Editorial: The tipping point

If you're an avid consumer of music journalism you could be forgiven at this time of year for picturing every blogger and critic to look like John McCririck.

OK, maybe they don't look like the Ascot-frequenting eccentric, but they're all having a go at being excitable tipsters.

Perhaps the most high profile formcard for the year ahead is the BBC's Sound of 2010, which today crowned Ellie Goulding as the artist primed for stardom. Having already vented about the selection process behind their shortlist, I'll refrain from any more cynicism now, but the comment from Drunk Country on our original editorial is worth a read.

Over the festive period a few of our writers offered their own Scottish tips for 2010, but we have refrained from compiling a thorough run-down or poll of the most exciting acts of the moment.

Why? Because that's essentially what we've been doing for the past year anyway. The bands and artists we have profiled have been emergent by definition, the vast majority of them unsigned. If 2009 was the year of their formation, or the year they started gigging or self-released an EP, perhaps 2010 is the year they'll 'make it' - and I'll let you be the judge of what 'making it' entails.

Some of our choices from the class of 2009 - Withered Hand, North Atlantic Oscillation, There Will Be Fireworks, Copy Haho, Panda Su, to name a select few - are already growing their audience beyond the cosy confines of the Scottish scene. Others will undoubtedly come to nothing and fade back into obscurity. As any pundit will tell you though, that's the risk you take in this game.

But like everyone else, we can't resist the appeal of the crystal ball, so I'll add a few more new names that have recently appeared as blips on our collective radar:

Django Django
Nomogram
The Last Battle
Midnight Lion
miaoux miaoux
Three Blind Wolves (Ross Clark's renamed band)

Who are you tipping for 2010? Do you actually look like John McCririck? Let us know...

On the radar: Esperi

Surprises keep life interesting, and this fact hasn't been lost on Chris Lee-Marr, singer-songwriter behind Carnoustie folk collective Esperi. There are no guarantees when it comes to their live show, and Lee-Marr believes it's this spontaneity that sets them apart:

"There is some obvious stuff [that makes us different], like I play bells with my feet whilst singing and playing guitar, and we use some interesting homemade instruments and a hydrophone, but also the fact that the live setup is always in constant flux.

"I play a lot of solo performances but also duets or there may be three, four or five of us using drums, harp, cello and bass with all the percussive and electronic trimmings."

Play: Esperi - Proverb


This seems to be what makes Esperi tick: the ability to shapeshift to suit their surroundings; a creative freedom that doesn't place too much stock in the conventions of music-making. They have been together three years now, and as well as Chris, Esperi includes his wife Cat and fellow members of The A Forest, Starling, Bullet Hell and Nomogram.

Lee-Marr cites his main influences as Mice Parade, Joanna Newsom, Adem and Iron and Wine, who he values for their "good musicianship and interesting approach". And with such experimental post-folk now seemingly leading the way, what does he make of the current Scottish music scene?

"I think it's great. All the bands we've played shows with recently (Meursault, De Rosa, Yahweh, Brother Louis Collective, The Kays Lavelle, Panda Su) have all been great and it's been a real pleasure performing alongside them."

Esperi currently have an EP out called 21:21 and are in the process of making their first album.

Play: Esperi - Dialled


Discover Esperi for yourself at one of the following shows:

13 April: Drouthy Neebor's, Dundee
16 April: Captain's Rest, Glasgow
24 April: Kinloch Arms, Carnoustie

- Nick Mitchell