Top Tips For 2010 Volume V

Hello from a cold and wet London!

Having not been brave enough to leave my flat today I thought I’d bury my head in my laptop and choose my final 2 tips for 2010.  However, I seem to have managed to embroil myself in a heart vs head battle on who to include, and not even the FA Cup Football (sorry, Soccer) match between Tottenham and Leeds Utd can distract me!

The dilemma lies with a young girl born in Wales (like yours truly) and raised in Greece, called Marina Diamondis – she goes under the name Marina And The Diamonds and I’ve decided (i think) that she’s going to be my next pick…

9. Marina And The Diamonds

So why the dilemma? Well I don’t think we can write a blog on the sound of 2010 without including this one, this year Marina Diamondis is going to be all over the place, she’s said that one of her ambitions is to perform at the MTV Awards and I dont think that’s an unlikely prospect. Marina has got balls! She’s a fiesty character who’s got a blog on her website where she’s quite happy to speak her mind and a Twitter account she’s not afraid to use…haven’t we seen all this before though? Lily Allen anyone? Quite possibly…but there’s something about her which is fresh and exciting – there’s elements of Lady Ga Ga in there I’m not going to deny (hence my football-distracting dilemma) but without the slutty image and the annoying pop songs.  However I see more of the credible/indie influences like the brilliant Regina Spektor, and her music reminds me a lot of Amanda Palmer from the Dresden Dolls – both good things in my book!  Plus, she seems to have put in the hard work herself and hasn’t been too moulded into a product by the record label (let’s face it though – these days who isn’t)

With Ellie Goulding (another of the UK’s rising stars) topping the BBC’s Sound of 2010 Poll and the continuing rise of last year’s winner, Florence & The Machine, the girls are really having their day at the moment (don’t worry I’m not going to drag up the phrase ‘Girl Power’) – or maybe there’s a chicken and egg situation going on here.

So to give you a taster, check out the brilliant video (and be prepared to be freaked out by her legs) for her last single Mowgli’s Road:

And you’ve got to check out her blog, to give the girl her dues, she’s not shy at speaking her mind and it can make some pretty entertaining reading – you might find this entry an interesting read – she seems to LOVE your country http://marinaandthediamonds.com/2009/07/why-i-love-america/

10. Fenech-Soler

One thing which screams out throughout most, if not all of these 2010 tips is the 80s! That decade which not so long ago seemed to be a mockery is not just in fashion, it’s like we’re trying to go back and do it all again…but better.

I don’t know an awful lot about Fenech-Soler, apart from a CD landing on my desk of a new single called Lies – originally I thought they may be French or Belgian or German…I don’t even know what their name means (if you do please let me know) they dont even have a Wikipedia page yet…does that mean they don’t actually exist?!  In fact they’re two brothers and a friend, Dan Soler (chicken and egg again..i’m not sure) from Peterborough, England.

Anyway, all that aside they make music which sounds like Spandau-Pet-Shop-Duran-Boys crossed with elements of bands like Friendly Fires.  You can tell they’ve spent the last few years in clubs too as they know how to write a dance record, which has led to a few different DJs and producers turning out some decent remix’s of their early singles.  They’ve even teamed up with Groove Armada for a new collaborative single, Paper Romance.  Expect to dance to Fenech-Soler at some point in 2010…and hopefully a Wikipedia page too.  I’ll leave you to chew on this one though, here’s Lies:

So that’s been our pick of the best talent emerging from the UK for 2010, but it’s been tough and inevitably we’ve had to leave some out, sorry…so, if any of those haven’t really sparked your fire then check out some of these….at least we know we’re not in for a boring year!

Chapel Club: From London – sound a bit like White Lies/Joy Division and The Horrors

Little Comets: Geordie (from Newcastle-upon-Tyne) four-piece, brought out a brilliant single, Adultery at the back end of last year and well worth checking out

Ellie Goulding: Touted as this year’s Florence & The Machine and winner of the BBC’s Sound of 2010 Poll, if you liked Little Boots, this one may be your bag

Until next time!

PS – it ended Tottenham Hotspur 2, Leeds Utd 2 in case you were wondering

-LndnCalling

10 Top Tips for 2010 – Volume I

Like musical tapas we are going to break these up into several tasty posts for your listening pleasure.

By pure coincidence the first two happen to hail from Manchester in the Northwest of England, consistently a breeding ground for the best in British music (I will return to this phenomenon in a later post).

1. Everything Everything – I’ll let them speak for themselves, except to say that the lead singer reminds me a little bit of a young Forrest Griffin (the UFC fighter)

2. Hurts

Firm believers in less is more, their myspace page is black and white with just the one song, but what a song. Not only do I want to listen to their music; I want to dress like them, I want to style my hair like them and I want to get an earring, I’ve got it bad.

enjoy!

– georgeunderwood