2012: Scoring the End Times

Future of the Left: Contrarians 2.0

Any album that even threatens to contain a track called Robocop 4: Fuck Off Robocop deserves all the anticipation your musically numb husk of a body can muster. Somewhere amidst the inundation of sheer commercial banality we, the record-buying public, have endured on a daily basis for the last ten years has lurked Andy Falkous, in one incarnation or another. The former McLusky front-man defied pessimistic predictions when he wound up that brilliant Welsh trio in 2005 by re-emerging into a barren British rock landscape with the equally inspired Future of The Left.

Thank goodness then that 2012 will see our reassembled heroes unleash their third full lengther in the form of The Plot Against Common Sense. Building upon the gritty tones and bone-dry humour of earlier years, FotL helped keep guitars relevant with both Curses and 2009's Travels With Myself And Another, and if glimpses of the new material afforded by a couple of recent radio sessions are anything to go by this new album is set to continue that good work.

But enough of the proselytising: back to those rumoured song titles. City of Exploded Children. Teenage Death Party. The Bisexuality Of Distance... oh and of course Sorry Dad, I Was Late For The Riots... Yep, late or not, what really matters is that FotL turn up to the party. [Austin Tasseltine]

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Grimes: Dream Fortress

Experimental bedroom-pop prodigy Claire Boucher (aka Grimes) may have issued her first recording less than two years ago (a charmingly ramshackle bricolage of scratchy loops and sensuous vocals entitled Geidi Primes) but since then she's managed to accrue a devoted cult following, a healthy amount of critical acclaim and the #1 spot on the 2011 'cool list' compiled by the non-more-hip Gorilla vs Bear blog.

Ask her about her influences and she's equally as likely to name-check the likes of Mariah Carey or Nicki Minaj as she is Hildegard von Bingen or Arvo Part; a fact borne out by her standout 2010 LP, Halfaxa – a sprawling, otherworldly, yet intensely moving opus that manages to balance breathtaking classical vocal techniques with lo-fi post-Burial atmospherics and an eccentric, unorthodox pop sensibility.

It was, however, her 2011 track, Vanessa – a monstrous, unstoppable earworm of a tune – that proved she has what it takes to hang with her pop heroines on her own terms. With her forthcoming LP, Visions, apparently designed with the specific intent to energise a live audience, we eagerly anticipate another heady mix of canny musical intuition and soaring ambition; icy introspection and burning desire. [Mark Shukla]

Visions is due for release via 4AD on 12 March.

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The History of Apple Pie: Fuck A Yuck?

The History of Apple Pie apparently selected their awkward moniker for its easily-Googleable qualities. So we went ahead and looked them up, and it turns out they’ve been around since 1381 – though back then they were known as ‘Tartys in Applis’. Butseriouslyfolks, such pastry-related webpages are growing increasingly outnumbered by those extolling the virtues of these London slacker-rock nostalgists.

Released in May 2011, debut single You’re So Cool modestly announced their sound’s twin illuminations – Stephanie Min’s breathy vocals and Jerome Watson’s fuzz-saturated guitar lines – while B-side Some Kind dialled up the distortion to add depth to their appeal. The DayGlo food-fight video for second single Mallory gave that appeal a fitting visual metaphor: as converse and denim get splattered in cake and jelly, their messy but sweet charms revealed their full potential.

The divisive Yuck have already come out as fans, which is fitting when you consider how neatly the two bands’ influences dovetail: to Dinosaur Jr, Malkmus and the rest, THoAP fold in shoegaze (check out Before You Reach the End’s feedback bedrock) and noise-pop (early Primitives to give a period reference; Asobi Seksu a contemporary one), to delicious effect. When their debut album arrives, they’ll leave deserts for dust in the Google rankings. [Chris Buckle]

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Muscles of Joy: Looking In The Shadows

November saw the release, on the Watts of Goodwill label, of the self-titled debut LP from Muscles of Joy – one of the most eccentric and imaginative acts to emerge on the Glasgow scene in recent years. The seven-piece’s music acknowledges the Slits, Raincoats et al, but is ultimately travelling towards more abstract landscapes; a rapturously-received set at Cry Parrot’s Music is the Music Language festival last September evinced the widespread interest in that approach.

Muscles of Joy’s development of post-punk/art-rock tradition is partly driven by the unorthodox use of instrumentation – guitars are deployed in primarily rhythmic ways, and homemade instruments are in evidence – but more fundamentally, it reflects a democratic, open-minded approach to song that refuses to foreground specific individuals, instruments or melodic lines.

Consequently, despite the plethora of musicians, and the diverse range of sound sources utilised, Muscles of Joy’s music always retains a sense of space and uncertainty: pieces develop in an intriguingly wobbly way, eschewing typical song-structures without embracing full-blown improvisation. It’s a mixture ultimately held together by overlapping vocals, hypnotically entwined with the music’s rhythms. Moreover, it suggests myriad possible directions to take from here: if their rise in 2011 was remarkable, this could be an even better year. [Sam Wiseman] 

Muscles Of Joy is available at Monorail Music, Glasgow, or direct from Watts Of Goodwill.

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Laurel Halo: Electroshock Therapy

Laurel Halo's 2010 EP, King Felix, marked the arrival of a strange and precocious talent. Playing off the most impossibly elegant electronic pop moves against a formidably cold, glassy production style, its lyrical themes were abstract but curiously affecting, due mainly to Halo's own beautifully controlled vocal performance.

For a debut record it was incredibly self-assured, but in 2011 Halo proved that her laurels aren't for resting on as she delivered two sister EPs, Antenna and Hour Logic, that moved her sound away from the pop realm and squarely into the domain of electronic exploration. Hour Logic in particular was a revelation – a hyper-detailed gestalt of technoid rhythms and glistening synth-scapes that found Halo courageously ditching her vocal hooks and proceeding to playfully reverse-engineer the canon of electronic dance music for her own creative ends.

It's an incredibly rich and rewarding tapestry and manages to add something to the discourse regarding the possible futures (and hidden histories) of electronic music, in addition to being a hugely pleasurable listening experience. There's still no news of when her first full-length LP might drop but given the scintillating quality of her output so far we're certain it'll be worth the wait. [Ted Maul]

Hour Logic is out now via Hippos in Tanks.

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El-P: He'll Sleep When You're Dead

It's been nearly five years since Definitive Jux label founder and all-round badass Jaime 'EI-P' Meline released a true follow-up to his 2007 album I'll Sleep When You're Dead. His love for synth-twiddling, beat-making and production was made clear on 2010's stellar instrumental collection Weareallgoingtoburninhellmegamixxx3, but his head-spinning lyrics and dark sense of humour were sorely missed. Fresh from an energised reunion of his pioneering group, Company Flow, El's as yet unreleased third solo LP – tentatively titled Cancer For Cure – should see a marriage of all these elements.

This is the Odd Future generation where free mixtapes are dropping almost daily and the hip-hop universe is in flux, but El-P has always had an irreplaceable voice. He doesn't rap about typical hip-hop subject matter, instead combining sci-fi and high-art influences with a curiously level-headed sense of aggression. His creative use of samples, restless snare-blasts – not to mention his careful use of cameos, whether Trent Reznor or The Mars Volta – have led to a vivid and downright frightening experience on his first two albums, which still stand tall as abstract hip-hop classics. If his sharp guest turns on recent mixtapes by Das Racist and Mr. Muthafuckin' eXquire are anything to go by, we can't wait to hear El Producto hit the hat trick this year. [Ross Watson]