Music writer Chris Parkin tells us who we should be listening to in 2012…
To predict that Lana Del Rey, Emeli Sandé, Frank Ocean and Azealia Banks will hit pay dirt in 2012 is almost as pointless as Paris Hilton’s foray into dance music with the abominable house monster David Guetta. So instead of telling you what you already know, here are a handful of bands, rappers and highfalutin synth trios who deserve whatever attention you’ve not already spent on the Big Four…
Toy
A London five-piece who deliver their hard-driving, glowering, synth-inflected big-sky post-punk with all the elan of peak-period Echo & The Bunnymen and all those other brilliant trench coat-clad bands of the early-80s who were fond of paisley-coloured psychedelia and Krautrock. Toy wooed all and sundry when they supported The Horrors in 2011.
Porcelain Raft
Secretly Canadian keep turning out fine bands. Last year they gave us The War On Drugs and Little Scream, and this year the label will be hailed for releasing Italian-born, London-based Mauro Remiddi’s bleary-eyed dream-pop. His sepia-tinted vaporous debut album Strange Weekend – think Beach House and Cocteau Twins – is heavy on melancholy and regret and is inspired by Twin Peaks and his travels (including a trip to North Korea as a child). He supports M83 on Anthony Gonzalez’s upcoming tour.
Factory Floor
Hands-down the best live band in Britain. Certainly the most banging, euphoric and in-yer-face brilliant anyway. The north London trio’s stern wall-of-sound techno has already met with approval from all known websites and publications, plus DFA Records, who released their latest head-dizzying single Two Different Ways.
Dillon
Something a little different from Ellen Allien’s Bpitch Control imprint: Dillon is 23-year-old, Berlin-based Dominique Dillon de Byington and her stock-in-trade is compellingly bleak singer-songwriterly fare channeled through a laptop and employing a wintry armory of glitch, keys, finger pops and sighing accordions. Her debut album This Silence Kills is explicitly but coldly emotional – and all sorts of wonderful.
Main Attraktionz
Oakland, California’s self-styled Best Duo Ever (Mondre MAN and Squadda Bambino) moved on from their lo-fi beginnings with 2011’s 808s & Dark Grapes II. Newly buffed and shiny, their low-slung, sample-heavy, laidback “cloud rap” (see also Future and Danny Brown) is slowly morphing into a screwy take on the roof-down G-funk sound – only with surreal, melancholy verses and the sort of sentimentality usually only heard in soft rock. It’s a curious thing.
François and the Atlas Mountains
This Gallic band’s chief protagonist is set to become the second most famous Francois From La Rochelle – the first, of course, being that character in French school textbook Tricolore. His new album E Volo Love (released by Domino) is a hypnotically woozy thing that weaves together chanson pop, The Pastels, lilting African guitars and flighty electronics, and it’s one of the loveliest things you’ll hear all year.
Django Django
They’ve been around for a while now but 2012 will see this London trio release their self-titled debut album – a wonky ear-worming record chock-full of shuffling psych-pop mantras that place them right at the heart of a Venn diagram drawn up with Link Wray, Can and early The Beta Band. In fact, the band’s drummer, Dave Maclean, is the younger brother of one of The Beta Band and they share a similarly out-there space-cadet spirit, using household objects and coconut halves in their music.
Want more?
- More music on redbull.com
- Follow Chris Parkin on Twitter
- AWOLNATION's Not Your Fault music video
- Previous Red Bull music blogs
Comments
Add a comment