With an appearance in Vogue, a session with Radio 1’s Rob da Bank and a low key slot on the bandstand at Bestival 2010, 16 year old London-born ukulele genius and singer songwriter Misty Miller is doing all the right things to get noticed; but this would all be for nothing if she didn’t have good songs to back her up. Thankfully she does. For Misty performs the sweetest of folk songs coated with a melodic pop edge that have a hint of the early Kate Nash demo recordings such as Birds before she got all pop then angry. Misty started writing songs when she was only 8 or 9, and after receiving the ukulele as a gift from her father has proceeded to develop her sound using this instrument. Her debut EP Remember was released late September in 2010, and her next single is due in the new year.
There’s something very old fashioned about the structures of Misty Miller’s songs – Evergreen Love could quite easily have been performed by Elvis Presley and she cites influences including Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan and rockabilly music – not quite what you’re average 16 year old X Factor obsessed teenage girl is listening to. The words of her songs are however filled with the aspirations and feelings of a typical girl of her age, but are delivered with a maturity and poignancy that shows her to be a significant talent. With an album already recorded in between revision breaks for exams at school, Misty Miller is hardly likely to be competing with the One Directions and Justin Biebers of this world – and she’s all the better for it.
Whilst the dubstep genre has been bubbling and squelching along nicely for a number of years now it has yet to find a true champion to take its sound into the mainstream. Producer, remixer and musician James Blake may be just the man to do that, yet without compromising in any shape or form. Even before he’s released an album people are mumbling “Mercury prize nomination 2011,” and it’s easy to understand why. He’s come from a place in the leftfield and is slowly transferring this to a more accessible platter. We wonder how long it is before Blake is referred to as “coffee table dubstep,” in a similar way to Portishead were in respect of trip-hop and their Mercury win back in 1995.
What makes Blake stand out from typical dubstep artists is the soulfulness to the music he creates, with warm vocals and a sense of space permeating throughout the music. Despite coming from a scene, Blake’s sound is fresh and exciting. A fitting description would be evocatively minimalistic, emotional and stunningly beautiful. His cover version of Feist’s Limit to Your Love is constructed from nothing more from simple piano, sub-bass and pattering beats and is gorgeously breath taking.
With an album to follow in 2011 there was never any question of James Blake not featuring on our Ones To Watch 2011 list. Check out his music below as well as his remix of Mount Kimbie, a duo he has citied as an inspiration.
Our first artist on our Ones to Watch 2011 list will come as no surprise to regular readers of Breaking More Waves, as we’ve given Clare Maguire regular coverage since January 2009 (here). We’ve even had to bend the rules a little to get her on this list having originally selected her at number 6 on last year's list. That was in hindsight a little too early; with her debut single Ain’t Nobody finally seeing the light of day in October of this year. A single low key festival slot at Latitude 2010 (reviewed here) has been followed by well received support slots with Hurts (reviewed here) and Plan B, as well as her own debut headlining show in London in November. Next year Clare already has gigs lined up supporting Hurts again and a gig in London’s Bush Hall as part of the ‘New to Q’ sessions. Then finally an album - Light After Dark will be released in the early part of the year. We have high hopes for it being in our end of year best of list for 2011.
Maguire has been signed to a major label (Polydor) and there is already significant work being done to get her music heard. You've probably already read the stories about her drinking with Jay-Z a hundred times or more, and as cool as that is, it has more to do with celebrity culture than the music, so we'll go no further with that tale here. We're not OK magazine. Read about it here if you must, as that publication seems interested in that kind of journalism. These days though, such stories are required to get your name out there - Google ' Jay-Z and Clare Maguire' and you will see the number of sites that have repeated the story. It's our guess that in interviews Clare will run out of fingers and toes to count the number of times she's asked about going drinking with Jay-Z.
The major label deal and possible mainstream potential that Maguire possesses could lead to certain sectors delivering the inevitable backlash at some point, rather like in 2010 there was a critical backlash against Ellie Goulding (for being too 'pop' in the critics eyes - we disagree) and Hurts (for being too 'pretentious' /' pop' and not delivering on initial promise - we however are really pleased with the way Hurts turned out - but you can't please everyone - ever ) before they both found their true audience. Those who became familiar with Maguire through the dark, spacious and thrilling Breakage remix of Ain’t Nobody may be disappointed to discover that this is not what Maguire’s material sounds like – and should she crop up on the BBC Sound of 2011 list, of which we suspect there is a reasonably strong possibility, further critics will probably wade in with the “what do the tastemakers know,” negativity that occurs but is quickly forgotten every year.
But let’s forget the marketing, forget the critics and focus solely on the music. From the material we’ve heard and the live performances we've witnessed we can confirm that we are 100% in love with Clare Maguire. No make that 200%. Her big epic songs have received comparisons to Florence and the Machine and whilst this is not fully accurate, we can understand them. Maguire has mammoth emotive songs such as Last Dance, I Surrender and Shield and Sword that are delivered with an incredible voice that is huge thunderous and gutsily powerful – fully designed to grab hold of you and smother you firmly. When she performs you can see this emotion in her face, as she forces out every note as if it means everything to her.
Clare Maguire is undoubtedly our number 1 choice in our Ones to Watch list for 2011 – and we really hope the public agree. One to Watch 100, 200, 1000%.
Welcome to December, the time of year when the music industry seems to do very little than pump out Greatest Hits albums and guzzle itself silly on cheap champagne. It’s also the time where everyone goes list crazy. Best of 2010’s will be all over the place, and by New Year’s Eve you probably will want to drink yourself into oblivion just to get away from them.
We make no apologies though, for we like lists and for the next twenty days we present our Ones to Watch for 2011 followed by our own personal Top Ten Albums of 2010, just like we did last year. ( Although obviously last year it was Ones to Watch for 2010 and Top Ten Albums of 2009 - just to stop those who like to get picky.)
So let’s start with our Ones to Watch for 2011 and explain the rules of engagement. The criteria for our Ones To Watch list is of new bands and artists that we believe possess the ability to do something that is worthy of attention. In some cases this may mean having commercial success, for others it may be a critically acclaimed album, some fantastic live shows or creating something a little unusual or ground breaking. It may even be that we are just fascinated with the media buzz about the band and want to see if the artist will rise to justify the hype or drift into a backwater. It’s not just a ‘next big thing’ list, but simply as the title says, a list of artists that we will be watching carefully during 2011. If you are a regular reader of this blog or are part of the music blogging community many of the artists on this list will already be very familiar to you, although there may be the odd undiscovered gem as well.
Last year we published five criteria that defined our Ones to Watch list for 2010. Amongst those criteria were that the artist couldn’t have appeared on any previous Ones To Watch list (thus excluding Marina & The Diamonds who we put on our 2009 list), couldn’t have released an album or mini album (which excluded The Drums following their previous release of a 7 track EP) or have appeared previously as a member of a successful band but was now solo (excluding Rose Elinor Dougall last year). This year we’re relaxing those rules and the only criteria for appearing on the list is that in the eyes of the general public the artist must be new, not be a reality TV or soap star and have not yet had a Top 40 hit single in the UK. However we are also adding one important rule – the artist must be a UK artist – after all Breaking More Waves is very much a UK based music blog.
So for the next 10 days, starting later today, please enjoy our Ones to Watch for 2011. Let us know what you think of our selections. In the meantime here's the artist that was number 1 on last years list - Ellie Goulding - covering Black and Gold by Sam Sparro with a certain Starsmith on production duties, from a while back. Keep an eye out for him in the next few days as well.
