Blog Sound of 2012 - Results

The votes are in, counted and verified and today Brooklyn's girl-fronted indiefunk-pop kids Friends are named as the winners of the very first UK blog 'tips' poll - the Blog Sound of 2012.

The Blog Sound of 2012 canvassed a group of UK music bloggers to see what artists they would like to see being successful this year. The idea had originally been discussed in 2010 by the authors of this very blog, The Von Pip Musical Express and Sweeping the Nation and was rolled out for the first time at the end of 2011. The intention was to provide an alternative to the high profile BBC Sound of list, but not to compete with it. Consider it if you will as a complimentary dish on the menu. The BBC Sound of list may be the main course but the Blog Sound of 2012 is a side dish with a few different musical flavours that flesh out the taste palette.

The Blog Sound of 2012 list was always seen as an experiment as it could never be guaranteed to provide a full alternative to the BBC list – voting took place at the same time as the BBC’s – there was a strong possibility that some artists may crop up on both. The end result was just so, with 2 acts (Lianne La Havas and eventual winners Friends) duplicating on each. For the full list of the 15 nominated acts chosen by the 30+ bloggers involved and links to the bloggers sites look here.

It’s no surprise to see Friends winning the Blog Sound of 2012.They are after all a band that has been the subject of an online frenzy during the later part of 2011. Of the 800+ worldwide blogs listed on Hype Machine over 50 of them have featured the group's song I’m His Girl and nearly as many have posted the track Friends Crush, which for a new band is a massive number. Music bloggers are often accused of jumping on the same bandwagon and in the case of Friends they would be guilty as charged. Winning the first ever Blog Sound of 2012 poll seems highly appropriate.

However let’s not take jumping on the bandwagon as a criticism. The vast majority of music bloggers write their blogs because they are passionate and excited about new music. When they hear a track that moves them, they want tell the world about it. That’s why sometimes ‘blog buzz’ occurs, because the song has excited the musical taste buds of lots of bloggers listening and writing. ‘Blog buzz’ is seen by cynics as something false and lacking in long term depth, but hell, if you’re a lover of music you’ll know that sometimes not everything can be carefully considered with a view to the long term. The very essence of pop music as an art form requires people to fall in (and out) of love with it, often over quick timespans.

So Friends are popular with music bloggers. The tracks they’ve put out so far create a neat bridge between pop, r ‘n’b and indie. Their percussive jams have a clattering dance floor sassiness with funky disco grooves merging creamily with big cool pop overtones. Imagine Friendly Fires and Lisa Lisa And The Cult Jam getting down in some sort of hip club - that is the sound of Friends.

They might end up blowing up and being one of the most exciting bands of 2012 or we may all wonder ‘just what were those bloggers thinking’? More often than not blog buzz doesn't translate into mainstream popularity. That is the beauty of pop music. Nobody is actually an expert, some of us just think we are.

This is the run down of the Top 5 most voted for artists on the Blog Sound of 2012. If you missed it, you can see the our own Ones to Watch 2012 using that link, from which our 5 nominations for the Blog Sound List were chosen.

1.Friends

Brooklyn’s coolest new kids on the block.  The winners of the UK Blog Sound of 2012. The big question is do they have a bucket or thimble full of pop hooks and grooves to keep us satisfied after the buzz dies?

2.Theme Park

Runners up in the Blog Sound 2012 are this twin brother fronted London band that first featured on Breaking More Waves in May. Their Talking Heads / Orange Juice flavoured blend of indie rock has recently been picked up by a number of US bloggers after initially being covered by UK blogs. Rather like Friends, the question remains have they got more than a couple of decent starters to keep us satisfied until dessert and coffee?

3.Beth Jeans Houghton

Showing that blogs are not all just about ‘buzz’, Beth Jeans Houghton may surprise some with a high third place positioning having been around for some time now. In fact she was first featured on this blog way back in 2009 but will finally release her album in 2012. We’re looking forward towards hearing how her warped folk pop translates into a full record.

4.French Wives

We suspect that for the Blog Sound poll Glasgow based French Wives received a number of votes from Scottish blogs, but deservedly so. Creating rollicking, powerful, passionate indie rock songs that fans of the likes of Arcade Fire and Broken Records will enjoy immensely, French Wives trajectory can surely only be upwards as more people discover them, particularly when they play live. An album is also forthcoming.

5.Daughter

Elena Tonra and her band create sparse, frosted, haunting songs full of space and texture. There’s a flat-out sadness to what Daughter are creating – it’s music that’s very still, yet very emotional. With a couple of well received EP’s under the belt in 2011, 2012 holds much promise for Daughter

The Blog Sound of 2012

Over the last 15 days Breaking More Waves has been publishing its very own selection of artists, musicians and bands that it believes are Ones to Watch for 2012.

New act tip lists seem to get more numerous every year and none is more ubiquitous than the BBC Sound of list, which we will be posting our thoughts on separately in a few weeks, after our traditional run down of our favourite ten albums of 2011.

Back at the end of 2010 a small bunch of independent music bloggers, including Breaking More Waves discussed the idea of collating the combined thoughts, knowledge and passions of the UK blogging community to create the Blog Sound of 2012. The idea was in no way intended as a platform to criticise the BBC’s Sound of List, which Breaking More Waves has previously been involved in and continues to support. The BBC’s list acts as an invaluable tool to help new artists gain strong media publicity for their music in a time when it’s becoming increasingly difficult for such acts to establish themselves. The Blog Sound of 2012 is more an experiment to decide if a pool of UK music bloggers can come up with some interesting alternatives.

33 music blogs were involved in the voting process, with each one nominating 5 acts for the list.The participating blogs were A Tidal Wave Of Indifference ,Breaking More Waves, God Is In the TV, Sweeping The Nation, The Von Pip Musical Express, The Recommender, Faded Glamour, Drunken Werewolf, Flying With Anna, Not Many Experts, Underclassed Idle Ideas, Sonic Masala, Mudkiss, The Ring Master, Both Bars On, Music From A Green Window, Dots And Dashes, The Daily Growl, And Everyone's A DJ, Kowolskiy, Just Music That I Like, Cruel Rhythm, The Blue Walrus, Music Fans Mic, Seventeen Seconds, Eaten By Monsters, Seven Sevens, Unpeeled, New Rave Brain Wave, Peenko, Music Liberation, My Bands Better Than Your Band and Song By Toad.

From these blogs suggestions a most voted for long list of 15 artists has been collated, of which a top 5 will be published in a few weeks, with an eventual winner being announced. Because of the selection of blogs that voted, the final list has a fairly strong bias towards indie / rock and folk / acoustic music but there's still much variety within.

And here, in no particular order are the 15 artists that have been chosen as the Blog Sound of 2012.

Houdini Dax – Brit-Pop influenced rough n ready psychedelic indie rock (Link to Facebook)

Lianne La Havas – Soft acoustic songwriter with soul and jazz tinges (Link to website)

Theme Park – Indie band recalling Talking Heads with danceable tropical pop (Link to Facebook)

French Wives – Glasgow based jubilant indie (Link to Facebook)

The Good Natured – Female fronted trio with dark pop undercurrents. (Link to website)

Alt J – Loose sounding, quirky, organic groove based band from Leeds. (Link to Facebook)

The Jezabels – Surging indie rock from Sydney with strong female vocals (Link to website)

Lucy Rose – Sweet, pure, honey voiced gentle acoustic singer songwriter. (Link to website)

Bastille – Easily accessible, catchy, Hype Machine soaring pop. (Link to website)

Washington - Dramatic confident pop from adopted Oz girl born in Papa New Guinea (Link to Myspace)

Friends – Rhythmic girl fronted band with a hint of Tom-Tom Club and R ‘n’ B references. (Link to Myspace)

Meursault –Tagged as folktronica in some quarters, with 2 LP’s already behind them. (Link to Facebook)

Daughter – Sparse experimental female fronted folk (Link to Facebook)

Beth Jeans Houghton – Leftfield alt folk with all sorts thrown in (Link to Facebook)

Outfit – Layered sounding indie group that have been compared to Wild Beasts. (Link to Facebook)

Of the 15 acts chosen 3 of them also appear on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list ( Lucy Rose, Lianne La Havas and Outfit) with one of them (Beth Jeans Houghton) appearing on our own Ones To Watch list back in 2009. 8 of the 15 have appeared in some form or other on the blog this year, suggesting that the tastes of Breaking More Waves are not always that far removed from our blogging peer group.

As always with anything that we feature on the blog, we recommend that you listen to all of the artists above – maybe you’ll discover something that you haven’t heard before and love, which is ultimately the point of music blogs.

Keep a look out for the top 5 and winner of the Blog Sound of 2012, coming soon – in the meantime here are a couple of tracks of two of the nominated acts that we've never featured on Breaking More Waves before - The Jezabels and Friends.

The Jezabels - Endless Summer

Friends - Friend Crush

The Saturday Surf #1

Welcome to our new regular Saturday feature titled The Saturday Surf. Every week we listen to a lot of new music. Only a tiny fraction of it makes it onto the blog. The Saturday Surf is a weekly sweep up of some of the best of the rest - a gentle skim of a number of songs that didn’t quite get their own individual post.

For this regular column we’ll never post too many tracks in any one week so as to not take up too much of your time – 5 will be the maximum - and much like the rest of Breaking More Waves the music chosen will not be from any particular genre. So expect our usual mix of folk, electronica, pop, indie, maybe even some hip hop or experimental oddness from time to time.

The only criteria will be that each and every piece of music gets our approval and is 100% amazing. The weekend really does start here.

First up is indie-electro-dance-pop (that’s a fair few bases covered) group Strange Talk from Melbourne, Australia, whose song Climbing Walls has been kicking around for some time now, being one of the highlights on the 2010 Kitsuné Maison Compilation 10. The track is now being given a further release through Neon Gold on the labels first ever vinyl and CD release. It’s got choppy guitars, cascading synth stabs and plenty of rhythmic synergy. If you haven’t heard Climbing Walls yet, and enjoy the likes of Friendly Fires, Phoenix and French Horn Rebellion, now is the time to fully acquaint yourself.

Climbing Walls by Strange Talk

Next comes something from the opposite end of the musical spectrum. Way back in December 2009 we named Beth Jeans Houghton, the Geordie lass who was making oddball Celtic folk music, as one of our Ones to Watch for 2010. Since then there’s been diddly squat from her except for a tour with Stornoway and a few festival appearances, although we should have taken notice when she sang "I will return." Finally she’s secured a deal with Mute and a Ben Hillier (Blur, Doves, Elbow) produced album is readying itself for release, although you will still have to wait until autumn to get that. Dodecahedron is the first slice of multi-sided folk-pop to be released from it and is available as a free download by clicking on the arrow on the player below.

Beth Jeans Houghton - Dodecahedron by Mute UK

We featured Picture Book as a new wave at the start of the year and now a new demo has surfaced from the Liverpool based three-piece. “Can I kiss you tonight?” lead singer Greta asks before leading us to the dance floor and musically sticking her tongue down our throat, which is absolutely fine with us. Take us home now please. Musical underwear may be coming off soon.

Satellites (demo) by Picture Book

Finally, we leave the best to last. Canada’s Austra is another act that first featured on Breaking More Waves back in January before a Hype Machine frenzy gradually grew through February and into March with this track – the groups signature tune - Lose It. Music bloggers can often get too wrapped up into being ‘the first to post’ about a particular song. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the most important ingredient of music is time. So, we’re swinging the spotlight back onto Austra slowly, confident that after a couple of months of listening their Zola-meets-Florence-operatic-electronica is 100% worthy of the buzz. Lose It elevates Austra above cult status, even if it does sound a little like the the Lloyds TSB For The Journey advert (here).

Austra - Lose It by DominoRecordCo

More surfing next week. Same time, same place ?

What Happened To Our Ones To Watch 2010 ?

“No one cares about your 'best of 2010' list,” Josh Weller recently tweeted. He may be correct, but that won’t stop hundreds of the things appearing throughout December and Breaking More Waves isn’t going to be any different. We’ll be running down our top ten albums of 2010 from the middle of December – but before that, at the start of the month we’re looking forward and posting our annual 10 Ones to Watch for 2011.

Prior to looking forward, here’s a recap of our 2010 selections from last year.

Ellie Goulding

We said

“With her quivering girlish vocal, an acoustic guitar, neat lyrical phrasing and stuttering laptop electro beats, Goulding could deliver commercially.”

What happened?

Goulding delivered commercially. A number one album in the UK, two top five hits and two further songs that went top thirty, sold out tours - it’s been a highly successful year for Ellie Goulding.

Ellie Goulding - Guns And Horses (Monsieur Adi Remix) by monsieuradi

Hurts

We said

“….threaten to bring an ostentatious, stern, eastern European look back into fashion for bands.”

What happened?

It was Europe that really warmed to Hurts, with the band enjoying charts success in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Sweden and Finland and even an appearance on German X Factor. In the UK the band took a little longer to find their true audience, but by the time their album Happiness was released it achieved a very respectable chart placing of number four with mixed critical reaction (8/10 in the NME, 2/5 in the Guardian, 5/10 in Drowned In Sound, 3/5 in the Independent and most tellingly 9/10 by Popmatters), they also played one of our favourite gigs of the year way back in February at Wiltons Music Hall in London (here). By the end of the year they were playing sold out gigs, supporting the Scissor Sisters on their UK tour and next year are playing a tour of larger concert halls.

Beth Jeans Houghton

We said

“Quite where Beth Jeans Houghton will fit in 2010 we’re not exactly sure, but she has the voice and the songs to ensure that she can carve out her own space”

What happened?

Houghton toured with another of our Ones to Watch – Stornoway and played a string of UK festival dates. However she didn’t release any material. With her Ben Hillier (Blur, The Maccabees, Elbow) produced album now in the bag ready for release next year, Houghton can continue to carve her space in 2011.

Unicorn Kid

We said

“To the uneducated ears of an over twenty five year old or a solemn indie rock purist, the sounds of Unicorn Kid will just be considered bad music, but for his growing army of fans his electronic urgency is simply something that makes you happy.”

What happened?

In April Unicorn Kid released Dream Catcher a stunningly dirty, glitchy and energetic piece of work that became one of our favourite tracks of the year then followed it up in October with another track – Wild Life. An album is due in 2011 – it’s likely to make his growing army of hyperactive fans very happy indeed.

Unicorn Kid - Dreamcatcher - Last Japan Remix by Ministry of Sound

Delphic

We said

“It is for this reason we have selected them for our ones to watch list. Not because of musical uniqueness or commercial crossover, but because we can imagine Delphic creating a perfect indie dance summer vibe in fields across the UK.”

What happened?

Delphic didn’t achieve massive commercial success – their album charted at number 8 in the UK, but then quickly disappeared. However as we predicted their moment really came in the summer – their storming set at Bestival hit all the right spots (see our review here).

Counterpoint by delphic

Clare Maguire

We said

If a 2010 release from Clare Maguire arrives and it comes anywhere near the quality of those demos, we predict she could win a lot of fans.

What happened?

It took a while but finally in October Maguire released her thunderous debut single Ain’t Nobody, that found extra love through the heavily spacious Breakage Remix. Having played Latitude this summer and supported Hurts and Plan B on tour this autumn, Clare Maguire will release an album in 2011.

Clare Maguire - Ain’t Nobody by UniversalMusicPublishing

Stornoway

We said

“Suitcases full of the most perfect melodies.”

What happened?

When Stornoway appeared on our ones to watch list they were still unsigned. After significant label interest they inked a deal with 4AD allowing them to open their suitcase and share their wonderful songs, releasing their debut album Beachcomber’s Windowsill. The album surprised many (but not us) by sneaking into the UK top 20 album chart. They ended the year selling out the 2,000 capacity Shepherds Bush Empire in London, a far cry from when we first saw them perform to a small crowd at the Wychwood Festival in 2009. On a more personal note, Zorbing and I Saw You Blink are two of our favourite songs this year.

Mirrors

We said

"The dense ambient pulse-pop of the Mirrors reflects the sounds of early OMD"

What happened?

Having signed a deal with their hometown label of Skint, Mirrors released the singles Ways to an End and Hide and Seek and played a number of gigs including support slots with OMD themselves on their 2010 European tour. The band will release an album next year and in the meantime have packaged up their early singles into a mini album which is available to purchase directly from Skints website.

Mirrors 'Hide And Seek' by skintrecords

Holly Miranda

We said

“Her dreamily atmospheric guitar based songs are certainly not the kind of tunes that are going to infiltrate the pop charts, but provide for a smouldering and sleepy listening experience.”

What happened?

Miranda’s David Sitek produced album The Magician’s Private Library was seductively warm and as sleepy as a pillow and duvet set with titles such as Sweet Dreams, Every time I Go To Sleep and Sleep On Fire combined with even more shut eye lyrical content such as “Dreamt of you again last night,” from the slow burning trumpet laden Joints and “Wake up and you’re next to nothing,” from Slow Burn Treason.

Clock Opera

We said

"We love Clock Opera more than our own children."

What happened?

Clock Opera released a number of low key singles during the year including the transcendent Once and for All, toured with Marina & The Diamonds and hope to release an album in 2011. They remain one to watch.

clock opera - once and for all (little loud remix) by little loud

Latitude 2010 - Review (Part 3)

Despite over indulged weariness and the hottest day of the festival, a decent sized crowd trooped towards the Obelisk stage on Sunday lunchtime for the second set of the weekend at Latitude by Tom Jones - a late addition, the result of his Thursday night set being missed by many due to overcrowding and capacity issues at the small stage in the woods.

Rumours suggested that this set would see Jones wheel out the hits, but it was not to be. Instead he performed the same songs as on the Thursday, with Jones keeping his ladies man reputation alive by referring to his female backing singers as “lovely,” in a suggestive voice that got a laugh.

“Good morning Latitude,” announced a member of The Antlers in the Word Arena. “It’s not morning,” one of his colleagues advised. Whatever time it was The Antlers suited perfectly, their soaring, atmospheric soundscapes of songs emotionally numbing with their bludgeoning weight. Two was particularly impressive, the bands feedback rock-pop taught and mesmerising.

If Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys had just woken up, put a Dougal from the Magic Roundabout red wig on and played slacker-surf-rock songs from the 50’s whilst reinterpreting Billy Childish he may have just found himself transformed into the lead singer of Spectrals. Their short songs performed on the Lake Stage had a direct approach which sometimes hooked and caught, but in other moments it was just a little too hazy for its own good.

Evidence of the continued ascension of the soon to be Mercury nominated Mumford and Sons was one of the biggest crowds of the weekend turning up for their mid afternoon set on the Obelisk Stage. “Can we start?” they questioned the masses, receiving a huge roar in reply. It seems like only yesterday that the band were wheeling out their americana-folk inspired tunes to small pub crowds and now they’ve become possibly the first UK arena-sized bluegrass band. White Blank Page, Little Lion Man and Roll Away Your Stone were all greeted with hugely positive reactions, but for those who have seen Mumford and Sons a number of times over the last few years it all feels a little bit ‘one festival set too many.’ Time for some new songs perhaps? They did at least oblige with one new slice of mass-market folk-rock, a song with Marcus playing drums, a horn section adding depth and lyrics of “I’ll be yours if you’ll be mine.” Laura Marling were you listening?

As the black clad Morning Parade blasted out Pieces in the Sunrise Arena it became easy to understand why they are being tipped as potential next big things. Their confident brand of epic guitar drama combined with washes of fluttering synth made a sound tough and muscular enough to be liked by the indie rock kids but accessible enough to find itself on daytime Radio 1. Soaring choruses, guitar licks and strong vocals - the only thing they lack is originality.

Samuel Chase (previously known as Samuel and the Dragon) drew the short straw. Dressed as a huge red feather love heart (!) he played to about six people standing at the barrier at the Lake Stage - anyone else who may have been interested took shade from the searing sun under trees some distance away. You really had to feel sorry for him. Yeasayer had just finished their set in the Word Arena and thousands of people were passing by. If Samuel had grabbed the moment and started his set five minutes earlier then some of these punters were his for the taking. But by the time he started his first tune the moment had passed. His songs were a mix of plaintive vocals, electronic jittery beats and live strings - torch songs for a place far from a hot outdoor stage. His fantastic single Diamonds On A Boat didn’t even get an airing and the impression left was that Samuel just couldn’t wait to get it all over with and extricate himself from the stage.

Finding an audience was no problem for the Pains of Being Pure at Heart who played under the shady canopy of the Sunrise Arena, which seemed a blissful respite from the heat. Visually they were like a cartoon indie pop band - boys jigging round with guitars, and girl gently swaying at her keyboard - their sound consisting of twee optimistic fuzz-tones of lovely noise and soft unaffected vocals. They mixed old songs such as the giddy Young Adult Friction with new ones and joked about reading a poem at the festival. “Music is all the bad poetry you need,” singer Kip Berman quipped.

If Beth Jeans Houghton were a rock she would be quartzite. A metamorphic girl who changes every time she takes to the stage. Gone was the big wig. Gone was the bleached blonde. This time she was dark. Next time we expect to see her she’ll probably be sporting a Sinead O’Connor crop. O’Connor is a reference point musically as well, with Houghton’s vocal having an air of the celtic soul sister to her. With tales of dropping her sunglasses in the festival toilets (her manager rescued them) and a punk rock song that she dedicates to him, Beth entertained in between songs even although we suspect that her quirky stories were well rehearsed and practised before. The entertainment factor was kept high during the music as well, the songs varied considerably from danceable oddball pop to jaunty folk.

Latitude 2010 was almost at an end. Musical overload. Grizzly Bear were the closing act on The Word stage. They played to a mainly partisan crowd, who listened intently, their collage of sound subtly shifting between songs creating something that is highly admirable, very worthy and yet for this reviewer not a performance that could ever be loved. Their layered harmonies and experimental sound glided with well played competence, but maybe overexposure to three and a half days of music has numbed the soul and brain. It was time for bed. Goodnight Latitude 2010. The rapes, the canopy collapse, the Crystal Castles incident and the stinking toilets may have brought the festival down a notch or two in our ratings, but overall it was still an excellent event for lovers of music and the arts. We will probably be back at some point.

Wychwood Festival 2010 - Preview

Now that the UK summer is finally on its way, we turn our attention away from urban multi-gig festivals to outdoor festivals; the fantasy towns built of canvas where we leave our troubles at the gates and indulge in three or four days of musical and non-musical madness. It’s fair to say that summer festivals are some of the absolute highlights of the Breaking More Waves calendar. Despite the evolution of festivals from being something on the periphery of society to mass media publicised events that embrace the mainstream, the best festivals still conjure and embrace an ideology that is based not just around the music but the very fabric of the temporary society they create for a weekend, where a true sense of community exists; people have a great time but look after each other.

Wychwood Festival (main stage pictured above) is one such festival. It may not have the big name headliners, the latest fashionable cool bands or Kate Moss in her wellies, but it has a real sense of community, a relaxed atmosphere, compact site and embraces all ages from 6 to 60 year olds. It also features some fine quality music and hidden gems. Last year for instance we caught the then little known Stornoway playing in the festivals 3rd stage to a small but rapt audience and a love affair was confirmed. Wychwood has been described by The Independent as “Like a bijou Glastonbury, the perfect way to ease into the festival season,” and we couldn’t agree more.

Wychwood was created in 2005 by a group of festival enthusiasts who wanted to run their own event. It has been nominated every year it has been running for the ‘Best Family Festival’ in the UK Festival Awards and has seen the likes of Super Furry Animals, Billy Bragg, Badly Drawn Boy, Duffy, Camera Obscura, The Unthanks, Supergrass, Little Boots, The Divine Comedy and Guillemots take to the stage. This years headline acts include The Levellers, Happy Mondays and Seth Lakeman. The festival is set beneath the beautiful Prestbury Hills in the grounds of Cheltenham race course, with the campsite being located in the middle of the track itself, leading to the odd sight of campers being surrounded by national hunt fences. This location provides a couple of distinct advantages for less hardy festival goers. First, providing the weather is reasonably dry, ticket holders are allowed to drive onto site and pitch their tents - no lugging of heavy rucksacks and equipment across hills. Secondly the festival is able to use the permanent toilet facilities of the racecourse, so no squeamish festival toilet experiences and the bonus of hot running water.

Besides the three main music stages Wychwood is very proud of its large range of workshops and other entertainment, which include film, a children’s literature festival, Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, English National Ballet, circus and street theatre and a huge amount of workshops of which there are so many to list you are better just clicking here. You could have so much fun (child or adult) that you never even see any music.

But if you can drag yourself away and sample some music, here are 5 acts that Breaking More Waves recommends for this years Wychwood 2010.

The Leisure Society

With 2 Ivor Novello nominations under their belt you can rest assured that The Leisure Society know how to pen a good song. The group are currently readying their second album, the follow up to their debut Sleeper and will no doubt be playing some of these new songs. Beautifully restrained, this band make orchestrated folk pop with just a hint of American influence. Soft harmonies, wonderful melodies and beautifully tender, they are the perfect band for the main stage on Friday night.

Beth Jeans Houghton

At the end of 2009 we named Beth as One to Watch for 2010. A strange mix of warped folk, glam stylings, pop and soul, Beth is hardly the demure sweet singer songwriter - often taking to the stage wearing big wigs and hotpants. Backed by her band The Hooves of Destiny her song I Will Return, I Promise has a jaunty, stomping rhythmic Celtic sound that will probably make you jig madly in a little circle.

The School

Cardiff’s The School are a band whose sound is obsessed with sixties pop. They are the full take on girl-group bubblegum cuteness - think Camera Obscura and The Pipettes and you won’t be far off the mark. One of their songs - Valentine was chosen for a fridge advert in Japan. We bet that’s something other welsh compatriots The Stereophonics have never achieved. Playing the BBC Introducing Stage on Saturday, they are a must see for fans of all things sugary, twee and ever so slightly flat in the vocal classroom.

Kill It Kid

Bath five piece Kill It Kid may look like a typical indie band, but they have one very secret weapon - just wait till the lead singer opens his mouth and starts to sing. A bluesy bellow of some distinction, their brand of delta-blues rock earns them the dreaded cliché “mature beyond their years,” but in this case it is a massive compliment.

Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer

Back by popular demand Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer was one of the highlights of last years Wychwood. Straight out of Surrey Mr B brings “Chap-hop” to entertain the masses. One of the funniest musical acts we have ever seen, if watching a posh man with a banjo reinterpreting hip hop classics and dissing Tim Westwood doesn’t have you in stitches, as well as singing along, then frankly you are probably dead. Let him smoke his pipe !

Finally, rather like our Great Escape coverage a few weeks back Breaking More Waves will be (mobile phone reception permitting) tweeting our way round the festival, so if you are on Twitter and want to join the fun, follow us by clicking here.

Stornoway + Beth Jeans Houghton @ Brighton Komedia

The first time our spotlight turned to Stornoway on stage they were nervous wide-eyed creatures. Ten months on and they are composite, assured and full of the majestic flurries of romance. Stornoway are a band that we are utterly in love with.

Stornoway are not a blog buzz band. They are not surfing on a wave of unrealistic hype. With their casual straightforward look they are not even fashionable. Yet they succeed because of one simple reason; an abundance of great songs that charm. Maybe this is the reason why the audience at the Komedia encompasses every age from 18 to 60. This crowd may greet the group with almost chattering indifference but Stornoway leave stage having seen unprovoked waves of spontaneous clapping bursting out during songs, big smiles on faces and gaining an encore that is fully deserved.

Stornoway show the power of music formed out of quiet acoustic instrumentation. Their songs are awash with subtle and delicate harmonies, but they also hold a robustness which enables tunes such as On the Rocks to build from a gentle lament to a tempered crash of noise and Zorbing which delights with giddying trumpet and pop sensibilities. The bands mild mannered English eccentric charm, exemplified by intensely staring lead singer Brian Briggs, is another reason why they provide such good value. We can’t imagine that there are many performers who in between songs tell the audience of the only record of a camel in captivity in England being struck by lightning in 1997.

But away from Brian’s straight faced comedic banter, there’s the music. Steeped in themes of nature and travel, the combination of inspired song craft and distinctly enunciated lyrics make even the simplest of life moments seem special. “Waiting for a train going nowhere in a nowhere station,” Brian croons in a style not dissimilar to Tim Booth and hearts melt. Fuel Up is the distant cousin of Nizlopi’s JCB Song, but far less annoying, whereas the closing number, the philosophical and thoughtful banjo led We Are The Battery Human captures the spirit of an old English Fleet Foxes slowly Morris dancing with Mumford and Sons.

Come the end of 2010 we really hope that this band will be pretty special to many. They deserve to be.

Stornoway may not have a strong visual aesthetic, but main support Beth Jeans Houghton (pictured) certainly does. Dressed in a pink and black lycra all in one and sporting the most outrageous blonde wig, she is backed by a band who wear painted on false moustaches, bowler hats, braces and ties. It’s no surprise that someone in the audience asks her if she is straight or not, her outrageous dress sense reminds us a little of a once young Boy George. Like George, Beth is something of a personality, swearing, chatting about leprosy, abscesses and a dead rat that she found on the beach as well as clearing her throat and playing and pulling awkwardly with her finger nails whilst singing. It certainly makes for an entertaining, if slightly awkward performance.

The music Beth and her band make can broadly be described as loose-celtic-skiffle-soul. Houghton’s voice is strong and of high quality and the songs such as Lilliput with its Clannad styled ooing and the xylophone enhanced Dodecahedron are jauntily pleasing. “Red wine and whiskey, you’re no good for me,” she sings over the near-afrobeat rhythms of Atlas, the whole song having a ramshackle feel which is compounded when the harmonies at the end of the song fail and die miserably. A cover version of At The Hop by Devendra Banhart shows Beths influences, before the looped vocal and keyboard of Nightswimmer shows that Beth has more than one idea.

Beth Jeans Houghton was an entertaining diversion, and has a great voice, but ultimately the evening belonged to Stornoway. In a modern world their old fashioned virtues work small wonders.

Beth Jeans Houghton - Ones To Watch 2010 #3

Beth Jeans Houghton is our next choice of one to watch for 2010 and probably the most likely successor to the princess of alt folk pop crown currently held in the UK by Laura Marling (who will release her second album in 2010) Mind you Houghton recently told the NME “I did an interview once where they asked me if I thought me and Laura Marling had anything in common. I said, ‘No, unless you want to hear about my vagina.’”

So let’s forget about even what sex Houghton is and talk about what makes her special.

Houghton very much has her own vision, musically and visually. She may only be 19 but she is making sounds that could have come from one hundred years ago. Delicate, echoing, folkish chamber pop, the stuff of flotation tanks and strange dreams. In September she released her Hot Toast Volume One EP and has been working with Ben Hillier ( Blur and Doves ) for her debut album. Houghton claims that she was “born in Transylvania to a pack of albino werewolves,” but alas the reality is somewhat more ordinary, having spent her formative years in a terraced house in a Newcastle suburb. However, the exaggerated claims of her birth are part of the humorous package that Houghton brings, with her afro wigs and unique style - she’s the only girl around that is playing folk in hot pants and mini dresses.

Quite where Beth Jeans Houghton will fit in 2010 we’re not exactly sure, but she has the voice and the songs to ensure that she can carve out her own space.