Another year, another BBC Sound of… list and another joyless trawl through people who not only sound-a-like, also didn’t pack some tunes.
Savages? Interesting, cool early Siouxsie refs but can we have something more please like Oliver?
King Krule aka Zoo Kid (the one who Tom Robinson I think keeps talking about along with Jake Bugg) – interesting hybrid but do we need a James Blake/Bragg?
HAIM – sadly the Telegraph used the Holy Mac in comparison which might have turned me against them since they actually sound like Heart. And that’s not a good thing.
Alunageorge sound so Hoxton their plaid and beards are slightly showing, but sounds like if Tweet met a producer who heard a dubstep track once far far away and tried to recreate it without any subs…hmm. Clever but strangely soulless. And odd I should LOVE this post-dubstep shizzle…but you need some soul in that equation, as Bobby Womack proved.
So it’s strange when all of the usual ‘experimental’ or ‘indie’ genres fail, it falls to pop to save the day. Here’s A*M*E who did at least pack some tunes before leaving the house. RESULT! It is strange that the most radical music tends to be either in the very underground IDM/indie worlds (yer One Oh Trix Point Nevers, yer microscenes) or in the spotlight of pop where novelty is king. There doesn’t seem to be an in-between at the moment…was listening to M83 trying to find whether there was a there, there. Not sure. Can you even remember a lyric from that album? Odd nice tune but it all sounds alike.
I do think there is a big thing on the way because there is a stultifyingness in the supposedly ‘radical’ scenes which says a back-to-basics (not a Rolling Stones recreation though, PLEASE!) or a new thing is on the way. When the most popular thing is going to record in L.A. you know you’re in trouble (Pet Shop Boys, M83). Or maybe a return to credible pop?
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