Not Many Experts

There are a couple of reasons why we really shouldn’t be writing this post. First off, we’re not exactly the biggest fans of remixes because the popularity of the remix back from the days of Justice seem to have created a culture where a remix is just a method of promotion for record labels, rather than a creative outlet for artists. We’re also grumpy Radiohead doom-mongerers who haven’t exactly been subscribing to the euphoric disco/electro hybrid that Australia’s happy inhabitants have been pumping out recently.

However… If there’s one exception to our ban on happy Australian music, then it’s Strange Talk. And their new remix of Wolf Gang’s “Dancing With The Devil” is, actually, a perfect match for his music. So we’re pretty confident that, yeah, sure, it’s some great promotion for both artists, but if they were to choose who to remix/remixed by, they couldn’t do any better than to choose each other. It might not change the world but, whatever, it’s summer (almost), sunny (almost) and (almost) brilliant.

Wolf Gang – Dancing With The Devil (Strange Talk Remix) by Not Many Experts

Whilst we’re on the subject, we’d better be conscientious and let you know a couple of potentially useful things that you should know. First off, if you want to make a premature judgement of debut album “Suego Faults” then a 5-track sampler is just below, featuring 5 tracks that we’ve already heard, with the production pumped up slightly subtly. But if you’d rather judge him by all of his material then, yes, he’s still performing at LSC, for which wristbands are still available. Can’t complain about that.

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I do believe that this constitutes almost conclusive proof that signing to a major label (Atlantic in this case) does not make it necessary to turn to shit and spend the rest of your career pumping out whatever “sound” it is that your record label is telling you to follow.

Furthermore, I think that the fact that Atlantic have signed Wolf Gang can be taken as scientific evidence that the depression has ended. This time last year, those being signed were people like La Roux who were 100% guaranteed success. Wolf Gang, however, despite being ridiculously more talented than La Roux, is not so sure of success. Therefore the recession has ended. Hooray.

Wolf Gang – Back To Back

This song also conveys almost exactly how I feel now. But that’s kind of irrelevant. Which is why I wrote it all the way down here. If you’re still reading, that’s just dedication – well played.

As you know, each year the BBC publishes a list of 15 artists who their panel of experts have decided are going to be haemorrhaging gold bullion by this time next year. Unsurprisingly, these longlists are always incredibly, even suspiciously, accurate. Take, for example, last year’s list; all of the artists who were named have gone on to have incredibly successful years. Of course, the exception to this rule is Master Shortie, who has gone on to make himself the target of unfair, but very enjoyable, jokes. Poor bloke. And why is this? Well, to a certain extent, these lists are a self prophecy; of course, if the UK’s music press and music labels think you are going to be successful, then they’re very likely to spread their money covered tentacles and make sure that you don’t prove them wrong! Unfortunately, what this all points to is the predictability of the music industry . If label bosses and press can get together at the end of any given year, and accurately (with the exception of Master Shortie again, sorry bud) predict what’s going to sell well over the next year, then it seems to demonstrate that it is the music industry itself that is deciding what music millions of people are going to be listening to.

Of course, if you are reading this, then, as someone who actively seeks out new music that isn’t being peddled to you by one of our Saab driving executives via their connections with radio or media, then you are already a step closer to circumventing the whole thing. That said, many of last year’s top 15 were artists who had been introduced to you by blogs a long time ago… But you are not in the same category as the class of music consumers who do just that… they don’t listen to music, they consume it. They consume anything that’s presented to them; the thing that a record company A&R has told Radio 1 is going to be huge, that Radio 1 has played to death, that all of their friends are talking about. In many cases, there’s little discrimination involved; they’re presented with bland, inoffensive, but vaguely likeable music, and they go for it. No effort, no risk involved.

I’ve already said that music blogs are by no means exempt from this condemnation in that the hype often outweighs the material. Sure, listening trends in the virtual world are from from perfect, and far from the influence of hype, but at least people who read blogs are being critical and considering the music that they are listening to. Where’s this all going? Well, a couple of places, really. Firstly, it’s just to urge you not to be one of those puppets and not to assume that 1000 hearts next to a track on hypem.com is undeniable proof that you are in the presence of 2009’s answer to “Stairway To Heaven”. More likely, Simon from Kent illegally downloaded Ableton Live, munched on some Class C drugs and had a hell of a time messing up MGMT’s hair. Secondly, I felt very much like it was necessary for my own ego to establish why I feel superior to people who, in my opinion, listen to awful music. Mission accomplished. And it feels good.

Thirdly… Thirdly and most importantly, though, was to try to see how predictable this whole predictable process is! I’ve been carefully concocting an immaculately organised Excel spreadsheet for a while now, attempting to predict the artists that the BBC are going to predict are going to be big. Crazy, right? Sort of, but if this list turns out to contain some of the BBC’s choices, then it will go some way to pointing out the insane pre-determined nature of the music industry. If it doesn’t, well, then I’ll be genuinely glad that the whole thing isn’t so predictable. In this effort, I also sought the enlightened opinions of Pretty Much Amazing, Sheena Beaston, The Stu Reid Experiment , Breaking More Waves and Too Many Sebastians who have made some additions to the list. I can’t ignore Neon Gold either, since this entire list is based on their seemingly endless wisdom. In a way, I guess, this is like a musical experiment, that could quite possibly go wrong. And if the names below are completely off target, then all you will be left with is one unfathomably brilliant “ones to watch for 2010” list. Everyone wins? Yeah, everyone wins unless I come out looking like a massive cock… (In this eventuality, I blame all of the other blogs, useless idiots!)

The criteria for the BBC’s list is simple: the artist must not have had a top 20 hit in the UK, have released an album yet or be well known from a reality TV show. I’ve divided the candidates into three categories: Outside Chance for artists who have created some hype that has not yet really been consolidated into much success yet, Good Possibility for the talented and hyped artists who have started to deliver great songs, and (Almost) Dead Certainty for those artists who the BBC are very likely to include.

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