From the word go Poppy has always been one of the more interesting pop stars out there. From her wonky pastel universe videos where she asked her followers to repeat with her “I am not in a cult” and clips that made a basil plant and a mannequin called Charlotte internet famous, to her early highly synthetic pop shows (the one I caught in London saw Charlotte the mannequin ‘perform’ a DJ set and Toto’s Africa was played on repeat non stop for an hour getting gradually louder each time before she came on stage). it's fair to say that Poppy has always been slightly more than bonkers but weirdly entertaining. New track Scary Mask continues her trajectory into the odd. The one criteria I usually use for featuring a song on Breaking More Waves is that I like it. I’m not really sure if I do like Scary Mask; but it does make me smile, so that’s close enough to liking something isn’t it? So, what’s so odd about Scary Mask? Compare her earlier work such as the barbie-girl-nursery-time-synth-pop of Beach Blonde Baby (here) with this and you’ll see why. You probably didn’t know that you needed some dark electro hardcore metal intensity in your life – but you’re just about to get it. For this time, Poppy teams up with Fever 333. Madness ensues. You can find this track alongside everything else I’ve featured during May on Breaking More Waves (which is less than usual) on the Breaking More Waves Spotify playlist, which is updated at the end of the month for your listening pleasure. Why not give it a follow? You can find it by clicking here. Poppy - Scary Mask featuring Fever 333 (Video)
Winnie Raeder had already filled my heart with her debut Don’t You Dare and now she lays claim to being one of the most promising new voices of 2019 with the sublime I Wear A Ghost. Against a gentle acoustic background and light harmonies Winnie exposes her doubts about herself and who she is to someone. It’s music that speaks to the soul; tender and powerful. There’s a tiny hint of the Lewis Capaldi’s about I Wear A Ghost but here it coaxes you in softly rather than straining for the power chord as Capaldi seems to do rather too often for my liking. Sometimes I write too many words. This time let’s just let the music do the talking. Winnie plays St Pancras Old Church in London on 3rd June (Sold Out) and Bushstock festival on the 15th June. Winnie Raeder - I Wear A Ghost
Imagine a decadent and seedy basement bar where the champagne and illegal drugs flow freely whilst half naked Swedish men pole dance for free for the baying clientele's pleasure. This is the club that I imagine that pop musicians nip off to when they disappear off our radar, never to be heard of again. Look around and there in one velvet draped corner you might find Duffy, doing vodka shots whilst regaling anyone who will listen about how she won 3 Brit awards in 2009 before metaphorically falling off a cliff. Somewhere else on the dancefloor, shaking her thing vigorously on her own you’ll see Tiffany – yes her from the 80s. Coming down in the elevator right now is Yazz; when she gets back in it after the club is over it will be her turn to sing THAT song one more time. For a while I thought Pawws might also be in that club. You might remember her back from 2012-2014 when I featured her on the blog with a series of top-notch electronic booty wiggling jams. But after that it could have been easily assumed that she was hanging out with Duffy. Except she wasn’t. Pawws has in fact been busy. Remember Dua Lipa’s Be The One? Pawws (real name Lucy Taylor) was one of the writers of that. Pawws knows how to do pop for sure. And now here she is again alongside Oscar Scheller with a premier league tune called Interstellar Disco taken from Oscar’s forthcoming album HTTP404. And rather like my imagined club for retired / semi-retired pop stars, Interstellar Disco is about a fantasy club; a place where you can go and let loose with that friend who knows that sometimes sitting around talking about how life has thrown you one too many custard pies isn’t what you need. Sometimes, when everything seems to have gone wrong you just need to dance dance dance. This is truth. Grab your favourite friend and get moving to this - a prime piece of electronic pop.
Oscar Scheller - Interstellar Disco (featuring Pawws)
First, we had Dua Lipa, but now there’s a second Dua to add to your catalogue of musical goodness. Although Dua Saleh’s music is very different from the mainstream pop of Ms Lipa. This Dua’s cuts are far deeper, far more leftfield and arguably far more intriguing. Dua identifies as gender non-binary and goes by they/them pronouns. They released their debut EP Nūr (pronounced 'noor') which means ‘The Light’ in Arabic earlier this year through Bandcamp and after numerous listens I’ve concluded it’s pretty damn special. Nūr is full of jams that touch on jazz, pop, hip-hop and the sort of ghostly r’n’b that FKA Twigs does so well. It’s wonderfully varied but the songs seem to co-exist in a harmonious union of difference. Dua’s vocals are forceful and snappy one moment, casually half-spoken and half-sung the next (on the track Kickflip), then on the atmospheric Albany, which comes complete with some birdsong samples, all shadowy and wispy. Lyrically there’s plenty to devour. For example on the economical opener Sugar Mama you’ll find Saleh singing of halitosis, lobster and someone who has a “pussy melting like a glacier” as the person “wonders ‘bout my flavour, those chocolate coated layers.” Then on the track Survival (streaming below) you’ll find them intoning "I am not a lover, won't you fuck right off,” as Velvet Negroni adds some extra vocal touches to develop the track into something that the likes of Massive Attack or The Weeknd would probably be pretty proud of. Below you’ll find that tune and another titled Warm Pants. Give them a listen but make sure you check out the whole EP which you can find by clicking here. Hopefully there’s more to come from Dua Saleh soon. Dua Saleh - Survival (feat Velvet Negroni)
YESTERDAY THE BEST GROUP OUT OF LIMERICK SINCE THE CRANBERRIES RELEASED A NEW VIDEO FOR THEIR INDIETASTIC GOOD SONG THE OTHERS. AS FAR AS I'M AWARE IT'S NOT ABOUT THE BAND THAT RELEASED THE SONG THIS IS FOR THE POOR SOMETIME IN THE EARLY NOUGHTIES, WHICH AT THE TIME SEEMED TO HAVE SOMETHING, BUT IN HINDSIGHT WAS PRETTY RUBBISH WASN'T IT? THE NME TRIED TO CLAIM THEIR DEBUT ALBUM WAS GOOD BUT THEY LIED. I BLAME THE LIBERTINES AND ALL THE DRUGS THAT THAT SCENE TOOK. BUT I DIGRESS. THE OTHERS IS ONE OF whenyoung's BEST TRACKS TO DATE. BUT WHY OH WHY DOES THE BAND WRITE THEIR WHOLE NAME IN LOWER CASE LETTERS? IT MAKES THEM SEEM SOMEHOW SMALL AND INSIGNIFICANT - WHICH THEIR SONGS AREN’T. THERE’S A WHOLE BUNCH OF THEM COMING ON MAY 24TH WHEN THEY RELEASE THEIR DEBUT ALBUM REASONS TO DREAM. MAYBE THE SONG TITLES WILL ALL BE IN CAPITALS FOR CONTRAST? BECAUSE IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC ISN'T IT? TIME TO START SHOUTING ABOUT THEM. WATCH THE VIDEO FOR THE OTHERS BELOW AND DON'T BE LIKE THE OLD PEOPLE FEATURED. AND DON'T BOTHER WITH THE OTHER OTHERS. THEIR MUSIC WAS A RAMSHACKLE TURD. whenyoung - THE OTHERS
Over the last day or so Charli XCX and Lizzo have been teasing a track that they’ve recorded together. 'BOUT 2 SAVE POP MUSIC,' the sign in the picture proclaimed (see above). At first Blame It On Your Love could seem like a disappointment; it’s a remix / rework of Track 10 - my favourite tune from Charli’s Pop 2 record. Why remix a great tune? It seems silly – it's like taking a Michelin starred restaurant meal and throwing some Nando's perri perri lemon & herb sauce over it - it might still taste OK, but the chances of improving things are very limited. But then music, like food, is all about taste. And yes, this version isn't as spectacular as the original. However, the Stargate reggaeton / tropical house pop production on the track probably makes it a little more accessible to the masses. If there’s a non-sweary edit it could even get some radio play. After all the super-synthetic, apocalyptic, bonkers, build-to-ecstasy version on Pop 2 with it’s weird Aphex Twin style intro, harp, Charli’s processed vocals and PC Music production was pretty out there. However, Blame It On Your Love reminds us (as if we needed reminding) that Charli XCX knows how to write a hook, so be prepared to get fully pulled in by this one. As a bonus we also get Lizzo, although her appearance on the track is fleetingly short and seems a little bit phoned in: “Blame it on the juice, looking at my booty like you don’t know what to do,” she raps. If I hadn’t heard Track 10 before this I’d have been claiming that it was time to grab a cocktail and jump into your neon coloured swimwear as this could be one of the party pop songs of the summer, instead I’ll say it could still be, but to turn up the heat even higher put on Track 10 and get well and truly burnt. Other fun facts about Lizzo and Charli XCX: In the last couple of years they’ve both recorded songs called Boys. Both are very good although bizarrely Lizzo didn’t put hers on her album, although it can be found on the Deluxe edition, so play that instead. Charli XCX - Blame It On Your Love (featuring Lizzo)
Over the last week I’ve been wracking up the footsteps (over 60,000 in 3 days) at Great Escape in Brighton – Europe’s leading new music festival. The one question I was asked time and time again as I chatted to other punters, in between the music, is who have you seen that you’ve really rated? For the record some of my favourites that I haven’t seen before were The Murder Capital, Chai and Celeste. Other highlights were from Squid, Another Sky and Confidence Man but they are all acts I’ve seen on a number of occasions before Great Escape. However, today I’m featuring an artist that in certain respects I was surprised not to spot anywhere on the bill at Great Escape given she has been signed to Domino Records and is new. But perhaps that's because she is supporting AlaskaAlaska in Brighton tomorrow. Her name is Arlo Day. This Love is the second track to be released from her debut EP which comes out at the end of this month, following the introspectively divine Bad Timing. An exquisitely doleful sounding piece it finds Arlo contemplating a relationship with someone she knows isn’t good for her: “You are like a drug to, but I can’t let you get to me.” It’s a song that has extra weight because of its musical subtlety. This one feels special. Give it a listen below. Arlo Day - This Love
This weekend is every British new music fan’s dream festival: Brighton’s Great Escape. With over 450 artists playing over 3 days, most of them being relatively new and from all over the globe, it’s an amazing festival of discovery. I’ve been attending since its very early days, when gigs really only happened in the evening, to see it grow into the bustling and enormous event it has become now. It’s an immediate must do in my diary every year. Normally around this time I’d write a number of posts giving my tips, musical and otherwise, for the festival, but time has been against me. So instead I’ll just rattle of a small handful of names that I’m most excited to see, some not for the first time: 404, Squid, Amahla, Another Sky, Plastic Mermaids, Celeste, L Devine, Chai and one more band that I’m featuring in full on the blog today. That band are The Murder Capital and they hail from Ireland. Loaded up with post-punk intensity they currently have just 2 songs on line to stream. Having first caught the attention on the strength a You Tube live recording of a song called More Or Less that packed a hard weighty punch as well as word of mouth from those who attended early gigs, The Murder Capital built a fierce reputation before they even released a single. The first track they put out officially to stream in January was the The Fontaines DC-ish Feeling Fades, the second in April was the claustrophobic and brilliantly murky sounding Green & Blue which has hints of early U2, Joy Division and The Cure to it. Both are superb but particularly this second song. It might be called Green & Blue but it’s real colour is midnight black. “With their wings flung the choir sung their final song today, as the doors appear to clear the space in which she lay, she’ll collapse she’ll collapse as the amber sisters softly say,” it starts, hinting at an end, a death. This theme is continued through to the powerful video which finds the characters portrayed dealing with what appears to be grief and the loss of someone loved. The audio and visual combined make a poignant and powerful piece of work. Having already supported the likes of Idles, Fontaines DC and Slaves, The Murder Capital seem well positioned to take things to the next level. The Great Escape might be your last opportunity to see them in a really small venue like The Prince Albert. Go see them if you get the chance. The Murder Capital - Green & Blue
Away from my day job (which has absolutely nothing to do with music) one of the other projects I’m involved in is running a small music festival in Portsmouth. It’s called Dials. It’s a multi-venue event run by a team of volunteers in support of Solent Mind, a local mental health charity. Dials ran in 2015 and 2016 as a smaller replacement for the now defunct Southsea Fest, before taking a break in 2017. My original role was not much more than having a small hand in booking some of the artists that played in those first two years, helping out with a bit of public relations and trying to understand how a putting on a music festival worked; it's a jigsaw and you have to put all the pieces in the right place at the right time. In 2018 we decided to continue, with a slightly different (albeit very small) team as well as a modified concept and I acted as festival director as well as co-booker. For 2019, I’ve taken a step back after some recent health issues and another team member Abbie Eales has taken on the role, but I’m still quite heavily involved; I co-book the event and generally do whatever I can to help with the limited spare time I have. 2018 was the first year that the festival took the decision to support a charity and it is something that is very important to me. I’ve always been more of an actions speak louder than words sort of person (ironic given that I write a blog) and so you won’t find me doing lots of posts on Twitter about how important mental health is – I’d rather get on with organising an event like Dials and supporting an organisation like Solent Mind and (hopefully) giving people a great day out watching some of the best new music out there. Tweets are useful, but taking real action is even more so. 2018 represented a new start for our festival with its charity support and revised team structure. The feedback we got from punters was hugely positive and spurred us on to do it again in 2019. This year we’ve grown the team working on the festival as we had lots of interest from people about getting involved and volunteering after the 2018 event, although the festival itself is the same size. I like to think that when something is positive and successful people want to be part of it. It certainly helps having a bigger number of people to spread the workload, especially when the team is full of such talented and brilliant people. I mentioned the praise we received in 2018; we especially liked that ticket holders thought that Dials had a friendly community atmosphere, was well run, had some nice elements of attention to detail (even though we had very little budget), how close all the venues were to each other, and how much great new music they discovered. And it’s new music discovery that is at the heart of Dials Festival. Which is why I’m incredibly excited today to reveal the first 13 acts that will be appearing at Dials 2019. Headlining will be The Blinders - a band I named as Ones to Watch in 2018 (here). Since that time they’ve released their debut album Columbia and cooked up a storm wherever they’ve played live. This year they’ve already played the Scala in London and will be supporting Noel Gallagher at some of his summer shows before they head to Dials. Alongside The Blinders I’m ecstatic to bring Another Sky back to Portsmouth for the second time. If you’ve read Breaking More Waves this year or followed me on Twitter you’ll probably know that this band is one of my favourite new acts of the last 12 months. They were the first band I approached about playing for 2019 and was absolutely delighted when they said yes. If you haven’t heard them yet, it’s time to do some catching up and listen to tracks like Chillers, The Cracks, Forget Yourself,Apple Tree and Avalanche and feel the band’s power. Having seen them play a number of times I know they can deliver the goods on stage as well – they are all fantastic musicians. Besides these 2 bands today we’ve announced 11 more acts. From fresh new cosmic dreamy synth pop from Bristol (Pocket Sun) to snarling South London new wave punk recently signed to Felix White of The Maccabees new Yala! Records label (Talk Show) to analogue ambient audio-visual electronic art from Brighton (Johanna Bramli) to a band that are playing Glastonbury, Boomtown and Download this summer, have collaborated with Bobby from Primal Scream on a recent single and are making people’s jaws drop with their full-on live performances (Black Futures). We’re really proud of the line up we’ve curated and hope that as many people as possible will come along for the day. We’ve already sold out of early bird tickets and hope that even if you know none of the acts playing, you’ll come for a grand day out anyway. A quick plea: It really helps us survive as a festival if you buy tickets early so if you have any thought about coming to Dials 2019 – grab a ticket now (just click here). Dials takes place on October 5th on one road (Albert Road) in Southsea, Portsmouth and runs from lunchtime to around 11pm at night. The artists announced for Dials 2019 so far are: The Blinders, Another Sky, Arxx, Black Futures, Fake Empire, Haze, Hussy, Johanna Bramli, LibraLibra, Pocket Sun, Saltwater Sun, Talk Show and Wych Elm, but this is just the start, we have lots more to come. Find out more about the artists, check out the Spotify playlist and most importantly buy your tickets at the Dials Festival website by clicking www.dialsfestival.com
If you’d like a free ticket to Dials, then why not come and help out and volunteer? We’ll be looking for people to help with things such as merchandise sales on the day, artist accreditation and acting as runners. It’s a really rewarding experience (something I never really considered until I started helping out) and we’ll make sure you get some time off to go and see some of the artists play. If you’re interested in volunteering just send an email to dialsfestival@gmail.com To finish off, here’s some music from a few of the artists playing Dials 2019. We look forward to welcoming you in October. For more information on Solent Mind and what they do click here. The Blinders - Brave New World
