Category — New Sounds

There are different ways we find our new favourite bands here at WWL. Some we stumble upon at festivals like End of the Road or Glastonbury. Others we fall for catching them late night on 6Music. Still more we find via our good friends over at For Folk’s Sake. Our favourite mode of discovery, though, has always been serendipity. We love serendipity. The romance of the concept, the way it tickles the tongue whenever it is spoken. What we love most about serendipity though is the laziness, perhaps. The way things fall together.

We emailed Rosie Jones a short way back, wanting her twindling folk songs for the fortnightly gig WWL puts on in North London. She got back to us soon enough. She wasn’t performing solo anymore, but was playing as one half of a band called The Worry Dolls. They sounded a lot like the stuff we’d already heard, she said, only prettier and with more harmonies. If we were still interested, maybe they could play? Call it serendipity, or call it simple laziness, but we went along with it. No music to listen to, demos or otherwise. But we went along with it.

So the Folkroom comes, and we sit down next to our good friend and headline act Andrew Butler as two diminuitive girls – one with flame red hair, the other with clementine orange – take to the small stage. It takes about three seconds for the fact to kick in. The Worry Dolls are special. Like, really special. Warm toast on a cold night special. Look ma I’m on top of the world special. We look to Andrew beside us. He nods back. He gets it. He’s also terrified because he has to follow them, but he gets it.

I guess what we’re getting at here is that The Worry Dolls are our favourite thing since snow days. They still don’t have much by way of websites or CDs, but if you know where to look, you might just find some hidden treasures lying about the internets. We’ve gathered our very favourites – ‘Darling’, ‘Drive’ and ‘London’ – for you to listen to, and love, and hold worryingly dear. The Worry Dolls will be back at The Folkroom on July 20th, and play the Mandala stage at Glastonbury this Wednesday at 5pm.

Darling by Worry Dolls

Drive by Worry Dolls

London by Worry Dolls

Some of the more observant of you might have noticed a little button appearing on the left hand side of our page yesterday. Some of the less observant of you might have had me grab you by the shoulders and shake you vigourously before pointing at it eagerly. We’re a little excited about the button, you see.

Glastonbury Festival have asked us to join them as one of the 40 judges in the first round of their prestigious Emerging Talent Competition – the contest that decides each year which unsigned act will open the Pyramid Stage on the first day of the festival. It’s introduced us to some great acts before, including our old favourites Stornoway, and The Subways. To be a part of this process is a great pleasure, and an even greater honour.

We don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re pretty passionate about new music around these parts. We’ve featured a number of unsigned acts on Six Albums, and our fortnightly gigs at The Queens Head, The Folkroom, always features the best in up-and-coming folk musicians.

We’re hoping for a couple of things going into this role as a judge on the ETC panel – first, that we can discover a whole world of great new acts to enjoy over years to come and second, that we can help, even in the smallest way, one unsigned band find their place in the industry.

If you’re in a band, or don’t have any friends and prefer to play alone, we encourage you to sign up to the ETC over on the Glastonbury website now. You have until next Monday to do so, and there’s a whole panel of people like us waiting eagerly to hear your stuff!

There’s a sort of revolution in the air at the moment – a new breed of music that mixes beautiful melodies with elements of noise pop and electronic music. There are bands like Passion Pit who skirt the genres with an eye more on big sounds than beautiful messes, and acts like Animal Collective who throw themselves wholly into the art of noise and at time sacrifice songs to sound. The true art, though, is in the balance. The ability to meet modernity with melody is an artform in itself, and one that no artist has yet to master. dems, however, are coming closer than most.

Dan Moss is the mind behind the music, and with only two tracks thus far available he is catching the ear of more and more industry players every day. I’m getting this post in early so that I can feel smug six, maybe twelve months down the line when the boys in their skinny jeans and the girls in their boys’ skinny jeans are throwing his name about like its a frisbee. I’m playing this more as a boomerang – I want you to watch as it all comes back to me. Because I’m right here – dems is the sound of a man having fun with his music, making it for him and him alone. That’s how music should be.

Perhaps unusually Dan Moss is everything to dems – he plays producer, director, singer and instrumentalist. Best boy to, most likely. What results is a formed vision of sound as Moss wants it to be, untainted be diluted input and available to download for free at his bandcamp page. dems has only been a work-in-progress since March, but judging from Moss’ first two tracks it’s a work-in-progress that’s already ahead of schedule.

Check the free download of Lioness for a burst of the best new music you’ll hear this month.