makes you think
― this is just a saginaw (dog latin), Tuesday, 23 December 2014 11:28 (nine years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 5 January 2015 00:01 (nine years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 6 January 2015 00:01 (nine years ago) link
5. George the Poet4. Raury3. Stormsy2. James Bay
So far, two votes on here for the top five (not including the winner)
p.s. 4+3 = http://a142.idata.over-blog.com/185x122-000000/3/50/61/65/Beatles-Rockers/George-avec-Rory-Storm.jpg
― Mark G, Thursday, 8 January 2015 10:43 (nine years ago) link
(George the poet on the left, obv)
― Mark G, Thursday, 8 January 2015 10:44 (nine years ago) link
oh, and 2+'tall' = http://www.samleach.com/album/paul_cavern_small.jpg
― Mark G, Thursday, 8 January 2015 10:45 (nine years ago) link
Years & Years a likely #1 which means the top 5 are all dudes this year
― uxorious gazumping (monotony), Thursday, 8 January 2015 11:15 (nine years ago) link
I was hoping for Wolf Alice, but then that'd be hopelessly retro/britgrungepop wouldn't it?
― Mark G, Thursday, 8 January 2015 11:20 (nine years ago) link
30 mins about the nominees - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04w1vz8
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 8 January 2015 14:16 (nine years ago) link
haha Raury Stormsy.
― piscesx, Thursday, 8 January 2015 14:48 (nine years ago) link
"Raury is a musical prodigy, who wrote his first song - Oh Little Fishy - at the age of three." Sounds great.
― Re-Make/Re-Model, Thursday, 8 January 2015 14:49 (nine years ago) link
is that seriously something people have chosen to highlight about one of these artists
(give zero shits about anything else itt obv)
― lex pretend, Thursday, 8 January 2015 14:57 (nine years ago) link
I'm into Raury's gig-crashing steez
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 8 January 2015 15:14 (nine years ago) link
Oh I LOVE that Shamir track. What a buzz.
― Acting Crazy (Instrumental) (jed_), Friday, 9 January 2015 00:03 (nine years ago) link
That years and years song is pretty good also.
This is their new one, King:
https://soundcloud.com/yearsandyears/king
― groovypanda, Friday, 9 January 2015 08:11 (nine years ago) link
what a bullshit poll this year
― j. winters (josh), Friday, 9 January 2015 08:12 (nine years ago) link
Years & Years are OK, but sound like any number of average sub-cut copy dance bands from the last 5-6 years.
In my eyes Shamir is light years ahead of the rest of the bunch - really excited for whatever he does next.
― bae sremmurd (monotony), Friday, 9 January 2015 09:04 (nine years ago) link
the one shamir song i heard sounded like an amateur fan version of "212"
― lex pretend, Friday, 9 January 2015 09:09 (nine years ago) link
if i had to pick one of this lot to say anything positive about it'd probably be kwabs, who has a gorgeous voice that i hope is one day put to a song that really grabs me
― lex pretend, Friday, 9 January 2015 09:10 (nine years ago) link
BBC Sound Of 2015 Winners: Years & Years
― Mark G, Friday, 9 January 2015 10:39 (nine years ago) link
I had a kwabs-based screen name early last year & then forgot all about him
― Tanukious D' (wins), Friday, 9 January 2015 10:47 (nine years ago) link
an amateur fan version of "212"
this sounds like potentially the greatest thing ever, obv
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 9 January 2015 10:49 (nine years ago) link
that was my thought too, but i enjoyed it anyway. what is this years & years?
― Ottbot jr (NickB), Friday, 9 January 2015 10:50 (nine years ago) link
an amateur fan version of "212"this sounds like potentially the greatest thing ever, obv
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, January 9, 2015 10:49 AM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
to be clear, it was terrible
― lex pretend, Friday, 9 January 2015 10:59 (nine years ago) link
if you're talking about "on the regular" i fear we are on opposite sides here
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:28 (nine years ago) link
Yeah I love "on the regular". Soak's recent single "b a nobody" is great too
― everyday sheeple (Michael B), Friday, 9 January 2015 11:41 (nine years ago) link
the video for On The Regular is a riot an' all.
― piscesx, Friday, 9 January 2015 11:46 (nine years ago) link
I really liked Soak ever since seeing this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0107ld0
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Friday, 9 January 2015 12:23 (nine years ago) link
years & years has the no. 1 single int he UK :o
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 8 March 2015 21:49 (nine years ago) link
"Sound Of 2016 longlistIzzy BizuBlossomsAlessia CaraLoyle CarnerFrancesJack GarrattJ HusDua LipaMabelBillie MartenMura MasaNAORat BoySection BoyzWSTRN"
― nxd, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 11:58 (eight years ago) link
J Fucking Hus!
― breastcrawl, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 17:55 (eight years ago) link
i despise all of those names
― avant-garde, sissy bounce, zombie rave, aquacrunk, warlock, oceangrunge, (imago), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 18:00 (eight years ago) link
J HUS!
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 18:04 (eight years ago) link
except that one I guess
― avant-garde, sissy bounce, zombie rave, aquacrunk, warlock, oceangrunge, (imago), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 18:05 (eight years ago) link
really like dua lipa and NAO
― j. winters (josh), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 18:28 (eight years ago) link
is NAO an acronym or yet another DESPERATE TO BE NOTICED, TYPING MY NAME IN ALL CAPS situation
― lex pretend, Tuesday, 1 December 2015 18:49 (eight years ago) link
IMPOSSIBLY NAO
― avant-garde, sissy bounce, zombie rave, aquacrunk, warlock, oceangrunge, (imago), Tuesday, 1 December 2015 18:51 (eight years ago) link
Spotify are predicting some similar artists (for UK)
Spotify makes its artist picks for 2016http://www.musicweek.com/news/read/spotify-reveals-its-spotlight-on-2016-artists/063560
The Spotlight on 2016 UK artists are:
- Jack Garratt
- Mura Masa
- Gavin James
- Anne Marie
- LÉON
- Matoma
- Blossoms
- Will Joseph Cook
- Mabel
- NAO
- Jones
- Max Pope
- Honne
- Samm Henshaw
- Frances
Also,
Spotify Spotlighthttps://open.spotify.com/user/spotifyspotlighthave predictions for other countries
― djmartian, Thursday, 3 December 2015 21:02 (eight years ago) link
even though Matoma is Norwegian. Maybe they mean predictions are from the Spotify UK team, rather than UK artists.
― djmartian, Thursday, 3 December 2015 21:06 (eight years ago) link
hot new uk crew #notalloligarchs
― noe love derp wev (wins), Thursday, 3 December 2015 21:42 (eight years ago) link
THE BLOG SOUND OF 2016 – A POLL OF 58 UK BASED MUSIC BLOGGERS TO DETERMINE THEIR FAVOURITE EMERGING ARTISTS
THE UK BLOG SOUND OF 2016http://breakingmorewaves.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/blog-sound-of-2016.html
AQUILO - Calm sounding electronic pop duo from Silverdale, Lancashire.
AURORA - Norwegian singer who covered Oasis for the John Lewis Christmas advert.
BILLIE MARTEN - Yorkshire based acoustic singer songwriter.
GEORGE COSBY - London based singer songwriter with a deep voice and brooding songs.
HAELOS - A band who describe their music as dark euphoria.
LISS - Four piece from Aarhus, Denmark who make slick sounding pop
LOYLE CARNER - A spoken word artist with his own unique confessional style.
MABEL - The daughter of Neneh Cherry who is producing her own brand of soulful pop.
MURA MASA - An electronic producer and multi-instrumetalist originalLy from Guernsey.
MT WOLF - A reformed band who also featured on the Blog Sound of 2014 longlist.
NAO - Solo singer who mixes funk, soul and electronic sounds in her work.
PLEASURE BEACH - Indie rockers from Northern Ireland.
THE BIG MOON - London based four piece alt rock / indie band.
THE JAPANESE HOUSE - Amber Bain's solo project of electronic ambient songs.
YAK - Energetic rock group with elements of punk, garage indie and psychedelic blues
― djmartian, Thursday, 3 December 2015 22:26 (eight years ago) link
MANGO BENGO - Loveable cartoon boxer dog
PITTA AND THE WOLFTONES - Kurdish/Irish separatist dubstep
GEOFF - Driffield-based newsagent-turned-ISIS frontman
FLAGPOST - Radical return to classic 60s Bhangra
― Sancho Panzer (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 3 December 2015 22:34 (eight years ago) link
i have a lot of time for loyle carner
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 5 December 2015 16:22 (eight years ago) link
amazing radio - tips for 2016http://amazingradio.com/tipsfor2016
including: Tala, Mura Masa and Love Ssega
― djmartian, Monday, 7 December 2015 11:51 (eight years ago) link
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/jan/19/how-do-you-become-music-next-big-thing-record-label-spend-promotion
Jack Garratt won the BBC Sound of 2016 poll less than a fortnight ago, but behind the scenes, the lobbying by record labels on behalf of the acts they want to win the 2017 poll is already swinging into action. Since the BBC launched the Sound of … poll in 2003, it has become a flagpole event for launching and breaking new acts, a convenient cavalry charge at a time when the album market started to go into freefall.With the record industry keen to turn any lifeline it is handed into a whip with which to direct the market, it didn’t take long for it to become virtually a monopoly, shaped and directed by the incredible marketing weight and promotional expenditure of a handful of labels.From its earliest days, Sound of … has been criticised as a cordoned-off VIP room for the major labels. Indeed, only one act on an independent label has ever won it – Adele in 2008, when signed to XL Recordings. EMI, when it still existed and before it was carved up between Universal and Warner, managed to win once in 2006 with Corinne Bailey Rae. Warner also managed to win once in 2009 with Little Boots. Sony has never had an act win. Acts signed to Universal and its imprints, however, have won it 11 times in the past 14 years. Universal’s signings have triumphed every single year since 2010. Rather than it being a syndicate for the majors, it’s increasingly looking like a cartel for Universal – the biggest and most profitable record label in the world – and its sub-labels. There is no suggestion that there’s anything corrupt going on; simply that the results of the poll reflect the fact that those with the biggest marketing budgets can make their acts much more visible, and therefore much more likely to win. But the result has been that the BBC’s poll is less a promoter of talent than a promoter of commerce.“It is presented as a certainty,” says one independent publicist, speaking anonymously, who long ago stopped putting forward acts for consideration. “I find the whole thing monumentally fucking depressing.”Another independent publicist, speaking off the record, remembers feeling that a few leftfield acts were starting to make the longlist at the turn of the decade, which inspired them to consider pushing one of their acts for the Sound of 2011 poll. “As soon as I started to pitch to people, I realised the decisions had already started to be made,” they say.Why are publicists so important to the process? Because journalists make up the majority of the 144 voters. Although the panel includes a selection of the BBC’s most respected new music presenters and producers, the majority of the pundits are from newspapers, magazines, blogs and commercial radio and TV. “We hope to represent a huge spectrum of music from across the world, covering a diverse range of musical styles and backgrounds,” the BBC’s website says. “When selecting the pundits, the BBC is looking for the most genuine and passionate music fans, whose day-job also involves showcasing the best new music to a wider audience. None of them work full-time for record labels, management or PR, and none of them can make money directly from the success of the artists. None of the pundits are paid for taking part.”No one makes money, no one is paid. And the pundits do not, as the BBC takes care to stress, vote from a list of predetermined acts. But most of the voters are besieged by new music all year round: it’s only natural, if unfortunate, that the acts they remember, come voting time, are the ones who have been thrust upon them with the greatest frequency. Simply, these are the names that get remembered.“I would imagine that the vast majority of people who are voting are not the people who will spend ages on Bandcamp buying music and investigating what else is being recommended around those artists,” says one writer who still votes each year, even if they know they are throwing a sponge at a tornado. “There were a few years where I thought: ‘Fuck this – I don’t want to do it.’ I hated the way it had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”At the turn of this decade, the PR machines began roaring to life around six months before voting took place, to get the preferred names into the right minds. Today, it is a year in advance. Having a publicist devote this much time to pushing forward an anointed act is not cheap. Which prices out the small acts who would gain the most from an award that is meant to reward musical promise rather than – as with the Brits critics’ choice award (also won this year by Garratt) – highlight the act most likely to be successful over the following year. “If someone wanted my undivided time to launch a new act over the course of a year, it would cost about 10 grand,” says the head of one small independent PR firm. “If you were talking to one of the big PR firms, they’d probably charge two grand a month. Major labels are the only ones who have the money to bankroll something like that.”Add in similar costs for a TV and radio plugger, to get the music aired in public and make voters feel that said act really is the kind of label priority worth voting for, and the same again for an online marketing team to make things appear “viral” and “organic”, and you will be lucky to get much change out of £100,000. Labels say that the cost of developing and launching a new mainstream pop act today can be anywhere between £500,000 and £1m. With winning the tastemaker polls seen as the blue chip moment in a launch campaign, it’s clear why an increasing number of chips from a decreasing number of bettors are being stacked on the side of the BBC’s roulette wheel. It’s not that the BBC decided to create a poll that required this level of expenditure, but that the major labels have, in effect, turned it into one.“With Jack Garratt, there was a lot of excitement around him at the Great Escape festival in Brighton last May,” explains a publicist about when it became obvious who was being positioned as the frontrunner for January’s big reveal. “The way they build things is to release a track or a video to create a buzz, and then get the artist to play the showcase festivals. Then, after the Sound … poll, the story is launched into the public consciousness that he is this humble, nice guy who started out busking.”For a label to see anything back from the PR cost of pushing an act, the act would need to both win the poll (mainstream media outlets are not concerned with offering much coverage to the runners-up) and then sell an extra 100,000 albums. Given that most new acts today struggle to reach anything approaching those sales figures, the stakes are far too high for most to even dare compete. Bear in mind, too, that for many indie labels, the significantly lower costs of mounting a campaign for even the Mercury prize are still too high. But the more of them that duck out of the race, the more the poll is at risk of becoming little more than a satellite marketing division of Universal.How can this be resolved? Maybe the solution lies in taking a Logan’s Run approach to the voting process, whereby anyone over the age of 30 is automatically retired from the panel, and voting rights are handed back to those most enthusiastic about the music and least concerned with backing a winner. As it stands, the poll is more of a coronation than a competition.Despite being given a week to comment for this piece, the BBC has put no one forward. Perhaps there is a realisation there, too, that Sound of … might just as well be renamed Spend of ….
With the record industry keen to turn any lifeline it is handed into a whip with which to direct the market, it didn’t take long for it to become virtually a monopoly, shaped and directed by the incredible marketing weight and promotional expenditure of a handful of labels.
From its earliest days, Sound of … has been criticised as a cordoned-off VIP room for the major labels. Indeed, only one act on an independent label has ever won it – Adele in 2008, when signed to XL Recordings. EMI, when it still existed and before it was carved up between Universal and Warner, managed to win once in 2006 with Corinne Bailey Rae. Warner also managed to win once in 2009 with Little Boots. Sony has never had an act win.
Acts signed to Universal and its imprints, however, have won it 11 times in the past 14 years. Universal’s signings have triumphed every single year since 2010. Rather than it being a syndicate for the majors, it’s increasingly looking like a cartel for Universal – the biggest and most profitable record label in the world – and its sub-labels. There is no suggestion that there’s anything corrupt going on; simply that the results of the poll reflect the fact that those with the biggest marketing budgets can make their acts much more visible, and therefore much more likely to win. But the result has been that the BBC’s poll is less a promoter of talent than a promoter of commerce.
“It is presented as a certainty,” says one independent publicist, speaking anonymously, who long ago stopped putting forward acts for consideration. “I find the whole thing monumentally fucking depressing.”
Another independent publicist, speaking off the record, remembers feeling that a few leftfield acts were starting to make the longlist at the turn of the decade, which inspired them to consider pushing one of their acts for the Sound of 2011 poll. “As soon as I started to pitch to people, I realised the decisions had already started to be made,” they say.
Why are publicists so important to the process? Because journalists make up the majority of the 144 voters. Although the panel includes a selection of the BBC’s most respected new music presenters and producers, the majority of the pundits are from newspapers, magazines, blogs and commercial radio and TV. “We hope to represent a huge spectrum of music from across the world, covering a diverse range of musical styles and backgrounds,” the BBC’s website says. “When selecting the pundits, the BBC is looking for the most genuine and passionate music fans, whose day-job also involves showcasing the best new music to a wider audience. None of them work full-time for record labels, management or PR, and none of them can make money directly from the success of the artists. None of the pundits are paid for taking part.”
No one makes money, no one is paid. And the pundits do not, as the BBC takes care to stress, vote from a list of predetermined acts. But most of the voters are besieged by new music all year round: it’s only natural, if unfortunate, that the acts they remember, come voting time, are the ones who have been thrust upon them with the greatest frequency. Simply, these are the names that get remembered.
“I would imagine that the vast majority of people who are voting are not the people who will spend ages on Bandcamp buying music and investigating what else is being recommended around those artists,” says one writer who still votes each year, even if they know they are throwing a sponge at a tornado. “There were a few years where I thought: ‘Fuck this – I don’t want to do it.’ I hated the way it had become a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
At the turn of this decade, the PR machines began roaring to life around six months before voting took place, to get the preferred names into the right minds. Today, it is a year in advance. Having a publicist devote this much time to pushing forward an anointed act is not cheap. Which prices out the small acts who would gain the most from an award that is meant to reward musical promise rather than – as with the Brits critics’ choice award (also won this year by Garratt) – highlight the act most likely to be successful over the following year.
“If someone wanted my undivided time to launch a new act over the course of a year, it would cost about 10 grand,” says the head of one small independent PR firm. “If you were talking to one of the big PR firms, they’d probably charge two grand a month. Major labels are the only ones who have the money to bankroll something like that.”
Add in similar costs for a TV and radio plugger, to get the music aired in public and make voters feel that said act really is the kind of label priority worth voting for, and the same again for an online marketing team to make things appear “viral” and “organic”, and you will be lucky to get much change out of £100,000. Labels say that the cost of developing and launching a new mainstream pop act today can be anywhere between £500,000 and £1m. With winning the tastemaker polls seen as the blue chip moment in a launch campaign, it’s clear why an increasing number of chips from a decreasing number of bettors are being stacked on the side of the BBC’s roulette wheel. It’s not that the BBC decided to create a poll that required this level of expenditure, but that the major labels have, in effect, turned it into one.
“With Jack Garratt, there was a lot of excitement around him at the Great Escape festival in Brighton last May,” explains a publicist about when it became obvious who was being positioned as the frontrunner for January’s big reveal. “The way they build things is to release a track or a video to create a buzz, and then get the artist to play the showcase festivals. Then, after the Sound … poll, the story is launched into the public consciousness that he is this humble, nice guy who started out busking.”
For a label to see anything back from the PR cost of pushing an act, the act would need to both win the poll (mainstream media outlets are not concerned with offering much coverage to the runners-up) and then sell an extra 100,000 albums. Given that most new acts today struggle to reach anything approaching those sales figures, the stakes are far too high for most to even dare compete. Bear in mind, too, that for many indie labels, the significantly lower costs of mounting a campaign for even the Mercury prize are still too high. But the more of them that duck out of the race, the more the poll is at risk of becoming little more than a satellite marketing division of Universal.
How can this be resolved? Maybe the solution lies in taking a Logan’s Run approach to the voting process, whereby anyone over the age of 30 is automatically retired from the panel, and voting rights are handed back to those most enthusiastic about the music and least concerned with backing a winner. As it stands, the poll is more of a coronation than a competition.
Despite being given a week to comment for this piece, the BBC has put no one forward. Perhaps there is a realisation there, too, that Sound of … might just as well be renamed Spend of ….
― Cosmic Slop, Tuesday, 19 January 2016 21:53 (eight years ago) link
2017 longlist released
AJ TraceyAnderson .PaakCabbageDaveDeclan McKennaJorja SmithMaggie RogersNadia RoseRag ‘n’ Bone ManRay BLKRAYEStefflon DonThe AmazonsThe Japanese HouseTom Grennan
― nxd, Monday, 28 November 2016 13:40 (seven years ago) link
lol I generally thought that was a parody
― Number None, Monday, 28 November 2016 18:47 (seven years ago) link
genuinely, even
AJ Tracey West London wordsmithAnderson .Paak Dr Dre-endorsed rap prodigyCabbage Post-punk provocateursDave Plaintive rapper with classical trainingDeclan McKenna Polemic singer-songwriterJorja Smith Heart-rending soul singerMaggie Rogers Graceful songwriter who stunned PharrellNadia Rose Witty wordplay and colourful beatsRag N Bone Man Gravel-voiced soul revelationRay BLK Street smart R&BRaye Electro beats with soaring pop melodiesStefflon Don Wicked, dancehall-inspired wordplayThe Amazons Raucous rock revivalistsThe Japanese House Enigmatic pop mavenTom Grennan Gruff, soulful singer-songwriter
― Number None, Monday, 28 November 2016 18:49 (seven years ago) link
would have done anyway xp
― Dave Plaintive rapper with classical training (imago), Monday, 28 November 2016 23:51 (seven years ago) link
Isn't Maggie Rogers American? I thought the nominees had to be British.
― daavid, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 00:17 (seven years ago) link
xpost no doubt!
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 29 November 2016 00:21 (seven years ago) link
Cabbage Post-punk provocateurs
I'm sure these guys already appeared on the swagger of Oasis thread a few months ago, well done to ilm for staying ahead of the curve
― soref, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 00:42 (seven years ago) link
Quite probably
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cu4wR-rWYAAZj3r.jpg
― groovypanda, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 08:17 (seven years ago) link
i love this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV6qg180Uw4
― piscesx, Tuesday, 29 November 2016 11:39 (seven years ago) link
nadia rose is every wwwwwwwwwhip ssssssssssssmart cheeky lex/mdc pick over the last decade reincarnated into something p undeniably ace actually
lolllll only just saw this but she really is brilliant
― lex pretend, Thursday, 8 December 2016 12:55 (seven years ago) link
the Cabbage guy sounds just like Jarvis Cocker in the '80s, kinda eerie
― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.), Thursday, 8 December 2016 13:31 (seven years ago) link
Obviously two tracks isn't much to go on but I think there's a bit more going on with Nadia Rose, regardless of the beats there's something about her reminds me of something from way way back, like pre-grime and pre-garage, that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe even She-Rockers/Neneh Cherry level far back. Problem with turning up on this list is the personality will usually end up either be sanded down or cartoonishly inflated to the satisfaction.
(Choosing to ignore rtc's choice of adjectives btw but other than Lady Leshurr I dunno who's being referred to, it's not like anyone could be arsed to stan for Lady Lykez or Mz Bratt or whoever).
― Matt DC, Thursday, 8 December 2016 14:52 (seven years ago) link
sandé'd down
― Dave Plaintive rapper with classical training (imago), Thursday, 8 December 2016 15:02 (seven years ago) link
she's done more than two tracks, or do you just mean ~official singles? there's "mufasa", "dfwt" and "station" too, plus her features on kideko's "crank it" and dollar bin's "retail therapy"
― lex pretend, Thursday, 8 December 2016 15:09 (seven years ago) link
Yeah I only know the two singles but that's quite enough to half-bake a theory.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 8 December 2016 15:38 (seven years ago) link
Rag N Bone Man, whose current hit single I detest, won the critics' choice poll which is sometimes a barometer for the winner of this one.
― art baengels (monotony), Thursday, 8 December 2016 21:16 (seven years ago) link
The Brits Critics Choice Award 2017
― Cosmic Slop, Thursday, 8 December 2016 21:29 (seven years ago) link
Soul singer Ray BLK has topped the BBC's Sound Of 2017 list, which aims to predict the most exciting new music for the year ahead.It is the first time an unsigned artist has won the honour - which has previously gone to Adele and Sam Smith.
― r|t|c, Friday, 6 January 2017 12:47 (seven years ago) link
stefflon don mixtape released a mixtape since upthread, p wack imo but lex might see more in it
i forgot she was on that jeremih 'london' tune though. creeper jam blowing up
― r|t|c, Friday, 6 January 2017 12:49 (seven years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDrl6ugMTQ4
already a reliable pleaser. not quite sure/not quite looking forward to what the next step for her will be, maybe she doesn't really one tho
― r|t|c, Friday, 6 January 2017 12:53 (seven years ago) link
*doesn't really need
― r|t|c, Friday, 6 January 2017 12:54 (seven years ago) link
i gave the stefflon don mixtape a really quick listen before xmas party season and was pretty into it, didn't realise she was so dancehall. pleasantly surprised.
keep waiting for ray blk to deliver that one tune i can't get enough of, she's talented enough
i just got an email from network rail's pr people about naughty nadia rose shooting her video on train tracks, lol
― lex pretend, Friday, 6 January 2017 13:14 (seven years ago) link
Think Nadia Rose's album might be pretty much in the can already, there's been a short string of new songs lately that suggests so. I think the next step for her (career wise at least) is a well-trodden enough path at this stage. Where RAY BLK goes next is more interesting - depends to an extent on the reason why she's still unsigned. If she's going it alone then it could be really exciting - and god the UK needs a successful new soul singer who isn't another production line perky stage school type - but I dunno, the potential for someone to decide to just remove all the grit is quite high.
― Matt DC, Friday, 6 January 2017 13:17 (seven years ago) link
i'm relistening to the ray blk ep that never grabbed me and the thing is it's SO derivative, not just the nods to mariah or the cardigans or whomever (which she doesn't really elevate into her own thing) but the way she sings about her themes, the words and phrases she uses, i keep thinking of teyana taylor
― lex pretend, Friday, 6 January 2017 14:28 (seven years ago) link
yeah stefflon don is properly fucking great, totally uninterested in being worthy or respectable, thought we'd never have a uk female rapper like her
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fcbJzKmTm0
― lex pretend, Friday, 13 January 2017 15:50 (seven years ago) link
tight nooki is v v satisfying (even with the 'cheat' of using that beat)
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Sunday, 15 January 2017 10:00 (seven years ago) link
ray blk ep that never grabbed me and the thing is it's SO derivative
stefflon don is properly fucking great
http://i.imgur.com/2dcE0eV.jpg
― r|t|c, Sunday, 15 January 2017 16:00 (seven years ago) link