2019! With a year so jammed full of hate-fuelled political madness it can be easy to forget about the art that brought us all together time and time again. The UK’s best creatives have always seemed to naturally gravitate towards Bristol, resulting in a city that is too cool for its own good. This year has seen a whole host of new artists emerge in the underground venues and the return of many favourites. Where to start?!
BIMM sweethearts Krooked Tongue finally broke their silence in 2019 and dropped their debut single, which as you can imagine, went down a treat with fans. After gigging a lot and building themselves an image as one of the South Wests tightest, grungiest and charmingly melodic alternative bands they only had one thing left to do- release some music! ‘I Wanna Steal Your Car’ perfectly captures the essence of the band: distorted as hell and dripping with emotion. Since its release in November it has already racked up over 20k streams and shows no sign of slowing down. Vocalist Oli Rainsford recalls some of their more memorable shows of the year: an intimate acoustic set at 2000 trees, a support slot for Souer in Cardiff and their first ever tour. We are excited to see them keeping busy in 2020 and hopefully bring us some more new music!
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A few other BIMM artists that have been hard at work this year include George Clement who also dropped his debut single, the indie-tastic ‘Arty Devotee’ and IdleGod who has been all-around smashing it this year. After dropping his weird and wonderful new single ‘Cul-De-Sac’ in the summer he has been busy gigging with his band. A personal gig highlight of mine this year has to be being sat cross-legged on the floor of the basement in Cafe Kino, totally mesmerised by his acoustic set and the natural energy him and the band share. BIMM 2nd year Gabriel Templar also enjoyed releasing his debut single ‘Nobody Knows’ to an overwhelmingly positive response. The catchy pop ballad is sure to be stuck in your head, so get listening! Earlier in the year I reviewed Brodie Morgans’ solo EP: ‘Snakes Don’t Hiss’. He hasn’t stopped there, though. He’s been busy with his new punk project ‘Cuffs’ tearing up venues around Bristol. BIMM has seen so much new talent blossom this year and I can’t wait to hear what 2020 brings.
Over on the indie-pop scene there has been several new and exciting bands making their mark. Stay Lunar are my top picks for this year, having only started gigging in May, their unique approach to songwriting and flawlessly tight performances makes them a stand-out-from-the-crowd band from the get go. Their debut single ‘Brainshake’ is a refreshing take on classic indie and its colourful guitars and dynamic arrangement earned it a spot on Spotifys ‘Hottest New Bands’ playlist. Local promoters quickly picked up on their dramatically cool entrance onto the indie scene and got them supporting Little Comets and Only The Poets. After a jam-packed first year of gigging and releases the bar is set high for the Stay Lunar boys in 2020!
Photograph by Alice Sutton
Lets talk hip-hop! Glastonbury word wizard Riski has been hard at work this year weaving some new verses and revisiting some old ones. Other than featuring on none other than Dr Syntax’s new album, he has released his second single ‘Nicotine’, a moody and thoughtful follow-up to ‘These Days’. His appearances with Hip Hop Coffee Shop have been frequent and he even travelled to Guernsey to gig with them. You can keep up to date with him on his instagram @riskiuk where he debuts a lot of his homemade music videos and media.
We can’t summarise 2019 without talking about Kite Thief’s debut single ‘Pinky Promise’. This electric-shock energy record, along with the accompanying video, encapsulates Bristols alt rock/ prog metal scene perfectly. We love a bit of girl power too! Vocalist Elin Allin has led the five-piece through a host of great gigs this year, from a headline show at Crofters Rights to their first tour. Another lovely lady who headlined Crofters Rights was BIMM’s Anna Collette. Surrounded by the trusty ‘average men’ she debuted her new single ‘One Step’ to a full room and much applause. The single, available to stream on all major platforms, showcases her silky-smooth vocals and uplifting songwriting style.
Bristol emo icons THC Dreams have had another year of hectic shows, head banging and questionable emo fringes. They started off the year on a high with a new single ‘All My Friends’ and have continued to ride that wave all through 2019 with a number of great shows.
Taking Bristol back to the 90’s, The Malarkey have kept us on our toes this year with several new releases and lots of gigs. They’ve been juggling their lineup around, searching for the right bassist, as well as recording, gigging and writing. Impressive! Their latest single ‘Every Morning’ is a melodic and endearing throwback to another era, sonically reminiscent of Blur and songwriting not dissimilar to The Beatles. This year their music was featured on the critically acclaimed British film ‘Bait’ which received a 5 star rating from The Guardian. And that’s just a flavour of what they’ve been up to- you can keep up to date with the boys on social media.
Wooooah! That brings me to the end of my 2019 wrap-up. It’s been another year rich with music, art and culture in the UK’s most happening city, 2020 is set to be a banger!
Bristol Music Journal 