After a month of deliberation Neonfiller’s co-editor Joe Lepper and his fellow Glastonbury Emerging Talent judges have whittled down more than 8,000 acts to a long list of just 120. These will now go to a panel, which includes festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, who will select a shortlist of eight who will battle it out for the top prize of a slot at Glastonbury Festival 2013.
Our selections are Swindon based Nudey Bronque, Nadine Shah from the north east of England and maths rockers Super Squarecloud. Good luck to all three.
For a full list of those who made the long list click here.
And here’s a recap of our final three choices:
Nadine Shah
Nadine Shah’s influences include Scott Walker, Nick Cave and PJ Harvey and it shows on this throbbing, atmospheric and downright frightening track she submitted called Aching Bones. The sparse piano and her croaky voice all add to the mystique of this track, which is part Portishead, part gothic horror sound track. Scary and beautiful music from this north East of England singer ,who has recently completed her debut album Love Your Dum and Mad, has really caught my attention
Nudy Bronque
There were two things that leapt out when I heard this track Allsorts from Wiltshire based Nudy Bronque. The first is that their lead vocalist sounds like the late great Vivian Stanshall, of Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band band fame. The second is that the track has been mixed and mastered by Colin Moulding, who given their Wiltshire location must surely be Colin Moulding from XTC, another hero of ours. So I had a look through some of their other tracks and, yep, they are good as well. Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band meets XTC; I don’t think influences can get any better than this for our website. It’s worth checking out their more upbeat tracks as well, especially Fond Of You.
Super Squarecloud
Next band that has stood out so far is Super Squarecloud, a five piece that bills itself as Maths rock. Even after a few seconds you can tell they are a little bit different, on their very mathsy track Lolly Moon. The opening heavy guitar riff jerks in and out in time seemingly only with itself, while their vocalist Jo Ford sings sweetly over it. It jerks about a bit more, giving the listener no chance to even get an abacus out to calculate the rhythm.
It’s odd, strange, beautiful pop that you certainly can’t dance to and is all the better for it. Great stuff, especially for fans of other innovative UK bands such as Free Swim and Special Benny. The three of them should tour together; it’d be one hell of a show.
by Joe Lepper
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