Winston's Zen: ZENDAR 2009: DAY ONE

ZENDAR 2009: DAY ONE

Posted by Winston's Zen on 12 January 2009

ZENDAR SPECIAL: TEN HOT NEW ARTISTS FOR 2009

Welcome to the first in a series of Zendar specials. Zendar 2009 is a ten strong catalogue of the artists Winston's Zen believes will make it big in next twelve months. Ten artists who's work you will be hearing a lot more of in 2009. Unlike your major magazines and music websites, Winston's Zen has no units to shift and no awards tour to promote so you can be sure each act has been selected taking into account nothing more than the quality of their tunes and my own deep belief in their potenial.

Each day this week Winston's Zen will introduce you to two of the ten acts (in no particular order), give you an MP3 demonstration of their talents and a video to watch to boot. On Saturday we'll bring it all together in the form of a downloadable ten track playlist, not dissimilar to the ever popular ZenLists you'll find on these very pages. You lucky, lucky things you!

All I ask, is that when these guys make it big, you remember where you heard it first.....

BLEECH

Formerly known as Slummin’ Angels, a name under which they spent the majority of last year fine tuning their live show in venues across London, supporting high profile acts such as Pete Doherty, The Futureheads and The Rifles along the way, Bleech assumed their new monicker shortly after they were taken on my former Blur supremo Andy Ross. What Ross saw in Bleech is startlingly obvious. Brooding, melodic grunge-tinged indie, gorgeous lead vocals and a peppering of dry lyrical witiscms combine to create a sound that will happily withstand comparisons to acts like Elastica, The Pixies and more recently Brighton’s excellent Blood Red Shoes.

Sounding good is one thing, but in this increasingly image conscious world, it’s doesn’t do any harm to look ok too. Bleech have few worries in this department, led by eminently photogenic sisters Katherine and Jenifer O’Neill and backed by the talented and strikingly handsome sticksman Matt Bick this London three piece have developed an assured on-stage confidence over the last twelve months.

Bleech are a band with an awful lot going for them and some influential people on their side (Steve Lamacq is a fan). Debut single Boys Don't Cry is set for April shortly before their slot on this years Camden Crawl and the two could provide the catalyst that ought to launch them towards stardom. And not a moment too soon.

MP3 Bleech – Weirdo

Bleech Links:

MySpace | Facebook
Pre-order Boys Don't Cry

LOWLINE

Drawing their sound from Manchester’s darker underbelly, (gritty streets on which The Ting Tings would last a matter of minutes) Lowline’s Joy Division-esque melancholic indie hums with a gritty intensity born directly from the bands desire to “make music which naturally reflects our environment”. 2008 saw that desire develop into a rewardingly full sound that has drawn rich praise from bloggers and journalists alike and secured debut single, Monitors airplay from the likes of Huw Stephens and Zane Lowe.

The name dropping doesn’t stop there however. Lowline are able to claim living legends amongst their growing fanbase (Owen Morris and Mani have both helped out along the way, The Enemy’s Tom Clarke called them “the best new band in the country” and The Verve’s Nick McCabe has even been known to join the four piece on-stage) and with an as yet unnamed debut album on the way, 2009 looks very bright indeed for Lowline.

Those of you in London can catch Lowline alongside Fight Like Apes playing Club NME at Camden's prestigous Koko on Jan 23.