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Yesterday I spent the evening searching for new music, but ones with a new unique sound. I used LastFM to do this as mentioned in my previous post and I have been impressed in what is coming out of Scandinavia at the moment, especially Norway. I like to believe that I’m pretty open minded when it comes to music, but I am influenced by the likes of Royksopp and similar synthesized artists. The bands which I have started listening to are “First Aid kit” who have a similar sound to Fleet Foxes, Rockettothesky who have a more electronic trance sound and Elsiane who remind me of a very early day Lamb.

George Davies founder of Next and George (now owned my ASDA) has launched another new brand call GIVe. The name is a bit of tongue and check with the use of the Roman Numerals IV to signify his 4 brand. George has invested £20m of his own money into this new venture and is positioning itself as a link between designers and high street fashion. The launch of GIVe during a recession is no coincidence as Next was also launched during the 1990 recession.
The chain is going to open up approximately 25 stores across the UK to begin with the intension to expand.

H&M have released their Autumn/Winter 2009 collection and have followed suit with other companies and affiliated themselves with guest designers. Previous designers include Stella McCartney, Karl Lagerfield and Matthew Williamson.
The Spring collection will see the designer Sonia Rykiel produce a line of clothing which will include her signature Knit’s but also extend to lingerie and other related accessories which is a first for H&M.

“This collaboration fits perfectly with our philosophy. The Sonia Rykiel pour H&M lingerie collection is the ideal way to offer the essence of Rykiel to a great number of women around the world, and a beautiful way to close the year.”

Says Nathalie Rykiel, president and artistic director of Sonia Rykiel.

The collection will be released on December 5th just in time for the final Christmas gifts.

A Great way of finding up and coming new musical talent is by going onto sites such as lastfm.com, typing in artists you like, then checking out some of the recommended similar adverts. This is how I found many new artists, such as the recommendations from Royksopp which were Telepopmusik and Hooverphonic. The further down the list the more likely they are relatively new.
The main issue about finding new artists on Myspace is that it is difficult to browse and search similar sounding artists. I believe that if this facility existed, Myspace could regain a lot of the users it has lost

Portishead are going back to the studio to write their 4th album, it has been reported. Geoff Barrow, in an interview with BBC 6 Music confirmed that the band are back writing and producing the 4th album with the hope a 2010 release. It comes after Barrow recently completed a new album with his other band called Bleak. Barrow had discussed the long term future of the band with band member Beth Gibbons after the release of the album titled “Third” as she asked “Are we going to do this forever?” and he replied “Well, yeah, maybe”. There had been an 11 year gap between the 2nd and 3th album.

London Fashion week was full of clothes, designers and gossip. Not only did Mark Fast use some plus size models in his show, sparking outrage amongst some fashion industry experts, but Sophie Reade, Big Brother winner 2009, and a group of Size zero protesters were escorted from the high profile event. The group were campaigning against the continued use of stick thin models in the fashion world. The event organisers eventually feared for the safety of the celebrities and the models working and had the group removed from the venue.
Campaigners, wearing ‘Frankie says Curvy’ t-shirts marking the 25 anniversary of the pop band Frankie Goes to Hollywood, attacked celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Emma Watson for being too thin claiming that they are positively promoting the emaciated look and young women aspire to be them.

Burberry has come back to its British roots and closed the 25th London Fashion Week after not appearing in over a decade. They have moved from their usual strategy of appearing at the Milan and New York fashion shows to also appearing in London. The reasoning for this is due to the downturn in the economy and luxury goods being massively affected, with the loss of 260 jobs. They are trying to change the chavy image which they have recently had in this country. Burberry hats and clothes have recently been stereotyped to football hooligans and larger louts.

The BBC’s new music talent of 2009 was voted to be Little Boots and she has not failed to impress so far. The singles which she has released have been of high caliber, catchy and original. You only have to watch her perform on Later with Jools Holland to realize she has something original, unique and creative about her with her self-styled act and the maturity she show’s in her music and lyrics.
She has had to fend off talent from the likes of Florence and the Machine and La Roux to take this prestigious recommendation and if the past has anything to provide optimism for, previous acts taking this title have been Adele and Duffy.

Now I am all for the Mercury Music award promoting and rewarding up and coming talent and genuine appraisal of an album, but I think this year’s winner was not a true reflection on what the award is about. This year stinks of being controversial for the sake of it, as the general public believes that Florence and the Machine were a sure thing this may of influenced the outcome. Speech Debelle who won the award was not particularly praised during the performances of the ceremony and has very few record sales to date.
Blues and Jazz acts have been included in nominations before but never won, which could be one reason for this outsider win, to try and make the award more inclusive. I not saying the album is poor in fact I quite liked it, but I do not believe that it is a worthy winner.

The UK has always had a good heritage of good quality diverse music, the Beatles is a good example. But why is the UK so good at spotting and supporting new music from overseas? Most recently The Killers and The Kings of Leon have built their music careers in Britain, with The Kings of Leon writing a song on their second album “Fan” paying homage to the support they received in the UK. Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix both broke their careers at Britain, Hendrix signing managed by the same team as the Rolling Stones.
I think the UK has a good history of signing and supporting up and coming talent, but also the diversity of the radio stations and the festivals help new music and artists being showcased to the public which I believe to be harder in the US where radio stations are usually tied to one particular genre, likewise in festivals.
It also helps being the centre of Europe in terms of music, artists from Australia often come to London to promote their career as it provides a large size and verity of audiences. Take Pendulum, originally from Perth Australia, they relocated to UK in 2003, this is not saying that they would not be popular in Australia, but as a DNB act they would of found it difficult to push their music into the southern hemisphere.