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2006 was a fine vintage for new music with debut albums and singles featuring highly in many an end of year list including Gigwise’s, our Top 50 Albums poll featured no less than five first offerings, while the Arctic Monkey’s skipped off with probably the most prestigious award in UK music - the Mercury Prize. In some ways it was an unprecedented twelve months for the emergence of new bands and solo artists but in our view 2007 could quite well top it and we’re extremely excited about what the next 52 weeks will bring us!
To give you an idea of whom Gigwise expects to making waves in the coming year we’ve once again put together our predictions and the second “InDemand For…” feature. What follows is a guide of who we expect to making an impact on the charts and reaching a wider commercial audience building on what they began last year, the new acts who appeared on the radar in 2006 and whom will no doubt go on to be hyped to the hilt in 2007 and finally the acts who are still in their early genesis but who we love and hope go on to bigger and brighter things.
The Chart Attack
Jamie T [Listen] Interview
The East London troubadour has already broken the top 20 in the singles chart and with his debut album 'Panic Prevention' arriving in January he looks set to be one of the biggest stars of 2007 with his mix of bedroom beats and mockney rapping. When the album hit Gigwise's door mat we couldn't run quickly enough to get it in our stereo and we have to say it doesn't disappoint. And what he does on record he multiplies ten times over live adding his sometimes acerbic wit to proceedings when need be. Superb.
Klaxons [Listen] Interview
Its Pretty much a given following twelve months of incessant hype about the London trio recently turned foursome and their love for teaming revivalist rave with indie dance that they will be massive this year however you want to label their sound. Like Jamie T they release their debut album ‘Myths Of The Near Future’ in the first few month sof 2007 to massive anticipation from the fans and critics alike and with a huge UK tour to follow by the spring they should be on the lips of more than just the indie kids in the know.
The Maccabees [Listen] Interview
If the album sampler Gigwise received back in November is anything to go by then The Maccabees are going to be very special of the next twelve months. Even without their early singles ‘X Ray’ and ‘Latchmere’, which we expect to appear of the mix, it’s a brilliant five song burst that’s been on high rotation in the Gigwise office. The five piece have that rare ability to pop songs with memorable choruses while still retaining there indie sensibilities that brought the likes of fellow Brightonian’s The Kooks such huge success in 2006.
The View [Listen] Interview
You may not be able to understand a word they’re saying but that hasn’t stopped the Aberdeen scallywags building up a huge fan base already (Gigwise has already felt the force of its size during the bands webchat last August). The View show us how much of an influence the Libertines still have on the British music industry and come armed with songs Doherty and Barat can only wish they’d written. ‘Wasted Little DJs’ and ‘Superstar Tradesman’ are already teen anthems so expect a future where the whole country begins to chant “The View, The View, The View are on fire” – it will happen.
Blood Red Shoes [Listen] Interview
While you may argue that Blood Red Shoes are a long shot for some chart action Gigwise has a sneaking suspicion that the south coast two piece are all but ready to blow up. 2006 saw them garnering the critical acclaim they so deserve and we predict that 2007 will see them gaining that all too important national coverage. In between the thrash of guitar and drums they write brilliantly catchy songs such as ‘You Bring Me Back’ and ‘A.D.H.D.’ that may be complicated but are joyous if you stick with them. They’ve now got the backing of Beggars Banquet on their new label Abeano and that’s not a bad thing either.
Keep An Eye On: Good Shoes, The Enemy, The Rumble Strips, Dykeenies, Goodbooks, Switches, Enter Shikari, 1990s, The Horrors, Fields
All Aboard The Hype Machine
Los Campesinos [Listen]
The Cardiff based collective signed to Witchita at the end of 2006 and release their first single in January all while they're still attending University. While an album may not reach us till 2008 due to their commitment to their studies the next twelve months should continue to see the fervent chatter that started with a few posts on various music related forums and grew to massive label interest within a couple of months. They're already fine exponents of twee indie-pop with a danceable edge despite their relative youth and they really do have the world at their feet.
Foals [Listen] Live Review
Oxford has produced some of the best British bands of the last decade, Radiohead and Supergrass to name just two, and with Foals it looks to have given us another gem. Born out of the ashes of several other bands they're simply stunning live bringing together the intricate guitar play of Hot Club De Paris with the dance-punk of bands like The Rapture and already have an arsenal of songs that could be classed as future singles. If spazz-math-punk-funk is your thing then the Transgressive five piece could well be your new favourite band and we don’t think you’ll be alone in that.
Jack Penate [Listen] Single Review &
Kid Harpoon [Listen] Single Review
We apologise for lumping these two London based singer/songwriters together but we really wanted to include both them in our list. Messrs Penate and Harpoon are following the aforementioned Jamie T in the renaissance of slightly left-field male solo artists that’ll hopefully one day see Robbie Williams not nominated for Best Male at the Brits. Penate with his debut single ‘Second, Minute Or Hour’ was as infectious as anything released in 2006 and Harpoon wowed all who heard his release ‘Riverside’. One if not both of these guys could well be hitting high up in the charts this year.
Assembly Now [Listen] Interview
Gigwise first tipped Assembly Now way back in March of last year and we hate to say we told you so but we told you so. They write graceful indie songs that are deceptively wide in scope taking the the choppy guitars favoured by many bands in recent years and infusing melodies that you’d usually hear on a Coldplay record (That may sound awful but we guarantee you it isn’t). The London four piece hope to release their debut album by the end of the year and we expect by then that they’ll be on the tips or not just our tongues.
Dananananaykroyd [Listen] Single Review
The band with the best name we’ve heard in ages and some of the best songs to boot. They’ve recently had a line up change that saw front man Giles leave to concentrate on his art and drummer Calum step from behind his skins to take up vocal duties but we don’t expect that to halt their momentum one bit after a year in existence. Their sound is SST post-punk given a twentieth anniversary makeover and sees them mash meaty choruses with intricate verses. First recommended to us by members of Hot Club De Paris they really do have to be seen live to get the full effect.
Keep An Eye On: I Was A Cub Scout, Dartz!, We Are The Physics, Youthmovies, This Is Pop, Lovvers, Winterkids, Late Of The Pier, Friendly Fires, To My Boy, Hadouken!, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, The Wombats
The Young Upstarts
Ok, Ok, so we’ve already gushed too much about the four piece with the greater than signs in their name but we really think they are that good. The debut single is out in January via Thisisfakediy, a double A-side of the brilliantly titled 'Heather's Loaded/McCartney's Blown It' and ‘She Starts Monday’, and we fully expect the major indie labels to come a knocking on the door very soon. Jutting indie riffs and furious beats with a shimmering pop edge is their stock in trade. The only thing we hate about them is they’ve made everything look so easy!
Bono Must Die [Listen]
The missing link between PiL and some electro-goth craze that never happened London’s Bono Must Die are a head fuck and a half, just check out their version of the Trousersnake’s ‘SexyBack’ for evidence of this. Like Frankenstein they lurch clumsily through dark swirls of grating electronic as beats so fast you’d think there was a happy hardcore revival going on as they take a hammer at your head. In no way is what they do subtle but its down right effective in a Test Icicles kind of way. A with a moniker like that you know they’ll always speak the truth.
Friday’s Ghost [Listen] Live Review
The later part of 2006 saw amazing progress for Liverpool’s Friday’s Ghost and eventually resulted in them being flown to New York to play live by XFM. A distinct whiff of Interpol and little Editors courses through their music which is already getting them noticed by the likes of us and A&R people alike. When we received their demo back in the autumn we knew it was good but we didn’t think things would happen as quickly as they have for them. Already a live favourite in their home city keep your ear to the ground for them as they branch out across the UK in 2007.
Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man [Listen]
The chase is on to sign up the bastard child of Les Incompetents. Ox. Eagle. Lion.Man are the phoenix from the flames of the London troupe who called it a day last year and feature Peaches Geldof’s sometime boyfriend and Tobi O’Kandi, drummer with fellow InDemand tips Bono Must Die. Some where between a cabaret version of their former selves and laid back skiffle main songwriters Fred MacPherson and Shaun Pearson have honed down what they had before into something more poppy and tuneful. They’ve still not reached double figures with live performances so here’s a chance to get one up on your mates.
Kate Nash [Listen]
Was it the moment the distorted drum beat melted our faces at 0.01, or the point twenty seconds later when it sounds like a great lost Le Tigre track is trying to escape from amongst the grime, but the realization that Kate Nash was going to be a bona-fide star didn’t take long to nestle in our brains. This was before we’d even heard her vocals (which skip from nonchalant and seductive on ‘Caroline’s A Victim’ to plain lovely on the forthcoming debut single’s B-side ‘Birds’). Signed up by Moshi Moshi for three singles, the like of her kaleidoscopic musical finger-picking hasn’t been seen since, um, Semifinalists or something. “Check out Kate Nash, she’s well good I promise” said Lily Allen last year. And she’s never wrong.
Keep An Eye On: Jakobinrina, Conan & The Mockasins, Light Speed Champion, Ripchord, Princhorn Dance School, Clarkey Cat, Kill Hannah
No doubt you’ll have your own view of who will be big in 2007, why not leave a comment and voice your opinion!
