The Great Escape Festival is about to descend on our humble home town with three days of the best New Music. Lucky for us we managed to score a few delegate passes so we will be venue hopping with the rest of you trying to catch a glimpse of our favourite artists. With over 350 possibilities across 30 venues its hard to know where to start but we have tried to narrow the list down and recommend a few key acts we will be endeavouring to catch, and hopefully in the course of chasing these acts down we will also discover some other hidden gems.
Fenech Soler are hot dancefloor property right now, having recently collaborated on Groove Armada’s remarkable Paper Romance and remixed the latest Marina & The Diamonds single Hollywood into a club and blog sensation. New single Stop And Stare, released on Moda Music on 19th April, once again taps the band’s gift for radio-friendly hooks and peak time floor filling.
Fenech Soler – Stop & Stare
Alex Metric’s grinding electronic output is hugely pop-centric – quirky, offbeat vocals backed with fuzzy, cracked-at-the-edges synths and huge, sing-along choruses. His ethos is to throw together the best bits from his favourite sounds and influences – Eighties synth-pop, filter disco, big beat and indie.
Alex Metric – Head Straight
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool is an electro pop band based in Camden, London, England. They are most known for their track ‘Dance the Way I Feel’ and the Armand van Helden remix included on several mixes over the summer of 2009.
Ou Est Le Swimming Pool – Dance the Way I Feel
Wolf Gang is somewhere between the sweet sass of Orange Juice, remaining in light-era Talking Heads and Bryan Ferry, by way of the multilayered pop of Grizzly Bear. It’s AMAZING. You can catch him at the Great Escape and word has it he will be back in town at the Recommender in June.
Wolf Gang – Back to Back
Gold Panda hails from Chelmsford, Essex, Gold Panda spent the early part of last year building a reputation as remixer du jour for the likes of Little Boots, Telepathe, Bloc Party, Simian Mobile Disco, Health and The Field, before releasing three EPs of his own material in the summer to huge critical acclaim from the likes of Pitchfork, Dazed and Confused, The Guardian, NME and beyond. Live performances soon followed and his invigorated head hunched style quickly won further fans as well as establishing him as an artist who could play live rather than just prod at an expensive laptop.
Gold Panda – Back Home
Phenomenal Handclap Band with their multitudinous influences, blending funk, soul, reggae, dance, hip-hop and Brazilian beat, as well as rock, disco and electro, they encapsulate the spirit of the Brooklyn underground.
Phenomenal Handclap Band – 15 to 20
Primary 1 has been creeping on to people’s radars for the last few years and with his forthcoming album due out in the Autumn produced by Zdar (Pheonix/Cut-copy/Rapture), and support tour with Miss Goulding
Primary 1 – Blues (Ft Nina Persson)
All words thanks to various Myspace accounts the Times and NME.