As soon as this post is done and up online we're off to flagellate ourselves repeatedly in the hope of some atonement. We're supposed to be recommending emerging, new music, so if any of you lovely readers have come across this band before then we can only apologise and serve up our intention to repent for hours on end following this article. You see, this band have been floating around for some time, so there's a danger you know them. We don't like to recommend bands that are established in the public domain, it's kind of pointless. Not that we [...]
When you're hunting around the edges for very new music you come across a lot of utter crap. That's the price we pay for setting ourselves up as your filtering service. Please don't think that we come across bands this awesome every time we look, we don't, it takes an eye-wateringly long time to wade through the myriad of bullshit pretenders before we stumble upon diamonds cut this way. And this is truly one of those diamond finds. You're going to love them. Your friends are going to love them. NME is going to slap them all over their radar [...]
In a week where every other blog seems to have posted the latest leaked tracks by Lana Del Rey and/or Grimes , it seems like 2012 is already stepping up the pace of unoriginal blog posts. We enjoy both of those artists, particularly Grimes, who is due for a big 2012, albeit not as big as Lana Del Rey, but size isn't everything is it, and that's exactly what is at the heart of the frustration with this type of hit-hunting version of blogging - they want to be bigger. We famously adore our blog network and [...]
So here we go once again with another year, as we deliver to your patient ears the first full Recommender-ed artist of 2012. It's a fantastic way to kick off what we hope will be another year of superb discoveries, as this new duo have all the perfect ingredients for our readership. You come to these pages for quality cuts and today we serve up a dish as tasty as any. A Michelin starter for 2012 - what else would you expect? If all goes well we predict for this duo to be just about everywhere, as they tick so [...]
In tandem with the BBC Sound Of 2012 poll, a collection of music bloggers decided to get together to try and design our own list of exciting artists that we thought could break through over the next twelve months. The initial results of fifteen artists were published in a long list back at the start of December. Today we return to the results to produce the final five winners from that list, again in line with the BBC, as today they produce their own finalists. You can now see our successful top five [...]
As you can see from our 2010 review, ( found here ), we love an end of year wrap up, so we can reflect on what The Recommender's achieved over the last twelve months, hopefully giving you a little insight to what a year in a music blogger's life can be like. Each year throws up new opportunities for this blog, as it continues to establish itself in the world of music and this year was not short of new highlights. It's a labour of love producing this site's content, but you should also know that the rewards, both emotional [...]
You come to The Recommender to hunt out new music. Well, today's gigantic post has our Top 40 Tracks Of 2011 , so your hunting won't get any easier than this. Think you've heard them all? Think again. Perhaps, if nothing else, hit play on the tracks you've never heard before? We're confident that this list won't only surprise you, but will equally reward you too. To clarify, please note that the only criteria for a tune to earn an entry is to have either; A) been officially released this year as part of a single or [...]
Tony Marks hosts his New Music Show on Juice Radio , the largest independent station in our home city of Brighton, where he delivers contemporary releases on four shows each week. From January of this year he's been kind enough to invite us on to his show each month to natter about any new discoveries we've made. Every show's been an absolute blast, allowing us to deliver The Recommender in a completely different way to a new audience. You can find all of the shows that we've appeared on at this link . Below we [...]
THE WEEKND - HOUSE OF BALLOONS You don't visit this blog for it's R&B expertise. However, you don't need to be an expert to realise that this artist is making something special in a genre that's drowned in it's own self-obsession for years. For it's cross-over appeal, blurred boundaries and excellent production, no other album this year has sounded so 2011. GOTYE - MAKING MIRRORS It seems Walter De Backer finally located [...]
We are about to embark on The Recommender's end of year lists. We plan our usual 'Top 40 Tracks Of 20112, as well as our 'Best Albums Of 20112 and our usual end-of-year summaries. Obviously every blog and website is at it, so there's a danger of 'list fatigue' for the readers, as they scan one lengthy opinion after another, but they're clearly not that put off as blogs typically see their traffic actually rise in December, as lists go viral and the Google and Hype Machine searches drive lots of results in their direction. Today we want to point [...]
Most folks know that we are a blog based in the coastal city of Brighton, UK. We're proud to be associated with this city and even more so when it produces new bands as good as this local five-piece. However, we believe that Cave Painting have exactly what it takes to reach well beyond Brighton's city limits and take on the world, as their brand of soaring, emotive, indie pop music has enormous potential. Stadium-sized potential. Their EP, You'll Be Running Soon , has been released in recent weeks and holds [...]
Right at the close of the year we come across one of the tidiest finds of 2011. We have fallen completely head over heels in love with this new band and predict that once you too have hit play on the below buttons, you will also be devoting a little piece of your hearts to them. It's been another good year for discovering new music, with a multitude of interesting finds, so topping it off with this new group seems like the perfect way to draw down the curtain on these last twelve months. Our Best Tracks Of 2011 [...]
We're breaking with an un-written tradition on this post. Regular readers will know that this music blog is all about uncovering new music. Essentially it's about discovery. It's about filtering out the great stuff from the mountains of average stuff that's out there, dusting it down and handing it out to all those who care for quality new music. This means that if a band already has an album out we're unlikely to provide coverage, as they've already emerged and we would only be adding to the coverage that's already out there. Sure we can't be first to everything, but [...]
This time of year is a great time to catch up on those artists that we've never quite found the time to cover. We can make some headway into the thousands of unread emails and it's a good time to return to The Recommender's (in-)famous 'queue'. It's a lengthy list that never fully empties, currently now standing at over 30 artists. This uncertain limbo is a kind of demilitarized zone that we've created so we can store and log all those artists the second we uncover them, so they're never forgotten, whilst maintaining the full intention of returning to them [...]
What is that? Is it a play on the name of that mountain range in Switzerland? Is it literally something to do with the anatomy of Swiss people? Is it a new euphemism from those pesky teenagers that we're no longer privy to? Are they linking that most sensuous, kissable part of every human being and linking with it that most neutral of European countries? It makes no sense to us. Are we missing the joke here? It's hard not to consider their choice of band name, particularly when it sounds so, well, downright silly. We would love to state [...]
People often ask us, " what sort of music does The Recommender cover? ". Well, we follow our taste. That doesn't really answer the question, but in all honesty, we hop from genre to genre and style to style. The one rule we always apply is that it has to be good to get inches on here. Very good. We have never been one of those blogs to post several times a day, or even every day, as being selective allows our readers to truly discover on this blog's pages. To arrive and find something that isn't necessarily already plastered [...]
Unless you're getting excited about the X-Factor winner's inevitable Christmas release, or happy to step on the band-wagoning, anti-Cowell, counter-single, usually of something equally as pointless, then you can consider December something of graveyard when it comes to discovering new music. Now that the BBC Sound Of 2011 Poll has been announced, most record labels, PR firms, or self-promoting artists are now going to wait until the new year before pushing any serious, new contenders our way. It's understandable, as Christmas retail is for the mass market and the various commentators on music also need holidays too. It's [...]
The BBC Sound Of 2012 poll has been described as " the definitive annual list of exciting new artists to watch out for ". It's a poll that The Recommender has proudly been asked to vote on for the last three years, which not only helps confirm music blogs as an established media within the music industry, but more importantly it helps us to do the one thing that we're here for - to help people discover great new music. However, this year there exists a parallel poll, a non-definitive list if you [...]
We fear we could lose readers by admitting the following guilty pleasure. It's a secret we harbour most privately, for the shame bears down heavy upon our shoulders, as it's weight is like carrying a cross through the desert sands. However, we feel that today's post is an appropriate time to reveal this most clouded of hidden delights, as it leads us to the aesthetic shared by today's recommendation. You would never guess it from knowing us, but, gulp, we have a secret adoration of the tune Wicked Game , by Chris Isaak . [...]
The Recommender prides itself on being well-networked. We put a lot of effort into sharing, chatting, tweeting and generally being an all-round friendly blog, especially to other music bloggers. We understand the time and effort that goes into making a successful music blog and so we sympathise with the many thousands of other bloggers out there, who put their hearts and passions into their spaces. Every year we run through hundreds of music blogs, either via our bookmarks or our RSS feeds and get tons of enjoyment and, most essentially, a boot-load of new music. There really is [...]
THE RECOMMENDER
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