AWOL One

Words by: Tom Hannan
In a word: Quizzical

AWOL One, leader of consistent stadium fillers The Shapeshifters, is more than just a musician – terms such as visual artist and thought-provoker are equally apt in describing different areas of his expertise. Behind the sales of 150,000 albums as a solo artist alone is a man who’s unleashed each of those facets of his ever shifting persona throughout the world, trying wherever possible, to whatever degree, to alter lives for the better if he can with his melodic and flamboyant take on hip hop. Audiences as far flung as the USA and Japan can attest to his success at it.

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Big Joe Turner

Like most blues singers in 1950’s America, Big Joe Turner, named so due to a massive stature to match his equally as large voice, found music through the church. Taking influences from gospel, Turner was one of the first performers to use swing with blues to make what would commonly be regarded as some of the first rock ‘n’ roll songs; including the timeless‘Shake, Rattle and Roll’ that would more famously be covered by Bill Hayley and his Comets. Big Joe Turner also played an important part in the sound of artists such as Elvis Presley who found that the upbeat blues was beginning to make its way into mainstream white culture. One could argue that without artists such as Big Joe Turner, we might not have had rock 'n' roll.

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Crystal Distortion

This breakbeat dance project is about transformation, from the grime of London hip-hop, techno and rhythms this band brings a blaze to a new sound that infuses sonic expression with European beats to make an accomplished club experience that can easily be taken on across a variety of niche dance genres. Celebrated live, their appearances are highly sought after with shows delivering a high-octane sense of panic with vocal samples and climbing, swelling and ultimately punishing beats escalating out of control.

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Elliot Hall

Words by: Greg Harper
In a word: Articulate

There's an impatient excitement for a new poet who wouldn’t mind listing Pete Doherty and T. S. Elliot in their reading collection, and it’s that rugged and bruised honesty snapped with realism in his words that would put Bristol folk player Elliot Hall into bed with Tom Waits far too well than is comfortably acceptable. Musically, not too experimental, but by playing it simple he’s given his songs a timeless appeal that could be the most gleaming thing about this incredibly self-motivated and talented scribe. His voice doesn’t sell the package but it sure does complete it, really making this minstrel a talent to be reckoned with. A rough, gruff and tumble voice that pulls away at lyrics this good is the kind of daydream we need in England to reignite a spark for credible new songwriters. Like a Billy Bragg version of Beans on Toast doing Neil Young, fans of folk, poetry and rock ‘n’ roll should pay attention to this wholly earnest and breathtakingly awe inspiring rogue who stands patiently beside a Waits-shaped hole.

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Emuni

Words by: Greg Harper
In a word: Surfin

Fix up, look sharp and as far as this performer goes, get the girls shaking themselves to beach friendly, almost Fun Loving Criminals-esque beats. Having made music for ten years, the experience now shining through producer Kevin Michael is the vibrant backdrop to Miami nightclubs and coast-side cruising rapture. Musical roots in New Orleans style jazz, his injection of electronic tales and samples has Emuni’s hip-hop bubbling from under the ground on summer days like a broken water main ready to explode over a street party splashing with Latino flair.

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Finniston

New Scottish outfit Finniston may be a pop band, but their Celtic influence by choice of instrumentation gives them something far more exciting to hit your ears with. Amid melodies not unlike The Feeling or Morning Runner, their piano work and string sections escape the humdrum within their tunes allowing them to score direction into playfulness. Songs like ‘Bellona Shuffle’ sound like The B52’s doing Fleetwood Mac and though being reasonably unknown just now this chirpy Glasgow band have more than enough magnetic pop and catchy vocals, living in what are genuinely well written songs, to become one of the more chart appealing acts of British soil.

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	becki cobb saidJul 9 2008 9:31 am Very Nice - chipper, yet relaxing!

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George Wassouf

George Wassouf has fronted over 30 records, performed live internationally and earned a stature in Arabic popular culture as a modern icon. He shot to fame at the age of 16 via a Lebanese showcase that started the careers of many large stars at the time. Known as the King of Tarab his songs, such as ‘Hilef il Amar’, have been substantial Arab hits, his apt for layering music in such a bold way winning praise outside that of just the Arab world. Easily one of the best vocalists and musicians behind the leading Arabic pop songs, George Wassouf is still releasing new material today that grows in popularity as the Asian invasion proves itself to have merit and inspiration in the Western world.

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James Brown

James Brown will make you get down… and then back up again. The fact of whether or not his influence is felt today isn’t even a question, renowned as the godfather of soul his legend is one of true unending power. Not just a vocal exhibition, his rough and poignant grunt being as well known as his choice of suits, but a master of the beat often using a variety of lines to make breakbeats and hip-hop. He would then put almost gospel style vocals to this base that would make songs such as ‘Get Up’ and ‘Poppa’s Got a Brand New Bag’ so alive with ‘This is a Man’s World’ offering his most endearing and touching performance as a vocalist. Sorely missed since his death in late 2006, his music is now being used as samples across a myriad of templates.

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	Christi saidJul 21 2008 4:30 am He's one of those people that make you go "so that where they got that from!"

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Johnny Copeland

Johnny ‘Clyde’ Copeland (the nickname comes from his days as a boxer) first made his recording debut in 1956, as a founding member of the Dukes of Rhythm in Houston, Texas. It was the start of a staggeringly successful career for the legendary bluesman, which saw him play with the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson and Big Mama Thornton in his early years before finding more commercial success in the early to mid eighties. Albums such as Copeland Special and Bringing It All Back Home became classics of the genre, though if you’re a newcomer, it’s arguably the Grammy winning Showdown LP that should be your first port of call.

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Kenny Rogers

Although his early career in jazz and doo-wop bands didn’t fly, his achievements as a solo performer have earned him the title of being arguably the biggest man in country music today. With an award winning catalogue spanning four decades, his biggest hits include ‘Lady’ and‘Islands in the Stream’ which was a duet with fellow country legend Dolly Parton being debatably the biggest country record in the world. Kenny Rogers still performs today, being one of the most celebrated artists on the road, his new material equally championed both critically and commercially, his strong vocal and classic melody giving him a changeless charm.

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Lata Mangeshkar

Lata Mangeshkar, it’s fair to say, is a well known voice in India. You don’t sing on nearly a thousand Bollywood movies without one or two people taking notice. The elder sister of Asha Bhosle (the inspiration for Cornershop’s ‘Brimful of Asha’, no less), she’s the proud owner of a number of accolades, among them the Bharat Ratna (the highest honour an Indian civilian can receive) and, from 1974 to 1991, the Guinness world record for the most recordings in the world. That’s a career that includes 30,000 songs in 20 languages, something which suggests she started on this path at an early age, which would be correct – when Lata, on her first day of school, was told off for teaching other children how to sing, she was so upset that she never went back. She also worked as an actress, but it was her stunning voice that made her the favourite of so many Bollywood directors, and before long, the Indian public at large.

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Linda Leen

Latvia’s premier pop talent, Linda Leen rose to prominence through entering a string of competitions in her homeland which she just, basically, kept on winning and winning. Her first performance as a professional was at the country’s annual music awards, where she caught the eye of a public who would later go on to vote for her in a competition to represent them at the Eurovision song contest. It lead to support slots with the likes of Macy Gray and the Pet Shop Boys, two artists you could argue her soulful, synth pop sound manages to deftly amalgamate. All that, and she’s also been a contestant in Miss Globe. Some people, eh?

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	Cameron Waldron saidJul 14 2008 3:18 am sexy

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Manu Dibango

Cameroon might not be internationally known for too much, but the fusing of its traditional music with innovative jazz at the hands of saxophonist and vibraphone player Manu Dibango has gained huge international acclaim. Though he built his name through collaborating on said traditional tones with the likes of Fela Kuti and Sly and Robbie, he’s also credited with creating one of, if not the, first soul records in Soul Makossa, a huge and acknowledged influence on the likes of Michael Jackson, The Fugees and Rihanna. Now probably the most respected face in music in Cameroon, he served as the first chairman of the Cameroon Music Corporation, but hasn’t in his later years become any less active as a musician – at 74, he still gets out the saxophone each and every day, and long may that continue.

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Phill Baxter

Words by: Greg Harper
In a word: Weary

With the eagerness of Justin Timberlake and the adroitness of Phil Collins this new, young and sensational jazz performer has so much energy he could play aside Jack Johnson with Marty Pellow on backing vocals and opportunely hold his own. A voice that cries to God and a passion unlike any other, the hunger is almost convulsing in the words of Phil Baxter as he bends his larynx over to make some of the most lasting and uplifting acoustic jazz this side of the San Francisco uprising. Not in the least bit dry or melodramatic, Baxter has soul enough to become the next James Blunt, only with a voice that doesn’t make you want to beat your grandma to death. You can’t believe something so colourful has come from England, but indeed it has!

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	Mara Couillard saidJul 14 2008 3:44 pm A beautiful voice with a beautiful face! I want some of that!

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Ras Midas

Moving to the UK at age 13, the Jamaican born star put this culture shock into the foundation of his work offering slightly Westernised, R & B takes on traditional reggae sounds that had been the noticeable backdrop to his childhood, Clarendon meeting Birmingham in total dismay but musical harmony. Fun and funky, Ras Midas has collated his inspirations into blaring reggae pop songs that inspire as much as they sidetrack, being sunny though laidback, snaps of breezy and palatable pop which at its heart is inciting revolution of the mind.

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Sheep On Drugs

Words by: Tom Hannan
In a word: Hedonistic

Sheep on Drugs seem confused as to whether they’re an integral and important part of pop culture or are merely poking fun at it, but whatever the answer really is, they sound like they’re having fun whilst doing it, and it’s for that reason that they’re so enjoyable. Theirs is a snotty brand of sleazy electronica and futuristic punk, they rant at audiences from a pulpit whilst covering them in fake blood and offer a sound so relentless it’s like repeatedly being run over by a synthesiser the size of a truck. Do they even like their audiences, their music, or each other? We’re not entirely sure, but to witness Sheep on Drugs is certainly an experience. Now there’s a sentence we never thought we’d utter…

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Supernought

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Susy Thomas

Simplicity is the key to understanding why London singer Susy Thomas has the ability to rid your days of demands. This songwriter has an earthy, almost Stevie Nicks tone that follows as brightly striking against her more subtle guitar moments and fiercely commanding songs like ‘Searching My Soul’ that pull towards Cheryl Crow in ardour. Pop folk is never as engaging as when performed by a woman that can offer her world on a sleeve of genuine talent and flowing, well conceived songs that show defined execution and talent for creation.

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Tali

Deserved winner of the coveted title of number one female drum and bass MC at this year’s riotous DnB awards, MC Tali has come a long way since growing up on a dairy farm in New Zealand. Though drum and bass might be very much her thing, she’s a clued up girl, willing to chat your ears off about new jack swing and folk if given half a chance. After being invited over to Bristol to work with scene godfather Roni Size – an offer one doesn’t turn down – the pairing birthed an album, Lyric on my Lip, the success and sheer ‘my god, that sounds huge’-ness of which finally convinced her to push pause on the journeys of her other talents – she’s a classically trained singer, pianist and qualified secondary school teacher – and forever tear it up on the mic. The classroom’s loss is drum and bass’ gain, no doubt.

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The Beat Maras

Words by: Tom Hannan
In a word: Rambunctious

The Beat Maras were once friends of friends. Now, they’re friends for life, locked in a sound – a ramshackle rock and roll fuzz that resembles the Doors attempting to cover the Libertines – that isn’t going to let them, or its listeners, out of its clutches without putting up a heck of a bare knuckle boxing match. Achingly ‘today’ and clued up to the eyeballs on modern British indie rock, few would bet against a band with this obvious level of scary dedication following in the footsteps of their heroes, or dare we say it, even going one better, and fulfilling all of the broken promises of each of those who came before them.

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Woody Guthrie

Woody Guthrie is as important to folk music as he is to punk music and, arguably, American politics. His famous ‘This Machine Kills Fascists’ sticker sat perpetually on a guitar on which he would strum out everything from political diatribes and protest songs (most notably, and beautifully, on ‘This Land is Your Land’) to children’s music and traditional folk. Without the man who would become known as The Dust Bowl Troubador – once a columnist for a communist newspaper and, in song, always a staunch ally of the working class from whence he came – we’d have no Dylan, no Joe Strummer… and you can plot on a graph what that would mean, essentially, no good music in the last 60 years

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Works in Progress

Words by: Tom Hannan
In a word: Studied

From their origins at the Beatfeast spoken word poetry nights to adding music to the mix and spreading the resulting funky paste all over the south of England, Works in Progress might not, as their name suggests openly, be the finished article yet, but they’ve come a heck of a way since their freeform, jam night beginnings. Unsurprisingly given their base in poetry, hip hop and intricate rhyme schemes are nodded to wherever possible, but this is music to tap your feet to as much as you like to stroke your chin. It’s nice to be able to do both for a chance, isn’t it?

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