What’s this? Surely not a cover of the 1983 Kajagoogoo ‘classic’? Sadly not, but before we go on let’s just pause for a moment and remember…. (Click here for the pause) The haircuts !!!! The fact that that was basically a one minute thirty second song extended to three minutes just by repeating the chorus over and over again !!!! It was a number 1 hit single !!!! Fast forward three decades and Shura is the next one to bring us 2Shy. There’s a few more words than Kajagoogoo, the haircut’s less silly, but the music’s ravishing, Shura sounding like the girl that’s been left standing on the side of the dancefloor at the 80’s tinged disco whilst the glitterball spins and everything goes a bit soft focus and gooey. Kajagoogoo your time is up. (Actually it was up by the end of 1984, showing just what a fickle game pop can be.) Shura - 2Shy
We’re not sure if we’ve ever heard an electronic pop song sung in Welsh before today, but then we hadn’t listened to Hardd by Casi Wyn. Then we did and even although we’ve absolutely no idea what she’s singing about, (let’s hope it’s nothing too rude or controversial) its sound is haunting and seductively lush enough to find us not caring. It’s no wonder that Casi was chosen last year as one of twelve Welsh artists to be part of Horizon, a partnership between BBC Cymru Wales and the Arts Council of Wales, to support and promote emerging Welsh music. You can hear Hardd by clicking here. Nearly one year on from Casi’s inclusion in that project we get Roads, which finds her growing in confidence as an artist, adding soft R&B beats to her lilting accent and a ghostly otherworldly electronic production. It all makes for a fascinating and rather impressively dreamy concoction from this Bangor singer who is currently studying in London. Casi - Roads
The Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition gives new and unsigned artists from the UK and Ireland the chance to compete for a slot on one of the main stages at the world’s most famous festival. Today the longlist of 120 acts selected by the first round judges (including Breaking More Waves) was published. This longlist will be cut down into a shortlist of just 8 by another group of judges. The lucky 8 will then be invited to play at a live final in Pilton in April to decide the winner. It’s the fourth time that Breaking More Waves has been involved in judging the opening round of the competition, which this year had in the region of 7,000 entries. For 2015, for our part, we listened to just over 150 acts from a variety of genres from folk, indie, rock, pop, soul, electronic and more and were asked to choose 3 for the longlist. Our three choices are: 1st Felix Hagan & The Family Brilliantly absurd and dandyish musical theatre that will have you dancing on the tables. Our number 1 choice.
2nd Wyldest Already featured a number of times on Breaking More Waves. Hazy, melancholy, ethereal pop that twinkles and shimmers with loveliness. For fans of Beach House and 80's indie.
3rd Fjokra A bit of a ‘wild card’ choice perhaps, but this confusing multi-genre embracing alt pop/rock full of hyperactivity stood out for its plethora of ideas.
We’re looking forward to listening to all the acts nominated, and of course seeing who the long list judges choose for the live final. In previous years some of the bands who have made the longlist (but don't necessarily make the shortlist) go on to do well anyway, even if they don't make the final. For example the likes of Circa Waves, Laura Doggett and Slaves have all cropped up on this list and have then gone on to get record deals. You can see the full longlist for 2015 here and listen to most of the nominated acts here, except for a small handful who didn't supply a public link to the song they entered, including one of our own choices Wyldest (although you can hear their new single above).
As soon as this new Låpsley video for Brownlow was released yesterday virtually every new music site in our land (and other lands) rushed to post it. A day after, the video still has just around 4,000 views so we figure there’s a hell of a lot of people out there who don’t click play as soon as something new is posted, so a more leisurely and less rushed post is still worth the time. Here’s the key facts you need to know about Brownlow: 1. The song is taken from her Understudy EP, which is a very good EP. In fact we have a spreadsheet called Favourite EPs of 2015 and it is listed on that spreadsheet. Having said that there are only 2 other EPs listed right now, which suggests we either have very high standards or actually haven’t listened to that many new EPs this year. See if you can guess which it is. 2. There’s a mellow bouncy bass sound in Brownlow which sounds very much like the bouncy bass sounds that bald headed techno brothers Orbital used to make. This is also a good thing. More bouncy bald brother bass please. 3. The video is basically Låpsley riding around in a car a bit and being ‘in da club’. Thankfully she has yet to write a song with lyrics that revolve around her being ‘in da club’ but if she does we may have to reconsider our position on her as that would not be a good thing. This song, as far as we can tell, is about living for the moment and seeing what happens, with lyrics about jumping into a pool and not knowing where the bottom is. Dangerous but exciting. Especially if you can't swim. 4. Låpsley was the winner of the Blog Sound of 2015 poll. This was also a good thing – she was one of our votes. 5. She’s playing some live shows and festivals soon. Dates (here). Another good thing. In summary Låpsley + music = a good thing.
