbornly contrived sentences. Taught me a couple of things really. Primarily that mystery is preferable to bad English, but also that this accidental form of music PR is, actually, far more effective than throwing the dictionary at music. I guess that this could be why music journalism is far more effective online, where you can listen to/download whatever is having the thesaurus poured out onto it.

Unsurprisingly, turned out that it was a mistake, but the unpretentious “No Surprise At All” had stirred my interest enough to reply to said e-mail, and I eventually received the usual sentence or two. Ironically, although the lack of wording had initially interested me, the paragraph that I eventually received was equally intriguing; not only is “No Surprise At All” unhinged rock & roll to overpower bland and heartless radio fodder, but the single was likely to actually be appreciated, as it turns out that the song will be released on Hit Club (Wolf Gang, Egyptian Hip Hop, Is Tropical, May 68) in the near future. Stumbled across the future of both ecstatically sincere rock & roll and music PR in the space of a couple of e-mails. Efficiency.

The Shimmer – No Surprise At All

The Shimmer – Lovers Void

If you can make grainy, speaker-splitting demos sound just inches away from air-wave humping singles within a year of forming, then you might just be a couple of lucky breaks away from success. You might just be Is Tropical as well – the latest Londoners to lift themselves out of their squats (without correcting stylishly messy hair) to carve strangely accessible tunes out of noise-covered creativity. Got to apologise for the sound quality of these demos, but the bit-rate really is irrelevant; the tunes are there, so if a wise A&R decides to chuck some notes at them, then who knows what could come of them.

Is Tropical – I’ll Take My Chances (demo)

Is Tropical – I Think We’re Alone (demo)

PS – If you’re around the Liverpool area then you can catch them without digging into your pockets for any shrapnel (ie, free) at Mojo next Monday, 8th Feb. And if you really like them, or their hair, or both, then you can watch it all over again after you’ve forked over a tenner to the good people at Evol to see them with New Young Pony Club on Friday, March 26th.

Sigh. “MEN is a Brooklyn-based band and art/performance collective that focuses on the energy of live performance and radical potential of dance music. MEN speaks to issues such as wartime economies, sexual compromise, and demanding liberties.” Oh. Lord. Thank God I didn’t read anything about MEN before I was completely won over by their stomping mélange of The Rapture, Friendly Fires, New Young Pony Club, Hot Chip and just about any other band from the past 5 years who have strayed dangerously close to the notoriously unsuccessful rock/dance cross-over.

The thing is, despite their biography pretentiously claiming that they are slowly solving the world’s biggest problems one by one (as a zany art collective, of course), “Off Our Backs” just sounds an outrageously catchy ode to sex that should be shaking the walls at Radio 1. Misleading press release aside, though, “Off Our Backs” is a completely essential foray into treacherous rock/dance territory, and its strength is solidly backed up by two other tracks that are currently circulating; “Simultaneously” and “Credit Card Babies”. They keep knocking out tunes like these, and they’re going to have to put saving the world on the backburner for a minute so that they can lay down an entire album of this completely undeniable brilliance. Count us both converted sceptics, and insanely excited too see how this unfolds.

MEN – Off Our Backs

MEN – Simultaneously

PS: Apologies for the short absence – I had to turn 18 and then put myself through a Chemistry exam. Painful.

PPS: In other vaguely related Not Many Experts news, I got interviewed by Stylish Kids In Riot about the music industry/blogs/“the future” etc etc. You can read it here, if it so tickles you.

MNDR is the latest lone female to be branded with the flung-around “genuine star” label, and cynical as I may be about the ability of people to forecast this, it just feels right with MNDR. Not only is she effortlessly charismatic, a proud instrument-geek and an extraordinarily talented musician (she writes pop songs for a publishing company), but her calling card “C.L.U.B” exemplifies the perfect balance between kooky charm and radio rollicking accessibility. In short, like Uffie backed by DJ Mehdi. If Mehdi was on an as-of-yet undiscovered top form, and Uffie could hold down a brain thieving chorus. Consider our brains well and truly stolen – we don’t even mind calling MNDR a “genuine star”, and given the apparent label interest, it might not be so long before the potential becomes a reality.

MNDR – C.L.U.B

MNDR MySpace

Whilst I was doing some reading about MNDR, I came across this new interview on Sheena Beaston. It’s a really quality interview so do have a look.

Having browsed through a hefty chunk of the available literature on Baby Monster, I hesitate to mention MGMT, as pretty much every piece I read compared the two bands. However, at the risk of spreading a cliché, it’s genuinely the case that MGMT sprung to mind before I had read a single word on Baby Monster.

In fact, “Ultra Violence And Beethoven” immediately sprung out at me as a spaced out version of Soulwax’s remix of “Kids”. And whilst it may be true that Baby Monster share with them a knack for unforgettable choruses, they set themselves apart with sly intricacies and the much under-appreciated art of building tension. As “Ultra Violence And Beethoven” confirms, Baby Monster are one of the most exciting new bands around and are completely stuffed with potential, it’s just up to them which way they choose to take it. Superstardom one way lies, without a doubt.

Baby Monster – Ultra Violence And Beethoven

PS, think that I found this at the brilliant Nialler9 – and if you’re interested in new music, then you really should add that blog to your daily read. Whilst you’re at it, you may as well bookmark ours as well.

Tripped up on this a few days ago on the ever impressive Illegal Tender, and it’s been brilliantly abusing my ears ever since. According to a few dubious sources who we’re not completely sure if we should trust, their particular strand of melodic electro pop (that’s not all too far away from Fenech-Soler or Friendly Fires) has been turning major label heads, and exposure for the anonymous London band is burgeoning following a flurry of blog support in the past few days. Blog support and label interest or not, what’s important is that “Trading Alibis”, in particular, is bloody fantastic and is not only surprisingly confident given the short gestation period, but is also rammed with potential. Eagerly awaiting more news.

Velo – Trading Alibis

Velo MySpace

Whilst their skinny-jean-suffocated contemporaries are still attempting to find a chord that will make them sound like The Libertines without being labelled “landfill indie” (the conveniently condescending tag that literally has the power to end the careers of shit bands everywhere),  Neon-Gold-adored Monarchy are pounding the streets of the capital trying to find the perfect synthesis of pop and dance music.

Somehow putting together the best bits of both the much babbled about “chillwave” genre and Girls Aloud’s most recent Xenomania-produced material, and producing something that is strangely neither as bland as Girls Aloud nor as pretentious and Pitchfork massaging as “chillwave” (blurgh), Monarchy seem to have already found that perfect balance. Staggeringly, these early demos not only carry the polish of the finished product, but have been stained and programmed with the subtleties and quirks that lift them beyond simply being a major’s next big target. Both style and substance, then, and a very bright talent for 2010.

Monarchy – Gold In The Fire (Demo)

Monarchy – The Phoenix Alive (Demo)

PS; we’re trying to cut down on our Neon Gold addiction, but it’s proving difficult. You can see our efforts on the bottom right of any page, with our new blogroll – proof that we don’t just read Neon Gold. And yes, again, when I say “we”, I mean “I”. Sorry. Force of habit.

Haunting to the point of being completely fixating, Samuel & The Dragon are getting nods from all the right sorts of slightly-depressed music journalists. Indeed, the exemplary Moshi Moshi Singles Club (launch pad of Bloc Party, Friendly Fires, Florence & The Machine amonst many other esteemed artists) recently released their debut single, “Diamonds On A Boat”. Whilst we all have a particularly soft spot for free mp3s, I’m going to hold off posting that out of respect for Moshi Moshi. Sorry for being such a push-over, but enjoy the video of said single below.

Anyway, the equally melancholic “Rising Up” is available for your slightly-less-illegal pleasures. Far from being yet another overly-emoting Londoner racked with the unbearable guilt and depression of once accidently running over a squirrel, Samuel & The Dragon’s songs resonate perfectly with anyone who has a bit of human left in them, and are kept humming by an intriguing experimentalism that emerges via the subtle electronics (see the drum and bass tinge in “Rising Up” or the whirrs, clicks and buzzes of “Diamonds On A Boat”). It has almost become a cliché, but Samuel & The Dragon are truly spellbinding, and though we’re only two songs in with Samuel & The Dragon, I’m already completely taken by them.

Samuel And The Dragon – Rising Up

If Florence fronted the xx… It would be quite brilliant, and quite like this. Expecting big things from Esben & The Witch in 2010. Not in the La Roux’s sell-lots-of-average-records vein of “big”, but more down the xx’s “universally acclaimed, but not quite munching on cash” route. Quite shocking that I managed to mention the xx twice in the previous three sentences, and if that isn’t persuasion enough to get involved with Esben & The Witch, then they’re just not for you.

Esben And The Witch – About This Peninsula

Esben And The Witch – Marching Song

PS the “New Noise” posts are pretty much a reaction to me realising that the “Charting Within Months” series was leaving out loads of great artists that are never going to graze the top 40, to their credit.