10 - Hannes | Myspace

Hannes, we gather from the MySpace page, is the solo project of a singer from a German band called Pitchtuner, and effectively his chance to do whatever the hell he likes. ‘What he likes’ apparently depends on his mood. First up, on track 'GoGoGo', it’s The Dandy Warhols – only, as you’d imagine from a boy with a fondness for blood-spattered shirts (pictured above), and ten times dirtier.

A grinding electric guitar, buried beneath a mountain of swirling distortion, drags us down into a filthy dirge of a track complete with a Courtney Taylor, breathy vocal and lashings of lo-fi atmospherics. Then there’s the down right scummy electro-pop of ‘Kill Me RMX’ with its simple, paint by numbers beats and throbbing synths and the crunchy guitar dance-punk of ‘Clothes Off’, complete with a robotic Daft-punk vocal that claims to really want our clothes off. It’s just the sort of music to take your clothes off to.

We’re not sure about the beginning of fourth MySpace Track ‘Jeanstream Coversong’ but when it kicks in half way through, changing from an ill-advised German ballad to a bouncy dance punk tune that ends with clapping, shouting and screaming, all is forgiven. Apparently favoured by the late John Peel, Hannes is a firm favourite of ours too and definitely one cool German kid. Keep a look out for his über cool one-band-riot ‘Pitchtuner’ too. - Isaac Howlett

 

9 - Holy Hail | Myspace

Holy Hail are a 2 boy/2 girl four-piece hailing from New York (where else?) who play overtly danceable New Wave Gospel Electro Indie in the vein that’s almost top 10 material on a weekly basis now. Bands like The Gossip/ CSS/ Glass Candy spring to mind but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Featuring members of short-lived Rap Trash Act ‘FannyPack’ its easy to find Hip Hop Rhymes and Beats in here mixed with Electro bleeps some funk bass lines and more than enough melodic hooks to be listening to the 4 tracks on their MySpace page over and over and over.

Their first ever release is on a UK label, the first for the label too. Adventures Close To Home who have been doing awesome club nights at the Camden barfly and more recently The Old Blue Last for a long time now and brought bands such as CSS and The Gossip to their nights while playing “Punk Disco, Dreamstep, Cosmic Eargasms, False hardcore, bass, Nu-Dave and Post-Cash Pop.” Their words not mine!! They’ll be releasing the tracks Born of a star/ I owe as a 12” on 2nd April in the UK then a US release of Big Guns/ Old Man Manlove on Kanine Records in the Spring. - Conan Roberts (Guest Judge)

 

8 - Dark Captain Light Captain | Myspace

There’s something immediately likeable about Dark Captain Light Captain. They manage to sound fresh and exciting while remaining strangely familiar, to retain the rough-edged quality of a DIY recording while sounding more than competently produced and, all-in-all, win us over with a minimum of effort and a quiet, lackadaisical confidence.

Track ‘Spontaneous Combustion Pact’ showcases their talents brilliantly; a chilled out, sleepy track that rides along on a rolling beat that sounds like it’s knocked out on the lid of an old wooden chest and a kitchen’s worth of pots and pans.  Gradually, the track emerges from its own smoke-fuelled haze into a brilliant crescendo of old keyboards, xylophones and plucked acoustic guitars, accompanied along the way by a paranoid, doubled-up vocal that urges us to turn our ‘x-ray eyes into a visor and turn this whole thing around’.

Elsewhere, the beautiful ‘Mid-session Interval’ proves the ‘Captains’ don’t need a beat to create a thoroughly engaging track, building instead on a brilliant pairing of chiming acoustic guitars, a well-placed chord change and exquisite vocal harmonies. ‘They Be Underwater’ continues the foot-tapping rhythms, this time with a soft metronomic beat that underpins more plucked guitars and whispered vocals while ‘Everybody’s Opening…’ sounds for a moment like it borrows the vocal talents of Damon Albarn. I wouldn’t be surprised if he was a fan. We certainly are. - Isaac Howlett

SS: In the world that Dark Captain Light Captain rule, it would be...
DCLC: Totally legal – even encouraged – for people to fake their own deaths.

7 - The Boogie Woogie Snapshots | Myspace

 

It almost sounds like a joke; “An Englishman, an Irishman and a Japanese man meet on Myspace, right.” But there is no racially questionable pub-fodder to The Boogie Woogie Snapshots. They are, in fact, symbolic of the age in which we live. Not only have they never met, they live in different parts of the world and one member cannot speak the same language. They are the musical backdrop in an imaginary chatroom and the soundtrack to an electric dream; the aural offspring of three separate personalities working together through the medium of music alone.

These unique working methods have resulted in a gloriously haphazard musical style quite unlike any other. The songs change direction as they progress, darting and weaving around corners to places you didn’t expect, sometimes melancholic, sometimes joyful but always unmistakably human.

The rise of the internet has meant that the world now seems far smaller. As more people across the planet are logging on, the scope for online artistic collaboration is immense and TBWS are surely amongst the first of many more to come, in what is a genuinely exciting new wave of musical possibilities. It seems that the future is already here. - Steve Gislam

 

SS: In which critical situation would your music be most appropriate and best played?
TBWS: On a Discman while attempting to take a photo of a shadow with the flash left on - to give the listener an idea of how hard it is to create some art forms. An objective similar in hardness, to our task of trying to make music together, even though we speak different languages and live thousands of miles apart.

6 - DeadDogInBlackBag | Myspace

DeadDogInBlackBag are the hotly tipped "thorough-bred-flea-bitten Electro duo" set for great things in 2007. Born out of the boredom of department store retail the girls hatched a plan for world domination behind the make up counter. The vision was that of dark comedy and nu-wave electro pop combined to produce a catchy retro sound with tantalisingly terrifying images and ideas. The name DeadDogInBlackBag came from a note they found outside their old flat, the note started with "Dead Dog In Black Bag..." followed by a set of directions to find the poor pup, the girls thought it to be a great name that captured their love of macabre humour and was surely unforgettable.

"Scarily similar dark sense of humour" is what joins the girls creative concepts together and makes the music so crazy and catchy, drawing from past experiences and future hopes. The ladies believe that they can make it big in the mainstream but they are aware that some of their lyrics may be "scary for big commercial record labels, but to be honest, teenagers and people in there 20's to 40's have found it more funny than insulting, as it's real life" and with a self given genre of "ballsy pop" you are not going to be expecting sweet lullabies especially with songs like 'Love Meat'.

DeadDogInBlackBag are heavily inspired by 80s synth pop with icons like Gary Numan, Blondie and David Bowie featuring heavily in their love list. DeadDogInBlackBag are best described musically as a mix between Gary Numan, Robots in Disguise and Avenue D, an eclectic mix which goes down like sweet cherry pop for all electro lovers. - Caroline Allis

 

SS: In which critical situation would your music be most appropriate and best played?
DDIBB: Whether you've had a shitty day, just broken up with someone, or just want to dance around like a demic ferret, we'd like to think that we make people smile and forget about there problems, at least for a little while.

5 - LOVE2B | Myspace

Love2B, an amalgamation of two electronica cosmonauts from Bangkok going by the name(s) of DJ Pema and DJ Tess, do not really write songs. Nor do they really write tunes. They cite the fantastically uncreative compositional tool GarageBand as having helped them to the top of their scene. Love2B tracks play in dream time – seemingly unconnected events flashing past in a surreal, fleeting sequence that lasts longer in the memory than in actual experience. 

There’s no point recommending any one song (each one is a single, incidentally) as it takes as long to put your clothes on as it does to listen to their entire playlist on web dive www.icompositions.com/artists/love2b . Do take the (minimal) time to check it out.

Very, very, very hard to compartmentalise, the nearest reference point might be Melt Banana. Love2b share their cavalier attitude to melodic construction, though they are far, FAR easier to digest.     

L2B eschew the perceived wisdom of the three minute pop song or the lengthy dance track in favour of compressed musical sketches, teasing and ingenuously compact. This is musical sushi, pop pic’n’mix – you cannot eat it all the time (that would be mental), but highly satisfying for its novelty value alone. You might as well get some practise listening to this kind of thing because if the attention span of the human race continues to deteriorate at its current rate this is all we’ll be listening to in twenty years’ time. - Ruari Barratt

SS: In the world that Love2B rule, it would be...
Love2B: Full of mirth, hilarity, water slides and outlandish glam rock outfits.

4 - Silicon Vultures | Myspace

Silicon Vultures hurt… They make the kind of music that drills through your skull and feasts on the grey matter inside. With a sound so intense it makes Atari Teenage Riot look like The Carpenters, fusing hard punk guitars and squealing keyboards, they sound as urgent as electrocution.

With only two tracks on MySpace, they have managed to convince SUPERSWEET of their credentials through the sheer relentless of their sound. Delaney Jae’s lyrics are barely distinguishable through the ear-piercing shriek emitting from his larynx and the music grabs and just doesn’t let go. It’s like fearing for your life but having a great time doing so…

Born out a sense of disillusionment with the state of “so-called punk”, Silicon Vultures are here to claim its territory as their own. Their art-trash aesthetic and nihilistic sneer strikes a rock star poise quite unlike any other, and they are crouched and ready to pounce upon a scene grazing idly in the Sun like an overweight buffalo chewing on grass.

To surmise in their own words, Silicon Vultures were “born to stir up a shitstorm”! - Steve Gislam

 

3 - Rubicks | Myspace

Rubicks are a two-piece band, hailing from Kings Cross, London. Their overwhelming multi- dimensional passion to their music is heard every time you put their debut LP, In Miniature on your CD player and blast it on. Don’t be discouraged by the band's female frontwoman, Vanessa Redd manages to flaunt the forceful energy of her bluesy vocals right to the back of the room whilst keeping the electro beats and foot taping rhythms separate, but perfectly entwined as well.

Lyrics such as, “I want you to see, I want you to feel, my wish, you were here” show the band's charm of connecting with their most inner self. They combine these feelings with killer pop punches that manage to leave a lasting memory and constant finger tapping for hours after you’ve heard their songs.

The attractiveness and likeability of Rubicks is delivered through their electro-infused rock music and fiercely gentle lyrics. With such diverse comparisons to the likes of Blondie all the way through to Goldfrapp, you begin to understand what the band are about and why they will definitely not be forgotten in a long time. - Ria Wilcox

 

2 - The Aliens | Myspace

For anyone familiar with the beautiful and epic elegance of the Beta Band story, travelling with new offshoot the Aliens is a revivalist celebration in the truest and grandest sense. Those coming to the band completely fresh will discover an experience unlike anything else in or of this world; ready your mind for a myriad convergence of sounds and science from all corners of the galaxy.

Betabandidos John MacLean and Robin Jones here team up again with early band member and visionary Gordon ‘Lone Pigeon’ Anderson. Intelligent, originative, gracious and dizzyingly-talented individuals all, expectations for their forthcoming debut album Astronomy for Dogs (to be released shortly) are very high indeed, judging by what has already been unveiled.

‘Robot Man’ is a prime example. It begins with beguiling simplicity – a few beats, two bass notes and then the delightfully lunatic chorus floods in with a funk-driven swoon. There’s absolutely no use in resistance, as feet and bodies are immediately sympathetic: we are all robot men now. When Jones’s beat really kicks in (and it REALLY does) this feels like the most compulsive sentiment ever expressed.

But it’s where the song proceeds to that is amazing. A fluid and pacy drop down with pianos brings opportunity for full elucidation of the Robot Man condition, before gathering up the chorus again into a new incarnation – this time orchestrating an organ and blistering guitars worthy of the Beatles’ White Album. Absolute reckless genius. - Alderson

SS: In the world that The Aliens rule, it would be...
The Aliens: Free from borders, walls, fences, partitions, enclosures, dividers, fortification, ramparts, stockades, barricades, barriers, Bush and Blair.

1 - The Teenagers | Myspace

Paris/London-based newcomers the Teenagers merge electronica with compelling Strokes-like bass lines and then brazenly smear hilarious dramatic monologues over the top – within which they plant little evil thoughts and communicable rascality aplenty. The results are musical installations that linger long after listening, the briefest scandalous flashes of which are apt to bring a big smile to your face even at the most inappropriate times.

‘Homecoming’ has some thematic similarity with Datarock’s ‘Computer Camp Love’, but the romance portrayed in the Teenagers’ song makes absolutely no pretensions or excuses for its protagonists’ vacuousness. In fact that’s precisely the joke on which this more-than-fuckable duet of summer loving thrives. For example, one striking conceit in the American girl’s recap of the whole whatever is that the boy with “the cutest British accent ever” is actually a Frenchman – and that for her the experience can be summed up as “like a song by Blink 182.” Think about it.

However, the eloquence with which the boy in question describes his experience of the same tryst is best left to your own discovery. Let’s just say it might make radio airplay hard to come by. But more respect for that: we adore this band already! We think we’re in love. - Alderson, Photo By Ben Rayner

 

SS: If this were a real competition, what would you want the prize to be?
The Teenagers: Hehe... we want a PS3!