Ones to Watch 2012 - #15 Rachel Sermanni

We started the Breaking More Waves Ones To Watch 2012 posts with a female acoustic singer songwriter who we’ve featured on the blog a number of times this year (Lucy Rose) and so we’ll finish with a female acoustic singer songwriter who we’ve featured on the blog a number of times this year as well.

Rachel Sermanni is a charming musician who comes from a small village in the Highlands called Carrbridge. She’s already supported the likes of KT Tunstall, Roddy Woomble, Newton Faulkner, Fink, John William Grant plus Mumford & Sons and a few months back released the limited edition Bothy Sessions EP which was recorded in a green, wooden bothy with a tin roof and a wood-burning stove in the Highlands. This location seems perfect for Rachel, her songs being dreamily organic, the gradual increase in her popularity being found in a very natural way. There’s no major record label marketing strategy at work here, just a singer, some tunes, some live performances and an open ended vision of just playing music. It’s this d-i-y approach that meant that Rachel was under no pressure to make the songs on The Bothy Sessions fit for radio, with 3 of them clocking in at way over 5 minutes and the other being just a minute long. Yet they meshed with those who heard them anyway.

In 2012 Rachel Sermanni will start with some more shows and a new EP - Black Currents from which the song Breathe Easy (below) is taken.There’s a number of dates in her homeland and a very special gig at the Union Chapel in London with the equally wonderful Russian Red on Jan 23. After that, who knows? Not every artist has every aspect of their year mapped out from them from day 1. 2012 could be the year that Rachel Sermanni is One to Watch, but then it could be 2013 or 2014 as well. Irrespective of our predictions, whatever she does, whenever she does it, we’re pretty certain that this fine new talent from Scotland will produce magic. We know we've fallen head over heels, maybe you will to?

Breathe Easy taken from Rachel's debut EP Black Currents out on 30th Jan 2012 by Rachel Sermanni

Ones to Watch 2012 - #14 Charli XCX

One of the problems of publishing a new music blog that works fully outside of the music industry itself (excepting the huge pile of emails from PR companies that attempt to sink our in box every day) is that we can never be fully sure as to when an artist is going to be forthcoming with recorded material. Back in November 2009 we first featured the flamboyant teenager Charli XCX and her hyperactive sherbert-electropop. A year passed and as November 2010 arrived we gave her consideration for our Ones to Watch for 2011 list. Have a look at this blog and the picture to see some of those we considered and eventually decided against. The decision not to list Charli XCX was probably correct as it is only in the last few months that she’s fully surfaced from the darkness of the studio, releasing two singles, the classy electro-power ballad of Stay Away and the igneous Nuclear Seasons with its call of “When you go, please don't leave your love in the sun, my heart will melt away.” Both have found plenty of blog adoration, particularly stateside. There now seems to be a momentum behind Charli XCX and hence this year she features on our Ones to Watch for 2012.

Charli XCX may have burst out like an exploding cracker, showering Pac-Man power pills whilst playing at being a crotch grabbing horned up pop star, but her two recent singles display a much greater maturity. They veer between 80’s power balladry last seen when the likes of Berlin or Shakespeare’s Sister were in the charts and the more modern pop of the likes of Marina & The Diamonds or Gwen Stefani dabbling with computers in a cathedral. With an album finally set for 2012 these singles have shown great potential. The question is can it be fulfilled?

Nuclear Seasons (Night Plane Remix) by charlixcx

Ones to Watch 2012 - #13 Outfit

Our thirteenth choice in our Ones to Watch 2012 list is Outfit. They’re a five-piece indie band, but not the sort of indie band that is likely to quote Oasis or The Kaiser Chiefs as inspirations. In fact their Facebook lists their influences as Beach Boys, Pional, Todd Rundgren, Cryptacize and Kompak as reference points. There's a number of indie bands taking more interesting reference points at the moment -Embers (who we would have included on this list if it wasn't for the fact that it's so early days they haven't even played a gig yet), Zulu Winter, Woman's Hour, French Wives and Theme Park all nearly making it onto our Ones To Watch list, but we've gone this time with Outfit.

Having formed from the ashes of another band called Indica Ritual and various members having played in a whole host of other groups, Outfit first popped up on the internet 9 months ago with the songs Every Night I Dress Up As You and Killer. These two pieces of ambling, gentle, oft-kilter guitar tuneage immediately picked them up coverage on a music industry connected blog and pretty soon after the NME were on their case as well.

From that point onwards Outfit were on a rise and luckily they have the music to back it up. Their key track released to date is Two Islands, which floats in a vibey melancholic majestic beauty that seems to be going nowhere but is actually very focussed on its direction. There’s a feeling of sad loneliness in a packed space in the lyrics “I don’t know anyone else in here,” as guitar effects wash and keyboard sounds roll. With Outfit’s fluid structure and slightly avant-garde approach to song writing it’s inevitable that the band would draw comparisons with the likes of Wild Beasts and that has been the case. It’s not a bad comparison to draw.

It’s still very early days for Outfit, the band suggesting that they will release a new EP to follow up Two Islands in 2012 and a confirmed tour in February that opens at the Green Door Store in Brighton on 11th February before hitting Oxford, Bristol, Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester and Birmingham, with an album later in the year. Keep an eye (and ear) out for them.

Two Islands by OUTFIT

Ones to Watch 2012 - #12 Ren Harvieu

We’ve already mentioned that a number of choices in the Breaking More Waves Ones To Watch 2012 list have more than a vague whiff of nostalgia about them. From the 50’s vintage Bo Didley referencing Willy Moon to the old school rock and blues of Alabama Shakes to the smouldering 60’s gangster Nancy Sinatra of Lana Del Rey or the sepia tinged Otis loving acoustic soul of Michael Kiwanuka. Now here’s another one.

When we first posted about Ren Harvieu back in September we mentioned the likes of Dusty Springfield and Carole King as musical similarities. To that list we could also easily add Shirley Bassey (well, actually we did already, here) and Cilla Black because we could very much imagine Ren standing in a venue like the London Palladium and belting songs like Forever In Blue and the Say A Little Prayer referencing debut single Through The Night out and getting a standing ovation. It’s opulent stuff.

For the moment Ren Harvieu has to be content with her recent support slots with James Morrison and two headline shows at the less glamorous Monto Water Rats in London and the Ruby Lounge in Manchester. There's also a simple performance video of her covering The Beatles Something which she put out a couple of weeks ago (see below). At this point in time however, Ren is probably just glad to be getting out playing shows after badly injuring her back in a freak accident earlier this year that almost stopped her music career in the tracks before it even got going.

Through The Night by Ren Harvieu

Sister Morphine – Recorded for MOJO magazine covermount CD by Ren Harvieu