Ones To Watch: BOY to Angel Haze
Switzerland proves itself to be a centre for wonderfully dreamy pop with BOY, and Angel Haze’s remarkable lyrical flow becomes essential listening.
BOY
Boy’s pop music is so gloriously bountiful you want to skip along promenades giving Haribo to strangers. They have the same armoury to create dreamy melodies filled with sincere smiles and sunset laughs which Kate Nash and Ben Folds deploy so well. Their pop-folk is filled with bold piano riffs, carefree couplets and enough Instargramed aspirations to power two years’ worth of Kindle adverts. The Swiss-German duo, Valeska Steiner and Sonja Glass, met while studying pop music so they’re experts in grafting ridiculously happy music to any mood. Their debut album, Mutual Friends, is thrillingly enjoyable and never becomes saccharine or schmaltzy.
Antlered Man
Politics and music rarely mix any more, Bono put everyone off, but no one told the metal world. System Of A Down did so expertly, and now it’s time for London four piece to get annoyed about the issues out there. Their angular rock tilts towards Tool’s organic drones with Mr Bungle’s fairground antics, with elements of The Shocking Blue’s Love Buzz. Debut album Giftes 1&2 is a ferocious bite from Beavis and Butthead’s metal collection, but the one they collected at Yale after their sofa years, it is zany and clever. Contemporary metal has a difficult terrain, but it is perfectly mapped now.
Jethro Fox
The simplicity in the Liverpudlian’s new single, Blinding Light, is breath taking. Its jovial piano plays Quidditch with lolloping drums while a Fox’s faded vocals kiss a dusky sunset. He crams a phenomenal array of musical cameos into his music, giving and unparalleled aural insight- there’s so much going on its mesmerising. Like Weird Dreams, he uses classic indie-pop ideas to create vast new sound, yet Fox shows his superior finesse by eschewing any nostalgia urges to create beautifully contemporary experi-pop, as grizzly Bear or Animal Collective manage to achieve. Admittedly, he seems a bit of a clever-clogs, but his professional sheen only adds to the experience.
Jethro Fox – Blinding Light by Tough Love
Milo Greene
Indie folk can be wonderfully enchanting, as long as you forget about the damage Mumford and Sons caused, and this Los Angeles quintet are fine purveyors. The girl boy harmonies on 1957 build into rousing chants and kick ass stomps, ignoring any hipster come-ons to simply party to its own suburban groove. OK, they’re more Greys Anatomy than Arcades Fire’s The Wire, but when everyone wants to sound like Beach House it is refreshing to hear some perfectly crafted college rock. The slightly formulaic nature of their music is successfully masked by an onslaught of jangly guitars and punchy tambourines.
Angel Haze
No one encapsulates rap in 2012 more than this Detroit 20-year old. She’s already a viral sensation through her You Tube rants and she gives out her music for free via mixtapes. Her lyrics are as hard as any Brooklyn contenders, but her delivery surpasses anyone. The bare beats on New York and Werkin Girls are Aaliyah cool yet the bass throbs, barely audible, to create a sublimely jittering menace. She’s brutally honest about religion, sexuality, herself and dissin’ bitches, making her articulate flow truly jaw dropping. She may have started behind Azalea Banks and Frank Ocean, but she’s capably of quicly surpassing both. You need her Reservation mixtape in your life, now.
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