Continuing our tips for bands and solo artists that we recommend seeing if you’re going to this year’s Great Escape festival in Brighton on May 14th-16th. In this penultimate post we’re featuring live video footage of some of the acts we’ve selected so that you can get a real idea of their capabilities. 13. Black Honey 3 reasons why you should go and see Black Honey: 1. In lead singer Izzy they have an excellent front woman who manages to mix steely eyed ferociousness with just a hint of humour. 2. The band make a lot of noise, but they also make some damn fine songs. 3. The Great Escape is their home town show, so it should be a good one.
14. Seinabo Sey One of our Ones To Watch 2015, Sweden’s Seinabo Sey is still remarkably low profile in the UK despite an appearance on Later… with Jools Holland. An incredible vocal talent. Surely that low profile can’t remain for that much longer?
15. Laura Doggett The comments for Seinabo could also apply to Somerset’s Laura Doggett. Another powerful and gut-wrenching voice with a relatively low but building profile, helped by the inclusion of her song Old Faces on the trailer for ITV's Broadchurch. A Breaking More Waves regular - Laura is another act that we gave the first Hype Machine listing to back in 2013 with her song Heard It All Before.
16. A.O.S.O.O.N South-London male-female duo A.O.S.O.O.N aka Marisa Hylton and Manny Folorunsohave been growing support from blogs and UK radio with melodic songs that mix acoustic pop and beats that they've tagged as 'gangsta folk'. Their debut EP featured the captivating song Under which was picked up by Majestic Casual and to date has received over 4.5 million views on Youtube. They've followed it up with the equally impressive Same Difference from their Capo 3 EP.
We’re getting ready to say goodbye to another year and here at Breaking More Waves it’s been a very successful one. How do we define this success? In three simple ways: 1. We’re still doing what we do. That might not sound a particularly impressive statement, but to continue to keep Breaking More Waves running, this year posting nearly 50 more times than any previous year and hitting over 500 posts in total, against the pressures of a demanding full time job and family is success in itself. 2. To still get huge pleasure and enjoyment out of doing what we do. 3. Having cheekily asked on Twitter if anyone would be prepared to pay to read our blog posts and getting a few positive answers, in January of this year, alongside another music blogger Adam from Alphabet Bands we put this to the test and participated in a non-stop 24 hour Blogathon to raise money for Cancer Research asking readers (as well as friends and family) to sponsor us. We were stunned by the reaction from readers and their generosity, eventually raising just over £1,500 between the 2 blogs in the 24 hour period. Receiving £50 donations from complete strangers who were reading our posts was an incredibly humbling experience and without doubt the best and most valueable thing we have ever done in Breaking More Waves 6 and a half year history. Goodbye 2014. We’re closing our year by featuring 12 of our favourite songs we've featured this year, each one in video form. For once, we 're providing no commentary on the individual tracks, we think we've said all we want to say for one year. This isn’t a definitive list as we’ve chosen 1 song from each month, meaning that on really good months a number of great songs have had to be sacrificed and some songs that we adore haven’t made the cut as they never had a video. We've also chosen 12 different artists. See you in 2015. January Låpsley - Station
Swedish soul pop singer and self-confessed Beyoncé fan-girl Seinabo Sey shares a number of similarities with Laura Doggett, our first One to Watch for 2015. Both artists have incredible moving voices – deep, powerful and reminiscent of many classic artists of the past and both appeared recently on the same episode of Later With Jools. Laura even tweeted her love of Seinabo after the show. Each artist has also been around for a while, but has only really begun to grow in stature in the UK in 2014 - Sey’s song Younger had already been a Top 20 hit in Sweden in 2013. However, it’s 2015 where we might find the 24-year old artist who has spent part of her life in her father’s home of Gambia, becoming a household name worldwide. Reports from her recent show at the Basement of the Edition Hotel in London (a show which found Frank Ocean in attendance and James Blake DJing) suggest that live Sey’s voice is able to win over even the hardest cynic. We’re wondering how long it will be before this Beyoncé fan-girl has Beyoncé as a fan. If she continues to deliver the songs in 2015, it can’t be long. We're naming Seinabo as One to Watch because we think she might just grab commercial success and she's brilliant as well. Seinabo Sey - Rather Be (Cover) (Video)
Take Seinabo Sey, some very red clothing, a very bleak burnt out forest somewhere in Sweden, a lo-fi Stormtrooper and a gun and before you know it you have your very own pop video. It’s visually quite stunning even although at the end we’re left scratching our heads and thinking what the f*ck was that all about? No scratching the head about the song though. Pistols at Dawn is a peerless piece of dramatic pop and if Seinabo Sey keeps this quality up her album should be something else. Pistols at Dawn is taken from Seinabo’s debut EP For Madeleine which is named after her mother and released on November 17th in the UK. Seinabo Sey - Pistols At Dawn (Video)
She’s done it again. Having already seriously impressed with Hard Time and Younger, Seinabo Sey makes it a hat-trick of dazzlingly powerful pop songs. Pistols At Dawn is like a long lost title song for an unnamed James Bond movie. “Stand down or shown down baby let’s get this done,” she sings with that deep belter of a voice as a gunshot rings out, signalling the (continued) arrival of someone with huge talent and major star potential. This is dark, soulful, emotional stuff that hits you in the gut. Other pop music might as well give up. This song plus Hard Time and Younger will feature on Seinabo's debut EP For Madeline. Pistols At Dawn also features in the new director's cut version of the Rimmel advert. There are currently listed dates for this remarkable singer in Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and France plus a show in London at The Basement, Edition Hotel on the 16th Oct. The rest of the world is Seinabo's for the taking though. Seinabo Sey - Pistols At Dawn
Seinabo Sey’s song Hard Time and previous tune Younger are both blowing up on the internet in a colossal way. We predict Radio 1’s playlist committee taking note very soon. Today Seinabo (who today we were informed pronounces her full name full name in this manner : Say-na-bo Sea) released this new video for Hard Time. The credits on You Tube are pretty extensive; Fedra Rodriquez did the nails if anyone is interested and the clapper loader (we have no idea what that is) was Jospehine Owe. It shows that someone’s throwing some money Seinabo’s way, and rightly so, because Hard Time is impressive pop music. Imagine if Laura Mvula got edgy with an idea of global domination in her head. That's Seinabo right now. One of the most exciting new voices on the planet. No argument. Unsurprisingly the video is suitably cool, stylish and just a little bit odd. “Many of my favourite songs are songs that have boosted my self –esteem and given me strength and in a sense that’s what I try to achieve with my own music. I hope Hard Time gives those that need it the courage to speak up,” she says of the tune, which is released on June 30th. Seinabo Sey - Hard Time (Video)
We first came across Swedish singer Seinabo Sey late last year via the blogosphere; about 50% of the blogs we read posted Younger, her breakthrough track, and a fair few also posted the impossibly good reworking of the song by in demand Norweigan producer Kygo, which now has over 3 million plays on Soundcloud. A quick search of Hype Machine reveals a couple of other songs with her voice that found their way online back in 2011 before the buzz got loud, including when Seinabo was a member of the duo Def Chronic with one Frank Nobel. Now she's back with a new track and it seems that the commotion is only going to increase; but this time we're adding to it. Within minutes of Hard Time going on line yesterday there was a frantic rush to upload and stream by many of the blogs that rely on being 100% on the case, but in fairness the excitement is well deserved. For both these two songs are quite sensational, mixing classic soul vocals with a modern pop melody and production that just oozes quality. When we first pressed play on Hard Time yesterday it really was one of those stopped in our tracks moments. If she can continue to deliver songs as good as this we’d be putting money on this lady being the next big breakthrough act. Listen to the song below before clicking here to hear Younger if you want to play catch up. Fantastic. You don't need words for this, just listen and see what we mean. Seinabo Sey - Hard Time
