Beyond B-Town: New Music for 2014

The Fat White Family

last year felt quite predictable, but in a good way. bands such as Peace and Savages had already made such a mark on the previous year that it was obvious they'd blow up in 2013

  Haim, Merchandise, Parquet Courts, Drenge, Savages, Palma Violets, Jagwar Ma, Chvrches, Deap Vally etc etc were also obviously in for a good year.

 By the end of the year so much amazing music had been made that now in the first few days of january I can't help feeling that all the eggs were put in one basket and i have no idea who to tip this year. Nethertheless here are my predictions.

1. B-Town year 3 be as amazing as ever. 

Scenes like this don't just disappear, Swim Deep and Peace are both putting out new material which hopefully may lead to new albums in 2014, but its the Younger bands who I think we can out our faith in. JAWS, have already got a big following and if they release an album this summer then they could really make the most of their success. Superfood and Dumb are both are also set to only get bigger  and bigger, with such great songwriting ability and a 90's style sound these bands will do well. more bands will undoubtedly be formed and i'm hoping that some of the more underrated acts such as Table Scraps, Duke, Grapham water Sailing Club, and Pink Violence might break through.

2. Psychedelica will be bigger than Ever

Telegram

Despite being one of the most tipped bands of 2013, Temple's album 'Sun Structure's' is due out early this year. I reckon this will help push British Psychedelia into the mainstream, psyche is now cooler than it has been since the 60's thanks to Tame Impala and MGMT and its time the small wave of british bands that have formed lately will make it big with them. TOY, Telegram, Gentlemen, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, The Fat White Family... a wave of music this big can't be ignored.

3.Out with the Old, In with the New?

Peace are seriously cool, they've got the look, the tunes, the epic guitar solos, the attitude, awesome songs and an amazing live show. suddenly Bombay Bicycle Club, Vaccines et al looked a bit well.. naff.
and while many more established acts had great years too we saw  no albums or activity at all from The Horrors, The Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle club, The Drums and only Ep's from Two door Cinema Club and The Vaccines. With new competition will these bands be able to stay at the top?

This year looks promising  for new music  too at the same time we've got new acts like Circa Waves, Royal Blood, The Orwells, Radkey and plenty more to root for.

Childhood

4. Music will be awesome, as always

Hip Hop has been amazing lately, over the past few years the genre has been given a fresh lease of life by acts such as Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, Odd Future, Angel Haze and BEAST COAST. I can see this trend continuing with new material likely to be seen by all the big names. Right now Chance The Rapper is the new star in the making. All off the back of his excellent 'Acid Rap' tape, it's soulful, catchy, psychedelic and downright brilliant hip hop. Tipped on the bbc sound of '14 list, for me chance is the winner.  Other than that its hard to say what new acts may break through.

Le1f

Though hopefully Le1f and Zebra Katz will be among them. Both have released brilliant mixtapes over the past two years, both make music that sounds like its come from 10 years in the future and both have yet to release physical albums, so i hope they get round to that soon. I've also been a fan of Logic for sometime now. He's a young white american rapper who has won hearts with his lovably sincere take on hip hop that mixes the best of the old and new school.


Dance music will hopefully stay good too, I can see the mysterious London collective 'Jungle' making it big. Check out their track, 'The Heat' its catchy, yet subtle and they'll fit in well alongside the revitalised sound of dance music that Disclosure and Rudimental helped create in 2013.

...And finally lets stop using the phrase 'Guitar music'. Its stupid, boring and insults the innovators such as Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis who practically invented Rock N' Roll... on the Piano. and while it'd be nice to see indie break through again, i doubt it will be big as the golden age (2001-6) again just yet, but none of this matters, when you're in a mosh pit jumping about to your fave band do you really care where the album got to in the charts?
Though It would be nice if Radio 1 played less Bastille, The 1975 etc and more actual rock music.


and finally the questions on everyone's lips

Who will headline the festivals?
Will Spotify prove it's critics wrong?
Will Physical record sales keep dropping?


The answer is... Who cares?


Happy New Year everyone!

I stole the photos from here.

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/music/musicians-dream-comes-true-telegram-5910098
http://mamacolive.com/thefly/feature/ones-to-watch/1019472/fat-white-family-band-interview/
http://www.chartattack.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Le1f.jpg
http://www.rockfeedback.com/magazine/detail/celebrate-solemn-skies-with-childhood