At long last, a serviceable picture of Joy Orbison: BBC Sound of 2010 Longlist poll

christ not this again

I want to kill myself.

i have heard of two of these, the drums and everything everything, who have both released records i like. the drums EP is pretty neat so i'm going with them

joy orbison is the stupidest bandname i have heard in a long time

Giggs really needs to team up with a DJ called Shits.

Who looks the hugest tit in their photo wd be a more challenging poll proposition.

^

ok based on a combination of that blurb and that music, working for a nuclear free city should track down delphic and beat them senseless

lol nv

If Kate Bush, Bjork and Stevie Nicks shared a flat in Shoreditch in 2009

Really hoping Carla Lane doesn't see this

worst reality tv show ever

Last month, he played packed dates in China

oh lol there is a band here somewhat tailored to my sensibilities - or at least, they're showing genuine promise of being liked

it is not hard to guess which one

C'mon dude this is 15 socks

The quartet name Radiohead and The Beatles as their chief influences and say their number one rule is to "avoid cliche at all costs".

Hahaha

yeah but they're the only potentially good group here, forgive their exuberance :p

Gold Panda's quite interesting - obviously got a bit of Four Tet and Flying Lotus in his collection.

do you mean everything everything? have you heard their single? it sounds about as much like radiohead and the beatles as baxendale

xpost

Yep, just listened to it. It's a bit silly. I was mainly laughing at the irony of avoiding cliche by coming up with the two most cliched influences imaginable.

his vocals in the intro are a bit thom yorke but after that they kinda make it their own thing - definitely more in the late of the pier camp than the klaxons

yeah, i think the juxtaposition by the blurb-person was quite cruel although amusing

This Ellie Goulding track's fairly pleasant.

Oh god I'm not actually gonna spoil the magic by listening to this stuff

I heard Owl City on the radio a few days ago. Instead of saying anything about them, let's let this speak for itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI4JLa0hbUw

^^^ Don't give up the date-packing job imo

Quite like the intro to that, but the vocals are horrible.

oh my god it's like if mercury rev, having gone horribly wrong, went horribly wrong again from there

"THE DRUMS - Singer Jonathan Pierce..."

Flo-ing football there from Chelsea, they're Flo-ing into the next round, Chelsea, are going with the Flo

Gold Panda gets my vote, definitely most my kind of thing.

just waiting for matt dc to turn up and be all 'sorry lj, everything everything are total crap' XD

IT has to be Devlin. This is dope!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9wtMQNyGSo

hahaha i am *really* liking everything everything, based on their myspace content, although granted they are very 'me'

It was fun checking these out. I think I only disliked two. I liked Rox the best.

Did you all miss the Owl City thread? The dude had an honest to god number one single a few weeks back over here.

A little profile of the Rox:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWloK6p2ofE

I hope they get the right producer for the album.
her voice needs to be up front. might sound dope in the ride next summer (I hope).

From that song posted above, the Owl City guy sounds like he really wants to be Death Cab for Cutie.

OUCH

Hmm, Bands that:

are references to other acts or songs:
THE DRUMS - TingTings?
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING - Underworld?
GIGGS - Footbaler?
GOLD PANDA - Not Fierce.
JOY ORBISON - ... no it's gone.
MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS - Not Muffins, Not Martha
STORNOWAY - Not the Stormont Agreement..

ELLIE GOULDING - If Kate Bush, Bjork and Stevie Nicks shared a flat in Shoreditch in 2009 - Oh good. Need one of those.
TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB - gave up university places after things started taking off

HURTS - They resemble Tears For Fears, as shot by Anton Corbijn
OWL CITY - Last month, he played packed dates in China
ROX - has also performed live with Mark Ronson
DAISY DARES YOU - teen pop about friendship and families and fancying boys
DELPHIC - driven by pulsating beats as frontman James Cook sings infectious hooks
DEVLIN - spent 10 weeks at number one on digital TV channel Channel AKA's chart

(sorry, gave up)

joy orbison

Just picked through previous years:

Last years had some big names, the year before not so much, the year before that was full of names, the year before that not so.

Guess this year is a *no* year.

Joy Orbison obv

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aa_PDKKc2_A

hahahahahah this thread title fucking kills

do not understand how Joy Orbison is anything but extremely ordinary stuff, and i don't even think he does it all that well. his labelmates Mount Kimbie slay him imo. still, he probably is the best out of these

i think "which is the worst" would be a much more interesting and competitive running (would probably vote Gold Panda, although i haven't heard a lot of these)

xp: As someone who had dismissed dubstep for a long time as sexless/joyless/etc, "Hyph Mngo" was only the second dubstep track (after Cooly G's "Love Dub" that didn't fit those criteria and ended up being a gateway for me into dubstep, so I'm pretty firmly attached to it. I'm listening to Mount Kimbie's "Maybes" now, and maybe this isn't one of their best tracks, but it doesn't have anywhere near the expressive openness that I love about Joy Orbison.

(after Cooly G's "Love Dub"<---close parenthesis

yeah, Mount Kimbie--even though they avoid a lot of the annoying sonic cliches of dubstep--kind of do adopt the "austere" (sexless/joyless, maybe) aesthetic

voted

http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2008/04/25a_11_JONATHAN_415x275.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3376/3476255258_c691a51653.jpg

says a lot about this longlist that i'm sort of embarrassed that joy orbison (who i love) is on it.

in terms of that open, sensual type of dubstep (and leaving aside the more maverick house/dub cooly g), i'd still take guido, joker and ikonika over joy orb.

Yeah all three of those beat Joy Orbison hands down for me, Joy Orbison just strikes me as so damn POLITE.

Gold Panda is pretty good, a bit Four Tet (pretty, chimey, glitchy) but sort of dubstep influenced, seems to be one step removed from Darkstar and the like.

Ellie Goulding and Marina & The Diamonds are passable but enough with the fake Kate Bushes already.

Giggs is hilarious when he appears on Wiley tracks for a few bars but I can't for the life of me imagine wanting to hear a whole album of him.

Daisy Dares You sound like this year's 'God help us if there's a war' entry.

I imagine both Delphic and Everything Everything to sound a bit like Underworld, but I don't know why.

Okay I don't have anything better to do this morning so:

Daisy Dares You - oh god, it's a Lily Allenified version of US teenpop, this sounds spectacularly underwritten and half-arsed.

Even the British public aren't stupid enough to buy into this surely?

Delphic = lose points for having a live drummer for a start. There's a weird 90s indie remix feel for this. Earnest, bland and completely unfunky. Nah.

Matt DC Dares the British Public

Devlin - never heard of this guy, but commercial post-grime is probably overdue a geezerish white dude to turn up and make all the money. It's not trying very hard not to sound like Weak Become Heroes.

they have missed this band:

Esben and the Witch

Esben and the Witch (No 635) | Music | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/25/new-band-esben-and-the-witch
File next to: Siouxsie & the Banshees, Bat For Lashes, Björk, An Experiment on a Bird In the Air Pump.

Esben and the Witch on MySpace Music
http://www.myspace.com/esbenandthewitch
Esben and the Witch [RIYL: Bjork, Cranes, Portishead, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Skin Games]

The Drums - Jesus Christ look at these fucking gobshites. Feels a bit rudimentary but there might be something here, quite liked the stripped down feel. Early doors NME hype and appearance in pivotal scene of emotional resonance in Skins awaits.

The Drums = Surf Rock - they have been backed by Xfm's John Kennedy

Like Joy Orbison, Gold Panda, Marina & the Diamonds, the Drums. Delphic may turn into something better - Ewan Pearson's producing, I believe. Only Hurts and Daisy Dares You are actively vile.

I don't understand some of these comparisons. Not exactly giant leaps of imagination are they?

"They resemble Tears For Fears, as shot by Anton Corbijn."

"This is what would have happened if New Order embraced ambient techno, or Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant had spent his time at raves."

Everything Everything is in that hugely irritating strand of jerky time-signature-jumping indie that thinks it's much cleverer than it actually is. This is being pitched right into the centre of the Mercury shortlist and will almost certainly get there.

Everything Everything = an inferior Field Music

i mean, i should also probly make it clear i think giggs is fucking terrible. he sounds just like probly-not-even-playing-football-any-more's shabazz baidoo when he was doing his mc terminator comedy schtick. (which was just him talking like arnie.)(which everyone thought was rubbish, obv.)

― r|t|c, Monday, December 15, 2008 10:30 PM

^^^ This dude OTM.

Gold Panda - this is v.v. pretty btw.

How many of these will I end up liking at least 1 single by after being unwittingly exposed to it for months? Guessing 4.

Doesn't mean I don't hate them all tho.

Ellie Goulding - oh it's THIS song. Pleasant enough, she's even less edgy than Florence & The Machine but equally less offputting due to not having Florence's dreadful braying voice. Got a feeling this will be massive solely due to being completely unthreateningly nice.

Number of contrived NME references to hurting the dudes out of Hurts cos of how they look in 2010 = 38

Sorry, contrived ILM references.

Hurts - feels a little bit late in the day to be reviving this sort of thing doesn't it? Do not want.

First appearance of Stornoway on a mobile phone advert featuring smug hipsters frolicking in a field = January 19th

Rhythm section from Two Door Cinema Club have blinding moment of clarity and realise they shd have accepted those Uni places = March 14th

Singer from Daisy Dares You makes controversial rude comments about Lallen/Lady Gaga/Madonna/Clara Schumann = Wednesdays and Fridays til June 30th, closed Bank Holidays

I have to stop now, but whoever thinks Joy Orbison is going to shift major units in 2010 is on crack or just taking the piss.

Johnny Marr endorsement, perm any three from 8

I have to stop now, but whoever thinks Joy Orbison is going to shift major units in 2010 is on crack or just taking the piss.

unless he can somehow jump on the weird mainstream traction that dubstep seems to have now?

i mean snoop dogg is working with joker, rihanna with chase & status, eve with benga...

I dunno, he strikes me as not being boshing or cartoonish or bass heavy enough to piggyback onto that, unlike the other acts you mention. And he's not indie-friendly enough to cross over like, say, Darkstar either.

Unless someone bestows Aphex Twin-style genius/auteur status upon him I can't really see it.

"I have to stop now, but whoever thinks Joy Orbison is going to shift major units in 2010 is on crack or just taking the piss."

I don't think that's the point tbh. Because of the pool of voters in this poll, the longlist always includes a couple of hip underground names alongside the bankers. On a purely £££ basis, Ellie Goulding will walk it but I'm pleased to see Joy Orbison and Gold Panda in there to reflect what else is going on.

Yeah maybe, possibly my judgement is skewed because the 2009 list had a surprising number of acts who actually went on to do well.

I think you get the "next" factor when people are choosing names - put simplistically, Marina is the next Florence (tho better I think), Delphic are the next Klaxons (tho, again, better), and Joy Orbison is the next Burial. Without Burial's success I don't think you'd have seen him on there. Of course what you really want is someone who isn't the next anything.

new Joy Orbison track (the one without any vowels) is kinda boring

knd brng, surely?

Yeah I'm still not sure I really get Joy Orbison, Hyph Mngo it reminds me of a lot of fairly bland washy breakbeat stuff that was knocking around in the late 90s. It's possible I just need to hear it on a big system for it to really click but in my head I keep comparing him unfavourably to Floating Points as far as dubsteppy big-room euphoric dance goes.

I always have room in my heart for washy breakbeat stuff and so dug Hyph Mngo, so Joy Orbison I guess
also I wd rate his name "so bad it's good" though it did lead me to expect some ramshackle guitar business (probably because a friend is in a similarly named band of that genre)

Stornoway are the most overrated band to come from Oxford since the last massively-overrated-for-3-months band from Oxford; they make a pleasant enough background noise but really, snoozzze. Kind of the xkcd of music, in that I can't see the appeal on a musical level, more as a "making this means I'm clever, right?" statement: a band of earnest PhD students in woolly jumpers singing wacky student humour abt fish and "lol Zorbs, I saw one of those on the internet once" references

(and their only memorable song sounds weirdly like the only memorable song of another Oxford acoustic band who appeared at the same time and who I prefer)

I need to stop thinking the Drums are something to do with China Drum, because really, who else ever thinks anything about China Drum in 2009

more as a "making this means I'm clever, right?"

I meant to type "liking this" but this works too.

Typing this means I'm not clever so who am I to bitch about bands on the internet etc etc.

Dunno that Stornoway are overrated: there appear to be about six people in media who like them - and they really like them - but hardly anyone else gives a shit. Also the kind of act least likely to appeal to ILXors, on grounds of absolute traditionalism, and earnestness (and making earnest music is surely the one way to ensure you don't get fans who've chosen you to look clever). Me, I like them.

haven't heard many of these, although a pal of mine whose taste I more or less trust has been telling me to check out The Drums. I do get fed up of such bland group names though, and unless there's anything particularly outstanding about The Drums' drumming, then it's a stupid name.

Looking at the list though, I can't see anything that makes me want to jump up and down. At least last year threw up a few deviations from the norm (the like-it-or-not trendy-chick-pop of La Roux/VV Brown et al at least subverted blokey guitar rock), but 2010's descriptions do sound a bit heard-it-before. Hot Chip/Wave Machines/Passion Pit indie-electrodribs, Grime/Dubstep retreads, independent women, and some kind of bizarre late-90s revival seem to make this list what it is, which isn't so different from '09.

The Daisy Dares You video is creepy in a not-at-all-good way

it's amazingly bad! marina and the diamonds might kinda have something going on but it's a bit hard to tell under the totally generic production, plus her try-hard vocals are way distracting.

Daisy Dares You is awful, but I can't get it out of my head. This probably means it will do OK.

Dunno that Stornoway are overrated: there appear to be about six people in media who like them

Sorry ithappens, I wasn't clear there. "Overrated" isn't really the word I mean, especially not regarding any national press, but I'm from Oxford and the local music press have been very excited about Stornoway over the past couple of years, even grumpy old punks and fidgety modernists who wouldn't normally give the time of day to woolly acoustic music. And I don't get it at all. I've seen them live a few times and it was OK but the idea of anyone rushing home to declare them the best of anything baffles me. Good luck to 'em, of course.

(Will shut up about them now as I don't see them being the sound of anyone's 2010, least of all ILX's, but if they can be plucked out of nowhere to be on this list and appear on Jools Holland then I guess they're going to do a lot better for themselves than I would've imagined possible)

Ellie Goulding is a lock for this anyway

thought Marina & The Diamonds (MAT D, C?) were on last year's list

They weren't, but they certainly would have fitted last year's bill...

Yeah Ellie Goulding and maybe Marina are the only ones where I can close my eyes and imagine them as pop stars. Both strike me as being pitched as the Duffy to Florence's Winehouse.

Maybe the Drums/Rox and I would expect the Hurts album to get hyped to buggery as well.

Half expected Junior Boys stans on here to jump on Hurts at least slightly but maybe they're coming from the wrong direction to be intriguing to ILM (and uh they are very probably not as good as Junior Boys)

Roy Division.

almost interesting: no act here has more than three members?

One thing that is offputting about Stornoway is that they have one of the most repulsive crowds I've ever encountered. London gigs appear to be full of braying poshos who've bussed down from Oxford because it's a trip out, and who pay no attention to the gig whatever ...

Everything Everything = an inferior Field Music

― djmartian, Monday, 7 December 2009 10:23 (5 hours ago) Bookmark

Would I like Field Music?

Yeah, Stornoway just sounds so so so so tosserish and I haven't played them yet

Wait are they earnest folkies or wacky student humour? I can't keep up.

Bit of both, with some climate conscience thrown in, also I KNEW you'd take a swipe at Everything Everything, based on the idea that they're a bit like The Chap or Late Of The Pier whom you've already taken the same swipe at!

xpost stevem
good point, but it makes me wonder why...
Is it just because more bands who, had they existed 5-10 years ago, would have been a drums/guit/bass combo, but now get a drum machine or synth in, downgrading to two or three members?

The other thing is the proliferation of the "credible" (usually female) solo artist who spans the mainstream and alternative realms, which didn't really happen so much before. I guess what I'm saying is that previously you had Kylie, Dido etc who were huge pop acts but didn't necessarily get that much cred among the indie crowd. Now you've got La Roux, Marina, Florence, even Winehouse etc who make a very similar noise but dress in leftfield rags.

based on the idea that they're a bit like The Chap or Late Of The Pier whom you've already taken the same swipe at

But both of these bands are fucking terrible!

Actually Late Of The Pier are fine just not really my thing. The Chap are vying with Art Brut as the single worst band I've had the misfortune to hear this decade.

(xposts) They're earnest student folkies with a song about fish which is meant to be wackily humorous while also retaining an earnest environmental message

and a song about zorbs

and some other songs which probably aren't wacky but damned if I can remember them

also they have a lot more than 3 members - unless it's 3 core members who draft in other people as they feel like? - but I like the idea of this being the year of the trio (or the year of Trio if you'd rather)

voted marina.

in theory, almost everything about this annoys me intensely. but in reality I absolutely love it to bits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwfCjYv7gVQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-V-KCY7SMU

could murder one of these

Stornoway not wacky at all: they're earnest, earnest, earnest. They don't do the fish one anymore. I think they've got some very good songs - and the way the arrangements have grown and improved over the past year suggests they're thinking about what they're doing. It's melodic folk-pop, and they've comfortably got a decent album's worth of material, plus half a dozen decent B-sides, in them right now. But I can see why people wouldn't like them. If you're not happy being white and middle-class, or you dislike the white middle classes, they will repulse you.

Mowgli's Road sounds disconcertingly like Toyah.

thread has been useful tho: ikonika is amazing, thx for the tip lex

Looking back at last year's shortlist, it brings a smile to face that Dan Black was the only one who hasn't had any measure of success whatsoever. It is however sad to see that VV Brown hasn't done much better.

Spotify playlist
(14 artists out of 15 - couldn't find anything for Hurts)

Hurts haven't actually released anything yet, though the video for "Wonderful Life" has been out and about since last spring. I like the song, but I also thought they were a fine band when there were more members and they were called Daggers ("Money" was a big whallop of retro-pop).

heard a rumour that simon cowell wanted a hurts song for leona lewis (may have been 'wonderful life') but the guys refused. they've been working with richard x, biff stannard and other such big pop name pop producer types. i did quite like 'after midnight' when they were daggers, hoping the new stuff isn't all so downbeat. though i do like the orlando/3rd dexys album feel of the new look.

That new Marina one sounds kind of similar to the Ellie Goulding one, doesn't it? Has jumped around quite a lot stylistically in four singles. Everything Everything now a bit less Dogs Die In Hot Cars than I remembered previously, still quite like the sound of them.

At least one comment on the HYS on this exceeded all expectations:

'How about the BBC being a bit subversive for once, instead of bending over to the pop giants and supporting the Rage Against the Machine campaign for Xmas #1.'

Would I like Field Music?

― What a wonderful vocabulary word! (acoleuthic), Tuesday, 8 December 2009 02:33 (6 hours ago)

you might. i suspect the second album would be more your thing than the first.

on it right now

well that was over in no time at all! it's ok, not as immediately grabbing as everything everything, but may have staying power. closing track's pretty good

"she can do what she wants"?

apparently the newer one is longer and proggier fwiw

yeah, that one xp. will give the first album a go too.

saw that on the field music thread. will reserve judgement. brevity seems to suit these guys.

I like Stornoway. I've seen them 5-6 times. They put on a good show, make good songs, write good lyrics. It'll be interesting to see what the album's like. They definitely err more to the earnest side of the earnest/wacky scale. Maybe they're trying to strip away the wackiness as they prepare for stardom? (ditching the good fish guide, no more horse heads, lower hat usage etc.) Guillemots and Belle and Seb are the bands they remind me most of. (btw i'm new here, it took this thread to break my years of lurking)

welcome

A good result for Kitsune, then: Delphic and Two Door Cinema Club have recorded for them, and The Drums are on their last comp.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

this is getting too predictable already (knew Delphic and Marina would be top 3, will be v surprised if Goulding not top). better to not even bother with a shortlist and just reveal the top 5 without it.

im surprised hurts didnt get any ilx lovin

arthur baker remix here

in theory, almost everything about this annoys me intensely. but in reality I absolutely love it to bits

I can relate to this reaction (to Marina and the Diamonds), except I am not sure I love it; I just don't hate it as I would expect to, and something makes me want to keep listening. It feels like something is going on here, but I'm not quite sure what it is. I could lose all interest quite quickly, or this could become a new favorite.

This is pretty good (from her myspace): I am embarrassed about how little I know about my culture, my history and my government. I am a dumbo.

This is really the first time I've followed an artist's progression from putting up demos on Myspace, to getting some blog recognition, to releasing a few singles and making videos, to releasing an album and getting critical attention. I feel like I go way, way back with Marina, even though it's really only been a little over a year and a half. I think part of her appeal is how candid she is with fans (which I'm sure will change when she gets crazy busy with touring and album promotions and potential success).

I came to people like Lily Allen and Little Boots late, so I never quite understood the path from nobody to somebody, but now I kind of get to be along for the ride this time.

Is she huge in Mexico yet? If I were watching this with the sound down, I would think: Mexican.

I am embarrassed about how little I know about my culture, my history and my government. I am a dumbo.

haha marina's myspace says this? because i was told an anecdote the other day which indicates that she is a huge, huge moron - she ISN'T JOKING, basically.

Yes, her myspace says that. I guess the fact that she recognizes it is a step in the right direction.

Actually, on further listen, "Mowgli's Road" is the Marina song I most unambivalently am ready to say is good. "Hollywood" is much more: do I/should I like this or hate it?

Sounds very 80s, in part, but doesn't sound like other recent 80s retro stuff I've heard. (Granted, there's plenty I haven't heard. It's not something I seek out.)

Incidentally, I heard about her via Electric Mole forums (the Shiina Ringo/Toyko Jihen board), which is starting to pan out as a good place for pointers to other music I at least find interesting.

I do kind of like "She is a polish girl in America" for some reason.

"Hollywood" has a lot of hooks packed into it, it seems to me.

I'm not going to be the one to start a Marina & the Diamonds thread though because in a couple months I may have lost interest completely. Too unsure now (though I am starting to suspect that I am hooked).

My favorite trio of Marina songs is "Shampain," "I Am Not a Robot" and "Obsessions." I'm not an apologist or anything, because she has written some stuff I really don't like and I definitely believe she sometimes need to rein in the eccentricities in her vox, but overall I'd consider myself an active fan.

I've only heard what's on her myspace. "I Am Not a Robot" has grown on me, and it is fairly different from the others I've mentioned.

Apparently, iTunes has just put up samples from the album. I haven't gone to check them out yet, though. After having heard almost all these songs in demo form, I'm just going to wait until my cd comes in the mail (or until it leaks online, whichever happens first).

http://hollywood.greekreporter.com/marina-and-the-diamonds-teams-up-with-britney-producer

http://hollywood.greekreporter.com/files/2009/12/marinad2.jpg

One of the opening lines on the Stornoway album is "I feel like I've just started Uni" (or something).

lot of hate for that lyric on youtube and elsewhere but i feel it works in the context of the song - middle class kids singing something both wistful and upbeat. not the kind of music i usually like at all and it's very easy to sneer at but it's probably my favourite song by anyone on this bbc list (and it's not a bad list at all)

i confess that it's probably because i'm a 4AD fanboy whatever but i dig the stornoway stuff quite a bit - if they were a local (to me) band i would probably, i shamefully admit, spit on them as they walked by

guess which one of these has released a good album? clue: indieprog :D

seriously. yall sleeping

i like the single though i am not falling over myself for a whole lp of it

Jim! Reliably hearing the same British indie records as me. No, this isn't remotely as good as last year's Engineers (which I've been spinning a lot recently) but I tell ya what it's pretty consistent - the run of tracks in the middle is especially great ('Final Form' = wow) and 'NASA Is On Your Side' is kinda killer as well

yes folks we are talking about Two Door Cinema Club

lol

ok i will check it out.

fits in a lineage of worthy alt-indie groups - there's Late Of The Pier, Youthmovies, Field Music and (especially) Wild Beasts in the mix, but it's weirdly their own, and they've got a really sly melodic sensibility that undercuts their indie sonics with reflective or melancholy shades when you'd expect exultation - in loads of the songs there's a completely *beautiful* bit coming in out of the blue