Set your ears and eyes on the latest crop of talented new songwriters and composers to join PRS for Music in the latest quarter, including Solardo, Breakfast Muff, TJ Koleoso, Creatures, Iskra Strings and Craig Tattersall...
Solardo (pictured above)
Mancunian production duo Solardo have been hailed as one of the most exciting new names in UK dance music for their unwavering groove and euphoric live sets. Last year, the pair clocked in around 200 shows from Ibiza to Glastonbury, scooped Best Breakthrough at the DJ Mag Awards and scored multiple number one ranking releases on Beatport.
With a background in garage and dubstep, the ambitious twosome – otherwise known as Mark Richards and James Eliot – have worked hard to get to the top, and it’s paid off. They’ve done everything from jumping the barriers at the Albert Hall to get their USB to Jamie Jones (later releasing via his Hot Creations label), to traveling to festivals whenever a DJ downloaded their music – just so they could film the moment it dropped in their set. Now that’s dedication.
They kicked off the year as the cover stars of DJ Mag and have just finished up a run of sold-out dates across the UK and Europe. With fans from Annie Mac to Skream, and releases stacking up on labels including Chase and Status’s MTA Records, 2018 is set to be massive.
solardo.net
Breakfast Muff
Solardo (pictured above)
Mancunian production duo Solardo have been hailed as one of the most exciting new names in UK dance music for their unwavering groove and euphoric live sets. Last year, the pair clocked in around 200 shows from Ibiza to Glastonbury, scooped Best Breakthrough at the DJ Mag Awards and scored multiple number one ranking releases on Beatport.
With a background in garage and dubstep, the ambitious twosome – otherwise known as Mark Richards and James Eliot – have worked hard to get to the top, and it’s paid off. They’ve done everything from jumping the barriers at the Albert Hall to get their USB to Jamie Jones (later releasing via his Hot Creations label), to traveling to festivals whenever a DJ downloaded their music – just so they could film the moment it dropped in their set. Now that’s dedication.
They kicked off the year as the cover stars of DJ Mag and have just finished up a run of sold-out dates across the UK and Europe. With fans from Annie Mac to Skream, and releases stacking up on labels including Chase and Status’s MTA Records, 2018 is set to be massive.
solardo.net
Breakfast Muff
‘Sorry we’re fucked up, but you made us this way’, sneer Glasgow’s Breakfast Muff on their gem of a single, Babyboomers. Emerging in 2014 out of the city’s DIY punk scene, the triplet bring all the right angsty millennial feels to their ramshackle sound, which works its way through ‘sexuality,feminism and feelings,’ and comes wrapped in an uncompromisingly pop package.
The trio’s DNA includes members from Joanna Gruesome and Spinning Coin, resulting in an ‘anything-goes’ supergroup vibe that sees each of them routinely switch between guitar, bass and drums. If there’s an urgency to their sound, it’s matched by their attitude to recording. Debut album, The Feels, was made in two days, follow-up Rainbow Yawn was made in three, and latest LP Eurgh! was made in – you guessed it – four days.
The latter has only seen the band grow in confidence, garnering critical acclaim from the likes of Q and Loud & Quiet and earning them a spot in the Rough Trade Album Club. Fresh from bringing their joyous live show to SXSW via the British Music Embassy, watch out for more unmissable live dates this year.
breakfastmuff.bandcamp.com
TJ Koleoso
The trio’s DNA includes members from Joanna Gruesome and Spinning Coin, resulting in an ‘anything-goes’ supergroup vibe that sees each of them routinely switch between guitar, bass and drums. If there’s an urgency to their sound, it’s matched by their attitude to recording. Debut album, The Feels, was made in two days, follow-up Rainbow Yawn was made in three, and latest LP Eurgh! was made in – you guessed it – four days.
The latter has only seen the band grow in confidence, garnering critical acclaim from the likes of Q and Loud & Quiet and earning them a spot in the Rough Trade Album Club. Fresh from bringing their joyous live show to SXSW via the British Music Embassy, watch out for more unmissable live dates this year.
breakfastmuff.bandcamp.com
TJ Koleoso
TJ Koleoso is the bassist behind Afrobeat, reggae and hip-hop infused jazz five-piece Ezra Collective.
The award-winning quintet have just touched down from Austin, after playing a buzzing set at SXSW – proving why they’re the pioneers of the new wave of UK jazz.
Sell-out shows at legendary London venue Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club went down last year, and they kick-started 2018 as winners of Best Jazz Album at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards.
Helped along the way by PRS Foundation’s Momentum Fund, and now its International Music Fund, the group are poised to take their sound even further afield. Stay tuned…
ezracollective.com
Creatures
The award-winning quintet have just touched down from Austin, after playing a buzzing set at SXSW – proving why they’re the pioneers of the new wave of UK jazz.
Sell-out shows at legendary London venue Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club went down last year, and they kick-started 2018 as winners of Best Jazz Album at Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Awards.
Helped along the way by PRS Foundation’s Momentum Fund, and now its International Music Fund, the group are poised to take their sound even further afield. Stay tuned…
ezracollective.com
Creatures
If you’re a sucker for Tarantino-esque soundscapes, retro crooner vocals and hazy, swirling hooks then you’ve come to the right place: Clapton cowboys, Creatures, are serving up some serious saloon vibes that’ll make you want to turn down the lights and settle down with two fingers of bourbon (or is that just us?)
Since forming in the summer of 2016, they’ve toured their desert-pop with Temples, been praised by the likes of BBC Radio 6 Music’s Radcliffe and Maconie for their ‘classic sixties songwriting’ and released a single, Goldeneye, which sets the tone for more good things to come. Catch them on tour with Demob Happy in April.
www.facebook.com/creaturesofficial
Iskra Strings
Since forming in the summer of 2016, they’ve toured their desert-pop with Temples, been praised by the likes of BBC Radio 6 Music’s Radcliffe and Maconie for their ‘classic sixties songwriting’ and released a single, Goldeneye, which sets the tone for more good things to come. Catch them on tour with Demob Happy in April.
www.facebook.com/creaturesofficial
Iskra Strings
Iskra Strings is the collaborative project of James Underwood, who creates lush orchestration with a number of songwriters and composers. Back in 2007, Radiohead and XL Recordings commissioned Iskra Strings to create a string quartet remix of their track The Reckoner, and there's been no shortage of offers since then.
Artists including Vampire Weekend, Jess Glynne and Sufjan Stevens have performed with the group, while as a string quartet, they toured with the late composer Johann Johannsson. More recently, James worked alongside Jamie xx to record string parts for The xx's number one-selling 2017 album I See You. Expect plenty more in the diary for 2018.
www.facebook.com/iskrastrings
Craig Tattersall
Artist, designer and musician Craig Tattersall has stacked up numerous musical projects over the years, combining ambient, pop, classical, and experimental sounds to create his atmospheric vibrations.
He first caught our ears as part of nineties indie rockers, Hood, who released records on Fluff, Slumberland Records and Domino. Then there’s (deep breath) his glitchy outfit The Boats, his other alias The Humble Bee, plus Remote Viewer, Theodore and Hamblin, The Famous Boyfriend – and his own bespoke imprints Cotton Goods, Other Ideas and the Moteer/Mobeer labels.
Stay tuned for his latest project - a compilation of covers with Bill Seaman, following their first collaboration, Light Folds.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/429071-Craig-Tattersall
He first caught our ears as part of nineties indie rockers, Hood, who released records on Fluff, Slumberland Records and Domino. Then there’s (deep breath) his glitchy outfit The Boats, his other alias The Humble Bee, plus Remote Viewer, Theodore and Hamblin, The Famous Boyfriend – and his own bespoke imprints Cotton Goods, Other Ideas and the Moteer/Mobeer labels.
Stay tuned for his latest project - a compilation of covers with Bill Seaman, following their first collaboration, Light Folds.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/429071-Craig-Tattersall
