Not Many Experts

A certain amount of time ago that feels like last week, Liverpool Sound City announced the third addition of artists to the line up. Now, it’s a week later (you could have worked that out), and I’m still as excited an A&R who’s just met a band of malleable, integrity-lacking, but good looking indie lads with guitars and that, so I was forced to conclude that whether or not you’re up for the trek up to Liverpool, spilling some words on 5 of the most en-vogue and exciting British indie artists, and, err, the Young Knives, just couldn’t be a bad thing to do.

Trophy Wife

Moshi Moshi have an extensively brilliant roster, but we have to be honest, and as soon as we saw the words ‘Moshi Moshi showcase’, two words sprang to mind – Trophy Wife. Then some more did, like ‘soaring’ and ‘ambitious’ and ‘melodic’ and ‘we honestly don’t care if they sound anything like Foals, nothing has been more exciting in 2011 with the exception of Charlie Sheen’, but then, you probably know the standard Trophy Wife descriptions by now. If not, they took a step further into realising potential and proving expectation with the release of the “The Quiet Earth/White Horses” single on Monday, and you should definitely listen to it if you have any interest at all in soaring and ambitiously melodic indie that sounds quite like Foals. Here’s an indication of its quality: we bought it. With real money that was spent slaving away in a kitchen whilst being forced to listen to Robbie Williams. Hard earned cash, in other words.

Trophy Wife – The Quiet Earth

Dutch Uncles

Dutch Uncles confuse us, but in such a way that we’re only fascinated by their apparent attitude that typical song structures just aren’t a good idea. You get the feeling that if they met Brandon Flowers they’d dismember him and make sweet music with the severed results.  Off kilter drums still drum and bright guitars still guitar, but in ways that few others have even considered. Track by track, they’re proving that their left-field approach to guitar pop makes perfect sense, if you think about it. And if they kill Brandon Flowers in the process, we’ll definitely buy their album.

Dutch Uncles – Lovebone by Not Many Experts

Fixers

Indie credentials are earnt in a variety of ways. For instance, my fringe is so long that it falls into my mouth with the minimum of effort (this doesn’t impress as many people as it should do – do they know how many months of doing nothing this requires?), but, at the moment, there is no quicker way to find yourself onto the page of every left-of-mainstream media than being from Oxford and saying the words ‘Blessing Force’. Fixers, though, have been carving psychadelica-tinged indie-epics into the city long before it started becoming so popular. BBC introducing slots have turned into 2-page NME features, and even features on Not Many Experts, and with support like that, well, superstardom beckons. Maybe not, but there are only a few Fixers songs circulating, so if you really want to know where they’re going to end up in the economic hegemony of indie bands, you’ll just have to come and see their live set yourself.

Iron Deer Dream by Fixers.

Young Knives

Young Knives probably aren’t cool, which could be a problem because we kind of think we are, but surely it’s even cooler not to care and like un-cool bands? Isn’t that the whole premise of being truly indie? Someone ask Joe Lean, we can only aspire to be that cutting edge one of these days. Until then, we’re happy to admit that their fantastically English and eccentric debut, the musical equivalent of chatting to a druid in a pub over a pint of fish & chips, was one of our favourite albums back in the day. But then we also liked the Pigeon Detectives… This is yet more confusing than Dutch Uncles. Their forthcoming album has been talked up a lot, and is being billed an experimental step away from their rather conventional second album, so we’ll just have to get along to see them to work out whether they’re an embarrassing piece of our past or part of our musical upbringing. We’re leaning towards the latter, based only on the completely shockingly superb (shocking only in that it is so, so superb) new single, “Love My Name”.

Love My Name by Young Knives

Wolf Gang

Possibly the only indie artist to be catapulted into underground hip-hop’s consciousness due to a complicated similarity to the Gang Wolf hip hop “crew”, which is apparently a computation too far for some Tyler the Creator lovers. They’re not big fans of his chart-bound (surely?) singles, either, which is understandable – he doesn’t even threaten to kill Bruno Mars or any others who are already up there in those charts, but his truly unique voice and contagious choruses are threatening to get him there, regardless. This video of him performing his next single “Dancing With The Devil” with Kyla la Grange should remove any doubt.

Wolf Gang – Dancing With The Devil

Ed Sheeran

If “Lately” isn’t UK grime’s own “The Next Episode” by the end of this year I’ll… Do absolutely nothing, except be quite shocked. I’ll probably get over it, mind, but I find it unlikely that I’ll have to; the combination of his DIY credibility (he found his latest self-released EP in iTunes’ album chart simply through word of mouth), contemporary production, and “Lately”s accessibility will appeal to everyone but the most close-minded. Catch him here for the price of the festival wristband before you have to excavate £20 and spend the night in the company of 13 year old girls (that is not supposed to be appealing, and if you disagree, you’re either 15 or a paedophile) in order to see him.

Just as a sign of how seriously his label are taking him – I tried to upload “Lately” to SoundCloud for you, and it was pre-emptively blocked, which is something I’ve never seen before. Clearly, they’re expecting to make a load of cash from the track, and why shouldn’t they. Listen to it here, instead. Or even, this one.

Looks like you’ll be needing a festival wristband, surely?

For those of you who felt like Part I just wasn’t enough, here’s Part II to calm your nerves – because all of the best series are duologies, just like… … The Miss Congeniality series and…  the world wars? Struggling for evidence here, maybe the following music will prove that I’m right.

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…

It’s vaguely annoying me how much Fixers’ “Iron Deer Dream” sounds like Animal Collective’s “My Girls”. I probably don’t even think that they intentionally plagiarised the song (apparently they have been demoing since 2006 so it does seem unlikely). It probably doesn’t even matter either way. Nevertheless, the first couple of sentences of this post, and this one, just prove that the Oxford band, who are from the same Blessing Force art collective as Trophy Wife, Pet Moon and Jonquil, will almost always be spoke of in the same breath as Animal Collective. There are worse punishments, though. In fact, if there is one stereotype about people who use blogs that is quite near to being a certified fact, it’s that they love Animal Collective, so Fixers should have no problem raising the eyebrows of people like you.

And once they have done, they’ll have no problem retaining that interest. After 1 minute “Iron Deer Dream” stops troubling the conscience with it’s psychadelic tribute to “My Girls” and expands into a widescreen psych-rock epic that pounds and rings with the precision of Foals  but still wails like a distant relative of Animal Collective. This track alone is enough to establish that the band has enormous potential, but it’s “Who Says Boys” that is really starting to raise our interest by way of its dragging keyboards and gasped vocals. Essentially, it sounds like what Hurts should have done after “Wonderful Life”. And following a reception at In The City that is turning into widespread media coverage, who is to say that they can’t even emulate some of Hurts’ success…

Fixers – Iron Deer Dream (Download link removed by request – you can stream the mp3 through the link on the left)