Friday 2 September 2016

New Music: Mononoke - Graceland


Near the end of every year I like to post my Ones to Watch for the next 12 months before all the big gun lists such as the BBC Sound of get published. Sometimes I do quite well with my tips, but at other times all my Ones to Watch list shows is how faulty my crystal ball is. Sometimes the artists don’t even release anything in the following year!

This nearly appeared to be the case with Mononoke (real name Katie Taylor) one of my tips for 2014.

There was a handful of songs at the start of the year in question, following the incredibly beautiful and blue ballad Alice in 2013, but then nothing. In fact the songs in question such as Barefoot And Broken and Bones and Glory seemed to mysteriously vanish from the internet. It appeared that Mononoke hadn’t even got out of first gear before the brakes were applied and the engine stopped, ignition keys thrown away.

But wait, the tale continued, because lo and behold Mononoke resurfaced this summer. Alice was rereleased and there was also another song called Silence For You, the title track from an EP. It seemed that 2014 was just a false start. Now there’s nothing stopping her. Here’s another one, called Graceland which is a slowly compelling piece of chill pop with everything in the right place.

So why the delay? “I think I was too keen to get going before I had any material or imagery to back up what I had already put up online,’ she told her record labels website.

Footnote: For regular readers, please note that I got all the way through this post without mentioning the bath pic once. I'm losing my touch.

Footnote 2: This is the final post on Breaking More Waves for a week or so whilst I'm on holiday.

Mononoke - Graceland

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