Emerging: Ellie Goulding

(photo by Camilla Treharne)

The Internet's been pretty on fire lately with coverage of this UK-based electro pop talent Ellie Goulding, and we'll go ahead and pour a little more kerosene on the blaze with our praise, albeit with some points of warning. Based on her second single, "Under The Sheets" b/w "Fighter Plane", and its handful of remixes from Neon Gold Records, a lot of hyperbole has been thrown Goulding's way, like pasta to a wall, all kinds of learned and no-talent chefs alike attempting to see what sticks.

We, for one, are infatuated with her voice and the compliment paid it by the production work of Starsmith, but only time will tell if Ellie Goulding just gets filed away with other blog-hyped stories (you know who you are) or if she's got the chops and consistency to power through it all. We're not nay-saying, mind you, but we feel a little concerned for how bright the light shining on her is right now and how quickly the bulb can burn out. We're positive she'll see a bit of crossover fame from all of the heralding happening and what with songwriters and stars like Lady Gaga sitting in wait at the forefront of the pop conscience, Ellie's already one-upped that game without the need of pretense or gimmickry. It's the voice alone and the writing that rushes out of the gates, avant visual representation or no.

(mp3)    Ellie Goulding - Under The Sheets

(mp3)    Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed

(mp3)    Ellie Goulding - Black & Gold (Sam Sparro cover)

Godspeed!

Emerging: Bullet And Snowfox

(photo by Nigel Skeet)

Los Angeles indie electro duo Bullet And Snowfox (which sounds a shit-ton too much like code names from "G.I. Joe" but we'll let that slide) make a vicious mixture of the electro pop beats and indie pop, steeped in beautiful atmospherics and wrapped in Kristen Wagner's sultry speak-sung vocals. The guys have only been playing together for a little over a year, which says a lot about their trajectory and the path they've been on, and the songs are truly the real deal and the center of the story. It's punk, it's new wave, it's dance, it's pretty brilliant and still hard-edged and boy is it fun.

(mp3)    Bullet And Snowfox - Green Light

(mp3)    Bullet And Snowfox - Undercover

(mp3)    Bullet And Snowfox - Bad Days

Godspeed!

Emerging: Bertie Blackman

We are seriously consumed today with the voice of the New South Wales, Australia siren Bertie Blackman, whose cooey calls are straight heroin to addicts of smart, stylish electro pop without feeling even a slight bit of guilty pleasure syndrome. The girl and her boys in the backing band create organic, pepped-up, honest, sultry lines of genius melody and heart-stopping sonics. Girl is huger than most in her native continent, but something itches us into thinking that 2010 will be her year to cross over oceans to European and North American dominance. Blackman's third album, Secrets & Lies, came out this year and the sugary pop of "Byrds Of Prey" gets the dubbed-to-death-and-back-to-life treatment from the UK's Marco Del Horno, no stranger to getting his edits into our hearts.

(mp3)    Bertie Blackman - Byrds Of Prey (Marco Del Horno remix)

Godspeed!

Emerging: Roses Kings Castles

Adam Ficek, the man who plays drums in Babyshambles has had for a while been pushing his own solo project called Roses Kings Castles. As RKC, Ficek has released a number of impressively sullen Britpop singles and a ten-track, eponymous full length disc over the last year or so. Over the summer, he dropped his latest EP, a four-song affair entitled Apples and Engines. Since Ficek has been doing all of this under the radar and without much press help, we're pretty sure a ton of you guys hadn't even heard of Roses Kings Castles, let alone have heard it. In any event, two of the four tracks are ready to be heard by all, so do yourselves a favor and get in on Roses Kings Castles. They are stellar, sweeping and absolutely worth a kick in the pants for not knowing about. Who knows how long Babyshambles will be around and, more to the point, we're sort of thinking that Ficek is well fine with his new project if the Doherty thing, er, fades.

(mp3)    Roses Kings Castles - Empty Shells

(mp3)    Roses Kings Castles - Some Things Are Better Left Unsaid

Godspeed!

Emerging: The Five One

A four-piece group of young gents who've done away with their birth names and have instead adopted a moniker of color (Gold, Blue, Green, Red), The Five One are a crew hailing from the DMV--D.C., Maryland and Virginia to the unitiated. And much like the "emerging" artists Telephoned, the boys have made a name for themselves by composing a hodgepodge of covers, remixes and originals all into one package of an amazing pop music spectacular spectacular that marries what's great about the songs and arrangements you know and love and the artistic expression that comes from a band that's consistently seeking out it's own identity. The list of their marks has been pretty remarkable: Janet Jackson, Death Cab for Cute, Sam Sparro, Vampire Weekend, Daft Punk, on and on. Some would be quick to call this an amateurish take on sampling and rehashing a tune based around utilizing an homage rather than creating something new, but we feel that the approach is certainly what's the key here. The intent is to create, recreate and keep that cycle going, and we'll fully back The Five One's goals however we can. The boys have been prepping an originals-only effort set to drop soon, so it'll be interesting to see how that translates.

(mp3)    The Five One - So Dope It's Disgusting (Sam Sparro)

Godspeed!

Emerging: Carrie Wilds

Bursting out of the gate these past few weeks has been the new single from Trouble & Bass key-master Drop The Lime, "Set Me Free", which is due out November 2, riding mostly on the heat of the just-released treatment from Harvard Bass. The track is a monster cut with whipping, whirring bassline and deep, dark intentions. Most of the world has been paying attention to Luca's arrangements and the trademark sound, but we've been all about this track for one thing and really one thing only: the voice. Reminiscent of the 90s house and dance vocalists who were all but lost in the liner notes of albums and singles in lieu of the track's producers (we'd list them, but there's far too many), Carrie Wilds has the range that is a thousand percent arresting to the spirit. Please don't mistake that for making you think the track is 90s, because it's so far from it. The "heavy bass" provocateur employs wobble and crackles and all types of fixings, but leaves Wild's yearning outbursts to settle scores with the wind. Her voice on "Set Me Free" just kills. We're sure there will be a handful of remixes of "Set Me Free" that get tons of comments for their treatments and whatnot, and sure, a lot of them will be fairly rad, but please, let's not forget the stem that ties most deeply to the roots of what makes the single so good, ok?

(mp3)    Drop The Lime -  Set Me Free (Harvard Bass remix)

(mp3)    Drop The Lime - Devil's Eyes

Godspeed!

Emerging: Heatherette

Sometimes we get clued into an act or artist that just doesn't have anything but an identifying sound to their name, no other stylistic calling card or capital-"M" media machine behind them creating image and referencing others in attempts to get coverage on Web sites like this one here. For Scottish bomb Heatherette--no relation to that Richie Rich fashion label--the case can be made that we know nothing of this woman aside from the two tracks on her very new and not-highly-trafficked MySpace page, her unsigned nature and her sound.

So, the sound? Yeah, well, imagine throwing The Cramps, Peaches, a drum machine and that "Dirty Boy" video by Angela Viracco in "The Last Dragon" into a blender with the puree blade on full blast, pulsing it a few times to make a textured sludge of amazingness. Which is to say, it's tons of fun, the guiltiest of pleasures and full of the pomp that only someone consumed by throwback metering and "Genius Of Love" would take into consideration. We really really love this song "Canary" with its stop-start drumming and arrangement of swirling cinematic effects and the washes of sometimes hushed and sometimes shouted vocals.

(mp3)    Heatherette - Canary

Godspeed!

Emerging: Tempo No Tempo

Groovy, dubby and full of the post-punk panache that led to the breaking through of what would become "dancepunk", Bay Area four-piece Tempo No Tempo are set to release their debut full length record Waking Heat on October 20. The disc, which rides on acute angles and exceptionally-placed tone and time shifts, is a menacing breath of fresh air in a year full of warbled, taped-this-drum-loop-from-our-influences mashed potato indie rock. Fans that lament the breaking up of bands like Q And Not U will find solace with these San Francisco boys quite easily, though that band shouldn't be used specifically as the only marker. Instead, think of Tempo No Tempo as the "will it blend?" of the last 20-or-so years of angular musical fist-pumps, if that metaphor works at all. The guys have a ton of enthusiastic energy and arrangements that are infectious, slightly derivative but completely their own calling card.These are drum-circle dance-fests of spastic exuberance and endless, never-not-joyous outpourings.

(mp3)    Tempo No Tempo - The Rat (Part One)

Godspeed!

Emerging: Don't Wait Animate

An indie rock outfit from South London that seem more tuned in to the electronic movement happening all around them, Don't Wait Animate seem to flock to their guitars and laptops with aplomb, carving out an interesting niche for a bunch of kids who are young, excitable, have huge predilections for dancing and bopping their heads and possess the pop know-how of some of their elders at such a young, dare we say fresh-faced, point-of-view. There's also a dash of subtlety and seriousness in there somewhere, but you don't need to go looking for it if you're more interested in a snappy mix of the indie rock of the 1990s in the UK and the grime/dancehall/electro that's oh so prevalent these days. Also, we may just love them a little bit more because they list as one of their influences the Sega Genesis game "Streets Of Rage 2", though they were probably toddlers when we were playing that game in our family room.

(mp3)    The XX - Fantasy (Don't Wait Animate remix)

(mp3)    Don't Wait Animate - Sirens

Godspeed!

Emerging: Uzul

Not usually accustomed to hearing the words "France" and "dubstep" together in a coherent toss of a thought--they usually leave that up to the dark and dank UK kids/descendants of the Skream/Caspa/Hatcha phase--most of the countrymen of this new act who goes by Uzul would probably cry foul at the mere thought of a sub-bass track that shapes itself more akin to the soundsystems and selectors of the West Indian areas of London instead of Lyon. And it's not more Trouble than it is Bass (see that, we got jokes) with "Rumble Inna Station" and "Under Pressure", two 12" singles coming out via Dub Technic, that bring the sense of dark, tunneling low-end and sinister vibes rather than the "touch" of French electro as it sits atop its perch today. And, with news that "Rumble" comes b/w a B-side remix from Skream himself, walls will certainly be crumbling once it's all heard.

(mp3)    Skream & Benga - Trapped In A Dark Bubble

(mp3)    Uzul - Megamix (featuring teasers of his two singles and more)

Godspeed!