Music

Go to artists of 2010

Gigs and festivals in 2010

Artists of 2010
Beth Jeans Houghton
Beneath the comedy wigs and ‘directional’ make-up, the 19-year-old Geordie hides a huge alt.folk/pastoral pop talent. Claims she was born to a pack of albino wolves suggest irritating whimsy, but her upcoming Ben Hillier-produced debut LP (due February) proves otherwise.
Listen via her MySpace
See her play on Feb 11

French Horn Rebellion
We rate Robert and David Molinari because their insanely insistent synth-pop suggests MGMT produced by Stardust, but they front like The Conchords. Look out for their ‘Beaches and Friends’ EP in February and accompanying UK tour.
Listen via their MySpace

Mz Bratt
Wrapping her voice – which can shift from Beyoncé’s creamy R&B-pop to sharply spat street rhymes – around the electro hip-pop likes of ‘I Like You’, this teenaged east London MC is making big waves and redressing the gender imbalance of UK urban pop. Listen via her MySpace

Toro Y Moi
Toro Y Moi, AKA Chaz Bundick, the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer from South Carolina will release his debut LP of blissful and woozy, electronic experi-pop (think a less ravey Animal Collective) on XL in February. A second LP may follow later in the year. Listen via his MySpace

Marina And The Diamonds
Although Marina Diamandis’s elastic vocals first reached our ears at the tail end of 2008, now we’ve got our mitts on her debut album, ‘The Family Jewels’ (out in February), we can confirm that it is truly fantastic: sharply observed, confessional pop perfection. Listen via her MySpace
See her play on Feb 23

Ellie Goulding
From the bedroom to overground, 22-year-old Goulding has already scooped the Brits Critics’ Choice award, wowing us with her blend of acoustic guitar, glitch-tronics (thanks to partners-in-crime Frankmusik and rising producer Starsmith) and brutally honest lyrics, all topped off with her fragile quaver. Listen via her MySpace
See her play on April 15

Everything Everything
This Mancunian quartet certainly live up to their name, revelling in their pinballing sounds and embracing an unlikely collision of influences (R Kelly, Steve Reich, The Smiths). One moment they’re eerie choirboys, the next, they’re atmospheric prog-popsters whose tunes flick fast into groove-addled art-rock. Landfill indie acts take note. Listen via their MySpace

Penguin Prison
Having announced his arrival with a beautiful remix of Marina’s ‘I Am Not a Robot’, New Yorker Chris Glover produced one of the season’s catchiest confections in the form of super-smooth anthem ‘Animal Animal’, and the blogs are already a-Twitter with excitable predictions for his album, which takes a punchier, more bolshie dancefloor approach. Listen via his MySpace

Kesha
Beautifully bonkers popstrel Kesha is another artiste who, like Marina and Ellie Goulding, we’ve been harping on about for a while but who is poised to make huge, confident strides into the mainstream over the course of the oh-ten. Kesha’s debut album drops in April – be prepared. Listen via her MySpace

Bullion
It’s all too easy to compare Acton-based producer Bullion to Danger Mouse, as both have a similarly lysergically inclined, sampledelic approach to hip hop and both made their names with rap/psych-rock mash-ups (Bullion’s ‘Grey Album’ being his J Dilla-assisted rework of ‘Pet Sounds’). See? Easy. So we’ll just leave it at that. Listen via his MySpace