Jim Carroll's guide to future sounds
Amanda Blank: resistance is futile
The word has been building about Amanda Blank for ages. The Philadelphia native made her bones working with art-rock band Sweetheart, going toe to toe with Spank Rock and collaborating with such like-minded souls as Santigold and MIA.
A solo album was the obvious next step, but this seems to have been in the works for almost as long as we’ve been talking about Blank. Indeed, when she rocked the house at the South By South West in Texas fest back in mid- March, that album was supposed to be mere weeks away.
But the white smoke has now finally appeared, and one of the raunchiest, most exciting albums of the year is set to land in September. Featuring production from Diplo, TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek and Spank Rock's XXXchange, I Love Yousounds fierce, funky and fun, an album of wall-to-wall club bangers, party anthems and a few old-fashioned heartbreakers thrown in for good measure.
Whether getting high on her own rhymes (the saucy flirting on Might Like You Better) or throwing down a slick, twisted pop gauntlet (the high-energy thump of Make It, Take It), Blank never lets the momentum sag for a nano-second. This is pedigree party rap that also knows which buttons to press to draw the indie, new wave and pop tribes to the dancefloor.
Blank admits it took her some time to sort out just how the hell she wanted to be represented on the album. “I was so used to working with other people that I couldn’t figure out right away what I wanted to do,” she says. “I didn’t want it to be just about club styles. I’m now all about loud, poppy songs because melodies and harmony have become just as important to me.”
Koko Von Napoo: va va voom
Here come les filles et le garçon. Named after The Napoos, a gang who ruled the roughneck streets of 1930s Manchester while wearing white silk mufflers, Koko Von Napoo are four electro popstars in the making who combine chic panache with a certain vroom-vroom.
From Paris, the three girls (Toupie, Rénarde and Kiddo) and one guy (guitarist Kokoboy) have already made a bit of a rattle for themselves with last year's Pollysingle and this year's swish four-track JuneEP.
That EP for the Trouble label is a good place to begin your KVN appreciation class. Tracks such as Rocky(what Kraftwerk might sound like if they were French and had sweet singing voices) and Juneshow the band's ability to craft sublime synth-pop pogos. A sparkling remix of Polly,meanwhile, shows the band's connections to the frisky French electronic scene.
Sadly, there were only a dozen or so people at the band’s debut Irish gig earlier at Dublin’s Crawdaddy earlier this year. Let’s aim to make amends the next time out.
- www.myspace.com/kokovonnapoo
The Dispatches
Mickey Gang
Your new favourite Brazilian band. Four teens from Colatina making super-duper sexy indie anthems. CSS, come in, your time is up.
[ www.myspace.com/mickeygangOpens in new window ]
Hurts
From Manchester, Hurts play suave, bittersweet broody classic pop. Check out their gorgeous Wonderful Life.
[ www.myspace.com/ithurtsOpens in new window ]
The Crêpes
Jangly, swoonsome Balaeric pop from Sweden.
[ www.myspace.com/thecrepesOpens in new window ]
BellaJane
Dublin four-piece push all the right buttons with their well-appointed indie-rock with folk frills.
