Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition - #5 Autumn Owls

As we finish this 1 week series looking (and listening) to some of the acts that we’ve been enjoying as part of the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent competition judging process, we cross the Irish sea to Dublin to find the rather intriguing Autumn Owls. Formed in 2007, the band has already released 2 EPs, titled Insomnia Lodge and On The Trail Of The Disappearing and in 2012 released their debut LP Between Buildings, Toward The Sea which contains the song Spider, the video of which we’re streaming below.

The music of Autumn Owls possesses a dark shadowy introspective edge to it. It’s unsettling and not always immediately accessible, but then really who wants all music to be easy? If that was the case we’d just end up with hundreds of Katy Perry’s. Actually, we find Katy Perry pretty unsettling, but that’s another story. Contained within the world of Autumn Owls is a strange and experimental beauty that gets under the skin given a few listens. Those who enjoy the likes of I Am Kloot and the slower more ambient songs of James will probably find something here to immerse themselves in.

If you want to hear the bands album in full, it streams on Bandcamp here.

Find out on March the 8th on the Glastonbury website if they are one of our chosen acts that  we select to make up the 120 longlist for the next stage of the competition or not. 

Autumn Owls - Spider (Video)

Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition - #4 Be Quiet. Shout Loud!

Our fourth featured artist in Breaking More Waves Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition series is Be Quiet. Shout Loud! This Middlesbrough based six piece describe their music on Facebook as “sky-scraping-cow-bell-twatting-slick-funking-house-grooving-indie-disco-floor-filling sonic blast of yee-ha” which as mad as it sounds is probably about right.

Be Quiet. Shout Loud! are about energy. Their music has an abundance of it. The sort of choppy, spunky, crazy dancing energy that sounds like it’s swallowed rather too many glucose tablets and then washed it down with several cans of Red Bull. Ballads ? Don’t be stupid, this is all about the rush, the excitement, the melee. Plus they also have what looks like a frontman who possesses an intriguing mix of showmanship masculinity and campness. This is a very good thing.

Once again, like previous blog posts in this series we’d like to reiterate that just because we’re featuring this band on the blog, it does not necessarily mean that they’ll be one of our final three choices for the Emerging Talent longlist, but are simply one of a number of acts we are considering.

Be Quiet. Shout Loud! - Lights

Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition - #3 Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles

When judging music, either for a specific purpose such as the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition, whether to feature on this blog or in a more general sense such as ‘do I like it and will I listen to this again?’ one of the difficulties is, if I don’t like it, how long is it before I switch off / press stop and move on to the next thing? In a wireless world where access to so much music is so easy, the temptation is to fast forward onto something else before we’ve even given something a chance.

If we treated real life human beings in this way we’d probably miss out on some really important relationships in our lives. How often do you hear of two people who initially find no particular attraction to each other, but gradually grow as friends and sometimes even became lovers? It happens. Because attraction isn’t just about initial impressions, but longer term layers. Too much initial buzz can lead to raised expectations that can't be maintained in the long term. Just like music.

It’s why we’re glad that after the first few seconds of this song we didn’t press stop and persevered. For what starts out as a fairly hum-drum piece of acoustic folk pop expands into something far more expansive and glorious. Taken from their EP Tales From Pegasus Wood, One Stormy Night by Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles is positively life affirming; the sound of stars exploding whilst The Divine Comedy bash drums, blow brass and design all sorts of musical towers that grow upwards. Press play and make sure you listen to the whole song. That's all the way through OK?

*Get out of jail card: Once again, as with all this series of posts, just because a band is featured here does not necessarily mean they will be one of our three nominations for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent completion longlist. They are just one of a number that we are currently enjoying and posting this week. Our final choices will be revealed on the official Glastonbury website on March 8th.

Arthur Rigby & The Baskervylles - One Stormy Night

Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition - #2 Amy Lyon

One of the joys of judging the Glastonbury Festival Emerging Talent competition is the sheer diversity of new music that can kiss the ears, unless of course the judge has selected to only judge one or two similar genres. Yesterday we featured the flaming indie rock of As Elephants Are, today we turn our attention to a singer that takes elements of jazz and soul and creates something akin to a fine red wine, all intimate and with depth.

Amy Lyon was born in America but is now based in Scotland. With her ability to produce delicious vocals as well as play saxophone and guitar she exemplifies talent. Her song Falling (which is free to download) is a silky smooth and sensuous late night beauty that deals with the classic theme of going just that little bit crazy and losing control as you begin to fall in love with someone. 

 *As stated yesterday please note that just because we are featuring an artist in this series of blog posts, it does not necessarily mean that they will be one of our final three nominations for the competition longlist. All the artists we feature in this series are ones that we've been enjoying and we hope if you find you enjoy them you will investigate them further.

Amy Lyon - I'm Falling

Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition - #1 As Elephants Are

Music talent contests have got a bad name with discerning music fans over the last few years. X-Factor has shifted the emphasis away from what they should be about (the clue is in the name – talent) to being more about celebrity; which is a shame, because in their rawest form these competitions can be an incredible platform for unknown and emerging artists and exposure of their music.

So let’s count our blessings for Glastonbury Festival’s Emerging Talent Competition which gives new, unsigned artists from the UK and Ireland the chance to compete for a main stage slot at this year's festival and the likes of Jedward and Rylan have absolutely no chance of getting anywhere near the prize. The reason? Because of the way the selection process works, with a judging panel that is far removed from the likes of Simon Cowell and Tulisa.

With 8,000 entries submitted in the one week in January, 40 UK music blogs (including Breaking More Waves ) are busy whittling them down to a long list of 120 acts which will be published on the Glastonbury website on Friday 8 March. Each blogger judge is provided with a list of around 200 artists to listen to, mainly from their preferred genres. Over the last few days we’ve been listening to songs from the world of pop, electronica, folk, indie and acoustic music which largely represents the normal output of the blog - with the added bonus of single genre attention deficit disorder unlikely to kick in as the musical output is varied.

From the 200 artists we’ve heard we will be putting forward three to help form the long list. Then a new panel which includes festival bosses Michael and Emily Eavis will select a short list of eight who will be invited to play at a live final at Pilton Working Men's Club near the festival site in April. Previous winners and entrants of the competition include The Subways, Scouting For Girls, Stornoway and 2011 winners Treetop Flyers.

As part of the judging process the festival allows the blogger judges to write about any artists that they enjoy during the listening process. So this week on Breaking More Waves we’re running a series of posts featuring one act a day that has caught our attention from our selection of 200. Please note that just because we are featuring an artist does not necessarily mean that we will be putting them through to the long list. We have more than the five artists that we’re covering this week for consideration as our final three. Also please note that if you are an artist we are posting about this week please do not make contact with us while the judging is taking place - we will not be able to communicate in any with you at this point.

Because of the credibility of the competition and the prize on offer it may come as no surprise to find that some of the bands on our playlist have already had significant blog coverage and are already known to us. They may not all be completely unknowns. We may have even written about some of them in the past, but they still very much fit within the definition of emerging.

Such is the case with our first selection. High Wycombe’s As Elephants Are is an indie rock band who have already gained a fair bit of blog adoration (and rightly so) and have found their debut single War Cry (streaming below) being played on national radio. What makes War Cry stand out is its sheer blistering sonic ambition and that, at its heart, there’s a real sense of purpose about this band.

As Elephants Are - War Cry