Ed Sheeran - You Need Me, I Don't Need You (Rizzle Kicks Remix)

How do you judge music? How do you determine what’s good and what’s bad? At Breaking More Waves our judgement is simple – does it make us feel something – something wonderful, something emotional? If it does, then it’s good music. For us it doesn't have to be technically competent, that definition of 'good' is for chin-stroking muso's who have forgotten how it is to feel alive. It’s why the Breaking More Waves definition of good will often be different to another music blog, because we all feel different emotions about different things and at different times.

Mention the name Ed Sheeran and the chances are you’ll get one of two responses. The first is a swooning puppy-dog eyes-wide dreamy faraway look and a gentle sigh followed by something along the lines of “Oh I love him so much,” the second is a look of utter disdain. This is the way emotions work. This is the way ‘good’ and ‘bad’ music is defined.

We’ve never shied away from enjoying music that is made for commercial gain or on a major label. Music is just music and once you start passing judgements on something because of anything other than the song then your judgement is coloured and that’s a dangerous thing.

But of course you know and we know that this last statement is a load of balderdash because our judgement is coloured all the time in the amazing world of pop music. That’s why the haircut, the ‘coolness’, the look of a performer, how sexy they are, what they said that you agreed with in an interview, how old they are, even if your peer group like them or not all affect your judgement. For example if you live in the UK, if we played you a record and told you that Fearne Cotton adores it how would you feel? What about if we told you that Abeano blog or Transparent blog had raved about it? What about if we told you that the singer went to Brit School? Or had won X-Factor? Chances are that you’ve already made your mind up about the song to a certain extent before you’ve even heard it.

So here’s a new remix from Ed Sheeran of You Need Me, I Don't Need You, remixed by another Breaking More Waves supported act Rizzle Kicks. If you don’t like either act or if like both, the chances are that you’ve already made your mind up about the song before you even press play. We have no idea what Fearne Cotton thinks of it, but we’re pretty sure you won’t be seeing it on Abeano. We’ll give you one more piece of information to influence your thinking – the track is as much Rizzle Kicks as it is Sheeran, with completely new rapped verses. Oh and there’s some rude words as well. Now press play and make your own judgement if you haven’t done so already.

Ed Sheeran - You Need Me, I Don't Need You (Rizzle Kicks Remix)

Ed Sheeran - You Need Me I Don’t Need You

How relevant are the UK singles charts these days? In terms of being the best tool we have available to measure sales they’re still the best – they don’t take into account all sales, the likes of purchases from independent sites such as Bandcamp are not measured through the charts for example, but they still give the most concrete and least subjective guide.

With so many other methods of easily consuming music being available sales are not necessarily a 100% foolproof guide to who is ‘popular’, but they still present a more objective amount of evidence than other similar tools. A number 1 on the Hype Machine for example can often have very little relevance to the vast majority of music consumers in the UK. This is illustrated sharply when gigs by bands that are ‘big on the blogs’ and have had high Hype Machine chart placings pull only a tiny handful of people to see them. Last year we attended one such gig where despite coverage by the likes of Pitchfork, Gorilla vs Bear and a Hype Machine top 10 there were 16 people in the audience. Yet take an act like Ed Sheeran, who until very recently was hardly listed on Hype Machine and you’ll witness his shows selling out in minutes. At July’s Camp Bestival festival Sheeran’s set in the Big Top was packed to the gunnels (the busiest of the weekend), the crowd baying his name a good twenty minutes before he came on stage. The same weekend a number of ‘big on the blogs’ bands played to just a handful of people.

Sheeran’s recent single The A-Team reached the top 3 in the UK singles chart. When you combine this with his well-attended shows it supports the argument that despite the 1001 ways we can consume music, the sales charts are still relevant in terms of a gauge of what acts are popular at any one snapshot in time.

Sheeran is an unlikely pop star – with his mop of ginger hair and folk / hip hop angle of his songs, but we like him a lot. There’s something very real, very honest and very sincere about what he does. Breaking More Waves has never been afraid to cover new music that is popular – witness our past treatments of acts such as Ellie Goulding and Hurts as well as darker more underground stuff. Music is a broad church and we worship it all.

So here’s the new single from Ed. You Need Me I Don’t Need You features Wretch 32 and Devlin and was first posted on the blog in March – with a video of his SB TV performance which has now racked up over 3 million views on You Tube (another possible guide to popularity - but then don’t forget how many hits Rebecca Black received - we’re not convinced that the hits she received were because people liked her)

Below you can hear the single itself, a remix and watch the video. His album titled + is due in September. Expect it to do very well in the charts.

Ed Sheeran - You Need Me, I Don't Need You (feat. Wretch32 & Devlin)

Ed Sheeran - You Need Me, I Don't Need You (Gemini Remix)

Camp Bestival 2011 - Preview

For many people a love of music festivals doesn’t stop once they’re out of their teenage years or early twenties, but their tastes in the kind of festival they attend does. In the same way that as you grow older your musical preferences may change or expand, so may your choice in these outdoor cities of musical heaven. Glastonbury, Reading or V are often where people lose their virginity (of the festival kind as well as possibly sexual), drawn by big names, heavy media exposure, and peer group pressure, but after a number of these events there may be a temptation to try something different. It’s at this point that there may be a realisation that the best festivals are often the ones that offer something a little unique and unexpected and that the sum of the parts of the festival – the infrastructure, the atmosphere, the organisation as well as the music make the great festivals stand out from a very busy and cluttered crowd.

Camp Bestival very much offers the unique with half of its 30,000 punters being children. Back in 2007 Mr Bestival himself -Rob da Bank - decided, over a couple of glasses of red wine, that there was a small gap in the festival market for what became Camp Bestival and began the process of bringing the event to life for its debut in 2008.

When you normally think of the family market you probably think of the smell of plastic and chips, ball parks, a lack of style and something very uncool. Yet Camp Bestival turns all this on this on its head.

Set in the grounds of Lulworth Castle, Dorset, the site is beautifully decorated bringing Creative Director Josie Da Bank's vision to life. Flags, bunting, the Women’s Institute Tea Tent, the hidden delights of the woods in the Dingly Dell Trail, medieval jousting, pamper lounges, the Bollywood Bar, the Wonderland Inn – Camp Bestival is far from just a bunch of marquees thrown up in a field with some bands playing. Then there’s the bands – an eclectic mix of those for the mums and dads to have a nostalgia trip (ABC, Blondie, The Wonderstuff, House Of Pain), things for teenagers (Katy B, Wretch 32, Yasmin, Labrinth), stuff for folk-heads (Laura Marling, James Vicnent McMorrow, Alessi’s Ark, Caitlin Rose) plus some of the best up and coming new acts (Yaaks, Fenech Soler, Ed Sheeran) and that’s before we’ve even mentioned Primal Scream, Mark Ronson, Clare Maguire and a certain DJ Collective known as the Sunday Best Forum Allstars of which Breaking More Waves has a rather large input into.

And for those who hate the idea of the dreaded festival toilet, last year Camp Bestival had some of the cleanest toilets we’ve ever seen.

Then there’s the kids entertainment. Far too many festivals bill themselves as family friendly and then make token gestures. Camp Bestival goes the whole hog. The kids field is huge – but cleverly the layout incorporates enough attractions to ensure that mums and dads have stuff to keep them entertained as well with the bandstand stage being located in the lower kids garden as well as a nice big bar and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Café, so mum and dad can eat a fresh mackerel burger and enjoy a pint of real ale or cider whilst watching their kids enjoy the endless attractions. Shrek The Musical, Dick and Dom, The English National Ballet workshops for children, the insect circus, dressing up areas, circus skills, family films, DJ Jo Whiley hosting a picnic, the house of fairy tales and The Gruffalo are just a few of the huge number of excitements for children. Then there’s literature for all in the East Lulworth literary tent, the highlights of which include Radio 1 DJ Sara Cox presenting How to be a mum, have a career and leave time to eat sushi, Carl Barat of The Libertines being interviewed, Marcus Brigstocke and kids author Cathy Cassidy.

Camp Bestival may not be for those who think that getting their rocks off, shovelling down a load of drugs, drinking 10 cans of cider and weeing on someone’s tent in the campsite is a perfect weekend, but Camp Bestival shows brilliantly that festivals with children can and do work – and that everyone can go home happy and waiting for it all to start again next year.

As always with our festival previews, here are a few recommendations of the newer bands that are appearing at Camp Bestival, which takes place on the 28-31 July. Breaking More Waves will bring a review of Camp Bestival 2011 shortly after that.

Yaaks

HRHRHYTHM by YAAKS

Ed Sheeran

The A-Team by EdSheeran

Fenech-Soler

Demons by Fenech-Soler

James Vincent McMorrow

07 Follow You Down to the Red Oak Tree by jamesvmcmorrow

Jess Mills with Breakage

Jess Mills - Fighting Fire Ft. Breakage by Jess Mills

Ed Sheeran - The A Team (Video and Remixes)

Since we first posted about Ed Sheeran (here) his public profile has begun to increase in the UK. Key events have included Radio 1’s Zane Lowe finally jumping on board and giving The A Team his ‘Hottest Record’ treatment and then Ed’s first TV appearance on Later with Jools, where just armed with a loop pedal and his guitar he did what is now known as a ‘KT Tunstall’ racking up a plethora of Google searches on his name immediately after his appearance.

Today we’re featuring two videos and two remixes to his moving song. The first video is a simple black and white piece that touches on the tunes storyline of drugs and prostitution. You’ll also see a cameo appearance from Ed in the film.

Whilst the A Team may have reasonably strong themes for a young singer songwriter, it’s feather-light compared with Little Lady, the reworking of the song Ed produced with Mikill Pane on his Collaborations Project EP. If you do nothing else today why not log onto I Tunes and purchase it? Go on do it now. Mikil’s rap is full of deadweight realness with an emotional tale of desperate tragedy, fear and violence. It ends with a shock that – we warn you – will probably have you in tears. There’s a live version from Mikill in the second video below.

The A-Team {KoanSound Remix} by EdSheeran

The A-Team {True Tiger Remix} by EdSheeran

Ed Sheeran - The A Team (Official Music Video) from Ruskin Kyle on Vimeo.

The Great Escape 2011 - Preview (Friday)

To say that the line-up of bands for the second day of The Great Escape is possibly the best in the events history is no exaggeration. The list of must see acts is so overflowing that the deluge is akin to a waterfall. Be warned, you will suffer from the dreaded line-up clash syndrome today. Amongst the bands playing you will find many artists that we’ve featured previously on Breaking More Waves, including Rachel Sermanni, The Staves, Idiot Glee, Kyla La Grange, Creep, Delta Maid, Teeth, Chad Valley, Still Corners, Visions Of Trees, James Vincent McMorrow, Treeflight For Sunlight, Various Cruelties, Breton, Polarsets, Cloud Control, Charli XCX and more. Picking five as recommendations is near impossible, but choose we must, so here we go with four acts that we’ve written about before and one newbie.

Admiral Fallow - Green Door Store 14.45, Fortune of War 19.00 and Above Audio 21.00

You have three chances to catch Scottish folk rock band Admiral Fallow on the Friday in Brighton. Failure to attend at least one of these shows will find you standing in the corner with a dunce’s hat on your head. With evocative songs from their immaculately produced album Boots Met My Face, Admiral Fallow capture the hearts of many who hear them. If you’re going to Great Escape maybe it will be your turn next?

Admiral Fallow - Subbuteo

Ghostpoet – Digital 20.00

Imagine Maxi Jazz from Faithless sleepily rapping over d-i-y laptop beats and electronic flows that have the essence of Massive Attack in their vibe and you’ll be getting close to the sounds of Ghostpoet aka Obaro Ejimiwe. We’ve already suggested that Ghostpoet could be a potential Mercury prize nominee for his downtempo treasure of an LP Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam and Great Escape gives you a chance to see why. Call us old fashioned, but it’s so nice to hear a rapper who doesn’t have to resort to swearing all the time to get his message across and his tracks get quickly under the skin without the need for foul language.

Ghostpoet - Longing For The Night

Ed Sheeran – Concorde 2 20.45

Ed continues to confuse people with his mix of folk, rapping, soul and realness of a classic singer songwriter. One moment he’s collaborating with grime artists like Devlin and Wiley, the next he’s covering Jamie Woon with just an acoustic guitar and loop pedal on Later With Jools. This pick and mix approach sits uncomfortably with those who like their music filed in neat categorised boxes. Yet many people are tapping into what Sheeran does. He is growing a huge live following, his gigs are selling out wherever he plays and with his first major label album, simply titled ‘+’ due for release later this year, his name could become very well-known indeed.

Ed Sheeran - You Need Me

Let’s Buy Happiness – Prince Albert 21.15 (Also playing on Saturday at Queens Hotel 14.30)

Cast your mind back to our preview of Great Escape last year and you’ll find the name Let’s Buy Happiness as one of our recommendations. Unfortunately on that occasion the band didn’t quite live up to our expectations but since then we’ve seen them play a number of live shows and they get better and better each time. Beautiful ethereal and tremulous female vocals, complex guitar work and drums that thwack perfectly, this year we have every confidence that Let’s Buy Happiness will wow Brighton.

Let's Buy Happiness - Six Wolves

Walk The Moon - The Loft 23.30

Our final recommendation for Friday is the only band we haven’t featured on the blog before. Walk The Moon play energetic hooky indie rock / pop and in their song Anna Sun have a tune that sounds suspiciously like The Killers. They may not be bundled up with pounds full of originality, but with a late night show booked for Great Escape we can easily imagine this bands good-time sounding tunes scoring high with the masses – maybe Great Escape is the time to take a stroll with them ?

Anna Sun by Walk The Moon

Ed Sheeran - One Take

20 year old singer songwriter Ed Sheeran is an artist that somehow the Hype Machine listed blogging community has virtually ignored. This we find pretty incredible given his past underground credentials. He’s already released a number of self-released albums and EP’s and worked with grime artists such as Wiley and P Money giving him urban credibility. However, for whatever reason, Sheeran has been ignored by much of the new music community that you would normally expect to get excited about a prodigious up and coming talent.

Yet despite this, today Ed’s name appeared as the no.2 worldwide trending topic on Twitter following his announcement of a free EP download - One Take – which is available now at his website (click link above) The EP features three songs: the previously unheard track U.N.I, which will appear on his upcoming debut LP, Breaking More Waves favourite You Need Me (which is frankly amazing) and his cover of Jamie Woon’s Wayfaring Stranger, all of which were recorded in one take at the Rocket Studios in London last week. You can listen to all three tracks below and watch out, for irrespective of Hype Machine ‘cool’ blog love or not, Sheeran’s growing army of fans are propelling him towards the stars.

Ed Sheeran - U.N.I

Ed Sheeran - Wayfaring Stranger

Ed Sheeran - You Need Me

Ed Sheeran - New Waves

What exactly is new music? We pose the question because Breaking More Waves is fundamentally a new music blog and today we introduce another ‘new’ artist, yet this artist has already released a number of EP’s and albums which were all independently produced and distributed. He’s also had an article written about him in The Sun, an appearance on SB.TV that has already clocked up over 1million views on You Tube, toured with Example and has seen his most recent work the No.5 Collaborations EP create a huge buzz amongst his growing army of fans – enough to force the release into the highest reaches of the I tunes chart. Yet if you go to blog aggregator the Hype Machine you’ll find only a tiny number of blog posts - at the time of writing there’s a grand total of 2 - about this artist. It seems that somehow despite being highly prolific and despite being a prodigious talent, the world of new music blogging has ignored or not discovered Ed Sheeran.

Sheeran a pale skinned, ginger haired nineteen year old has found himself embraced by the grime scene with everyone from Wretch 32 to the up and coming Yasmin singing his praises because of his strong work ethic, charm and ability. He marries his soulful radio friendly voice with acoustic guitar, loops, beat-boxing and hip-hop rhythms with complete dexterity – watch the videos from the SB.TV performance and the excellent Station Sessions below and you’ll see why we’re sure that even the Hype Machine listed blogs won’t be able to ignore him for that much longer. We’ve also included, to get the number of Hype Machine posts up to 3, Ed’s cover version of Example’s Last Ones Standing, which we hope in our own small way will help promote an exciting British talent, irrespective of whether it’s new or not.

Footnote : Apologies for the abrupt end to the song below.

Example - Last Ones Standing (Ed Sheeran Cover) by Ministry of Sound