The first in a series of pieces highlighting the emerging acts we are tipping for the next twelve months, here are the first six.
Fontaines D.C.
Fontaines D.C. have had a barnstorming year with a salvo of fantastically abrasive singles, most recently the Fall-like skitter of ‘Too real’. My favorite though was ‘Chequeless Reckless’, echoey, visceral post-punk rhythms, urgent guitars and topped by frontman Grian Chatten’s absolutely incendiary sneering diatribe about phoneys and money being the root of evil all delivered in a thick Irish accent that couldn’t care less, couldn’t give an arse whether you agree or not it’s an attitude that recalls Mark E Smith or even Shane Mcgowan. Intersecting a caustic sound redolent of The Skids and PiL’s ‘Public Image Limited’ taking a detour to Dublin. Bold, bolshy, literate and abrasive and exactly the kind of defiant soundtrack to this era of corrupt capitalism of gentrification, compromised leaders and corporate greed. F*CKING GREAT.
They’ve been supporting Idles this year and with an unrelenting arsenal of songs, that will form a debut album that’s already in the can and a fearsome live show, you can bet your life on Fontaines D.C. searing themselves onto your consciousness in 2019!
(Bill Cummings)
Das Body
Oslo’s Das Body, released their debut single ‘Boys’ earlier this year, and its an absolutely cracking shot of funky sun-dappled electro-pop. “When the heat comes down/And I think of boys,” bounces the insidious refrain back and forth like a bouncy ball ricochet off the walls, above a jittery dance floor ready beat, sonorous vocals wisps from young vocalist Ellie Linde whose higher register switches from wistful to joyous floor filling chorus, like MØ gyrating with Junior Senior but also not, a wonderful, playful, pop song infused with a rising infatuation, it was a soundtrack to the fading embers of summer, the parties we had the things we lost, the people we fell in love with. It’s lifted from their EP Graceland which shows more sides and textures to their artful take on pop, the debut track swelling from early Grimes synth pop to hands aloft string led anthem. Hopefully more material will surface from Das Body next year, brushing in bright, evocative colours, the future looks limitless for them.
(Bill Cummings)
Tallies
Tallies release their self-titled debut album in January 2019 via Fear Of Missing Out Records. Based on what we’ve heard so far it will be a fascinating and infectious offering from the Toronto four-piece. The exquisite ‘Beat the Heart’ was our introduction to the group, shimmering with jangly guitars supplied by Dylan Frankl, framed in widescreen percussion and filled like lungs of air with Sarah Cogan’s effortlessly wistful tone that echoes the early work of the likes of The Sundays or Cocteau Twins. This hook-laden and enchanting track lament “the lack of empathy that exists so strongly today.”
Tallies promise their self-titled debut album, blends their influences into their own world. With tracks like the shivering longing vocals and elegant backdrops of ‘Trouble’ and ethereal Cranberries-like new cut ‘Easy Enough’ and slots at SXSW and Focus Wales already booked, Tallies could take up residence in your heart in 2019.
(Bill Cummings)
Avalanche Party
Avalanche Party ended an eventful 2018 holed up in the studio where they are starting work on their debut album set for a summer release. The band spent the rest of the year crisscrossing the North Sea on various European and UK headliners and supports (including an incendiary homecoming show at Middlesbrough’s Twisterella Festival in October and a headline slot at Amsterdam’s legendary Paradiso). Most recent single release ‘Million Dollar Man’ on Leeds based Clue Records gained praise from Radio 1 and showed they can still translate their breakneck psychedelic garage onto record, so with a SXSW slot already announced for next March 2019 could well be AP’s year. (Steve Spithray)
Heart Sauce
A Leicester based band, whose irresistibly infectious melodies just ooze warmth with their addictive synth motifs, Heart Sauce describe themselves as ‘Post-Vague Pop’, and while they’ve definitely captured the essence of 1980s production (and by this I mean the ‘high end’ of it), they also seem to inhabit the commercial nous displayed by recent press darlings The 1975 quite effortlessly, and arguably a whole lot more effectively too. Just listen to recent single ‘Heart Worms‘ and you’ll see exactly what I mean.
(Loz Etheridge)
Anna Kairos
The young German who modestly describes herself as “a girl who likes music” and who took the adopted name of the Greek word for ‘the opportune time for action’ may well find that her time well and truly comes in 2019.
She is influenced by the likes of Massive Attack and Fiona Apple but seems to have identified a style uniquely of her own, a dark, brooding concoction based around complex, almost classical piano pieces, her voice floating above it like a siren, if I can use another Greek allusion.
During the summer she released her first EP, ‘Hosting Time’, and since then has been working on her debut album, which she is self-producing for release in late spring 2019, and from which this is the latest single, released on 14th December. ‘Gloom’ concerns states of mind, negative ones which arise at certain times of the year (like now) and which the enquiring mind of the young philosopher wants to identify – do these moods emanate from the brain or the soul? Indeed, is there a soul? Deep stuff. (David Bentley)
