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Read moreName: Mini Mansions Track name: Vertigo (ft Alex Turner) Hometown: Los Angeles Who? Queens of the Stone Age’s Michael Shuman, plus Zach Dawes, Tyler Parkford and a cheeky Monkey. Why now? This track, featuring a little help from the Arctic Monkeys frontman, appears on Mini Mansions new album The Great Pretenders, which came out on […]
Read moreDark cabaret from Brighton currently wowing musicians and comedians everywhere. Hometown: Brighton. The lineup: Ben Richards and Georgia Train. The background: If those ones to watch lists were based on votes from celebrities, not critics, today’s new band – duo, actually – would rank very highly indeed. Comedians love them. Stephen Fry tweeted about them, […]
Read moreGerman music machine whose songs have iconic pop elements. Hometown: Munich. The lineup: Josie Claire Burkle (vocals), Florian Kiermaier (guitar), Fidolin Achten (drums), Matthias Hauck (synths), Nepomuk Heller (synths). The background: Historically when a band has taken a simple christian or surname – the Smiths, James, Raymonde – it has signalled an intention on the […]
Read moreNomadic American produces album of superbly blurry, lush indie pop about life and love. Hometown: Brooklyn. The lineup: Jordan Lee (vocals, instruments), plus assorted musicians including Andrew Morehart, Katie Pierce, Bradley Will, Marc Merza and Samuel Yager. The background: “Look, this is a bloody great Sunday record,” wrote a Mancunian friend in an email on, […]
Read moreDirty ’80s funk revisited from an outfit much loved by Prince. Hometown: Boston, MA. The lineup: Fredua “Dua” Boakye (vocals), Sheel Davé (drums), Salim Akram (guitar), Graham Masser (bass), Santiago Araujo (guitar). The background: Like that other new-ish soul-dance outfit Quadron, Bad Rabbits have been around for a while but this is being touted as […]
Read moreHe’s the psych-soul brother stoned on ethereal jazzy grooves. Hometown: Forest Hill, London. The lineup: Andrew Ashong (vocals, music). The background: Sam Smith is this year’s winner of the BRIT’s Critics’ Choice award, which puts him at the commercial vanguard of a new soul wave. There were, at last count, around two dozen emerging male […]
Read moreModern-day purveyor of power ballads. Fully expect a semi, if not total, eclipse of the heart. Hometown: London. The lineup: Molly Beanland (voice, music). The background: Last Friday night we stood for several hours in the Electric Ballroom in London as 1,500 people went gaga, not to Lady Gaga, no, to a succession of ’80s […]
Read moreAustralian falsetto crooner discovers commercial value in aching sadness and wintry desolation. Hometown: Los Angeles. The lineup: Ry Cuming (vocals, music). The background: If you were wondering who the desolate-sounding singer with the Bon Iver-ish falsetto was on the new Sony Bravia TV advert and you couldn’t get SoundHound to work, it’s Ry Cuming. He’s […]
Read moreThey’re signed to Julian Casablancas’ label, they’re on tour with Albert Hammond Jr, and they sound like an ’80s synth-rock Strokes. Hometown: Mexico City. The lineup: Diego Solorzano, Rodrigo Blanco and Andres Velasco. The background: Rey Pila means “King Battery” in Spanish. You will learn little about the band Rey Pila from this. They are […]
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