i love spectrals and his northern twang. his extended play was in my top three eps of last year and his debut album bad penny will be out in october. if you’re not excited by the fact then quite frankly you’re no friend of mine. i’m sorry. that was harsh. i’ll give you one more chance. to help persuade you louis has released an album track as a big of a teaser. you can download it totally for free on this very site. now “why why why” wouldn’t you do that?*

*unless you listen to this song, that little reference will mean nothing to you. nothing.

i’m not a massive fan of tips for 2011 lists. actually that’s wrong. i am a fan of reading them. i’m not a fan of writing them. i just know i’ll end up writing about somebody that either i fucking love but in all seriousness is never going to make it; or somebody that right this moment i’m loving but come mid january i will hate and then have to live with the fact that i tipped them for glory as jamie theakston plays them constantly on heart and i wonder what the hell i was doing for the next eleven and a half months. instead, i’m going to burden josh with the pressure.

that’s right, my six year old son is going to tell you who will be the real breakthrough acts this year. now josh doesn’t know the names or output of a lot of the new pretenders to the blogosphere throne, so instead i’m playing him examples of the music from other places tip lists, plus a few of my own. so, with nods to the 405, the pigeon post and the bbc, here goes.

first off are the tracks that i put in front of him. you’ll know by now that i’m a massive summer camp fan. josh was already aware of them from an earlier post where he liked their video for ’round the moon’. he picked them out once again and i don’t think it’ll be long until he actually remembers who they are without the aid of a nudge when i mention them. also from the moshi moshi stable comes spectrals. another act i rave about a bit on here and another of josh’s tips for 2011. he didn’t say much about the music, but let’s assume he fell in love with the 60s infused guitar strums. sunday girl took more than one listen as i was sure he’d like her, and after three or four plays of ‘four floors’, including the diplo remix, i was correct. he may just have said he liked her to shut me up, but what are kids for if they aren’t for forcing your own tastes onto?

two other bands got the thumbs up. the first of which, cults, surprised me a little. cults sound very female. although this is only a positive thing for me, josh is at that age when he doesn’t like anything with girls taking a big role in because he still thinks girls are yucky. that leads onto his final pick from my selection perfectly. the band are yuck. as it happened i was wearing my cajun dance party t-shirt while we were doing this, although i doubt very much it swayed josh’s choice. mainly because i am certain he knows nothing of the link. whatever the reason i am delighted that he picked them because i also think they’re ace.

onto the 405 list. before i forget, you can download their tips for 2011 mixtape here by the way. there were a few acts he’d already been played (including cults & spectrals) so i missed them out, but as it transpired he only cared about the early tracks as it was. it needed less than 20 seconds of grouplove to get a definite “yes”. personally they remind me of somebody that i can’t quite put my finger on. if i remember by the end of the post i’ll tell you. whoever they are, i agree with josh. in time honoured x-factor tradition, the good ones kept coming. both treefight for sunlight and jonquil garnered eager head nods from josh, and make his list of tips.

that was it though. maybe it was because a lot of the rest had slightly slower build ups and josh doesn’t like to be left waiting. maybe it was just because he was getting bored and wanted to get on with building the lego @emsalts bought him for christmas. whatever the reason, he just didn’t take to the rest of the mixtape.

after a brief break we soldiered on with a thorough examination of pigeon posts sound of 2011 (available here). he spread his love out a little more here, again starting from the off though. i enjoy walsh, especially the daft punk torn sounding ‘days of thunder’ and josh agreed. i’ve been bombarding him with the tron score for the past few days so this surprised nobody. the other artist he picked out was somebody i know very little about, botany. what a pick though! they must have passed me by when i first sailed through the tracks, but i’m so pleased josh didn’t miss them. i am impressed to such an extent that expect a post about them sometime early january.

the final list we looked at was the bbc sound of 2011. by now we were both getting hungry and keen to get a list finalised. we sped through the bbc site, and as it turns out the only josh pick was the one artist that isn’t available to listen to on the bbc page. jai paul is a bit micachu if you want a lazy description. it is better than josh’s though which pretty much came down to the fact that he liked the video to btstu and the collage type picture of jai paul.

as for me, i’ve decided that i will mention one act. the time is right for ghostpoet. he’s my tip, and apologies in advance if i’ve just given you the kiss of death.

there you have it. i hope josh is right with his tips. if he isn’t i’ll make sure he puts more time into his 2012 choices and there will be no wii mario kart next christmas.

coming up over the christmas period i’m with the family and all that jazz for most of the time so posts might be a little irregular. i’ll be trying to do a couple of features though and a few spotify playlists. first off, this one. i’ve chosen my favourite track from each of the 2010 albums of the year i picked, other than those that aren’t on spotify. as an extra bonus i’ve put in my choices from my favourite three eps from 2010 as well. what’s more, my two favourite singles that aren’t on any of those records (still with me?) are here too… that’s ‘the sea is a good place to think of the future’ and spanish sahara’ by the way.

sockformation’s top ten albums of 2010 and then some other tracks as well (spotify)

album review: spectrals. extended play. 10 october 2010. moshi moshi

this is another ep that i’ve decided to rate as an album. why? partly because i’m lazy and can’t be bothered to execute the simple task of adding a new category, but mainly because i don’t give singles a mark out of ten, but i do so for albums. i think seven tracks is enough to rate out of ten.

i’m feeling seriously shit today, or “srsly rub” as i’ve just text to my better half in a way to try and stay young. going off on a total tangent by the way… i think i proved my age the other day when i was taking the piss out of said other half with the insult “you’re just not up with the kids”. up? up with the kids? it’s down with the kids tim, you retard. anyway, i digress. my reason for pointing out i am ill is as an early excuse for this being a shamefully short review for what is an excellent record.

i first heard spectrals supporting summer camp many months ago at the lexington. i’ve been looking forward to a proper release ever since and ‘extended play’ doesn’t disappoint. standout track ‘peppermint’ is the perfect example of louis jones’ recognisable northern voice and obvious love of sixties classics. the sound is one part beach boys, one part the coral, but mainly eight parts spectrals.

it’s been out for almost a month now and despite continual listening i’m not in the slightest bit bored of it yet. go get it.

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