Now we’re over halfway through the year, we thought it was high time we looked back and rounded up the most exciting new acts to surface in 2010.
Here, then, are the 50 bands who’ve blown our minds over the past few months. Do you agree with our choices? Let us know who we’ve overlooked over on the Radar blog. You can also listen to every band on the list via our Soundcloud player.
Oh, and if you’re in a new band yourself, make sure you sign up to NME Breakthrough – it’s a great way of sharing your music with others and, just maybe, earning a write-up in the pages of NME.
50 Everything Everything
From: Manchester.
NME said: “Responsible for the most idea-packed British debut of the year.”
Essential Track: ‘Photoshop Handsome’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=221111493001
49 Kindness
From: Hackney and Kreuzberg.
NME said: “Some tracks sound like tortured, stalking disco-ballads, some is more no-fi soul, elsewhere it’s disheveled, haunted gutter-funk.”
Essential Track: ‘Gee Wiz’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXVgIneGFMA
48 Clare Maguire
From: Birmingham.
NME said: “She might be about as schmindie as a WOMAD knitting circle, but she’s punk at heart and her voice is a siren call loud enough to lure the hardiest Factory Floor fan on to pop’s craggiest rocks.”
Essential Track: ‘Strangest Thing’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p0FdHZ54fg
47 Funeral Party
From: Los Angeles.
NME said: “LA pogo punks reigniting America’s coastal gang wars and indie rock’n’roll’s embers.”
Essential Track: ‘Where Did It Go Wrong’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=96334095001
46 Active Child
From: Los Angeles.
NME said: “Piano chords rising from the synth swirls, freefalling harps and operatic croons like a beautiful apparition.”
Essential track: ‘She Was A Vision’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=90327153001
45 Magic Kids
From: Memphis.
NME said: “Anyone who’s felt themselves frozen out by arena-chasing indie should look no further than these wide-eyed orchestral-doo-wop magic kids for their salvation.”
Essential Track: ‘Hey Boy’.
44 War Paint
From: Los Angeles.
NME said: “They consolidated their bonds via ritualistic slumber parties, gorging on a diet of early Cocteau Twins dream-pop, the muddy bass twang of grunge and sassy R&B in order to write songs about toying with your heart.”
Essential Track: ‘Elephants’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=96349520001
43 Gayngs
From: Minneapolis, United States.
NME said: “Antique keyboards pulse, fretless basses thrum and a variety of voices echo in and out, underlying the trippy feel and making this pretty much the most scintillating and daring record of the year so far. Buy it. Play it. Get beaten up for being different.”
Essential Track: ‘The Gaudy Side Of Town’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=112935955001
42 Glasser
From: Los Angeles
NME said: “This ethereal West Coast singer-songwriter, signed to the mighty True Panther Sounds label, is like an electro Joni Mitchell crossed with Cocteau Twins.”
Essential Track: ‘Apply’.
41 Avi Buffalo
From: California.
NME said: “Avi Buffalo are one of the more impressive of the Californian lo-fi set; more thoughtful, delicate even, than the distorted daze of their contemporaries.”
Essential Track: ‘Summer Cum’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=96334098001
40 Kisses
From: Los Angeles
NME said: “This duo are so laid-back, they sound like Erland Oye in a crushed velvet smoking jacket.”
Essential Track: ‘Bermuda’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=585695250001
39 Wild Nothing
From: Virginia, United States.
NME said: “WN specialise in humming, soft-focus garage indie. But the tunes come gleaming through immaculately in tact, teeming and longing. Every song on the album is a keeper.”
Essential Track: ‘Summer Holiday’.
38 Delphic
From: Manchester.
NME said: “If there’s one band capable of putting Manchester back on the map as the country’s white-hot forge of forward-facing electronic sounds, it’s Delphic.”
Essential Track: ‘Clarion Call’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=86627200001
37 Mona
From: Nashville.
NME said: “Nashville’s next gen rock ‘n’ roll classicists.”
Essential Track: ‘Listen To Your Love’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=407439373001
36 Chapel Club
From: London.
NME said: “Aching with romantic possibility, its like Editors before they got rubbish.”
Essential Track: ‘Five Trees’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=87157319001
35 Frankie & The Heartstrings
From: Sunderland.
NME said: “Frankie and the heartstrings are the result of some genetic splicing in Edwyn Collins’ pop laboratory.”
Essential Track: ‘Hunger’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=221111988001
34 Trash Talk
From: California.
NME said: “An ability to whip audiences into scenes of cultish adoration and violent chaos within the space of a few chords has become second nature to Californian hardcore malcontents Trash Talk.”
Essential Track: ‘Explode’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=84343028001
33 Perfume Genius
From: Seattle, Washington.
NME said: “The shattered-heart spectral-soul of this Seattle loner seeps further into our guts, day-by-day.”
Essential Track: ‘Look Out Look Out;
32 Veronica Falls
From: London.
NME said: “The sexiest damn lo-fi pop group to have stalked these shores in quite some time.”
Essential Track: ‘Found Love in a Graveyard’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=75180988001
31 Jay Electronica
From: New Orleans.
NME said: “The tsunami of conscious rap music that’s about to impact on these very shores, spearheaded by Jay, is one you can enjoy without feeling too trustafarian.”
Essential Track: ‘Rennaisance Man’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=68894572001
30 Wilder
From: Bristol.
NME said: “Sparky foursome making tightly-wound, tick-tocking post-punk in the Foals mould.”
Essential Track: ‘Girls Vs Boys’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=96334088001
29 MNDR
From: California.
NME said: “This in-demand electro duo are already famous, you just haven’t heard of them yet – just ask Mark Ronson, who asked singer Amanda Warner to guest on his new album.
Essential Track: ‘I Go Away’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=72982203001
28 JJ
From: Sweden.
NME said: “For us, discovering JJ is how we’ve learned to connect with this higher state we knew was there but couldn’t reach before.”
Essential Track: ‘Let Go’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=72563357001
27 Flats
From: London.
NME said: “The most visceral mess of a punk band we’ve seen in about a decade, they’re a snotty, grubby-faced antidote to today’s trust-fund shmindie landslide.”
Essential Track: ‘Flatz Waltz’.
26 Freelance Whales
From: New York.
NME said: “By mixing electronics with 18th century instruments, they can beam their wholesome sound into every nook and cranny of your temporal spectrum.”
Essential Track: ‘Starring’.
25 James Blake
From: United Kingdom.
NME said: “He’s recently started putting his classical voice training to use, creating a stunning selection of minimal compositions with his maudlin voice slicing through blanketing sub-bass ‘pooms’.”
Essential Track: ‘Air And Lack Thereof’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vEXpbCMxc0
24 Pure Ecstasy
From: Austin, Texas.
NME said: “Part of Austin, Texas’ skulking clique of art rock hedonists.”
Essential Track: ‘Voices’
23 Foster The People
From: Los Angeles.
NME said: “Blessed with a knack for melody, boogie-time beats, and an ornate electronic detail, Foster The People craft a sound ideal for a fantasy backyard barbecue with The Strokes, Vampire weekend, MGMT, and Daft Punk as guests.”
Essential Track: ‘Pumped Up Kicks’.
22 Cerebral Ballzy
From: Brooklyn, New York.
NME said: “Their name might make you roll your eyes, but Cerebral Ballzy are New York’s best new hardcore punk band.”
Essential Track: ‘Insufficient Fare’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=88235249001
21 Dom
From: Worcester, Massachusetts.
NME said: “DOM makes highly danceable, postmodern no-fi pop – bounding from garage to synth, while making frolicsome wry references.”
Essential Track: ‘Jesus’.
20 Katy B
From: London.
NME said: “A Brit School graduate who has sung guest vocals with Magnetic Man, Katy B is London’s premier (only?) dubstep-influenced singer-songwriter.
Essential Track: ‘Katy On A Mission’
19 Mount Kimbie
From: London/Brighton.
NME said: “Where post rock meets post dub step and seraphim weep.”
Essential Track: ‘Would Know’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=404110133001
18 Diamond Rings
From: Toronto.
NME said: “John O’Regan moves and shrugs like the coyest girl at secondary school, but sings like Ian McCulloch. He’s got Presence.”
Essential Track: ‘Wait And See’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=72982198001
17 The Middle East
From: Queensland, Australia.
NME said: “Touted by Marcus Mumford as the most inspiring new band around.”
Essential Track: ‘The Darkest Side’.
16 Cults
From: New York.
NME said: “This boyfriend-girlfriend duo are forging a wholesome-but-haunting new lo-fi pop territory, buoyed by 60s melodies, bodged bleary production sonics, and the liberal use of glockenspiels.”
Essential Track: ‘Oh My God’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=424634327001
15 Summer Camp
From: London.
NME said: “They trade in joyous nostalgia carried by fleeting synths and Elizabeth Sankey’s heartfelt vocal. Superb.”
Essential Track: ‘Ghost Train’
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=90640957001
14 Hurts
From: Manchester.
NME said: “Thunderously melodic and machine-tooled.”
Essential Track: ‘Wonderful Life’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=275199955001
13 Giggs
From: London.
NME said: “A UK rap talent the nation can be proud to call its own.”
Essential Track: ‘Look What The Cat Dragged In’.
12 Zola Jesus
From: Los Angeles.
NME said: “The coolest goth in yonks.”
Essential Track: ‘Night’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=87619785001
11 Egyptian Hip Hop
From: Manchester.
NME said: “EHH are the first prime example of the potentially genre-free brilliance of a new generation utterly spoilt for choice by new media’s relentless splurge.”
Essential Track: ‘Wild Human Child’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=70994628001
10 Grouplove
From: Los Angeles.
NME said: “Think a cross between National Lampoon’s European vacation, Summer Lovers and your favourite Yankee mall rat flick from the John Major years.”
Essential Track: ‘Colours’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzMC3IQ4fiI
9 Yuck
From: London.
NME said: “This music is nestling up to the true connoisseur’s canon of early 90’s US indie.”
Essential Track: ‘Automatic’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=90311468001
8 Magnetic Man
From: London.
NME said: “Dubstep’s crossover moment has arrived.”
Essential Track: ‘I Need Air’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=106509041001
7 Darwin Deez
From: New York.
NME said: “The most likeable hipster in the world”.
Essential Track: ‘Radar Detector’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=96334808001
6 Marina & The Diamonds
From: London.
NME said: “Dark, questioning themes seem to be Marina’s speciality, and when delivered in her distinctive tremulous tones, they carry a weight that other chart-friendly acts would find hard to bear.”
Essential Track: ‘The Outsider’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=86621429001
5 The Smith Westerns
From: Chicago.
NME said: “Their debut album is a raucous, uninhibited romp of a record that is run through with the energy of youthful abandon and bored callous rebellion.”
Essential Track: ‘Be My Girl’
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=72535577001
4 Sleigh Bells
From: California.
NME said: “Instinct-guided and gut clever, Sleigh Bells are a simple band, delivering simple potent pleasure.”
Essential Track: ‘Crown On The Ground’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z8ppcFGPlY
3 Wu Lyf
From: Manchester.
NME said: “Confrontational, bruised and battle-scarred drone-pop.”
Essential Track: ‘Heavy Pop’.
2 The Drums
From: Brooklyn, New York.
NME said: “So flawless you almost feel embarrassed for everyone else.”
Essential Track: ‘Let’s Go Surfing’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=97589270001
1 Best Coast
From: Los Angeles.
NME said: “Cat-obsessed stoners reviving slacker for a new generation.”
Essential Track: ‘When I’m With You’.
http://players.brightcove.net/19012535001/default_default/index.html?videoId=404110146001