It’s that time of year again. The rumour mill surrounding Splendour In The Grass is running in overdrive and while some acts have confirmed that they will make the trip, many are still just possibilities. Never ones to back away from a guessing competition, we've compiled a list of some names we expect to see on the line-up when it is released next Wednesday, April 23.
The Black Keys
The Black Keys still owe Australia. Despite touring Australia nationally in 2012, they cancelled on a heartbroken BDO audience in 2011. With the new album, Turn Blue, on its way, a headline set at Splendour would be a glorious return for the duo.
Chances: Their last festival is Latitiude in the UK on the 20 July- plenty of time to head down under for some Byron sunshine.
Outkast
Outkast are another hot contender for the headline spot. They reunited for their 20 year anniversary at Coachella this month and are set to play over 40 festivals over the globe. There is a Splendour-sized hole in their touring schedule too.
Chances: Lock it in, I’d say.
The Preatures
Straight off the back of a stellar slot at Coachella and an American tour, The Preatures could make a heroic return to Australia capped off by a set at Splendour In The Grass. In the past, Splendour has booked many artists (The Jezabels, Chet Faker, Flume) that have their ultimate live breakthrough and splendour and Isabella Manfredi and co. could just be the next one.
Chances: Count on a mid-afternoon sing-along to Is This How You Feel? In Byron.
MØ
Danish pop star, MØ, did a short jaunt around the country last year, however, she is yet to play it a festival crowd here. With her debut album, Mythologies To Follow, out, she could fill a Splendour up and comer slot easily.
Chances: Her schedule says, yes, it just depends on whether she's Splendour material.
Blood Orange
Dev Hynes is due for an Australian tour. He hasn't been here since he supported Florence and the Machine in 2012 and with a new album out he's got plenty of material to flaunt. He's impressed festival audiences across America and Europe. Maybe it's about time he did so here.
Chances: Fingers crossed, but no certainty.
Coachella - What's in store for Weekend 2
If you missed the stream last week, now’s your second chance to right your wrongs. Week One brought with it a plethora of guest appearances, left of centre covers and euphoric moments. If you're there on weekend two like us, you have the rare benefit of hindsight. For those who are streaming, you also get to decide who's worthy of taking up your weekend mornings on YouTube.
Outkast
Big Boi and Andre 3000 had mixed responses last weekend. While their career-spanning set was jam packed with classic Outkast, 3000 seemed to lose interest about halfway through, culminating in a performance of Hey Ya with his back turned on the crowd. Here's hoping he gets his shit together come weekend two and matches the faultless energy of Big Boi.
Pharrell
The Man of the moment, Pharrell, put on a star-studded event being joined by the likes of Gwen Stefani, Diplo and Snoop Dogg. While his voice let up, the energy level never dropped as he rolled out hit after hit to a crowd unphased by the dust storm. As his voice drew its final note, he announced that next week he'd be back bigger and better. Well then Pharell, over to you...
HAIM
Haim are the quintessential LA band and so Coachella is the perfect festival for them. There's really no more to say apart from the fact their debut album is so damn accessible it's almost impossible for anyone to deny the ear candy coming right at you. On weekend one, Este told the crowd she wanted to hear the sound of ass claps- what more could you want in the Californian desert.
Girl Talk
It's a surreal experience watching Girl Talk in your bedroom at 4pm on a Friday afternoon with an uncontrollable feeling to dance. Gills is one of the only acts of the weekend who's energy translated through the YouTube stream. If you're in the mood for a booty shake, Greg Gills is the most consistent of performer. It's unlikely he'll let you down.
Chance The Rapper
At only 21, Chance is probably the biggest new name in rap music. His Coachella set was jam packed with tracks off his fantastic mixtape, Acid Tapes; perfect for a mid-afternoon grind. Last week he brought on Justin Bieber- luck or misfortune, you be the judge.
Arcade Fire
The Sunday headliner is always bound to be a classic but, wow, do they put on a sound. The added disco flavours of Reflektor sit nicely alongside the other three records. Also Blondie came out last week for a cover of Heart of Glass. I wonder if they can top his next week.
Solange
We're hoping an album is close to being finished but for the time being we're content with the fact that Solange was the queen of the desert last weekend. She brought on Beyonce at the end of her set for a dance-off but the moment belonged to the quirky sister. She had the crowd in a flurry of movement, particularly with her flagship song, Losing You.
Chromeo
The Canadian funksters had us dancing in front of YouTube on Friday night. They deliver such a high energy set and with new tracks from their forthcoming album, White Woman, to show-off they really took height. Jealous (I Ain't With It) was a particular stand-out working the crowd into a well-deserved sweat.
tUnE-yArDs- Wait For A Minute
tUnE-yArDs has a penchant for taking a trend and turning it on its head. And that’s exactly what she’s done on, Wait for a Minute, the latest track from her forthcoming album Nikki Nack. She’s undoubtedly heading down the lane of RnB but she’s swung a left, crashed through a fence and found herself at an anarchy-stricken kids party. It may sound messy, but it’s a beautiful thing. It’s smooth and effortless but at the same time it chops and changes whenever it pleases. tUnE-yArDs may have traded James Brown soul (Bizness) for How To Dress Well-flavoured RnB, but it still sounds undeniably like Merrill Garbus on her A game.
St. Vincent- Lithium (Nirvana Cover)
Listen Up! is the(in)terns way of giving a song the isolated attention it deserves. It's the track that says stop what you're doing and slow dance, grind or head thrash immediately. Our first Listen Up! is from the incomparable Annie Clarke, otherwise known as St. Vincent. April 5th marked 20 years since Kurt Cobain's death. In memorandum, St. Vincent took on the ballsy task of covering Nirvana's Lithium at a show in Chicago. It's a far cry from the left-field, brassy pop of her latest self-titled effort, but she slays. The chorus is one that even Courtney Love would be pleased with. It's everything it should be: angst-driven, angry and anxious. Clarke sticks close to the original, taking the beast on head-first and wins. The recording is low-quality but it adds a certain lo-fi charm.
The Most Underrated Releases of 2014 So Far...
Every year there is a host of brilliant records that fail to capture the spotlight when they are released. Sometimes it's simply because they have no established profile othertimes it's because they release it on the same day as Beyonce surprise releases an album or Miley flies on a giant hotdog. Whatever the reason may be there is some gold that has fallen through the cracks this year. Below are five albums that we deem to be worthy of a first listen or re-listen.
Rome Fortune- Beautiful Pimp II
Beautiful Pimp II is the follow-up to last year’s Beautiful Pimp mixtape. Calling something a mixtape often suggests that it’s rough or unfinished. Beautiful Pimp II suggests the complete opposite. Produced entirely by CitoOnTheBeat, it’s a cohesive effort that revels in its understated beats and melodic raps. Mixtape standout I Was On One, I Can’t Lie is a chopped and screwed masterpiece while closer So is coated in beautifully warm keys. It’s not what you’d expect from an Atlanta rapper but it’s a refreshing take on the genre that deserves to have people talking about it.
Shura, Young Franco, KLO & Sway Clarke II
"I'm new here", sang Gil Scott-Heron on the title track to his penultimate record. Newbies gives us the chance to introduce those that are just beginning to scratch the surface of the music-world. It's our chance to introduce them to you and hopefully light the flame to a beautiful and fulfilled musical relationship.
Each week, we'll bring you four up and comers. It's your job to tell us: unsubstantiated hype or glorious potential. As always, first impressions count. Meet this weeks Newbies below.
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/yfrnco/sets/futurefunk-ep[/soundcloud]
This 19 year-old producer from Brisbane has been making waves for almost a year but a new EP and a few stellar remixes have moved Young Franco to the tips of many peoples tongue. He dropped his debut EP Futurefunk this year and is joining Alison Wonderland on her mostly sold-out Australian tour of warehouses. His soundcloud reveals an impressive resume including remixes of Broods and Major Lazer and his own nu-disco-inspired, bass-throbbers. Australians are eating up this brand of summery, groove-infused production and he’s likely to have a big year ahead of him. He joins a host of young Australian DJs transforming the national dance music spectrum alongside Wave Racer, LDRU and Motez
For fans of: Motez, Todd Terje, Classixx
Avoid if: The Flume revolution is driving you towards insanity
What’s next: A national tour with Alison Wonderland. Catch dates here.
Often all it takes to captivate is one songs and that’s certainly the case for young Brit, Shura. Touch has been out for under a month and it’s already captured the hearts of all/98 per cent of people that met ears with it. It’s also being played on Radio 1- the holy grail of British radio. And how? Purely on the merit of the song. It’s a slinky, soulful pop track that is instantly infectious. The video emulates the theme of intimacy that permeates the song with grace and style. In other words, if you like watching people smooch- hit play.
A quick google of Shura lead me to find out that it means ‘consultation’ in Arabic- I’ve racked my brain for how or why that relates to their sound and have turned up nothing. The moral: I need to quit Google.
For fans of: How To Dress Well, Blood Orange, SZA
Avoid if: you’re not a fan of up close and personal
What’s next: Hopefully a second track as buttery as this
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/sway-clarke-ii/idnm[/soundcloud]
Still salivating from Miguel’s delicious cover of Bennie and the Jets? Then this Toronto-born, Berlin-based soul-man may be just the remedy. Two tracks down, he’s impressed both times with a Franck-Ocean brand of sporadic R&B. His latest track, Secret Garden, powers along with a hard-hitting piano line in the same vein as Bennie and the Jets. He cites his influences as everything from Peter Gabriel to Deadmau5 to Jay Z and it shows. He sounds like an old-soul operating in the contemporary realm, similar to what Damon Albarn did with Bobby Womack on The Bravest Man In The Universe. His dark reworking of Kendrick Lamar’s Swimming Pools is proof that Sway Clarke’s capabilities are potentially endless.
For fans of: Frank Ocean, Miguel, Solange
Avoid if: You’re still hurting from Frank Ocean’s Splendour In The Grass cancellation
What’s Next: He’s just done and handful of shows with HAIM but there have been no extensive tour announcements yet. Hold tight, I say.
[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/klomusic/make-me-wonder[/soundcloud]
Like Shura, Klo are likely to extend to a mass audience off the back of one song. Make Me Wonder was released last week and it has already amassed close to 20,000 plays on Soundcloud. And rightly so. It’s an impressive debut built from dazed beats and crawling vocals. Make Me Wonder is one of those sleepy growers that charms with every listen, slowly infiltrating.
Klo are another notch in the belt of Aussies likely to take over the world. Hopefully the Melbourne duo hurry up and tour their homeland before they run of overseas to please a growing mass of fans.
For fans of: SOHN, Tinashe, SAFIA
Avoid if: You have chronic fatigue
What’s next: Only a week has passed since track one. We’ll have to wait and see.
First Impressions 3 April
A round-table review of the week's singles featuring Sam Smith, EMA and Jamie xx.
Method to the madness: Each week we, theinterns, will select the most noteworthy new releases and take them for a spin. Each of us will score the track out of five and choose the best tune for our audio dietary requirements. Let the madness ensue as the tracks pass through the ears of an EDM queen, a nostalgic RnB revivalist, a lover of all things alternative and a 90s fein.
Sam Smith- Stay With Me
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