As this calendar year draws to an end, I can reflect back on the wealth of quality up and coming talent that I have stumbled across in 2011. As I am sure that we all do, when a certain band immediate builds a rapport with me, I keep tabs on them and watch over and support their development over the coming months.
The following four acts mentioned in this piece have become my personal cream of the crop for newly discovered British bands for 2011. They have all individually come on leaps and bounds this year and I believe that the ball will keep rolling into further success in 2012. Watch this space.
Newcastle’s Let’s Buy Happiness have been incredibly busy bunnies in 2011. It also seems that each move that they make steadily brings them higher and higher into the limelight and their fan-base has developed accordingly. They create twee indie pop, with intelligently dynamic underlying soundscapes, which certainly give them their own identity and welcomes segregation from the mainstream of this ilk.
They have released two singles this year (‘Fast Fast’, ‘Dirty Lakes’) and have most probably worn out tyres of their tour bus from the amount of gigs and tours they have played; most notably securing an incredible support slot for PRIMAL-frickin’-SCREAM in Brixton a few weeks ago. At this rate, they best gets used to their taste of the big leagues as I predict Let’s Buy Happiness will take 2012 by storm.
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We will now take a trip to Brighton to learn more about the next prospect that have grabbed my adoration this year. Fear Of Men first caught my ears by their early demos – very lo-fi, completely works for me. I then learned that they were releasing a cassette tape through Sex Is Disgusting, which impressively sold out on pre-order. They went on to release their single, ‘Ritual Confession’/’Spirit House’, last August and also shared a co-headline national tour with Bos Angeles a few weeks ago.
Two girls create the beauty. Two boys create the noise. Think of shoegazey guitar lines on top of simply structured chord progressions accompanied by dreamy female voiced harmonies. Fear of Men produce great guitar-pop songs, projected through a ‘less-is more’ mindset and a DIY aesthetic.
North-West London’s CROWS do bad things to your body. You also have no say in the matter. It is inflicted upon you, yet you don’t necessarily dislike it. Quite the opposite, in fact. They sound a bit like when bands in the 80’s kind of replicated sounds of the 60’s, but with their own idiosyncratic stamp and character (The Cramps, Jesus & Mary Chain). However, this is the 20…actually, what the heck is this decade called?! This has all become very Nathan Barley. I will simplify:
They like garage rock. They like psychedelia. They like surf rock. They like to make a bloody racket. Their frontman craves attention (and gets it, sadly). And, above all, they’re just sick.
CROWS released a double A-Side single of ‘King’/’Korea’ last May and will be destroying a London venue sometime soon, probably.
http://soundcloud.com/londoncrows
Last, but by absolutely no means least, we go west. Bristol has witnessed a second coming of 90’s baggy shoegaze in 2011, with TOWNS at the forefront. They have built a stable around them (included Holy Stain and Spectres) and host their own club night ‘Feed Me With Your Hiss’, which supports the rise of the local scene.
TOWNS by TOWNSmusic
