Laura and Steven Ansel (vocals/drums) had an intense few years, with incessant gigging and being with one another twenty four seven. They had to go their separate ways for a while to find out what their musical relationship meant. Laura packed her bags and bought a one-way flight to Los Angeles, a complete radio-silence between the two bandmates stretching on for months. She fell in with a songwriter’s crowd, penning tracks and collaborations with big-time pop producers and pitching songs for the likes of Rihanna. Steven went out clubbing and took a hell of a lot of drugs. ‘I don’t remember a lot about it,’ he says. ‘Classic break-up move, right?’

But now they’re back, and sounding just as bold as ever.

Daughter – We were lucky enough to see Elena Tonra (aka Daughter) play at the beautiful St Giles in the Fields church in London just before Christmas and she absolutely blew us away. We’d been meaning to catch her for months, but events always conspired, but nothing could have prepared us for one of our gig highlights of the year. On some levels she will be pigeonholed as another ‘girl with a guitar’, but there is much more to her music. We’ve seen it described as ‘dream-folk’ and ‘ghostly’, which isn’t too far wide of the mark, with the kind of subtle soundscapes that the XX do so well adding depth to her music. If we’re honest she had us hooked after one listen of Landfill, but live she really is something special. With a date at Islington Assembly Hall already in the diary for April and many more around the country, we really hope 2012 is her year.
Listen to and buy both her EPs here.
Lucy Rose – Really excited to hear the full album from Lucy Rose. Having done the backing vocal rounds with Bombay Bicycle Club, this year is definitely her time to shine as an artist in her own right. With a voice to melt the heart and some beautifully crafted songs she’s sure to do well this year. Expect a BBC member or 2 on backing as well.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adBPg8Zdp2g]
Alt J – We wrote this on seeing them live a couple of months back… ‘The last couple of years haven’t been short on intelligent, earnest ‘indie’ music, but where say Wild Beasts skirt the fine line of irritating pretentiousness, Alt – J seem more accessible in their own abstractness and imagery, but no less intelligent or intriguing in their performance and sound. On this showing, they’ll certainly be heading for the upper ends of the ‘ones to watch’ lists for 2012.’ – we’ll stand by that…
Social Network here–
Breezeblocks (demo) by alt-J
The Maccabees
Ascending and descending through the depths of all emotions, the title track from latest album Given To The Wild is a departure, brimming with wavering soft ambience, but the gritty guazey guitars, stop start rhythms and dashing assault of psychological similes that made The Maccabees one of our favourite bands remains. ‘We’ve grown up as people and changed as a band,’ guitarist Felix White said recently. ‘We’ve learned for the first time what we really wanted The Maccabees to sound like on record. It’s taken us three albums but we finally achieved that. We’ve discovered what we’re truly capable of and that feels really exciting.’ Sounds it.
Blood Red Shoes

Their Facebook bio may describe them as just ‘another fucking roll’n’roll band’ but we know different. Scuzzy riffs, rip em up guitar work and a blistering pace, Blood Red Shoes consistently deliver behemoths of tunes, and the follow up to Fire Like This and Box Of Secrets won’t be any different. Besides, since when has being a rock’n’roll band been bad? Some narrow minded twit called David A Noebel stated on his spoken word album The Marxist Minstrels back in 1974 that rock’n’roll ‘music is loud, primitive, insistent, strongly rhythmic and releases in an undisguised way the all-too tenuously controlled, newly acquired physical impulses of the teenager. Mix this up with the phenomenon of mass hypnosis, contagious hysteria and the blissful feeling of being mixed-up in an all-embracing, orgiastic experience, and every kid can become ‘Lord of the Flies’ or the Beatles.’ Sounds bloody brilliant doesn’t it?

Ten bands you must hear this year (with handy links so you can start right now)

Fanzine
Low by Fanzine
Lanterns On The Lake
Lanterns on the Lake ‘Lungs Quicken’ 
Grimes
Grimes – Skin 
Soldiers Can’t Dance
Soldiers Can’t Dance – Lego by soldierscantdance
Spring Offensive
A Stutter and A Start by springoffensive
Rachel Sermanni
The Fog by Rachel Sermanni
Young British Artists
Young British Artists – Everything In Front Of You
Ideals
Significant Other by Ideals
The Wave Pictures
The Wave Pictures – Sweetheart 
Gross Magic
Gross Magic – Yesterdays 

Francesca Baker