Evening all. We sincerely hope a rad X-mas and New Year was had by all. 2016 is taking it;s time to get started so as usual when this time rolls around we’re not quite back yet, just popping in to drop off this announcement.

The Blog Sound Of 2015 results are in and backed up in the top five by The Japanese House, Aurora, Aquilo and Loyle Carter is this year’s winner, Mura Masa. Although now one of our choices, this 19-year old hailing form Gurnsey, of all places, serves up quite a smooth line in Lo-Fi R&B fuelled Electronica that a few years ago would have probably been called Chillwave at it’s most laid back and experimental Electro-Pop at it’s most energetic. Despite being a bit samey, we’re pleased the top five wasn’t as full of Indie and Folk acts as it could have been and interesting electronics have more or less dominated this year. You should check Mura Masa out, there’s some quite pleasing to the ear grooves up in there.

If anyone’s interested; we voted for Tear Council, Tove Styrke and Leo Kalyan.

♫ Mura Masa (Feat. Shura) – Love For That

♫ Mura Masa – I’ll Be Alright (Tonight)

Anyhoo, we’re going back to coming to terms with the new year.. Catch you in a bit!

The UK music blogs that took part (i.e. the good guys) were:

A Pocket Full Of Seeds, A World Of Music And Madness, Across The Kitchen Table, Alphabet Bands, Beat Surrender, Bratfaced LDN, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Buzz Unlimited, Cruel Rhythm, Chord Blossom, Daisy Digital, Dive, Details Of My Life, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Digital Shuffle, Echoes And Dust, Electronic Rumors, Encore Northern Island, Even The Stars, Faded Glamour, Get Into This, Get Some, God Is In The TV, I Love Pie, Just Music I Like, Kemptation, Killing Moon, Little Indie Blogs, Love Music: Love Life, Metaphorical Boat, Monkey Boxing, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, Music Umpire, Neon Filler, Not Many Experts, Popped Music, Pursuit Of Sound, Rave Child, Record Rewind Play, Scientists Of Sound, Some Of It Is True, Spectral Nights, Sweeping The Nation, Synth Glasgow, The Blue Walrus, The Devil Has The Best Tuna, The Electricity Club, The Evening’s Empire, The Mad Mackerel, The VPME, This Must Be Pop, Thoughts On Music, Too Many Blogs, What If I Had A Music Blog, When The Gramophone Rings

It’s that time of year again…again. The Blog Sound Of 2016 long-list was revealed last week to coincide with the BBC’s released their own Sound Of 2016 long-list. Peep below what a cream of UK music blogs hailed as their favourite emerging artists of right now,

As with last year, and they year before (etc…) no-one we voted for made the cut as the list, and the mainstream, continues it’s shift towards the less electronic. Most electronic blogs invited to take part were either too lazy , or too apathetic, to be involved int he poll this year (as most years). this is a massive shame, means electronic music isn’t properly represented in the poll and we feel kinda’ highlights why some blogs are in this game. Not for the love of music, or the desire to promote the music you love, but for the props and the free stuff and to feel self-important. It makes us sad for electronic music blogging.

So the list isn’t really representative of our little corner of the music industry, but that’s no reason for music blogs not to take part, and it’s also no reason for you not to check out the artists listed below. You never know, you might find something you dig. Some of the most passionate music fans in the UK have voted on this list, so that’s something, right?

Anyhoo, here’s the long list, we’ll let you know our votes once the winner is announced on 5th January.

The Blog Sound Of 2016 Longlist
Aquilo
Aurora
Billie Marten
George Cosby
Haelos
Liss
Loyle Carner
Mabel
Mura Masa
Mt Wolf
Nao
Pleasure Beach
The Big Moon
The Japanese House
Yak

The UK music blogs that took part (i.e. the good guys) were:

A Pocket Full Of Seeds, A World Of Music And Madness, Across The Kitchen Table, Alphabet Bands, Beat Surrender, Bratfaced LDN, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Buzz Unlimited, Cruel Rhythm, Chord Blossom, Daisy Digital, Dive, Details Of My Life, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Digital Shuffle, Echoes And Dust, Electronic Rumors, Encore Northern Island, Even The Stars, Faded Glamour, Get Into This, Get Some, God Is In The TV, I Love Pie, Just Music I Like, Kemptation, Killing Moon, Little Indie Blogs, Love Music: Love Life, Metaphorical Boat, Monkey Boxing, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, Music Umpire, Neon Filler, Not Many Experts, Popped Music, Pursuit Of Sound, Rave Child, Record Rewind Play, Scientists Of Sound, Some Of It Is True, Spectral Nights, Sweeping The Nation, Synth Glasgow, The Blue Walrus, The Devil Has The Best Tuna, The Electricity Club, The Evening’s Empire, The Mad Mackerel, The VPME, This Must Be Pop, Thoughts On Music, Too Many Blogs, What If I Had A Music Blog, When The Gramophone Rings

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S’up peeps? We hope you had an amazing X-mas and destroyed yourself on the New Year. We did, and that’s just one of many reason why we’re not really back. Oh no sir, we’re still firmly on holiday; expect a return in a week or so.

We are sticking our head above water briefly, though, to let you know the results of The Blog Sound Of 2015! To remind you here are the 15 acts who placed in the long list: All We Are, Black Honey, Chloe Black, Coasts, Deers, Fickle Friends, Flyte, Halfrican, Honne, Låpsley, Prides, Shura, Soak, Sophie Jamieson and Tei Shi. And the winner is…Låpsley

Considering (once again) no-one we vote for make the final list, we can pretty much get on board with this result; the Liverpudlian singer.songwriter does deliver a pleasing line on brooding ElectroPop.

Anyhoo, we’re going back to sleep. Catch you in a few days!

Follow @electronicrumor

It’s that time of year again. With the BBC just having released their Sound Of 2015 long list it falls to the UK music blogging community to do the same. Cast your eyes over this year’s collection of artists 62 UK music blogs voted on being their favourites over the past year

As with last year, no-one we voted for made the cut amidst the continuing shift in both the mainstream consciousness, and in the crazy world of blog hype, toward more Folky acts. We would suggest a broader selection of blogs are needed to give certain genres a chance of a look-in. However, with proper music blogging being a dying art, the blogs just aren’t there any-more. So, with some niche blogs having a certain lazy apathy, or indeed snobbiness toward participating if they’ve never heard of the acts that do make the cut, the results are unsurprising swayed toward artists with strong PR teams and mainstream ‘tastemaker’ appeal. But that’s democracy y’all, and we will continue to fly the flag for electronic music in the UK blog community (who despite our musical differences, we consider amazing bunch of passionate music obsessives who we would doff our hat to every time).

Having said that though; there is still some extremely tasty music to be found in the final list to wrap your synth loving ears around. The results will be announced 2nd January 2015.

The Full Blog Sound of 2015 Longlist (In alphabetical order):
All We Are
Black Honey
Chloe Black
Coasts
Deers
Fickle Friends
Flyte
Halfrican
Honne
Lapsley
Prides
Shura
Soak
Sophie Jamieson
Tei Shi

♫ The Blog Sound of 2015 Longlist

The Blogs That Participated In This Year’s Poll:
17 Seconds, A New Band A Day, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, A World Of Music And Madness, Across The Kitchen Table, Alphabet Bands, Beat Surrender, Beat2aChord, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Bratfaced LDN, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Daisy Digital, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Echoes and Dust, Electronic Rumors, Even The Stars, Everything Flows, Getintothis, God Is In The TV, Hearty Vibes, Hitsville UK, I Love Pie, Just Music That I Like, Kemptation, Like 1999, Lipstick Disco, Little Indie Blogs, Love Music : Love Life, Music Broke My Bones, Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Day By Day Music, Never Enough Notes, Not Many Experts, Notes For A Road Sign, One Album A Week, Popped Music, Queen Beetch, Rave Child, Scientists Of Sound, Some Of It Is True, Song By Toad, Sounds Good To Me Too, Sound Of Now Music, Spectral Nights, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Devil Has The Best Tuna, The Electricity Club, The Evening’s Empire, The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Paper Penguins, This Must Be Pop, Thoughts On Music, Three Beams, Too Many Blogs, The VPME, What If I Had A Music Blog,

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We’re taking a quick break from our holiday (yes, we’re still on holiday!) to let you know the results of The Blog Sound Of 2014 poll. The Blog Sound… is mean to represent a grassroots companion to the BBC’s Sound Of list, voted for my some of the most rabid music enthusiasts in the UK. After Decembers announcement of the poll long list, voted for by 59 of the UK’s top music bloggers, we can revel right here the top rankers.

This year’s list is a little odd, compared to the cohesion of last years results. No five placed acts in a list this year, due to such diverse voting trends. Just the winners (The first place goes to two joint winners) and a runner up. The results mostly reflect the trend toward white, public school educated, middle-class blandness, almost AOR, that plagues the British music scene, we’re afraid to say. But that can bee seen as the fault of music piracy leading to labels playing it safe and no one but the independently wealthy being able to afford a career in the music industry, more than anything. Which is a shame as the best music in the UK has always come from the less well-off sections of society, but until there’s more money for labels or artists to take risks with; we’re stuck with identikit privileged folk it seems.

However, it’s nice to see Banks taking the top spot, the only non-British act in the long list. The LA based singer’s ominous, doomy, R&B is pretty sonically disparate and her songs a engaging listening experience. She probably deserves her 1st place ranking and looks set for  a busy 2014. The rest of the list on the other hand….

1^st (Joint) Banks

1^st (Joint) Marika Hackman

2^nd Sivu

The UK music blogs that participated in The Blog Sound Of 2014 this year were:

17 Seconds, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Beat Surrender, Both Bars On,Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Cat From Japan, Daisy Digital, Details Of My Life, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots and Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters,Echoes and Dust, electronic rumors, Faded Glamour, God Is In The TV, Gold Flake Paint, Hearty Vibes, I Love Pie, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Like 1999, Little Indie Blogs, Love Music : Love Life, Music Broke My Bones, Music Liberation,Music Like Dirt, My Band’s Better Than Your Band, My Day By Day Music, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Pop Dodger, Repeat Button,Scientists Of Sound, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory, Sleep In Music, Some Of It Is True, Sound Influx, Sounds Good To Me Too, Sounds Of Now Music, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus,The Devil Has The Best Tuna, The Electricity Club, The Evening’s Empire, The Mad Mackerel,The Metaphorical Boat, The Sound Of Confusion, The Underclassed,This Must Be Pop, Thoughts On Music, Von Pip Musical Express, When The Gramophone Rings

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It’s that time of year again! Yesterday the BBC released their BBC Sound of 2014 long-list, as voted for by DJs, industry insiders and journalists. Generally a good indication of who you’ll be hearing more about in the coming year…sometimes…and a definite hype boost for artists who make the cut.

If the BBC Sound Of 2014 poll is the voice of the UK music industry overloads, then the Blog Sound Of 2014 is the battle cries from the trenches. More grassroots than industry projection, the Blog Sound list is designed to compliment the BBC’s results with a slightly more fan-based approach. Each blog gets to nominate three acts, not that they cynically predict with be big next year, but who are their favourites for next year and genuinely believe deserve to be big next year..

Anyhoo, the Blog Sound Of 2014 long-list is in. Compared to last year particularly, it’s a variable Rock and Folk fest (a brief glace over the list of participating UK blogs reveals a massive swing away from electronic music focused outlets compared to last year so this isn’t too surprising), with Pop, Hip-Hop and Dance Music very much in absence. Although it also has to be said that no-one other than middle-class, public school educated, white folk can even afford to make music in the UK anymore, so again the bias toward folky singer-songwriters and identikit Indie is unsurprising. Still, nice to see IYES there, and Banks, two well deserved entries.

In contrast the BBC’s list is pretty diverse this year, and features the likes of Chloe Howl, Say Lou Lou and MNEK. Admittedly most finger-on-the-pulse bloggers would probably have tipped those acts this time last year, but it’s nice to see some synths represented in the BBC’s better-late-than-never list.

No-one we voted for made the final list. If you’re wondering, our entries were Goldroom, Kate Boy and Chela. We are actually a bit surprised that Kate Boy didn’t make the grade, especially since Rob Da Bank started championing them. Ah well, such is the price of democracy, and at the end of the day it’s just exciting to see so many passionate music lovers, of whatever genre, coming together like this. Because we love it when people love music, even if it’s not the same music we love. That love is what keeps the music industry burning and exciting.

Here’s the list:
BANKS Sultry electronic music with a hint of Soul from Los Angeles, the only non-UK act on the list.
EMBERS Cinematic and vast Indie Rock from Manchester
GEORGE EZRA Singer songwriter with a Bluesy voice
HELLA BETTER DANCER Dark and fiery Indie Rock band
HOCKEYSMITH Genre hopping sister duo from Cornwall
HONEYBLOOD Raw D.I.Y. Indie Rock two piece from Glasgow
IYES Edgy sweetly melodic Pop duo from Brighton
KHUSHI Endearing East London singer who sits somewhere between Pop, Indie and Folk
LYLA FOY Previously known as Wall, creator of delicate, brooding, intimate Pop
MARIKA HACKMAN Singer songwriter with haunting Folk references
MT WOLF Dreamy sounding band combining electronic and acoustic music with near operatic vocals.
ROYAL BLOOD Brighton duo that play gritty Lo-Fi Rock with attitude
RHODES Stripped back acoustic singer songwriter
SIVU Idiosyncratic singer songwriter
SOPHIE JAMIESON Calm, atmospheric Folk musician
WOLF ALICE Edgy Rock band who take references from Grunge and Indie.

The UK music blogs that participated in The Blog Sound Of 2014 this year were:
17 Seconds, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Beat Surrender, Both Bars On, Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Cat From Japan, Daisy Digital, Details Of My Life, Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots and Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters, Echoes and Dust, electronic rumors, Faded Glamour, God Is In The TV, Gold Flake Paint, Hearty Vibes, I Love Pie, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon, Like 1999, Little Indie Blogs, Love Music : Love Life, Music Broke My Bones, Music Liberation,Music Like Dirt, My Band’s Better Than Your Band, My Day By Day Music, Not Many Experts, Peenko, Pop Dodger, Repeat Button,Scientists Of Sound, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory, Sleep In Music, Some Of It Is True, Sound Influx, Sounds Good To Me Too, Sounds Of Now Music, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Devil Has The Best Tuna, The Electricity Club, The Evening’s Empire, The Mad Mackerel,The Metaphorical Boat, The Sound Of Confusion, The Underclassed,This Must Be Pop, Thoughts On Music, Von Pip Musical Express, When The Gramophone Rings

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So the votes are in and counted and we can now reveal the winner, and the top five, of The Blog Sound of 2013. ‘The Blog Sound Of…’ is the mirror universe, goatee sporting, evil twin of the BBC’s Sound Of … poll. A parallel list, taking in the zeitgeist of grass-roots music commentators, to compliment the BBC’s more industry focused panel. 49 UK blogs took part in the voting, including some on the BBC’s committee, initially resulting in a long-list of  15 acts. That list has now been streamlined into the top five, and the result surprised us a little. We were relatively sure Glasgow ElectroPop trio Chvrches were going home with the top spot. Winners Haim are immensely popular right now with the music blog crowd and one of the biggest hype generators of 2012, but only one vote separated the sisters from runners-up Chvrches.

Anyhoo, there’s more analysis over at Breaking More Waves. We’ll be back properly next week with your regularly scheduled waffle and tunes. See ya’ then.

Oh, and if you’re wondering, our particular nominations for The Blog Sound Of 2013 were Chvrches, Avec Sans, Strangers, Queen Of Hearts & Jupiter. One out of five ‘aint bad, considering 170 artists were nominated. That means one of five of our fingers is on the pulse!

1^st Haim

2^nd Chvrches

3^rd (Joint) Savages

3^rd (Joint) Pins

5^th The Neighbourhood

The UK music blogs involved were:

A New Band A Day, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Both Bars On,Brapscallions,Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Details Of My Life So Far,Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters,Electronic Rumors, Faded Glamour, Folly Of Youth, Flying With Anna, God Is In The TV,Harder Blogger Faster, Howl, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon,Kowalskiy,  Love Music : Love Life,  Mudkiss, Music Broke My Bones, Music Fans Mic,Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Bands Better Than Your Band, Not Many Experts,Peenko, Real Horrorshow, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory,  Song By Toad, Sounds Good To Me Too,Storm’s Brewing, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Electricity Club,The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Music Hoarder, The Recommender, This Must Be Pop, Von Pip Musical Express,17 Seconds

What’s The Blog Sound Of 2013 then? Well, as you’ll no doubt be aware, every year the BBC deliver their ‘The Sound Of 20XX’ list, a round up of who is likely to be making not just music waves, but something musically interesting too, in the coming year. It’s voted on by DJs, Industry insiders, journalists and bloggers and whist tending to be a bit hit or miss, is a respected barometer of the musical zeitgeist.

But wait, there a parallel list, compiled by UK based music blogs (including some featured on the BBC judging panel), not in an effort to belittle the BBC’s poll at all, but to offer a different perspective, a view from the musical frontlines. The list is drawn up governed by the same rules as the BBC’s version and, as such, we can today reveal the ‘long-list’ (the BBC’s is due out on Monday). The 15 acts who received the most nominations from the 49 blogs invited to participate, ourselves included. It’s a list that includes a couple of nominations we are pretty pleased about. Nice to see some electronic rumors regulars in there (glad that our votes didn’t go to waste).

The five acts with the most votes, including the winner of The Blog Sound Of 2012, will be announced on 3rd January next year to coincide with the BBC’s announcement.

AlunaGeorge – Infectious R&B influenced pop from London
Curxes  – Dark industrial-pop electronic duo from Brighton and Portsmouth
Chvrches – Scottish electro pop trio formed from a variety of other bands
Daughter – Minimal / ambient sounding folk
Haim – Classic rock from LA with pop sensibilities
Laura Mvula – Jazz / soul singer hailing from Birmingham
MØ – Hip soulful female vocal electronic pop from Denmark
Palma Violets – Raw and energetic indie rock band
Pins – Edgily cool and raucous all female indie band from Manchester
Randolph’s Leap – Glasgow based indie folk pop with a twist of brass
Rhye – Smooth and blissful pop duo
Savages – Intense post-punk with female vocals
Seasfire – Modern rock band from Bristol who mix electronic beats with guitar
The Neighbourhood – Atmospheric Californian 5 piece rock/pop ban
Tom Odell – Piano based singer songwriter originally from Chichester

The UK music blogs involved are:

A New Band A Day, A Pocket Full Of Seeds, All Noise, Alphabet Bands, Both Bars On,Brapscallions, Breaking More Waves, Brighton Music Blog, Details Of My Life So Far,Don’t Watch Me Dancing, Dots And Dashes, Drunken Werewolf, Eaten By Monsters,Electronic Rumors, Faded Glamour, Folly Of Youth, Flying With Anna, God Is In The TV,Harder Blogger Faster, Howl, In Love Not Limbo, Just Music That I Like, Killing Moon,Kowalskiy,  Love Music : Love Life,  Mudkiss, Music Broke My Bones, Music Fans Mic,Music Liberation, Music Like Dirt, My Bands Better Than Your Band, Not Many Experts,Peenko, Real Horrorshow, Scottish Fiction, Skeletory,  Song By Toad, Sounds Good To Me Too, Storm’s Brewing, Sweeping The Nation, The Blue Walrus, The Electricity Club,The Mad Mackerel, The Metaphorical Boat, The Music Hoarder, The Recommender, This Must Be Pop, Von Pip Musical Express, 17 Seconds

Exciting stuff!