The following are three new artists featured on the BBC’s Sound of 2010 list. This list has a history of highlighting important new artists just before they break into popularity (MGMT, Temper Trap, Passion Pit). While they do focus on artists who have developed an original sound, the emphasis here is on what will crossover from the obscure to the popular (Vampire Weekend number one on the Billboard charts, anyone?). http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8395789.stm
Ellie Goulding “Under The Sheets”
The United Kingdom has produced a fine group of young female singer-songwriters over the last few years. The quality of these artists has been remarkably high. Lily Allen is perhaps the most famous among them, along with Any Winehouse. In just the last year, a new wave of UK female artists has begun to push beyond the fairly traditional sounds of their immediate predecessors. La Roux, Little Boots, and Florence Welch (of Florence and the Machine) are attempting to transcend beyond the most common and marketable styles of female-centered music: folk and sugar pop. While most of these newer artists have a substantial critical and popular following in the UK, they have received minimal buzz in the US, even among indie and hipster circles.
The reasons for this tepid reception are quite baffling considering the quality and originality of their work.
Ellie Goudling is part of this cresting creative wave of female singer-songwriters. While she is only 23 and has not yet released a full album, there is considerable buzz surrounding her currently scant body of work. Goudling shares the same affinity for well-produced, synth-based pop songs as her peers. Her first single “Under the Sheets” is an interesting and engaging pop song that relies heavily on the drum and synth work of young upstart producer Starsmith. “Under the Sheets” is a good pop song, but it is definitely not a great pop song. While the production and songwriting are professional, the sound is somewhat uninspired. If one were to listen to just the drum and synth accompaniment, there would be little to notice or enjoy. The bass synth is particularly monotonous and mundane. The key element of the sound is indeed Goudling’s voice, which is beautiful. The lackluster accompaniment is quite frustrating in this respect. Moments of aural splendor do exist, especially the vocal layering in the build-up to the final chorus, but these moments are not enough to outshine the dullness of the accompaniment.
“Under the Sheets” lacks the raw energy and novel production of her contemporaries. Where Florence and the Machine wails like an untamed banshee, Goulding simply raises her voice in slight anticipation. Where La Roux sounds like an android who has just felt love for the first time, Goudling speaks in witty metaphors laced with irony about a postmodern relationship. “Under the Sheets” feels too constructed and, in turn, too restrained. It is, without a doubt, a enjoyable pop song, and it tries to be nothing more than this. There is something endearing about this sort of self-consciousness, but I would rather hear a song that sounds as if nothing else matters for the three minutes and 30 seconds of its existence. This being said, I do think Ellie Goudling has the potential to match the originality and quality of her contemporaries. It may just take her a couple years to get there.
Delphic “Counterpoint”A new Manchester band with some significant blog buzz is Delphic. Their LP was just released in the UK on January 11th to critical acclaim, and they have sold out most of their live shows over there. Delphic follows in the post-punk tradition of the Manchester sound while focusing mostly on the electronica side of things. They most likely have listened to every song by Joy Division, New Order, and the Doves. This is obviously a very good starting point, but it clearly does not guarantee the final results will be spectacular.
Delphic’s first single is a song entitled “Counterpoint.” The song is decent and well-produced. Unfortunately, the songwriting is not very strong and the track never really takes off. The song has a nice arpeggio hook, but it appears that’s all the band felt they needed to create a solid track. The vocals are pretty uninspired in the usual talk-sing way of mediocre electronica. On first listen, the strong production and hook are very attractive and interesting, but subsequent listens reveal there is indeed nothing going on behind the sparkling wall of sound.
Delphic remind me of another popular UK band that enjoys mining the Manchester sound, White Lies, who were on the BBC Sound of 2009 list. Both Delphic and White Lies are respectable bands who make decent music, but neither band tends to create music that stands up to repeated listens. They use the signature sounds of Manchester and 80’s electronica, but they fail to do much beyond rearrange the basic elements of these sounds into moderately interesting songs.
Fear not though, there is a group of stoic young Brits who are making engaging music that apes 80’s electronica and the Manchester sound. Mirrors are a new band from Brighton who are blending the styles of Kraftwerk and Depeche Mode, among others, into something pretty special. Where Delphic and White Lies tend to use the post-punk sound in a hodgepodge way, Mirrors has a razor-sharp focus on particular elements of early electronica. It’s this pin-point focus that sets them apart from other bands using the same palate. Mirrors creates rich moods and then militantly frames their songs withing these moods. The result is a sound so cold and sterile that it comes across as romantic poetry for the dystopia of late-stage capitalism.
Gold Panda “Quitters Raga”Like the other crop of young Brits on the BBC Sound of 2010 list, Gold Panda arrives with the heavy weight of expectation and hype around his neck. Where Delphic and Ellie Goudling seem content with writing palatable songs with a relevant sound, Gold Panda appears not to care about songs or paying homage. Gold Panda’s “Quitters Raga” lasts just under two minutes, but there is enough interesting content in this short time to suffice several re-listens.
“Quitters Raga” is a sample-based song that does not wish to hide its synthetic production. By clipping the sound and stopping the track in random places, Gold Panda fully embraces the inauthenticity of his own music. While this type of technique can easily digress into postmodern masturbation, Panda cuts up his song with subtle restraint so that it ends up adding to the emotional narrative of the track. The main elements of the song are an Indian vocal sample and the pulsing bass line. The vocal sample stays constant while the bass line moves up creating a significant sense of harmonic tension between the two main elements of the song. It works well, and it sounds pretty damn good.
Gold Panda’s “Quitters Raga” spares no moment and this is often what separates a great song from a good song. A good song has moments of filler, where a great song does not. Needless to say, there is very little filler in the two minutes of “Quitters Raga.” The question remains whether Gold Panda can extend his sound and create a great song that pushes past the three minute mark. My intuition says yes.
-Daniel Wipert