Blog: THE RECOMMENDER

We wander slightly off topic with this quick post, but it's for a good reason, as we enter Movember, or as it was formally known, November. This is the month when you all get to giggle at my top lip, as it makes an attempt at growing something resembling a moustache through the whole, rather scratchy, month. It's to support The Prostate Cancer Charity , to help fight the most common cancer in men. One man dies every hour from the disease in the UK, so we need all the support we can muster through your kind [...]

There's always the danger that 95% of the music that we blog about falls into one of two descriptions - electro pop, or 'a little bit Foals-ish'. Please forgive us for this. We are also well aware that there's a lot of female solo artists featured on here too, but in all honesty, the rate at which these amazing new female solo artists appear is almost factory-like. They too are mostly a little bit electro pop. Meh. Well this new recommendation, you'll be pleased to hear, is an electro pop outfit that flirts with a Foal-ish twinkle, but [...]

Do you know Beardyman yet? If not, you soon will. He's a one-off freak of nature and is releasing what promises to be a unique debut LP, ' I D one A Album ', on Rob Da Bank's Sunday Best label, in February 2011. It's hard to believe that this work is made with one guys mouth on a variety of loops. It's a real pinch yourself listen. Every sound, beat, riff and vocal is done by one man. Yes, everything! The beatboxing champion, aka Darren Foreman, has been [...]

Talk about aiming straight for the counter culture bullseye. Museum Of Bellas Artes , a new three piece band from Sweden, released their initial single, ' Watch The Glow'/'Who Do You Love ', on October 11th, through the blog-friendly Transparent record label. This was immediately after doing a mixtape for Vice's website, so with all these hipster boxes well and truly ticked, we witnessed the class of Shoreditch start their chattering, articles soon arrived on NME's radar and the remainder of the blogosphere got scribbling. We don't think it will stop there either [...]

. As some of you already know, whilst we were handing out flyers for a previous show some months back, a girl took one from my outstretched hand, turned to her mate and said the immortal line without any signs of a smirk... "O h, The Recommender parties are great! If you come once, they'll make you come multiple times ". And so our strapline was was born. The ONLY blog party you need to know about is back and we bring you three more extraordinary artists to salivate over. We specialise in taking our online [...]

Brighton might be known as 'London-by-the-sea' but it probably has a better music scene for its size than the capital. It's pretty easy to bump into people who are coming up with fresh ideas and that's a major thing that we love about this place. We were therefore a little surprised that it took the medium of Facebook to bring Yaaks to our attention. Especially considering one of their members, Thom, is a friend of The Recommender's and has DJ'd alongside our residents, Battery Powered, in the past. Our bad. Delving a little deeper we discover [...]

There are thousands of music blogs now in existence and it's difficult to know where to turn, or indeed return to. It's a global marsh of varying opinions, all discussing music, from hundreds of genres, but there's still many that are truly outstanding, worthy of praise and a repeated visit. Well, we want to shine a light on those excellent blogs. This isn't The Bloggies, or any other grand annual award giveaway, we simply want to canvass our network of music bloggers to gauge the real highlights in music blogging that are out there. You may have your [...]

Forget dating sites, forget ' Dutch courage ' at your local bar, forget holding out for that pretty girl at the back of your classroom that's never going to notice you, forget showing off your expensive cars and clothing, forget the gym - it's all pointless now, because we've found that special someone just for you. We say this with such conviction because the subject on today's Recommender is worthy of a place in your heart. If you're looking for someone with classic good looks, involving a set of Scandinavian cheek bones that would have made Audrey Hepburn question her [...]

If you enjoy that brand of loose and untidy indie music, once toiled by The Libertines, or the space-age variety from the Klaxons, of the sort that's heavily weighted with under-your-skin melodies and with Hoxton's alternative crowd engrained into it with indelible ink, then you should love Is Tropical . We first gave them our attention at the turn of the year, ( here ), and have enjoyed watching them grow and mature beyond their initial promise. Today we have a free mp3 to hand you from their next single, ' South Pacific ', out on November [...]

If you live in New York, or happen to be there this week, then you're one lucky music lover. The massive annual CMJ Music Marathon is going on all over the city and the reports of amazing show after amazing show are shooting out of Twitter like a giant cannon firing envy all over the rest of us. For those that are there you may just read this in time to catch Young Mammals play their CMJ show. We've covered them before on The Recommender, ( right here ), having made note of this [...]

Popular music that's doused in a little darkness, giving it a mature edge, or an alternative feel, washes over our palates much easier than the more common saccharin kind. Fond readers of The Recommender will kindly recall the likes of The Good Natured , Nedry , or the even darker Emika , but they're all respectively born from paths previously trodden by Bat For Lashes, Bjork or Portishead. They in turn have the likes of Kate Bush, P J Harvey and Liz Fraser to thank, so you see it's been a genetic bloodline for some time now [...]

It's worth keeping one eye on this Oxford trio, in fact, it's probably worth keeping two. We've been in love with their reflective, light-as-air indie that floats along with it's own momentum, ever since we first blogged them back in the summer. Following a successful wave of smart, intellectual bands of this kind, with Everything Everything , Delphic , Egyptian Hip Hop , they're a strong tip for a BBC Sound Of 2011 Poll nomination. Trophy Wife have their new video out today to back up the single for [...]

We've completed several posts about the Brighton band Mirrors here on The Recommender, including an enjoyable Q&A, ( listed here ). We've looked on adoringly from the beginning, having witnessed their first ever gig and since then they've matured and honed their sound into the beautiful, emotive noir pop that we hear today. We would be very surprised if they're not on lots of credible ' tips for 2011 ' lists come the end of this year. Their latest news arrived today in the form of a new single, Hide & Seek , due for release [...]

Hopefully you caught our recent post recommending the Australian four-piece Cloud Control , but if not you can pick up that coverage, including more videos, mp3s and our critique here . We think they're a band with an outstanding amount of mastery on offer and are serious breakthrough contenders for 2011. We received confirmation today that they will be returning to play the UK throughout October and November. They have a number of headline shows scheduled, but they've also picked up a handful of very useful support slots with the likes of Temper Trap , [...]

What do you think of when we mention 'manufactured pop'? Do you imagine the likes of Britney Spears, who was handed her career only after TLC turned down ' Baby One More Time '? Perhaps you consider the world of Simon Cowell, with his factory line of re-shaped identi-kit stars? Well these are indeed true examples, but in reality almost all of pop is somewhat manufactured, even since the 1950s Elvis or 1960s Beatles, as it has to tick certain boxes in order to be 'popular'. If the intention is to be precisely that then a [...]

We first picked up on Anita Blay, aka Cocknbullkid , at the end of 2008, before seeing her perform at the 2009 Great Escape Festival back around May last year, and it's a project we've kept a keen eye on ever since. The development has taken several changes since, with the likes of Moshi Moshi and Island records now on board and a performance on Jools Holland, but what definitely remains is her wonderful, clean voice and her ability to create pop music that's garnished with flecks of perfection. You may remember the song that [...]

We thought it worth posting about this as it's an insightful industry talk about music blogs at this year's In The City Festival , currently residing in Manchester, plus they give our blog a mention, but before you consider us a bunch of nihilistic wankers, please note that they genuinely raise many talking points that The Recommender is interested in. They gathered a quality selection of online folk for the panel, including Pitchfork 's Ryan Schreiber, Drowned in Sound 's Sean Adams, Hype Machine 's Dev Sherlock, My Band's Better Than Your Band 's Oliver [...]

We adore Clock Opera here on this blog. We've kept tabs on him for ages, culminating in an interview we did with him, when our contributor, Matt, met up with him back here . We think he's a seriously innovative talent with a massive 2011 ahead of him. As the anticipation for his debut album builds up, a trickle of singles and remixes are arriving and this one tops the pile for us. The original song is a yearning lament to the underdog, full of hope and fearlessness, but this Little Loud remix [...]

Yes you've returned to the right place - this is still The Recommender music blog that you all know and love, so please don't panic. We've had our blogging elves on overdrive whipping up this new design, with the aim of bringing you a smoother, slicker and smarter Recommender experience. The aim of this blog has always been to bring you the best new music from around the world, with a focus on providing good quality, well researched write ups. Showcasing it in a website that attempts to be just as sharp has always been an aim and [...]

LITTLE COMETS - ISLES This four piece band from the Newcastle-Upon-Tyne have been around too long to qualify for a post on The Recommender's main section, (as that's reserved for the discovery of only the freshest cuts), but today we focus on a new video they've released that's so special we simply couldn't resist giving it our spotlight. For those unfamiliar with the band, they jam out the kind of edgy guitars familiar with Foals, with the added twinkle of Vampire Weekend. Perhaps an obvious yet helpful comparison could offer up the aesthetic of [...]