I'd Like To Say It's X-Y-Z But Really It's Just W.

This is going to be short. No, seriously, it is! It might be a bit longer if I hadn't just spent a chunk of my minimal Sunday evening posting time on a comment at TAGN that's almost long enough to be a post in its own right.

I do have a "What I've been watching" post of my own brewing. It's going to need more concentration than I've got to give today, though, and I haven't found quite the right peg to hang it on, yet. 

No, it's just going to have to be another post picking away at that NME 100 Emerging Acts list, I'm afraid. And frankly, by this stage it's getting tough to wring much more out of the ragged tail-end of the poor thing. I mean, we got as far as Wallice last time. How many more do you think there could be?

Well, there's Wet Leg, for one. Unfortunately there's not much I can say about the pride of the Isle of Wight that I haven't said already. Or much more I can show, what with them only having released four songs so far.

Luckily, there's this, which only went up on YouTube three days ago, so at least it's new and there's absolutely no chance I've linked it before.

Okay, I have linked the song already but only the video that plays in the background, not the live-in-the-studio performance, which is charmingly ramshackle. Can't wait for the album!

Next up, and slightly out of alphabetical order, if anyone's keeping count, here's Warren Hue, described by NME as "an electrifying moment where emo-rap meets post-punk." As I said last time, I find musical comparisons invidious but sometimes you just can't help yourself. I mean, doesn't that first twenty seconds remind you of someone?

I didn't think I was going to link the next one, when I first started listening to it. I liked it but not enough to pull it up for focus. And then the chorus kicked in. So satisfying. Also, the way she stuffs too many words into almost every line and still has it work makes me feel like I'm having palpitations. Not saying that's necessarily a good thing but it's notable.

And that's the end of the list or at least the end of the stuff I want to make a fuss over. Oh, except I didn't really do justice to the top of the alphabet, did I? It would be criminal to miss out on a mention for Cathy Jain. NME recommends Cool Kid, which I admit is right in my sweet spot but she has a cover of Lana's Chemtrails over the Country Club and that's just sublime.

I guess that's about it. I listened to well over half of the acts on the list, probably three-quarters. I only skipped the ones where the description made me feel almost sure it was something I'd most likely not appreciate. I might have been wrong but you have to make choices.

Of the ones I tried, there were only a couple I actively disliked and I'm keeping those to myself. All the rest that didn't get a mention were the kind of thing I'd be very happy to hear on the radio or at a party or on the soundtrack to a tv show or a movie or a game but after I'd heard them, I wouldn't feel any need to go check the artist out afterwards to see what else they'd done.

All of the ones I featured, I did that. Without any doubt, the glitchier they were, the more likely I was to want to know more. The more I've been learning about the hyperpop diaspora, the more I want to know. Perhaps the strangest thing for me is how deep the drum 'n' bass influence is on all of this and how very well that's working for me, now. 

It never did before. I was around for that sound the first time and I wasn't up for it much. In those days I was still going to clubs and parties where it got some play and Mrs Bhagpuss really liked it (And still does.) so I heard a lot, one way or another. I didn't not like it but I liked a lot of other things more.

Now, somehow, the more things glitch, the better they sound to me. Go figure. Lets end with some of that. Why not?

 Recording ends.

R & T Get Arty.

I'm starting to think I should have a) listened to all one hundred of these acts before I started this and b) taken more notice of how far down the alphabet I'd gotten when I began picking. Anyone would think the tracks I'm linking were the ones I liked best, when in fact they're only the ones I liked best of the ones I (not at all randomly) chose to investigate.

Anyway, we are where we are, as politicians are so fond of saying, as though it excuses how we got here. Best carry on as though everything's fine. That's what they do.

We seem to be somewhere in the Rs now. I wonder how even the distribution is across all twenty-six letters? I bet there are people who'd be a lot more interested in knowing that than knowing what any of these people sound like. I'm not saying any of them are reading this right now...

I almost didn't bother with this one. I seem to be developing an immunity, maybe even an aversion, to indie rock bands, just at the moment when they might be recovering some degree of cultural acceptance. Timing is everything, isn't it?

Even if I do like some of the new guitar bands, I find talking about them quite awkward. They nearly all remind me very strongly of other bands. Older bands. I have a considered objection to comparing new bands with old ones. Even though it's almost impossible not to think it doesn't mean you have to say it, let alone write it down and put it on the Internet.

One of the really annoying things about getting older (A minor one, sure.) is how often something reminds you of something else. It can be very useful, educational even, provided it's kept strictly in bounds, but it's crucial not to allow such recognition to color your understanding. There's an appallingly common tendency to equate a first experience with a best experience. I expect there's biology involved. We're supposed to be better than that, though, aren't we? As a species. Or is that just the outmoded, hubristic, humanocentric view?

Anyway, I'm very pleased to be able to say that The Rills don't particularly remind me of anyone. I'm very glad I did decide to give them a go (Abeit almost entirely on the strength of the title.) I love the energy, the exhuberance and especially that guitar sound. Nice video, too. If you're going to bother with it at all, I strongly recommend staying the distance - the whole thing goes somewhere I wasn't expecting at around the two-minute mark and it's a much better song for it.

Said I wasn't feeling it for indie rock right now, didn't I? Yeah, well, that was another one. Talking the verse, singing the chorus might be the thing we'll all remember, when we look back on the early 2020s indie scene. Always assuming anyone ever does. 

That and guitars, of course. It's always guitars. Will we ever be rid of them? (No.) By the way, I've stopped putting in the names of the artists and the songs. I realized it's always flagged across the video anyway. This one's not quite as clear, though, and the band have the easiest-to-miss of names so I'll tell you: they're called Stone.

You don't see a video like that every day. Or hear a tune. I liked it well enough to go listen to some more and it's all good stuff. It's curious the NME calls him a "Texan rapper". He doesn't do a lot of rapping in the tracks I listened to, mostly singing. I guess those definitions broke a while ago. 

We should probably have another from Teezo.

He shoots most of his videos against that wall. I'm pretty sure this is what we'd have called an art project back in the day. The world is better than it was in so many ways (And in other ways worse.)

And just because it's like that and that's the way it is, here's an actual, irrefutable, bona fide Art Project ("Formed after meeting at Wimbledon College of Art".) and they don't have any fricken' videos at all! What the hell is wrong with you people? There is some grainy live footage. You'll have to make do with that. I used to go see a lot of bands like this back in the late '70s, early '80s, for what it's worth and I can guarantee you this lot won't get to be any more famous than any of those did.

Let's just have one more. Not by the last lot. By someone else.

By Wallice. This is the kind of thing that if you like this kind of thing, this is the kind of thing you'll like. It's the kind of thing I like. I do like it. I'm not sure I like the video, though. I thought I was going to like it. All those bright, flat, primary colors. Then it got to the part that goes with the title. I didn't like that part at all.

Let's have another. One's never enough, is it? This video also has a bit I don't like in it but it's right at the end and it's short.

And that will do. Just about enough left on the first pass for one more post, I think. After that I might have to go look over all the ones I skipped. Probably should do that anyway.