WORLD OF JAZZ, POP AND ROCK Part 6
THE BEST MUSICIANS AND TOP BANDS IN GREAT BRITAIN TODAY
29.
The Cinematic Orchestra
Jazzers
often dabble with DJs and sampling, but with Cinematic Orchestra, it has
happened the other way round. Leader Jason Swinscoe started out chopping
up his record collection (1960s and 70s jazz and soundtracks) for the
Ninja Tune label. He has ended up with a band of fine jazz players - but
not a jazz band. Through two albums (Every Day, Motion), collaborations
with Roots Manuva and Fontella Bass, and a soundtrack for the Russian
silent movie Man With a Movie Camera, Swinscoe has turned lots of the
sampling back into live playing. It has the directness of simple loop
music, but 10 times the emotional power. Sound:15 Songs:11Gigs:14
Style:9 Attitude:11Total: 60
30.
British Sea Power
Plenty
of new bands have emerged in the wake of the Strokes, but genuinely new
ideas seem thin on the ground. Sussex's British Sea Power have them in
abundance, from their decision to deck their stages with foliage and
stuffed animals, to their Dad's Army image, to the opening lyric of
their debut single, Fear of Drowning: "Jesus fucking Christ, oh God,
no!" At a time when most bands are content to indulge in self-conscious
"classic" rock posturing, British Sea Power take their cues from outside
the accepted canon of cool. Sound:13 Songs:10 Gigs: 10 Style:16
Attitude:11 Total: 60
31.
Girls Aloud
The female winners of Pop Stars: The Rivals turned out to be tough
cookies who, as promised, sent the boy winners packing with a
combination of girl-gang iciness and 1960s-
influenced
pop. The first singles, Sound of the Underground and No Good Advice,
were unsentimental and addictive, and the girls themselves opinionated
in a way that belied their manufactured beginnings. British chart-pop
once excelled at producing hits with lots of style and just enough
substance to get by, and Girls Aloud are a return to these values.
Sound:16 Songs: 16 Gigs:10 Style:4 Attitude:13 Total: 59
32.
Spiritualized
With
his first band Spacemen 3 and (since 1990) Spiritualized, Rugby dweller
Jason Pierce has created songs that eerily conjure up a musical opiate and
hallucinatory experience. His only public excesses, however, consist of
orchestras, strobes and studio bands of up to 100 people. Either way, after
so much time Out There, it's unsurprising that he performs sitting down.
Sound:18 Songs:16 Gigs: 14 Style: 5 Attitude:6 Total: 59
33. Hundred
Reasons
In recent years, British metal has, like British hip-hop, been the poor
relation of its American cousin. The 2002 debut by Aldershot quintet 100
Reasons, Ideas Above Our Station, represented a genuine UK alternative to
the knuckleheaded excesses of US nu-metal. Packed with fiery guitars,
anguished vocals and rich melodies, it proved that metal was not solely the
preserve of the baggy-shorted and the brain-dead. Sound:15 Songs: 12 Gigs:
10 Style:7 Attitude:14 Total: 58
34.Martina Topley-Bird
Sometimes when Topley-Bird sings she uses a vintage 1940s microphone, an apt
gesture for a woman whose voice sounds wonderfully out of time. Discovered
by Tricky, she became the Bristolian's muse and foil, her voice seemingly
too old and wise to emanate from a teenage girl. Now a little older and
wiser, she is a beguiling solo talent, working
prewar
blues and post-coital soul into her
Mercury-nominated
debut, Quixotic. Sound: 12 Songs: 10 Gigs: 15 Style: 11 Attitude: 10
Total: 58