Ones to Watch 2016 #10 - Xylaroo

When we first wrote these 10 Ones to Watch posts a few weeks ago and pre-scheduled them so that we could take a bit of time off away from the blog whilst they auto uploaded daily, this final choice was going to feature Jack Garratt. However a couple of days before the post was due to go live we decided to delete Mr Garratt, who we commended for his superb all round ability, mesmerising one man shows, quality beard and general nice bloke appeal; we also compared him to the electronic version of Ed Sheeran. 

Instead, as our final tip, we’re making one recommendation of a duo that has never been mentioned on Breaking More Waves before (the other 9 tips all have).  The name of this two piece is Xylaroo. Alongside Declan McKenna and Billie Marten, two of our other Ones to Watch, the members of Xylaroo are also too young to get served in a UK pub. Is their age relevant? Is it a bit ageist mentioning the fact that these acts are young? Well, we think it's relevant to mention the fact, because frankly if you subscribe to the idea that musicians have to learn their craft, then when someone is relatively young and very good that says something important about their natural talent. Correction - we've been informed by the band themselves that this is not correct and that they can get served in a pub. Apologies, our information was incorrect!

Oh, and the reasons for ditching sure-fire success Garratt for a bunch of unknowns on a small indie label?

1. Because to our eyes Jack doesn’t actually seem that ‘new’ or ‘emerging’ anymore. We’ve seen him a number of times live (first way back in June 2014 at Bushstock Festival which we reviewed here) and he had already developed a big online musical presence several months before that event. Maybe his label have held him back a little in order to stand a chance of being on the 2016 tip lists, but for us he was a 2014 going into 2015 tip.

2. He’s already been named as the BBC Introducing Artist of the Year, won the Brits Critics Choice award and there’s lots of talk about him being a highly likely contender for the BBC Sound Of 2016 list as well. Don’t expect to see him on the lesser known but just as interesting Blog Sound of 2016 list though, voted for by nearly 60 UK based bloggers, which we help run. The full longlist will be revealed on Dec 3rd, a few days after the BBC Sound of list - Jack almost made it on the Blog Sound of 2015 list but missed it by 1 vote, but this year didn’t get one single nod from voting bloggers, suggesting that just like Breaking More Waves, other bloggers no longer consider him emerging, which is what we believe these polls should be about.

3. Jack’s already playing Brixton Academy in April, so tipping him as One to Watch seems pointless – a lot of people are already going to watch him. 

So instead we’re choosing Xylaroo, a recent addition to one of the finest long standing indie labels in the UK – Sunday Best.

Who are Xylaroo? 

They’re Coco and Holly Chant and first met a number of years ago in a hospital in Hong Kong where they were introduced to each other by their parents. Yes, they’re sisters and follow in the footsteps of another Sunday Best sibling act, Kitty Daisy & Lewis, who started their musical careers as young whippersnappers on the label. 

And whilst we’d very much consider Xylaroo (a name that seems to have no meaning except for some warped cross between a xylophone and kangaroo – not something we could really explain) emerging, they seem to have been doing this for quite some time – they have an old redundant Myspace page (remember those?) and a Bandcamp with some rough and ready recordings dated back to 2009. However, unlike Garratt you’re probably not going to see their name everywhere in music industry music tip lists. But they're worth your attention; with their folky harmonies that remind us a little of early First Aid Kit we’re suggesting that they’re Ones to Watch for 2016, not because they’re going to have huge commercial hits or sell bucket loads of records (that’s probably unlikely) but simply because they can pen a decent tune that you might just enjoy. And that’s the most important thing.

Xylaroo - Sunshine (Home Session)

Ones to Watch 2016 - #9 Majik

When we cast our memory back across 2015 and think of all the new bands and solo artists we’ve listened to over the year, one time that instantly stands out as a bit of a eureka moment was last February when we first pressed play on a brand new London two piece called Majik and a song called It’s Alright. At the time we called the song a ‘beautifully tempered piece of modern soothing pop’, a description that still seems entirely accurate. Comparisons with Daughter, The XX and London Grammar quickly attached themselves to Majik; this was languid, sweetly mellow stuff with just a hint of soul about it. Since that debut there was nothing more than silence until this autumn when the group released a second piece of singular sublime chilled-pop called Save Me, a tune that, despite the deluge of new music that fights for our attention, has stayed with us the last few months.

It's purely on the basis of these two songs that we're filing Magik as musical Ones to Watch for 2016. It's early days for them, but let's see how they do.

Majik - It's Alright (Video)

Ones to Watch 2016 - #8 Aurora

Compiling the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch list isn’t something that we do in the flash of a pan one evening before publishing. It starts as far back as May 2015 when we opened a spreadsheet at Europe’s leading new music festival - Great Escape Festival in Brighton - and note down the names of any particular new acts that we saw that stood out.

As the year continues and we discover more new acts (often introducing them in our ‘New Waves’ pieces on the blog) we add the best to our spreadsheet. By November there can be anything between 20 and 50 names on that list (this year there were 26) and from those we select the 10 or 15 that we feel are most appropriate for our annual Ones to Watch list. Some that didn’t quite make it this year included The Japanese House, Anne Marie, RIVRS, Frances, Grace Mitchell and George Cosby.

This year at Great Escape three names stood out that even that early on in the year we were confident would be making our Ones to Watch. One was the artist we announced as the first act on the list (Nao) and the second was today’s choice; Norway’s Aurora. The third was Jack Garratt - but ultimately we decided not to include Jack on the list and we'll talk a little bit more about why on our final #10 post on Saturday, so check back then.

Until a few weeks ago Aurora was still relatively unknown in the UK outside of her small fan base and those in the know. However, whilst she was (apparently) slowly developing her musical profile with a number of sold out but still relatively low key London Club shows and a succession of fantastic slightly left of centre electronic pop songs, something was going on that caught us on the hop; the John Lewis Christmas advert.

We really didn’t see that one coming.

And so by now probably every person reading these posts (in the UK at least) is probably fully aware of Aurora. So why put her on this list?

The reason is that she’s still very much one to watch. The John Lewis Christmas advert has put Aurora in an interesting place – it’s great exposure, but could it come at a cost? Will it all backfire as she quickly becomes ‘that girl who did the Oasis cover’ and is then unceremoniously forgotten, or will she ride the storm? From the evidence we’ve seen at her endearingly wonderful live shows we have hope and believe that, rather like Gabrielle Aplin (who we also featured as a One to Watch in almost identical circumstances back in 2013 on a list that also included Tom Odell, another act that two years further on would have his turn on the advert), Aurora will be able to find her own space away from Christmas one hit wonders, with her own material, but only time will tell.

Aurora - Half The World Away (Video)

Ones to Watch 2016 - #7 Pumarosa

Isabel Munoz Newsome, Henry Brown, Tomoya Suzuki, Jamie Neville and Nicholas Owen are Pumarosa. And they’re one of only three groups to feature on our Ones to Watch 2016 list (the other two follow on Friday and Saturday). They first appeared on Breaking More Waves back in February but it wasn’t until September that their profile really started to develop when they dropped the trance like indie-gothic dance tune Priestess, through Chess Club records (the second time we've mentioned that label in this years' list).

It’s the scope of ambition that is contained within Priestess that made us select the band. Priestess was no ordinary pop single. For a start it was 7 and a half minutes long. No radio edit. A statement of intent. Then there was the way it built hypnotically to a glorious body trembling sonic climax and yet still left the listener wanting more. It showed that it is still very possible to do something creative and exciting with indie guitar music. Add in a remix by Breaking More Waves favourite Shura who provided deeper electronic dance characteristics to the song and changed a lyric to give it a new sexiness ('come to bed'), a tour supporting Genghar, plus a slot at the London Calling festival in Amsterdam and things are looking very positive for this London based unit.

They’re due back in the studio in December to work with producer Dan Carey with a view to releasing a further single in the early part of next year. Let’s hope that they keep sight of their exciting musical vision and can take us even higher.

PumaRosa - Priestess (Shura Remix)

Ones to Watch 2016 - #6 Loyle Carner

Loyle Carner (real name Benjamin Coyle Larner) is a UK spoken word artist who first appeared on Breaking More Waves in June 2015. He performs a chilled to the max, confessional and introspective style of music, with many of his songs being centred on his own family life. Take the emotional Cantona, written two weeks after his step dad died and named after his footballing hero; it’s openly personal and completely engaging. As is Tierney Terrace, which deals with his relationship with his real father: “All I wanted was a f*cking man, to tell the f*cking truth, hold my f*cking hand,” he explains, before he adds “I didn’t understand.” It’s this brutal honesty as well as his attention to detail that makes Carner stand out.

Having toured with Kate Tempest at the start of 2015, played the BBC Introducing Stage at Glastonbury and then following that up with his own sold out tour, it seems that Carner’s engaging grooves and delivery are finding an audience. We’re expecting that audience to grow even further in 2016.

Loyle Carner - Ain't Nothing Changed (Video)

Ones to Watch 2016 - #5 Billie Marten

After three acts whose music very much falls into the electronic production zone (plus one who doesn't - although Declan uses technology to create beats and loop his music live), we go elsewhere with our fifth choice on Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch for 2016 list. Billie Marten first cropped up on these pages in May 2014 with her song Ribbon which we described as ‘something pretty special’ and since then she’s made us want to repeat that phrase over and over again.

Billie’s profile has been slowly growing over the last 18 months with a handful of releases, each one lovelier than the previous. There was a stunning cover of La Roux’s In For The Kill, the tempestuous Heavy Weather, and more recently the utterly sublime Bird from her As Long As EP, released through purveyors of everything good, Chess Club Records. Each song is sung with a beguiling softness and beauty; inevitably the comparisons with early Laura Marling and Lucy Rose have come thick and fast. 

What 2016 holds for Billie only time will tell. Being so young she has time on her side and like Declan McKenna, our third choice, there’s a strong case for suggesting that she might be better placed on a Ones To Watch for 2018 list, but we’re excited to see where her journey takes her next, so here she is right now.

Billie Marten - Bird

Ones to Watch 2016 - #4 Zyra

Our fourth One to Watch for 2016 is Zyra. You might recognise her name from back in 2014 when she provided guest vocals on Seattle production duo Odesza’s song Say My Name, which hit number 2 in the iTunes electronic chart and was a huge online hit. However, if you’re really on the money, you might have heard Zyra before that. We first featured her on the blog way back in 2013 under her real name of Alex Cheatle when she was knocking out some ‘blissfully summery, infectiously breezy and sweetly sung’ mash-ups, as well as atmospheric ballads such as The Woods.

However, since that time there has been very little in the way of new music from Cheatle but a recent tweet from her has suggested that finally things are about to kick off. “I love that no one realises how much I produce. Everything will change soon,” she tweeted, so we guess that this means we’re finally going to hear what she’s been up to.

When she finally brings something to the table, if it’s anything near as good as her previous output, she has to be One to Watch for 2016. She appears to have an uncanny knack of knocking out infectious pop melodies, whatever the style of music. Let's hope we hear them in 2016.

Odesza - Say My Name (featuring Zyra - Hermitude Remix)

Ones to Watch 2016 - #3 Declan McKenna

According to his Facebook page, our 3rd One To Watch for 2016 is inspired by the Nolan sisters and one word South American countries/ religious pilgrimage points. It certainly makes a refreshing change from Oasis and The Libertines. Declan McKenna is very much one of those who fits into the ‘how can someone so young be doing stuff like this’ category. He’s scarily good and original with it as well.

Declan first came across the Breaking More Waves radar through this years Glastonbury Emerging Talent competition (which we helped judge), where he beat thousands of other entrants to win and is now signed to a major label (Colombia Records). He’s already charmed much of the blogosphere with his incredibly hooky football protest song anthem Brazil and his latest work, a warbling casio keyboard based pop nugget called Paracetamol is further and absolute justification for including him as Ones To Watch for 2016. It's an experimental and 100% engaging tune full of ideas, that suggests that whilst this guy is still finding his way to a certain extent (let's remember he's only 16), he has the potential to go on and make a really interesting debut album. The fact that we really can't compare him to anyone that easily (some have suggested Tom Vek but we don't fully hear that) is something to celebrate. One to Watch for 2016, but maybe for '17 and '18 as well?

Declan McKenna - Paracetamol

Ones to Watch 2016 - #2 Mura Masa

If you follow us on Twitter (here) you might have noticed that we’ve been dropping subtle hints about a number of the acts that will feature on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2016 list over the last few months. A case in point is Mura Masa who we excitingly described as the sound of the future in October. Welcome to that future.

Mura Masa is an electronic producer (real name Alex Crossnan) who originally hails from Guernsey but more recently has been based in Brighton. He’s hit all the right ‘tastemaker’ blogs, had a feature in the Guardian’s New Band of the Week column, had the support of BBC Radio 1 and has collaborated with the likes of yesterday’s One to Watch Nao as well as Breaking More Waves favourite and BBC Sound of 2015 nominated artist Shura. But all of that means nothing if in the real world people don’t like his music – but they clearly do – and we do to. His set in the Invaders of the Future new acts tent at this year’s Bestival was the busiest we saw the place, and just a few weeks ago his gig in a dark sweaty basement club in Brighton already felt way too small for him. We could easily see Mura Masa ‘doing a Disclosure’ and taking his laptop generated music to much bigger spaces.

What makes Mura Masa so good? Take one listen to Firefly (one of the underground pop songs of 2015 - featuring yesterday's pick Nao) and you’ll understand. He makes crisp, glitchy, electronic dance music that has one eye on the dancefloor, one eye on the headphones and one eye on the pop arena. Oh, that’s three eyes, but that’s the point. Mura Masa does things just that little bit differently. He takes sounds that shouldn’t work together and bundles them together in one exciting flow of interest. It’s not often you’ll hear slow mournful strings on a dance track, but Alex throws them in alongside a command to ‘let me see your lighters’, and Shura’s beautiful vocal to create something that works on a whole variety of levels. If he can keep up this standard in 2016 he’s got to be one watch. That’s why he’s on this list.

Mura Masa - Firefly (featuring Nao)

Ones to Watch 2016 - #1 Nao

17th July 2015. A tweet from Breaking More Waves from a music festival: “If I was writing my Ones to Watch 2016 list right now Nao would be on it. She’s certainly on it at #Latitude15.”

Now here we are at the end of November and Nao is still on it. She’s a singer on fire. Funky grooves, maple syrup / helium injected vocals (yes, live her voice is just like the recorded version), dance moves, bubbly performances and the songs to go with it, Nao was never in doubt as being our number 1 One to Watch for 2016. 

From a love of Prince and Nina Simone, studying vocal jazz at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, through to teaching kids to sing, then backing vocals with the likes of Pulp and touring with Little Dragon, Nao’s rise seems pretty organic – slow and steady. With a number of EPs under her belt, a starring role on Mura Masa’s incredible Firefly and vocals on Disclosure's album track Superego, Nao has already demonstrated why to our ears at least, she should be on every tip list for 2016 in existence.

OK, we’re probably getting a little over excited here, but Nao deserves the notice anyone takes of her.

Nao - Bad Blood (Video)



Nao - Zillionaire 

Ones to Watch 2016

That time of year is almost upon us. You know the one. The one where every blog, website, printed publication (what’s left of them) and media outlet rolls out their tips for 2016. Actually, we’re not quite there yet, but come December and January that’s what happens.

And as has become customary on Breaking More Waves we’re going out even before the B of the Bang, not for any particularly clever / savvy / get there first reason, but simply because this time suits us.

For the next 10 days we’ll be taking a stab at who we think it might be worth keeping your ears out for in 2016.

Last year’s tips were probably our weakest ever in terms of commercial success, with only 1 from our 10 selections (The Shires) going on to have a UK top 10 album, although of the other 9, only a further 2 have got round to releasing debut long players, one being a top 5 album in Sweden and the other having a top 30 record in the US. Of the other 7 none of them have got that far, let’s hope that some of them do so in 2016 otherwise we may find them disappearing in a cloud of obscurity.

Not that our Ones to Watch list is ever just about commercial success – it’s purely about artists that we’ve been enjoying, although past years have suggested that our taste is reasonably commercial to a point, with the likes of Lana Del Rey, Ellie Goulding, Florence & The Machine, Marina & The Diamonds, Mumford & Sons and more recently George Ezra and Wolf Alice all appearing on our lists. Of course there's been some misses both creatively and commercially in our picks, but let's move on and not mention the fact that we once thought Skint & Demoralised would be the next big thing.

So without further ado, let’s get started. We’ll be publishing one artist to watch for 2016 every day for the next 10 days at 8.30am, the first coming in fifteen minutes after this post goes on line. If you’re a regular reader of the blog most (but not all) of these tips will come as no surprise to you; many have already featured in past posts in 2015. In fact, this list is as much of a summary of the best of our past year or so of new music selections as it is a crystal ball for 2016. See if some of these crop up on other tip lists as we head into December and wish all the artists we’re about to feature in 2016 good luck – it’s getting harder and harder for new acts to develop any sort of long term career in an industry that some would suggest is seriously broken.