Welcome to the third part of our ones to watch for 2023. Coming next week we will be looking at Welsh tips for the year. We hope to follow and highlight these artists over the next 12 months.
Adult Leisure
With their awesome debut single ‘Things You Don’t Know Yet’ Adult Leisure made a lasting impression, bursting forth with glistening early 90’s guitar figures and a thunderous percussive scamper. With a wrought vocal that teeters on the edge of wracked and devotional, oscillating between Future Islands‘ Samuel T Herring and Bruce Springsteen but is quite his own, spiralling from frustration to a fantastic, epic chorus that’s held aloft by chanted refrains. It was a mightily impressive debut offering. They followed it up with their debut EP The Weekend Ritual at the end of last year that further deepened the richness of their catalogue.
Adult Leisure are an act formed from the ashes of former 2010’s Bristol-based bands Moon Club, Aztecs, and Towers, with members Neil Scott, David Woolford, Nathan Searle and James Laing. (Bill Cummings)
moa moa
London trio moa moa splatter their wonky pop songs with psychedelic soundscapes and playful melodies. The group’s 2021 single ‘Coltan Candy’ secured heavy duty 6Music play. Produced by Dan Carey and released on the redoubtable Speedy Wunderground label, it sold out in just one day.
Inventive, infectious, and wonderfully playful, moa moa’s recent single ‘Boy Girl‘ explores the anxieties and innocence of childhood and urges itself never to lose touch with your innerchild. This wonky gem stirs together elements of harmonic psychedelia, gaze guitars, and wonky pop melodies, doing hopscotch with the Flaming Lips and patta-cake with Superorganism. It is addictive and ridiculously refreshing. I love this!
moa moa say:
“’Boy Girl’ is about exploring the stream-of-conscious-like mentality of being a child. From the irrational fear of sitting boy, girl, boy, girl… to the freedom of demanding to do precisely whatever you want, all the time. It made me reflect on how I felt about myself and the world when I was growing up, and the importance of never losing touch with that inner child as an adult.” (Bill Cummings)
Vlure
Scotland’s Vlure had already created quite a noise in their home country stepping in at last minute to support The Murder Capital in Glasgow just as the pandemic was hitting. They were my first gig post-lockdown at Yes in Manchester (remember when gigs were seated?).
Vlure began 2022 by releasing their debut EP Euphoria on So Young Records. They confirmed their growing reputation as a live band with thrilling gigs including a headline show at the iconic King Tuts in Glasgow. Various festival slots followed including The Great Escape and the DIY Alive Festival as well as gigs in Europe. With a sound that combines techno, drum and bass, and electronica to exhilarating effect, plus a captivating frontman in Hamish Hutcheson they are all set to spread their wings further in 2023. Already booked for SXSW in March lets hope Texas is ready to, in Hamish’s words, “dance ‘til my body’s numb“. (Julia Mason)
Noah and the Loners
Thank fuck there are kids out there that still want to make dirty rock’n’roll!! Noah and the Loners are a group of teenagers in an old fashioned garage rock band, not reinventing the wheel, but rolling the turd that is life in the 2020’s as a teenager, with all the trials and tribulations we can all remember, in a load of filthy guitar glitter, sexy bass, and scattergun drums.
Noah is a young trans man, ploughing his experiences of toxic masculinity and prejudice into face melting sub-three minute pop songs. What more could you want?!?
They describe their influences as being from the the legendary punks of X-Ray Spex, The Clash, and Buzzcocks through more contemporary heroes such as Idles, Paramore, and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes.
Recently signed to Marshall Records, the label tentacle of the huge and iconic Amplifier and Speaker company, follow up to debut single ‘Teenage Tragedy’ will arrive soon. (Jim Auton)
Maruja
Manchester jazz punks Maruja jam constantly, creating a myriad of soundscapes within their improvisation sessions. They rounded off their year on a high with the single ‘Thunder’ and a debut headline show at Manchester’s Yes but personally it was ‘The Tinker‘ that I had on rotation after seeing them live for the first times at Manchester Psych Fest. The four-piece include the saxophone of Joe Carroll and again it’s thrilling to hear the chaos and mayhem but also calmness this can introduce to the music. They played one of the closing sets at Left of the Dial in Rotterdam and the crowd simply did not move after they had finished such was the response. The promise of more gigs and more music in 2023 is good to hear. (Julia Mason)
Cobain Jones
Cobain Jones is an electrifying singer-songwriter that is destined for success. The Manchester-based musician has been building up a solid repertoire of material since 2020 and recently became the first musician to have a track produced by Manic Street Preachers‘ frontman, James Dean Bradfield, in twenty years. (Laura Dean)
Prima Queen
Prima Queen are fronted by songwriting duo and best friends Louise Macphail (Bristol, UK) and Kristin McFadden (Chicago, USA), they’ve been notching up some mightily impressive releases over the last eighteen months. The subtle bittersweet pop movements of ‘Chew Your Cheeks’ contrasts with the awesome Swiftian balladry of ‘Invisible Hand’ whose epic pop swell embodies the feeling of being out of control of your mental health, like a hand is around your neck squeezing out all of the joy from life.
The epic, cathartic, and cinematic indie pop anthem ‘Eclipse’ has echoes of the likes of Haim with its eye for emotional detail that jumps feet first into a new love after being fucked-up by an ex. While heartbreaking recent single ‘Butter Knife’ is laced with spoken word narrative balanced off by shimmering beds and bittersweet melodies, it’s a reflection on losing a loved one slowly to Alzheimer’s Disease. Prima Queen are clearly ones to keep an ear out for as purveyors of high quality song writing, wonderful production, and clever turns of phrase.
Despite the weighty themes that concern fragility of the human condition, Prima Queen’s songwriting possess that unquantifiable ability to reel you in with their crafty melodies, words, and hook laden, life-affirming qualities. Singing to the heavens has never sounded so good. (Bill Cummings)
