Ones To Watch 2018 - Summary and Playlist

With the 2018 Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch posts now complete, I’m wrapping things up with the full list of 10 artists selected and an accompanying spotify playlist which you can find by clicking here or stream below. It has one song from each of the acts selected.

Whilst posting about these artists I’ve had a couple of comments made from readers about balance and how the selections were all mainly female and I’d just like to address this. First, so what? It’s the music that I'm concerned about not the artists sex. Secondly that statement is actually incorrect. Yes, 9 of the 10 artists I have selected have a female vocalist (when I introduced the posts here I noted that because of my tastes, the list wouldn’t be balanced in that way) but there were 31 musicians of which 16 were male and 15 were female. So in terms of that demographic the list was pretty much balanced - although this was more from luck than any judgement.

Thank you to everyone who engaged with these posts this year. Whilst Breaking More Waves is written mainly for my own entertainment, the Ones to Watch posts are very much for others. Amongst my (real life) friend group some of my friends, who know I'm obsessed with music will often ask me ‘what are the latest new acts we should be listening out for then?’ My Ones to Watch list is essentially my online response to that real-life question. 

Here’s a summary of the 10 artists chosen and a playlist featuring 1 song by each act.

1. Sigrid
2. Jade Bird
3. Superorganism
4. The Blinders
5. Pale Waves
6. Grace Carter
7. Off Bloom
8. Confidence Man
9. Pink Kink
10. Maisie Peters

I'll be updating the Breaking More Waves monthly playlist at the end of this month as per usual, but it won't include the Ones to Watch posts only the other new music that I have uploaded in November. If you want to follow the monthly Breaking More Waves playlist you can find that by clicking on this link.

Ones To Watch 2018 - #9 Pink Kink

With one band made up of members from all over the world with different backgrounds already gracing the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2018 list (#3 - Superorganism) it seems appropriate to add another. 

The rowdy Pink Kink may be based in Liverpool, but their five members all hail from different countries across Europe. With just two recorded songs out there to their name, the street harassment feminist anthem Bubblebutt and the hungry and horny Munchie Magic, Pink Kink are gaining a name for themselves not only through their hyper-energetic songs, but their live shows.  

“The best band in the UK.” “A bit mad” “An explosion of colour and pop chaos.” These are just some of the things I’ve seen tweeted by various commentators after seeing the band play in the last few months.

There’s a danger with the two songs that Pink Kink have released so far that they will just be treated as a novelty act, but it seems that there is a lot more to this band than just that. With musical styles that range through indie, jazz, pop, punk, shoegaze and electro and an emerging political edge it may be that we all have to give Pink Kink a bit of time before we get the whole picture, but certainly that picture is a vibrant, creative and exciting one.

Pink Kink are out supporting Pussy Riot right now. Expect them to tear it up wherever they play in 2018.

Pink Kink - Bubblebutt

New Music: Pink Kink - Munchie Magic

If shout a-long girl gang hyper-punk vocals, Dick Dale surfing safari guitars and bonkers lyrics about tangy cheesy pizza boyfriends and yummy creamy watermelon kinky girlfriends sound like your sort of thing, then come and have a high energy pogo to the second release from Pink Kink, a maverick bunch of souls who seem intent on proving that Shakespeare really was right when he wrote that music was the food of love – although to be fair he probably wasn’t thinking of chilli chips, rainbow coloured spaghetti and eating you out when he sat down to write Twelfth Night. 

What’s not to love about a song that sounds like a Hanna-Barbara cartoon dirty dancing in a late-night garage club with this decade's version of the B52’s providing the soundtrack? Munchie Magic is irreverent, naughty and childishly fun and it's all the better for being those things.

Pink Kink - Munchie Magic

New Music: Introducing - Pink Kink

A name that I’ve seen generating a lot of interest with music fans out of the Liverpool area over the last year or so is Pink Kink. If memory serves me correctly I first found out about them via Andy from the VPME, but until now the excitement has all been about the groups somewhat deranged and all over the place gigs, with no recordings being available.

Now it’s all systems go with the short sharp punch of Bubblebutt, a song that takes on the issue of being able to dress the way you want without receiving sexist comments. Clocking in at less than two fiery minutes I love the shouty gothabilly punk stylings of this song complete with its barbed twangy guitars and garage noir keyboards. Imagine Scottish kandy-pop kids Bis covering The Cramps and you might be getting somewhere close to what this trashy and cartoonish punch of power sounds like. 

However, let’s not be too hasty in slotting this band under one label yet. From the reports I’ve seen they are in some ways a similar proposition to the much hyped HMLTD, in that they have a range of different styles and tempos leading to several 'WTF' moments in audiences, possibly born out of the fact that they all originally hail from very different places; Germany, Spain, Norway, America and the UK. As more music gets released we’ll probably all see the bigger picture – but this is a fine start that strikes close to the bullseye.

Pink Kink are out on tour soon with Dead Pretties and play the discovery day at Swn Festival in Cardiff.

Pink Kink - Bubblebutt