Ashnikko, the only artist I know who has sold a ‘tentacle penis candle’ as part of her merchandise on her webstore (now sold out) seems to have been bubbling under with an already impressive fan base for quite a while now. Her latest track Cry, a blink and you might miss it 2 minutes and 6 seconds of kick-ass rage will continue to develop her profile nicely, especially with the addition of Grimes supplying some backing vocals to the track. It's my on repeat tune of the moment. The reason for the angry future-pop? Her ex-best friend sleeping with her boyfriend. “Lay another finger on me and you could lose a hand,” she sings. Don’t mess with Ashnikko! Ashnikko - Cry (Featuring Grimes)
Another album by another act that has featured on previous Breaking More Waves’ Album Of The Year lists, showing that in 2015 some of our favourite artists didn’t let us down. Art Angels is a self sufficient record that finds her steering away from the much rumoured mainstream top 10 pop album to something more innovative, more out there, and as a result, a far more exciting listening experience. Art Angels isn’t just a repeat of her last release which was very synthetic and electronic in sound. This time it’s a manic multi-instrumental piece that takes influences from absolutely all over the place. There’s J-Pop, indie, banging techno, cheerleader chanting, screaming and that's just the start of it. At times she crams in so many ideas into one song that it feels almost overwhelming. But if you stick with it, a few listens in you realise that it’s one of those enticing pop records that you need to keep going back to. It’s pop but not as we know it and that’s what makes it such a thrilling listen. Grimes - Flesh Without Blood / Life In The Vivid Dream
Whilst we hang around impatiently waiting for a new Grimes LP, yesterday the lady herself sowed a new seed of musical fertility. Not that this seed is about to sprout an album, because this one is a bit of an old cast off. Even the bad spelling of the title is so 2012/3. But at least it tempers our frustration a little. “Lost the ableton file, so it’s not mixed or mastered,” Grimes wrote in the description with this video. “I tried to doctor the mp3 into a listenable state, but it was poorly recorded in the first place and never meant to be heard by anyone, so it’s a bit of a mess haha.” Well this ‘bit of a mess’ sounds fine to us. It could have easily sat quite comfortably on Visions, floating along on a far gentler groove than the more GO-FOR-THE-DROP EDM / Trap influenced Go. What Claire comes up with when the album finally gets a release remains to be seen, but this does the job for now. Grimes - REALiTi (Video)
With a new generation that has been raised in a culture based on everything being instantly available and instantly disposable, a week is a long time in pop music. That’s (roughly) how long the new Grimes single Go ft Blood Diamonds has been around for and we can pretty much guarantee that some of you who were raving about it the day it was released have already moved on to your next musical f*ck buddy of a pop song never to play this again. If you’re that kind of person, we have a suggestion for you today. Rather like Monopoly do not pass Go. Play Grimes again, get trapped in it, because it deserves more than a one night stand. Grimes - Go featuring Blood Diamonds
Visions is one of those albums that it’s very easy to approach with a hefty degree of cynicism. As the record was released the music media (and in particular music blogs) seemed to go into overdrive with enthusiasm. Yet this was genuine enthusiasm rather than some sort of sheep like, PR generated hype. For Visions is no featherweight buzz release that by the end of the year nobody actually remembers. Visions is one of the defining records of 2012.
It’s a record that manages to be pop and yet possess depth, originality and moments of weird-out groovy confusion. It’s a record you can dance to, listen to or f*ck to, but however you decide to enjoy it, enjoy it you will.
From Circumambient which takes wonky Orbital like computerisations and adds a clatter of rhythm, to the seductive six minute ethereal sexiness of Skin, to Genesis - a tune so brilliant it takes Kraftwerk on at their own game of icy coolness and wins, this is a record that’s chock full of ideas. It’s a huge step on from Halfaxa her previous record, which brought Grimes to our attention back in April 2011 when we first featured her on the blog and establishes her as pretty much the perfect pop artist; making music that is edgy, a little oddball but still accessible. The indecipherable falsetto baby doll vocals, futuristic beats and playful captivating bleepy electronic sounds that make up Visions form that rare breed of a record; one that is unpredictable, constantly engaging and draws you further in with its looping exploratory layers. One of 2012’s complete listening experiences.
We’re not sure when the Grimes backlash is going to begin (isn’t that the way these things work?) but on the evidence of this, it isn’t going to happen yet. Because here’s the deal; Unicorn Kid has grabbed Blood Diamonds ( aka Los Angeles-based artist Michael Diamond ) collaboration with quite possibly the lady of 2012 (she’s tussling with Lana Del Rey for that spot) and pumped it up to a truly colossal scale. You’re left not just dancing on the ceiling but dancing in the clouds with angels.
This is what the dictionary of dance music chapter 3.7 defines as a proper banger, albeit a banger with ethereal baby girl vocals on it. Truly amazing.
The Phone Sex EP is available to purchase now with this remix, a Jensen Sportag remix and another track called Ritual as well as the original of Phone Sex.
Blood Diamonds ft Grimes - Phone Sex (Unicorn Kid Remix)
Grimes aka Claire Boucher from Canada has rapidly risen from being an electronic princess in waiting to pretty much the queen of the internet and the blogs. She’s also the kind of artist that by rights should be all over Breaking More Waves as she ticks all of those female vocal, slightly alternative, ethereal, electronic boxes that we hanker to tick as often as possible.
Yet since our initial post on her in April 2011 we’ve not featured Grimes at all. We’d like to pretend that there was some deep well thought out reason for this, for example maybe we could explain that we were deeply cynical about the amount of internet buzz Grimes was getting and didn’t think that she justified it. Unfortunately though the reasons are more simple; we just never got round to it in the limited time we have to put these posts together. There was always something else that we wanted to write about or had just pre-written a weeks worth of posts just as Grimes cropped up with her new track. Which is a shame because her forthcoming album on the 4AD label promises a lot. Genesis was a beautiful mix of Kraftwerk like electronic minimalist beauty with floaty Cocteau Twins meets Lykke Li wonder and had us nodding our head in agreement with our blogging peer group.
Now here’s a new video for Oblivion, which has been out there for a few days now, but this time we want to make sure the phrase better late than never applies. Oblivion is a friskier and more playful tune than Genesis, but nonetheless an eccentrically charming piece of pop music which is characterised by Boucher’s near weightless vocals and perfectly arranged loops. Roll on the album.
Today in what could be perceived as a desperate attempt to repatriate ourselves into the world of cool new music bloggers, nuzzling up with big internet-doggy-eyes, we’re featuring Montreal based ethereal electronic songstress Claire Boucher aka Grimes. This of course would only be repatriation if we were both desperate and once-cool, neither of which would be correct. Yet just the other day we inferred that the hippest bloggers were posting about the likes of Wu Lyf, Odd Future and Grimes (here). Now lo and behold now we’ve achieved 1 out of 3. You may be waiting a long time for our Odd Future post though. (Get out of jail card - we reserve the right to contradict ourselves)
For those like Breaking More Waves who are based in the UK, Grimes will be hitting these shores in May for shows in London, Brighton’s Great Escape and Liverpool’s Sound City.
