wears the trousers’ ones to watch in 2012
As enjoyable as all the commotion, comparing and inevitable complaining associated with year-end lists are, the real fun lies in predicting which acts are going to make it big in the year to come.
The fifteen acts collated here (it was originally supposed to be just twelve, but there was just too much good stuff to choose from) aren’t necessarily our predictions of who will make the biggest impact in terms of album sales and media coverage. Rather, they’re the acts we think are going to be responsible for creating some of the best and most exciting music in 2012.
The one and only criteria we adhered to was that to be eligible artists must not already have released an official debut album (mixtapes don’t count). Some of them you’ve more than likely heard of; others we imagine could be quite new to you.
In any case, the diversity of our picks represents the wide range of musical genres that we cover, and means that there’s hopefully something for everyone, and, ideally, much more than that.
Exactly the kind of band the blogosphere swoons for: young, attractive, Brooklyn residents who look like they met at an American Apparel sample sale. Their songs are simple but there’s a charm that gives them an appeal. Much of the credit for this goes to singer Samantha Urbani, whose sensual, wry vocals and plain-spoken lyrics set the irresistible tone.
FREE MP3: Friends, ‘Friend Crush’
If 2011 saw the slow, steady rise of Niki & The Dove, then this is the year they go stratospheric. The Swedish duo create electro-pop that sounds like no other, with organic, sparkling textures, sweeping, cinematic synths, and Malin Dahlström’s transcendent vocals colouring the fantastical worlds they conjure.
FREE MP3: Niki & The Dove, ‘The Fox’
Sisters Jennifer and Jessica Clavin have torn up 2011 with a string of brilliant singles. The fiery invective of their former band Mika Miko may have been neutralised somewhat, but the guitars still buzz, the riffs still snarl and the harmonies are rough and ready.
FREE MP3: Bleached, ‘You Take Time’
Announcing herself to the world at large with a ferocious freestyle, riffing off a sample of Kanye West’s ‘Monster’, Nitty Scott set out her modus operandi with phenomenal lyrical prowess, blasting, among other things, the extravagance of hip-hop culture and the sexualisation of female emcees, and pledging to address the poverty, violence and misogyny of modern life. Bold and uncompromising, she is not to be ignored.
Read our interview with Nitty here.
FREE MP3: Nitty Scott, MC, ‘Auntie Maria’s Crib’
This fast-spitting foul-mouthed force of nature floored us with the expletive-riddled hyper-rap ‘212’. Where talent flourishes hyperbole quickly follows, but Banks is no one-trick pony and has demonstrated a mind-bending wealth of ideas in her short career to date. Our advice: expect the unexpected.
STREAM: Azealia Banks, ‘Liquorice’
Likely to make the biggest commercial breakthrough of anyone on this list, Lianne La Havas has already started to draw her detractors but it’s hard to be cynical when the young Londoner infuses her songs with such warmth, passion and feeling.
FREE MP3: Lianne La Havas, ‘Forget’ [live and acoustic]
How Starlight Girls have managed to stay under the radar until now is something of a mystery. Their intelligent, polished and quirky retro pop never fails to electrify, rewarding their love of taking the old and making it new.
STREAM: Starlight Girls, ‘The Hunch’
Embracing a lighter, more whimsical aesthetic than their former band Sleep ∞ Over, Christa Palazzolo and Sarah Brown’s diaphanous music recalls the wide-eyed wonder of Treasure-era Cocteau Twins. Their debut album Egyptian Wrinkle is out in February.
FREE MP3: Boy Friend, ‘Egyptian Wrinkle’
‘Doom soul’ is a lofty, ostentatious concept, but take a moment to dissect the credentials of Cold Specks and it starts to seem distinctly less absurd. Al Spx has the kind of voice that doesn’t come around often, sounding raspy, warm and affecting as it cuts through her cloud of thoughtfully plucked acoustic guitar and buzzes of dissonant noise.
STREAM: Cold Specks, ‘Holland’
Though still in her teens, Charli XCX has already made an impressive impact on the world of music, with support slots for Peaches and Robyn already under her belt. Indeed, she seems well pitched as the gothic little sister of the latter, producing smart and often brilliant electro-pop made all the more interesting by her flamboyant theatricality.
FREE MP3: Charli XCX, ‘Nuclear Seasons’
Don’t confuse Icona Pop’s frivolousness with flippancy. With more leftfield hooks than a southpaw royal rumble (or something, boxing isn’t really our area of expertise), the Swedish duo’s music proves that interesting ideas and commercial appeal are really rather amiable bedfellows.
STREAM: Icona Pop, ‘Manners’
Both as interpreter of other people’s songs and as composer of her own quietly beautiful pieces, Parisian singer-songwriter Mina Tindle is effervescent and spellbinding. Produced by JP Nataf, her upcoming debut album is sure to expand on the melodic elegance of her earlier work and earn her the wider audience she deserves.
STREAM: Mina Tindle, ‘The Kingdom’
Future-pop duo Purity Ring so far have a grand total of three songs to their name, but they just so happen to be three of the best that 2011 had to offer: the bouncy ‘Ungirthed’, the languidly throbbing ‘Lofticries’, and the sinister, sci-fi-channelling ‘Belispeak’. That their titles are neologisms is fitting: Purity Ring are changing the language of pop music as we know it.
FREE MP3: Purity Ring, ‘Ungirthed’
With her debut album proper out this month, experimental folk artist Teaadora Nikolova is eligible for inclusion in this list by the skin of her teeth. But when it comes down to it, we probably would have bent the rules anyway for music this good. Nikolova crafts refracted, thoughtful sounds that revel in dirge as much as they do in grace, keenly aware of the beauty of empty space
STREAM: Teaadora, ‘Don’t Expect A Stradivarius’
Hip-hop duo and real-life couple THEESatisfaction already have an impressive five EPs of interstellar beats and inventive inflections under their belts, as well as a scene-stealing guest appearance on Shabazz Palaces’ fantastic 2011 album Black Up. Think the originality of Missy Elliott crossed with the politicism and sensuality of Erykah Badu and infused with a grainier, artier and (dare we say?) more innovative aesthetic.
Read our interview with Stas and Cat here.
FREE MP3: THEESatisfaction, ‘Do You Have The Time’ [clean version]
Written by: Odhran ODonoghue
Tags: azealia banks, bleached, boy friend, charli xcx, cold specks, friends, icona pop, lianne la havas, mina tindle, niki and the dove, nitty scott, purity ring, starlight girls, teaadora, THEEsatisfaction
This entry was posted on Friday, January 13th, 2012 at 9:25 am and is filed under feature, special features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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