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...

Elaine Liddle: My tip for 2010

I find it hard to explain quite how much I loved Aereogramme. But simply put, it was a sad, sad day when they played their last gig.

So when a little item appeared on a Chemikal Underground mailout earlier this year along the lines of "Craig B's been working on some new stuff", it was like a whacking great jolt of excitement.

The Unwinding Hours, as you'll know from their UtR profile in November, is a new project from Craig B and Iain Cook, debuting at Celtic Connections Chemikal showcase on 31 January; just typing those words brings a buzz to my fingers.

I can't pretend to know if they will make it big, but I do feel they fully deserve to.

The Unwinding Hours: Knut


Who is your tip for 2010? Comment now or forever hold your peace...

Craig Dickson: My tip for 2010

Edinburgh's Come On Gang had a good 2009, winning hearts and minds all over with their own style of ragged pop-rock. A successful string of appearances at festivals such as Rockness, Reading & Leeds and T in the Park in the summer is already behind them, as well as a spot at Texas' SXSW showcase in March.

They play catchy melody-centred pop with a bit of edge, the kind of accessible indie that could quite easily garner mainstream attention. They may hardly be undiscovered, but I’ll be surprised if 2010 doesn’t see this trio take another step up the ladder to wider exposure.



Who is your tip for 2010? Let us know below...

Ryan Drever: My tip for 2010

Midnight Lion, a duo comprised of former Drive-by Argument men, Stewart Brock and Lewis Gardiner, unleashed a few home-recorded tracks just a couple of months ago and already, people (particularly industry folks) are practically soiling themselves with excitement.

Taking a darker approach to electronic pop music, these two have managed to create a spacious yet slick sound, all from the confines of Gardiner's bedroom, and with a neat bit of radio play, a growing online fanbase and rabid industry attention, this looks like it could very well be one of next year's success stories.

Elaine Liddle: My band of 2009

[Photo: Luke Joyce]

In the first of a series of blog posts in which UtR writers pick their favourite bands and gigs of 2009, and tip acts to look out for in 2010, Elaine Liddle plumps for a band who we featured back in August

They might have been officially around since 2006 - but 2009 was the year I finally began to love Brother Louis Collective. Before January they were one of those names I'd heard in the general chatter, always assumed I'd quite enjoy, but then been distracted by something else before I remembered to investigate them. Then I saw them live and it all started to make sense – so I came back for more.

In case you didn't catch their UtR profile, BLC's music is folky but not too folky, sweet but not saccharine. Put simply, they write good songs about love and life.

A high point in the bunch of times I saw them perform this year was - bizarrely for an accomplished six-piece band - the stripped down version at the Strike the Colours album launch in Stereo. Having apparently stepped in at the last minute, and without half the band, they nevertheless pulled off an engaging and entertaining set.

Recent Brother Louis Collective blogging promises that their very first album will be out early next year (so I guess I'm not *too* late in catching up with them). Ten tracks recorded at Chem 19 with Paul Savage certainly mean there will be more to look forward to in 2010.

BLC - Barren Years


BLC - Squealing Pigs