What Happened To Our Ones To Watch 2014 (So Far) Part 2

This is the second of two posts where we look back at the artists that we predicted would be Ones to Watch in 2014 and how they’ve fared so far.

6. Mononoke

“We're naming her as one to watch for 2014 on the basis of just the one song we've heard - always a dangerous strategy - but when that one song (Alice) is so good, she becomes one to watch even if only to see if she can keep the standard up with her next release,” we said. Her next releases, both to the internet, were Bones & Glory and Barefoot & Broken. Both were good, although not as breathtaking as Alice. Then nothing. Not even a reveal on who Monnoke was, or at least not officially. Although if you look very carefully (here) you might get the full picture. For the time being we wait patiently and hope that more material will be forthcoming soon.

7. George Ezra

When we suggested that “Ezra’s star was rising,” in our Ones to Watch article in 2013 we really didn’t expect it to rise as far as it has. Sold out gigs left right and centre, a huge UK chart and radio hit with Budapest (which was once a free download available from Soundcloud), a top 10 chart album in the UK and it seemed that he played about 100 shows at this year’s Glastonbury a bit like Ed Sheeran did a couple of years before that. The boy did good.

8. Banks

Queen of the internet, every time Banks has put out a song this year the blogosphere has gone crazy, rather like it did when Beggin' For Thread (streaming below) was released yesterday. The proof of her true potential will come in the next few months though. Will the BBC Sound of / Blog Sound of nominee live up to the hype with an album that manages to be both commercially and critically successful and will her live shows be able to stand the test of the large venues she’s been booked to play? When we saw one of her early UK gigs in the tiny Bermuda Triangle Club in Brighton she was good but not fully convincing. If the album stuns and if she’s upped her game with the live performance then 2014 is for her taking. If not then we might all be scratching our heads a little.

9. Eva Stone

Has yet to release a single. Maybe we were a little too early with Eva Stone? Fingers crossed for the second half of 2014. She did however support George Ezra in London earlier this year and we caught her live at Brighton's Great Escape where we confirmed that this girl has a voice of some magnitude.

10. IYES

Whilst keeping a relatively low profile in terms of live shows in 2014 Brighton duo IYES continued where they left off in 2013 by sparking up the blogs with the songs Breathe and Toys as well as some rather excellent remixes for the likes of Paperwhite and Zella Day. As a result Hype Machine recently featured them in their own Ones to Watch list. As far as we’re aware the band remained unsigned. “We have some amazing news coming soon,” they tweeted on Monday. We wonder if that position is about to change? Continue to keep your eyes on IYES.

Banks - Beggin' For Thread

What Happened To Our Ones To Watch 2014 (So Far) Part 1

It might only be July but we’re already starting to think about end of year lists. We’re stupidly obsessed with the things. We reckon we’ve heard at least four or five albums that stand a very good chance of getting in our top 10 (could Sophie Ellis Bextor be a surprise dark horse contender ?) and already have a sizeable bunch of possibilities for our own Ones to Watch for 2015 (2 or 3 of them may have appeared on the blog in the last month) plus some pretty strong guesses for the ubiquitous BBC Sound of list and the lesser known but in our opinion excellent UK Blog Sound of 2015 list (well we would say that, we run the thing).

As we’re over halfway through the year we thought it was about time that we cast our eyes back to the 10 acts we predicted would be worth watching last November and to give a half-term report on how they’ve been doing.

So without further ado, here we go with the first five. The next five will follow in a second post.

1. Wolf Alice

It’s been a solid year for Wolf Alice so far. The indie alt rockers followed up the excellent 2013 Blush EP by signing to Dirty Hit Records (home of The 1975, Marika Hackman and Ben Khan), released the equally good Creature Songs EP this May, played their biggest headlining tour and then hit the festivals including a slot in the John Peel Tent at Glastonbury. A good few months creatively and commercially it would seem.

2. Chlöe Howl

After bubbling under for all of 2013, 2014 has seen Chlöe continue to bubble, just the bubbles are slightly bigger. The re-released Rumour sneaked into the bottom end of the UK chart at number 84 (and bizarrely became a number 4 hit in Poland) and new single Disappointed is due to be released next week with an album to follow. Chlöe has also been bringing her punchy pop to the festivals this summer. The album was originally scheduled for June 9th but appears to have been put back till September. The question for Chlöe is will her bubble grow that little bit more (she’s on a major label and we imagine as a pop act they’ll expect a relatively quick return on their investment) or will it burst?

3. Sophie Jamieson

“Of the artists we’re selecting as our Ones to Watch 2014 Sophie Jamieson is probably one of the least likely to be lighting up the top 40 in the next year,” we wrote last November. That still holds true. However whilst Sophie’s music may not hold huge commercial potential, that doesn’t mean she hasn’t delivered anything but majestically beautiful creatively by way of single Stain / Other through Luv Luv Luv records this year. It was a case of two songs forming one single with the line ‘when I leave’ common to both. Sophie also featured on the BBC Introducing stage at the Great Escape Festival in Brighton.

4. Jungle

The mysterious T and J finally revealed their identities and then as happens with these so called mystery acts we all went ‘ok now we know who they are’ and just got on and listened to the music. The debut album was released last week and was generally well received and went into the top 10 in the UK. It’s electro-soul done impeccably well, as are their rather groovy live shows (see the footage of Busy Earnin' from their crowd wowing set at Glastonbury below). The only question that really remains is will the record last in people’s memories – there’s not a huge variety to it. It’s virtually one idea / song played out 12 times, but it’s a very good one nonetheless.

5. Flyte

Classic songwriting indie boys Flyte have been taking their time in 2014. Earlier in the year they were out on the road winning some new fans supporting Bombay Bicycle Club, and they released a single We Are The Rain through indie label Transgressive. Since then they’ve played a few festivals, played on the same bill as Neil Young and have been recording more material. From the songs we’ve heard Flyte play live we’d suggest that their best is yet to come. Very much still ones to watch for 2014.

Jungle - Live At Glastonbury (John Peel Stage)

Ones To Watch 2014 - #10 IYES

At the start of our Ones to Watch 2014 series we suggested that this year it had been harder to pick the ten artists that we were going to feature than previous years and that there were many acts out there who we could have easily chosen instead. For example, some of the acts that we eventually decided not to feature included Danish pop singer Mø (even though 2014 could well be her year, having already featured on last year’s Blog Sound of 2013 list we felt that her inclusion was a little late to the party), FKA Twigs (very close to getting on the list – would have been number 11), Clarence Clarity (who has released 1 EP but we have no idea if he plans to release anything more or if the EP was a one off), Sivu (would have been number 12) and Eliza and the Bear. So if you want call that the reserves bench, or maybe just 11-15 if our list had been 15 rather than 10.

However, eventually our tenth choice, Brighton based duo IYES, has been chosen on the basis that they make the sort of music that is closest to Breaking More Waves heart; that is pop music that isn’t fully orthodox, but is still full of melody and has at least a hint of commercial potential. In fact 2013 has been a very good year for this kind of pop music (see our forthcoming albums of the year posts that start in early December for more details of this) and if we’re looking for some new champions to carry this on throughout 2014, we’d fancy a little flutter on IYES. They've recently been working with pop wonderboy MNEK (who has worked with Rudimental) on a future release and have been gaining plenty of online attention, so it feels right that things should be ramping up for Josh and Melis in 2014. 

Today is the 27th of November. One year ago on the 28th of November 2012 Iyes made their first appearance on Breaking More Waves in our New Waves feature, shortly after we’d posted our Ones to Watch 2013 list. Now we’re making them our final Ones to Watch for 2014.

Iyes - 'Til Infinity

Ones To Watch 2014 - #9 Eva Stone

Our penultimate one to watch is Eva Stone. Eva has a voice that doesn’t just make us go weak at the knees but makes them crumble to dust. 

She’s appeared on the blog before, but you may not recognise her name; the sharp eared amongst you will however find a strong similarity to this lady, because Amy and Eva are one and the same. So why the name change?

“I’ve had this question many times…I think people struggled with it a little at first because I’d been so, present, should I say, with my real name. But this decision wasn’t whimsical or sudden. I’ve always wanted to change my name, and it was my decision alone. I mean, stage wise, people hear it and remember it more. The timing of the change really represented where I was at too, what with my move to London, to writing and developing my songs to something that people maybe aren’t too familiar with (for me). It wasn’t a change in my music though, or in myself. The name is more of me becoming who I want to be,” she recently told Hunger TV.

Irrespective of if Eva is called Amy, Julie, Barbie or Scrubber, we really don’t care – she has the voice, a full bodied and magnificent voice that creates magic. Now what we have to hope for is that she can deliver the songs. She's certainly made an impressive start with This Is and it's for that reason that we’re naming her as One to Watch for 2014. Prepare to be wowed with both the beautiful piano version on Soundcloud and an acoustic guitar version on You Tube.

Eva Stone - This Is



Eva Stone - This Is (Video)

Ones To Watch 2014 - #8 Banks

Los Angeles' Banks (her first name is actually Jillian but she never mentions that) is the next artist on the Breaking More Waves Ones to Watch 2014 list (and not to be confused with potty mouthed rapper Azealia Banks). Despite their being some fantastic new pop music hailing from the U.S, Australia, New Zealand and Scandanavia right now, we've decided to keep this list mainly UK based (after all that's where we're from), but we're making a sole exception with Banks. Regular readers will probably be quite surprised that we’ve never featured her until this point, as the style and sound of her music is analogous with much of what we choose to post. We’ve even seen her play live prior to this, which in the days of get it online before they’ve stepped on a stage / high speed internet blogging is quite a rarity.

Banks makes seductive, sultry electronic soul music that joins the dots between The Weeknd (who she’s supporting this week) Jessie Ware and James Blake. It’s all dark synths and nocturnal beats, it’s music to shed clothes to, it’s music of the twinkling sophisticated city, ready to lure you into bed.  

Having worked with the likes of Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, SOHN, Jamie Woon and Lil Silva the production of Banks’ songs is super slick and has found huge amounts of love on the blogs in 2013. The question now is can these sensual synth ear kissers progress to the stage of an album that people will love for the long term, rather than just creating the soundtrack for some quickie bedroom action. 

Banks - Waiting Game

Banks - Warm Water (Video)

Ones To Watch 2014 - #7 George Ezra

George Ezra could probably sing about sitting on the toilet or doing the washing up and it would sound fantastic. The phrase that crops up time and time again is that classic cliché “a vocal beyond his years,” and really, whilst it is a cliché it’s fully justified in the case of Ezra. His crooning, weather-beaten, warm soulful tones are show stopping and seem even more stunning when you see what Ezra looks like – just a regular looking guy with almost boyish looks.

Ezra first came to our attention with the hushed and melancholy It’s Just My Skin uploaded to Soundcloud about a year ago and since then has busked his way round Europe, played to a packed BBC Introducing tent at Glastonbury and supported the likes of Stornoway and Tom Odell. His debut EP Did You Hear The Rain? released this autumn picked up plenty of evening radio play on BBC Radio 1 (as well as blog support, including of course from Breaking More Waves) and with a London show next January already sold out, Ezra’s star is undoubtedly rising – and deservedly so.

George Ezra - Did You Hear The Rain? (Video)

Ones to Watch 2014 - #6 Mononoke

Today’s one to watch is the mysterious Mononoke who appeared just last month on Breaking More Waves and a whole host of ‘tastemaker’ blogs such as Neon Gold, Disco Naïveté and Listen Before You Buy shortly afterwards.

So who is Mononoke and what else do we know about her? The answer is very little, although of you're really clever with your Google searches you can find out her real name. We're naming her as one to watch for 2014 on the basis of just the one song we've heard - always a dangerous strategy - but when that one song (Alice) is so good, she becomes one to watch even if only to see if she can keep the standard up with her next release.

It seems that Alice is a taster for a debut EP due early next year and that an album, recorded in a church, is or is nearly complete. For now just wallow in this beautiful and sensitive modern ballad and look forward to more from Mononoke in 2014.

Mononoke - Alice

Ones to Watch 2014 - #5 Flyte

“They might have just become our new favourite band. Cancel that - they have just become our new favourite band,” were our excited words back in August when we first introduced Flyte. Since then they’ve released their debut EP, played a small handful of headline shows, supported MS Mr on tour and de-camped to an isolated part of Wales to write and record plenty of new material. If these songs are anything like the ones that we saw them perform in Breaking More Waves home city of Portsmouth at Southsea Fest 2013 (their first ever show outside of London), then your ears will be in for a treat. For Flyte take the good old fashioned sensibilities of classic pop songwriting, harmonies to die for, add an indie / new wave jangly twist and deliver it in a way that is simple and without pretension. It's chirpily life affirming too.

Flyte are unusual in so far as they challenge the modern and commonly preconceived idea about how a band needs to develop an audience and market themselves before they stand any chance of getting signed by a major record label who these days aren't prepared to fund initial marketing and devlopment. Signed by Island records in September despite having less than 400 followers on Twitter, 200 followers on Soundcloud and 10,000 views on You Tube, it’s the band’s ability to pen a good tune rather than internet statistics that has put them ahead of the pack and found them inking a deal.

As we move into 2014 expect those statistics to creep in an upwards direction, as Flyte and their music soar and er.... take flight.

Flyte - Over & Out

Ones to Watch 2014 - #4 Jungle

Jungle’s debut EP The Heat got a lot of tongues wagging a few months ago; and rightly so. The funk, electric soul, slick grooves, falsetto intimacies and retro cool that flowed from the recordings is 100% immaculate and guaranteed to get hips gently swinging. There’s a retro-classic pop sensibility, effortless style and laid back club-warmth to the songs with (initially) no information about the musican(s) at all. Add to this two mesmerising linked theme videos featuring some bad-ass dancing from a tracksuited kid (Platoon) and two roller-skaters (The Heat) and what you have is one of the most intriguing new bands of 2013.

There have been hints and statements that this was a one man solo production effort, but a handful of regional UK live shows have now revealed Jungle, the live experience at least, to be a complete 7 piece band fronted by two individuals known only as “T” and “J”. Jungle have yet to play London, although a date is forthcoming and they’ve already been confirmed for next years SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Expect the heat to get turned higher. Here come Jungle, without doubt Ones to Watch in 2014.

Jungle - Drops



Jungle - Platoon


Jungle - Platoon from Jungle on Vimeo.

Jungle - The Heat


Jungle - The Heat from Jungle on Vimeo.

Ones to Watch 2014 - #3 Sophie Jamieson

Sophie Jamieson is a singer songwriter based in London who has currently released just 1 record, the sublime and beautiful Where EP, and was introduced to Breaking More Waves readers in August.

The comparisons that have been thrown at Jamieson mainly concentrate so far on Daughter and Laura Marling. It’s easy to understand why; Jamieson’s songs are understated, restrained and full of atmospheric melancholy beauty.

Jamieson’s musical career started out as a solo project, gigging at university open mic sessions in Cambridge where she was studying. Since then she’s moved to London and has begun to flesh out her sound with a band and has talked about making her music distinct, hinting that her future sound may develop further away from traditional folk sounds.

Of the artists we’re selecting as our Ones to Watch 2014 Sophie Jamieson is probably one of the least likely to be lighting up the top 40 in the next year. However, on the basis of the slow burning, cinematic beauty of her debut EP and with a future double A sided single in the pipeline, maybe over time Sophie Jamieson could follow in the footsteps those she’s been compared to – she certainly seems to have the talent to do so.

Sophie Jamieson - Ode To The East

Ones to Watch 2014 - #2 Chlöe Howl

Chlöe Howl has been bubbling under for the whole of 2013, ever since the bouncy attitude laden tune No Strings kicked a few doors down with its Foster The People musical references last winter (we first featured here in January here). Since then she’s done the groundwork; the internet approved low key singles, the increasingly buoyant gigs, the low on the bill festival slots, support shows and most recently the colourful and clever dump your boyfriend video for Paper Heart, complete with dancing tap men, a donkey and carnival dancers.

Chlöe Howl does pop but it’s POP in capitals, full of strutting shimmying confidence, good tunes, fiery spark and lack of sugar coating lyrically. She's been dubbed the new Lily Allen, although she's not courting as much controversy as Lily has recently, but there's certainly a bit of belief to her songs. Her live shows indicate potential singles in the waiting a-plenty, including the energetic and hooky This Song’s Not About You and the punchy Drop In The Ocean. Of course pop can be a fickle world, especially when you’re on a major label, but Chlöe has enough in her bag to suggest that she doesn’t have to worry too much about that for now.

Chlöe Howl - Paper Heart (Arches Remix)

Chlöe Howl - Paper Heart

Ones to Watch 2014 - #1 Wolf Alice

Wolf Alice are a four piece indie rock group consisting of Ellie Rowsell, Joel Amey, Joff Oddie and Theo Ellis. Following the release of two singles, Fluffy and Bros, earlier this year and the Blush EP this autumn there’s a definite sense of this band growing an increasingly forward momentum. Their live performances are becoming gutsily more confident and their song writing skills are developing at some pace; the title track off the recent EP is one of the most vital and well-formed tunes that any indie band has released this year. If they can continue to develop in this manner (and the signs are there that they will, having recently confessed to a magazine that they figured out when they were on tour that Bros didn’t have any choruses, so they wrote some, but those aren’t on the Blush EP) they’re likely to make the jump from toilet circuit venues to bigger clubs at least and who knows, maybe even further than that.

For anyone that’s still being boring and going on about indie rock music being dead, Wolf Alice is one punchy argument fully against that. That’s why they’re the first of our Ones to Watch for 2014.

Wolf Alice - Bros



Wolf Alice - She (Video)

Ones to Watch 2014

Over the next 10 days Breaking More Waves will be posting our Ones to Watch for 2014.

This feature is run in the same format every year since the blog started. The artists chosen represent the tastes and output of the blog rather than necessarily being a list of what we think will have critical or commercial success. However, each year we’ve published this series some of the acts featured have gone on to light up the singles and albums charts or had some degree of acclaim. This hasn't always happened in the following year; Marina & The Diamonds cropped up on the BBC Sound of list a year after our Ones to Watch tip and then went on to have success, likewise Foxes recently scored a top 10 UK chart hit but featured on our Ones to Watch for 2012. 

Others of course have been forgotten; sometimes this is for the best, but sometimes their music keeps a fond place in our heart even if the rest of the world didn’t agree. Such is the unpredictability of pop music – nobody has a fully functioning crystal ball and anyone that claims that they know 100% what lies ahead is very deluded.

The two previous years we've published 15 artists in this series, this year we've reverted back to 10 (but come our albums of the year list in December we'll be expanding that from 10 to 15 - more on that later).

If you follow new music closely and have been reading Breaking More Waves (as well as following us on Twitter) many of the artists on this list will come as no surprise. This isn’t 10 totally unknown acts that we think we might be writing about next year – we don’t know who those acts will be yet, they’re still waiting to be discovered. Instead this list celebrates relatively new artists we’ve featured in 2013 that will hopefully go on to bigger and better things artistically in 2014 as well a few new ones that have yet to be featured on Breaking More Waves.

No doubt as we head towards December and New Year every blog, website and magazine will be publishing something like this, but as we've done the last few years, we're going early, more for practical reasons revolving around life away from the blog than anything else.

This year it has been harder than ever to pick our 10. In 2012 we were already convinced that Haim was going to sparkle, having had the opportunity to see them play live a number of times, and Chvrches similarly seemed to have a bunch of great songs up their sleeves. Both bands deserved the buzz they attracted. This year however there doesn’t seem to be that singular gigantic gem, but a bag of smaller ones. We’re going to dip our hand in and pick out a few and hope that as 2014 goes on they’ll begin to grow and shine even brighter.

But before we get underway with the Ones to Watch 2014 posts, let’s remind ourselves of who we picked in previous years. Whatever did happen to Spark and Visions Of Trees?

Ones to Watch 2009

La Roux, Little Boots, Passion Pit, Yes Giantess, White Lies, Skint & Demoralised, Alessi’s Ark, Florence & The Machine, Mumford & Sons, Marina & The Diamonds

Ones to Watch 2010

Ellie Goulding, Hurts, Beth Jeans Houghton, Unicorn Kid, Delphic, Clare Maguire, Stornoway, Mirrors, Holly Miranda, Clock Opera

Ones to Watch 2011

Clare Maguire (2nd nomination after failing to release anything in 2010), James Blake, Misty Miller, The Vaccines, Starsmith, Let’s Buy Happiness, The Milk, D/R/U/G/S, Visions Of Trees, Spark

Ones to Watch 2012 (Expanded from 10 to 15 artists)

Lucy Rose, Spector, Alabama Shakes, Foxes, Dot Rotten, Lianne La Havas, Lana Del Rey, Willy Moon, Michael Kiwanuka, Queen Of Hearts, The Staves, Ren Harvieu, Outfit, Charli XCX, Rachel Sermanni

Ones to Watch 2013 (Expanded from 10 to 15 artists)

Chvrches, Haim, Gabrielle Aplin, Savages, Chasing Grace, Tom Odell, Sons & Lovers, Avec Sans, Laura Mvula, Curxes, Matt Corby, The Night VI, Luke Sital-Singh, Valerie June, Alice Jemima

So without further ado, for the next 15 days keep an eye and ear out for our Ones to Watch for 2014. We'll be posting our first at 6.30pm GMT today and then at 8.30 every morning thereafter for the next 9 days. Until then here's a new demo from Misty Miller, one of our selections from our 2010 Ones to Watch for 2011 list, who is still pushing out new material and still probably considered one to watch for the forthcoming year.

Misty Miller - Petrified (demo)