Bands To Watch Out For In 2013 (King Krule, Savages, Solange, Splashh, AlunaGeorge, Haim Feature)
Thursday, 27 December 2012
Written by Ellen Davies
With the final days of 2012 trickling away alarmingly quickly, and the festive haze still upon us, it feels an appropriate time to look back fondly on an incredibly exciting year of music. To say this has been a remarkable one in terms of new musical talent would be an understatement, with 2012 marking the release of hordes of very special, innovative albums, and some of the most perfect pop songs of the decade. It is almost even more exciting though, to take a look forward, and consider how the musical landscape of 2013 might take shape. It is so difficult to imagine which musicians will have made the biggest marks this time next year, all there really is to go on is who deserves to do really well for themselves, and with the artists below emerging, the future looks bright.
King Krule
Despite being just 18 years old, Archy Marshall aka King Krule (formerly Zoo Kid) has recorded a really considerable amount of simply very good songs. There is a deep consistency in his material, and Krule’s half croon, half drawl over measured guitar and trip-hop esque drum patterns place him apart from others in every genre he could almost fall into. King Krule is already loved by many, and there is a huge demand for an album and tour from him in 2013.
Cyril Hahn
Cyril Hahn is a producer being taken more seriously every day. Very rapidly morphing from a lightly blogged Soundcloud account to a serious innovator in music, Hahn is becoming noted for his incredible remixes, combining elements of house and r&b with something more organically evocative. The Swiss-born, Canada-based producer’s remix/rethink of Destiny Child’s Say My Name is absolutely vital to listen to, along with his remix of Solange’s Losing You, and Mariah Carey’s Touch My Body-it is very easy to expect big things from Hahn on listening to his work. He embarks on an international tour in the early months of next year.
Savages
Everybody who has encountered Savages since they formed less than a year ago seems to have become enamoured. There is an astounding passion in the sound of the all female 4 piece’s noisy post-punk sound which comes across on record and in their unmissable live shows. Many, many heavy shoegaze/no-wave inspired bands could be predicted to seriously crop up next year following on from the success of Toy, and Savages will mostly likely be the ones to stand out. With an ever-growing following, expect releases from the band in 2013.
Solange
Solange Knowles already caused a huge stir with her EP ‘True’ in November. It was a release that came almost out of nowhere to most, and she impressed music lovers on many different levels with her overtly high quality songwriting and new take on pop music. Losing You is quite a song to top, but a new album expected early next year recorded with input from everybody from Pharrell Williams to Dev Hynes is very likely to well-establish her place as a truly original major artist.
Halls
The alias of South London’s Sam Howard, Halls released his debut album, Ark in October, and is slowly stamping his brand of melancholic, downtempo pop across the country. With Halls, Howard presents something minimal, yet extremely listenable that could be compared to everything from The XX to Perfume Genius, more material can be expected soon.
Splashh
There are a lot of very good lo-fi, guitar-driven bands in the world and Splashh are surely the most invigorating to listen to and long-lasting of the moment. The London-based, Australian bred quartet produce nostalgic, yet extremely natural and underivative songs with a constant and very satisfying fuzziness. Everything Splashh have put out as of yet has been effortlessly hooky, and they are certainly in the running to become one of the most resounding bands of next year.
Kitty Pryde
Florida teen rapper Kitty Pryde has had an online presence since 2010, and you read in bios all over the internet that she raps semi-ironically, semi-not ironically about boys/Twitter/fast food. This is absolutely true, and brilliant, but there’s something about her bright, non-confrontational, very articulate delivery, along with the constant relevance of everything she put out that makes her a really important figure in music. This year Kitty has become viral in every way, made a song with Riff Raff, and made it into Time magazine - she’s called herself ‘rap game Taylor Swift’, and there is a chance that’s actually going to happen in 2013.
AlunaGeorge
London boy/girl duo AlunaGeorge (pictured, above) have surfaced at exactly the right time. Having already impressed pretty much all bloggers and the online world with their anxious, anthemic first few singles released this year, they present us with the very best of the clean, intelligent r&b which is safe to say will dominate this year. For fans of everyone from Disclosure to Jessie Ware it would be a huge surprise if they didn’t break serious ground in the charts this year.
Haim
Haim are a inarguably lovely band comprising of 3 California sisters. They make songs completely vital to 2013. The 2 singles Haim released this year have already sealed their place in the hearts of many, and their work is made up of a majestic blend of vocals reminiscent of the golden age of r&b, lo-fi guitar, and folk-like song structures. Having signed with Polydor Records in October, big things should be expected of them.
Trust
Trust is the alter ego of notably good looking Canadian Robert Alfons, and the unsubtle nature of his songs makes him very different to everyone else on this list. Alfons makes dark synth pop which is shamelessly decadent and emotive. With a second album in the works, Alfons might be found to be a surprise sensation as the year begins to take shape.
DIIV
DIIV, formerly ‘Dive’ have been one of the biggest surprise successes of 2012. The four piece include a member of Beach Fossils (who should also be on this list), and an ex member of Smith Westerns, and they make extremely likeable pedal driven pop quite hard to understand without listening to a couple of tracks. Their album Oshin, released in June of this year, was astounding, and given the perhaps quite unprecedented amount of people enthused by it, it seems rational to expect something more from the band in 2013. Diiv could really make ‘indie rock’ commonly heard of again, and another release by them would be very exciting.
Tops
Tops are one of the best bands to have come out of Montreal’s vibrant music scene, and to be specific from the city’s fairly under the radar, but inconceivably impressive Arbutus Records. A joyous and slightly subversive blend of pop and rock, Tops impressed this year with their cover of 1980 soul hit Turn Your Love Around by George Benson, and certainly very much deserve to impress a lot more this year.
Slow Magic
According to Last.fm, ‘Slow magic is music made by an unknown imaginary friend’, and there isn’t much more to easily find out about the musician upon further research. They make a point of maintaining a mysterious presence, very prolific, but never giving much away and always donning the same very extravagant painted mask. The project’s name is a perfect description of its sound, every track based around mesmerising loops, space, and underlying vocals. There’s a unique and quite intense, youthful feel to this sound which is well on the way to at the very least setting the tone for many people’s Summers this year. Slow Magic seems to play a good few shows in various corners of the world which is a sure sign of impending success-catch them sometime if you can.
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