Vegas Gold is an artist name that conjures up all sorts of exciting and evocative images of razzmatazz, glitz and decadence, yet here he is in a leather jacket standing in front of what looks like a flat roofed garage, which at a guess is on some suburban estate in a very average part of southern England. I’m pretty certain it’s nowhere near Vegas. But that of course is the beauty of music – it can take you somewhere else and in the case of Vegas Gold’s debut tune that place is straight to the heart of the dance floor. For Control Of Your Love is full on strut your stuff club-pop. It’s deep, throbbing and sexy – a mantra that seems determined to coax you into releasing those carnal desires: “The body wants what it wants,” he sings. The rhythm is going to get you. Before everything gets too raunchy, here’s some cold hard facts to keep you calm about Vegas Gold. Vegas Gold is a solo project from one half of the mysterious duo that was known as HOST who picked up a bit of blog traction, starting in 2014, with their slinky dark disco track Heartbeats In The House. Since that time Vegas Gold has worked with Grammy award winning producer Steve Dub (The Chemical Brothers) and thrown out some remixes, but is now ready to unleash his solo material to the world, of which Control Of Your Love is the first example. You can find Control Of Your Love on the Breaking More Waves monthly playlist, which is updated at the end of the month with all the tracks that have been featured over the previous few weeks. As today is the end of the month that means there's a full refresh ready for you to listen to right now. You can find the playlist by clicking this link. Vegas Gold - Control Of Your Love (Video)
If you’re the sort of person that likes indie music with choppy guitars and big choruses that make you glad to be alive then the chances are that Ørmstons are about to become your new favourite band. A four-piece from Leeds consisting of Jess Huxham, Bobby O'Hare, Josh Mason and Nathan Robinson, there’s something rather fetching about the noise they make; it’s rough enough around the edges but has a pop purity to its melodies. If bands like Anteros (who they have supported) or whenyoung are on your listening radar then you might want to add Ørmstons to that list. The band has already played some headline club shows in Leeds and they have two songs on all the usual streaming services. The earliest of the two, Bridgewater Way is decent, but there’s a clear development in songwriting on current single Mexico City, the track that grabbed my ears and wouldn't let go. I think I played it twenty times on repeat when I first heard it. It’s a heartening exercise in old fashioned indie rock, with an opening guitar intro that reminds me a little of Babies by Pulp (a very good thing), it puts everything in the right place and never outstays its welcome. It’s very early days for the band, but if they can write a few more blinders like Mexico City and get out and about round the country developing their live show and fan base they could be onto something. Ørmstons - Mexico City
Connie Constance was always going to get my attention, if only for the fact that one of my daughters is called Connie and my grandmother was called Constance. (Her real name is equally good: Constance Power). After the name the musical attention first started at Brighton’s Great Escape in 2016 where having watched her languidly gilt-edged set in a seafront club I tweeted: “Connie Constance is the new queen of cool.” Then a couple of months after that she put out a video for Lose My Mind and it was clear that Connie meant business. (For regular readers of the blog, click here, watch the first 10 seconds of the video and you’ll understand why I think that). Now Connie raises the game again with new single Fast Cars (which is nothing to do with the late 80’s hit of a similar name by Tracy Chapman) and its accompanying video. Connie’s musical upbringing was a mixed one, having hung out at school with all the indie kids listening to the likes of Blur, The Smiths and Arctic Monkeys and then outside of that she would be with friends who listened to R&B and hip hop. It’s the latter influence that seems more to the fore on this new single. It’s a love song that considers the often vacuous want of materialism: “You want fast cars and movie stars, but I want to train in the deep end,” she sings. The song is accompanied by a video that echoes the theme of the lyrics but also casts Connie and her friends as rich aristocrat, a Marie Antoinette type figure. The difference of course is the skin colour. “I wanted to create a universe where people of our backgrounds and skin colours would have lived in castles like Knebworth instead of being cut out of British history,” she says of the video. With Jorja Smith having broken through with her mellow blend of jazz-soul-pop, given the right breaks Connie Constance could easily be following her as the next one on everyone’s lips. Connie Constance - Fast Cars (Video)
Do I need to say anything more about Sigrid? After all, if you’re not convinced that she is anything more than a pop artist par excellence by now, you’re probably not going to change your mind. But even if you’ve not signed up to the Sigrid Appreciation Society (I’m membership number 45,678) I hope you will agree that if you or I walked and danced down the street like she does in this brand new video we’d get some very strange looks. Yet when Sigrid does the same it seems not just normal, but dazzlingly cool. But this is what good popstars do. It’s their job to make the absurd seem brilliant. It’s one of the key factors that divides great pop from poor pop. Absurdity into brilliance is why artists are able to sit in the bath and have their photo taken for promotional purposes and to most eyes it seems perfectly natural. And although Sigrid hasn''t done the bath pic yet (it will surely come) she is very much making great pop. Sucker Punch with it’s rubbery synth verses and big belting chorus is (of course) another example of this. Sigrid - Sucker Punch
