As our Ones To Watch began to prove themselves throughout the year, so our love for them grew. Here are the twenty newcomers who’ve made the biggest impression on us. in association with AllSaints.
There were many bands and artists that made us dance merrily this year, but before we get to the Top Ten, here a few that narrowly missed out... Many have tried to achieve what Best Coast made look so easy in 2010 but nobody came close to doing it so well. Their debut, ‘Crazy For You’, is packed tightly with stoner ennui and a sense of sun-drenched romance which charms and excites in equal measure. Janelle Monae’s mind-blowing ability to meld R&B and hip-hop with indie, rock, funk, dance and Broadway musicals marks her out as a genuine successor to the great genre-benders Prince and Michael Jackson. The baffling question is why she hasn’t yet hit the stratospheric heights of fame she deserves.
Chazwick Bundick, aka Toro Y Moi, championed the chillwave phenomenon earlier on in the year with his debut album ‘Causers Of This’, and got that hype machine well and truly purring. Fuelled by both his embrace into the ridiculously creative Brainfeeder family and the death of his father, the output of Teebs this year gave us the first glimpse of a huge talent on the rise. The pyschedelic pop of Warpaint will surely withstand the test of time. Their andrew Weatherall-produced debut is an accomplished and gutsy breath of fresh air in a stale, male-orientated climate too often bogged down by generic, wimpy girl groups. now a household name in the uber cool world of chillwave, Washed Out is one of the blogosphere’s greatest success stories. The introverted whizz-kid certainly proved his salt to clash this year. Olof Arnalds proved in 2010 that oddball Icelandic folk can traverse the seas, that a great song is a great song whatever the language, and that cultivating a friendship with Björk is also handy.
Avi Buffalo’s eponymous debut is a kaleidoscope of heavenly guitar pop, evoking ‘goldrush’-era neil Young and the melodies of Big Star. A summer UK tour revealed Avi Buffalo to be exquisitely gifted live performers and far too young to be this good. What sets Eskmo apart is his textural adventurousness and ability to imbue experimental electronica with a rare ephemeral spiritualism. His genre-defying compositions offer us a unique brand of feral futurism. Tame Impala proved themselves Australia’s finest export since wool. The psych-rock band’s dreamy debut ‘Innerspeaker’ wraps washed-out vocals and wavering guitar into a late-sixties sounding production. And so, on to the winners...
Read an in-depth feature on each winner across the week. Stay Tuned!
1. Male Bonding READ NOW
2. Gold Panda READ NOW
3. Lissie
4. Hjaltalin
5. Walls
6. Everything Everything
7. The Drums
8. Aeroplane
9. Perfume Genius
10. Bear In Heaven