We have to admit that our under the radar’s #TheNextBigThing didn’t feature a lot of newcomers this year. But, no worries, Just because we got it paused for only featuring five bands, it doesn’t mean we are not going to showcase the best newcomers in 2014! Last year we listed ten new bands and for this year, as an apology to the lack of numbers that we feature in #TheNextBigThing, we are featuring twelve new bands (or those names who are having a breakout career) in 2014. Whoop!

1. Darlia

The band who are hailing from Blakcpool but now are a Manchester-based rock band. Darlia consist of three members, they are Nathan Day (vocals), Dave Williams (bass), Jack Bentham (drums). In 2013, they launched their debut E.P, ‘Knock Knock’. Most of the riffs ftom their songs will revive you to Nirvana, which you can clearly hear in their song, ‘Queen of Hearts’. It’s really hard not to find their music has a major influence of Nirvana’s, and a bit of reminiscent to Queens of The Stone Age’s. Darlia may sound like a mixture of modern age of Nirvana or Queens of The Stone Age, but they are surely going to resound the guitar music to be on track. Their bass-line, thrashy drums, and also addictive raspy roar that comes out of Nathan’s voice are the things that will make them go big and hard to forget.

2. Sam Smith

As he starts walking on his music. He is mostly known for his work with Disclosure on the duo’s ‘Latch’. The song hit the music charts, and it prominently places Sam Smith’s name on the map. Samuel Frederick Smith who was born in Lincolnshire got his vocal’s power by getting a singing lessons with local jazz singers, and the lessons definitely did a charm to his musicality, it can be heard on both of his early works with the Lawrence brothers and Naughty Boy’s ‘La La La’, and also ‘Stay With Me’. Sam Smith is totally a real deal in this year of horse. As in 2015, he’ll be competing with some of the well-known musicians in Grammy Awards. And music critics predict he’ll repeat the success of Adele.

3. Glass Animals

Glass Animals are an Oxford quarter consist of Dave Bayley, Drew MacFarlane, Edmund Irwin-Singer, Joe Seaward. The band started gaining the limelight with their indie elctronic, R n’ B, and psychedelic infusion, and everything hit the bar when Paul Epworth scouted them. Glass Animals’ music will remind you to Alt-J and Radiohead. With a smooth and tingling sound, you’ll be taken afloat to their hallucinating grooves. Dave’s gentle vocals also drive the ambience that does not sound over powering but strong. To make some contraries, the Oxford-based band sound so elusive with their RnB influence but the drums make their music sounded traditional, in a good way. Their songs like ‘Psylla’ or ‘Gooey’ has a sentimental mood in an addictive tune, it is weirdly good which will keep you in a replay mode, the only thing that we can think of from their musics is a slow trippy dancing.

4. Eagulls

Eagulls emerge as the ones to watch with their post-punk music and the genuine vocals that we really hail because we find them as a more rock version of the Cure. In March 2014, they launched their self-titled debut album. The album is opened by a raw intro, with a fierce bassline that will constantly remind you to the other post-punk bands. They may sound darker, but Eagulls deliver a music that totally will satisfy post-punk music fans. Their amazing adrenalin rush sounds give a tight melody and a great combination of a loose noise.

5. Radkey

“After the Strypes and the Orwells, the latest teen rockers causing a stir – and completing the trio you need for a scene” – That is the main line from Guardian about this new impeccable trio which instantly caught our attention. The trio consists of The Radkey Missourian brothers, Dee Radke (guitar, vocals), Isaiah Radke (bass, vocals), Solomon Radke (drums). It’s clear, when the first we listen to their E.P, Devil Fruit, each track rips our ears with their fiercy 90s style punk. The young punks are totally bringin out some great influences from Who, The Misfit, and Ramones. All of the ominous, incendiaries, and rock n’ roll vibe, storm out from Radkey and their music blows everyone’s mind. Little bit prejudice, they are surprising us with the genre that they are embracing.

6. Chance The Rapper

Chancelor Bennet a.k.a Chance The Rapper would be one of the first your favourite hip/hop arists if you are not a fan of hip/hop. Chance’s music is giving the easy listening hip/hop which you’ll find very easy to sing along. Chance The Rapper likes to reflect himself as the new nigga in the hood with his music, and it’s his second mixtape ‘Acid Rap’ which brought him to the surface. He always puts various elements in his music, such as gospel, blues-rock, and juke. As a result, his album was listed in numerous music lists by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, and NME, which leads to him major recognition, even Kanye West (one of his musical influences) reckons Chance’s music will be a big hit in the hip/hop industry.

7. Banks

The trip-hop R&B music has been mushrooming in the last one year, and it causes some boredom for the music listeners. However, Banks the Californian singer and songwriter, create a new taste with her music. In 2014, Banks have been drummed as one of the ones to watch, she also came third in BBC Sound of 2014. Banks is presenting a mysterious-dark pop with a RnB influence and also inspired by James Blake’s dubstep. What differ Banks from the other female vocalists who also bring a dark-core music is Banks gives a significant quality about her music. Evenmore, most of her emotional songs are not manufactured because of the mushrooming trends amongst the other female vocalist, she reflects her songs from the frustration that she experienced when she was introduced to music at a very young age. Banks, whatever you do, you do it with a big bang.

8. Frankie Cosmos

Frankie Cosmos a.k.a 19-year-old Greta Kline has released over 40 albums and EPs on Bandcamp. But all she needed in her debut studio album was 10 songs and 20 minutes to win us over with her profound tales about love, ageing, and her dead pet dog. Hiding behind a mask of indie-pop jangly guitars lies tongue in cheek lyrics so rich that it could fill a song five time as long. Her sugary sweet voice and melodies disguising the darkness of her words as she innocently sings on about her hatred towards everybody in her town. Earning herself a top 10 spot on Pitchfork’s list of best new artists, and even beating St. Vincent in Vulture magazine’s list of top pop albums of the year.

9. Jungle

It’s almost unheard of to find a band playing in all of UK’s biggest music festivals without prior releasing a debut album or EP of sorts. Jungles, however, is that rare gem that caught the attention of the world with the release of just one single. Their first single, “The Heat”, introduced the world to Jungle’s unique infusion of wildlife noises into funky tropical percussions and immediatelysecured them a spot at the iTunes Festival, Reading and Leeds Festivals, and even the coveted Glastonbury festival.

10. Sampha

Some of you may know him from his collaboration with British post-dubstep artist, SBTRKT. But Sampha’s got something bigger than his signature lush vocal and soothing voice. Sampha Sisay as known as Sampha is an electronic music singer-songwriter and producer from Morden, South London, United Kingdom. He reached the airwaves after his work on SBTRKT’s debut album back in 2011. He also worked with Solange Knowles, Drake, Katy B, and other notable artists. Sampha is known for his soothing voice, which we could barely hear on some SBTRKT’s hits such as “Hold On” and “Something Goes Right”. Sampha is also helping SBTRKT’s live set by providing vocals on keys during SBTRKT’s tour of his self-titled album.

11. Royal Blood

Royal Blood is a British rock duo band whose sound is reminiscent of, and rooted in, modern garage rock and blues rock. Singer/bassist Mike Kerr and drummer Ben Thatcher make up the band which released its debut single Out of the Black, with a B-side called Come On Over. This was followed by their second single, Little Monster, in February 2014. A month later, they released a four-track EP, featuring Out of the Black, Little Monster, Come On Over and Hole. Their debut album, Royal Blood, was released on 25 August 2014 to commercial success, and was well-received by critics. It was verified by the Official Charts Company as the fastest-selling British rock debut album in three years in the UK.

12. FKA twigs

English singer-songwriter and dancer, Tahliah Debrett Barnett, is FKA Twigs. Before all these accolades came to be, Twigs was an independent singer who self-released her music. Now, she released debut album through Young Turks in August 2014. The record titled LP1. The british musician is likened to eclectic musicians, such as Bjork, for her approach to music. With an originality sense of music, FKA twigs is praised by NME and Pitchfork for her successful in making a music that is filled with her whole identity.

Remember how Vincent Vega caught our attention about years ago and they just disappeared for 2 years? Well, yeah, if you forget, they just come to remind us. Elegantly, with a special showcase at Superbad, couple days ago.

Looking back at the 90′s, our roots of music. They just made a music with perspective to play it live. Here, a band that still conservatively views that music is for a stage, small or big, to fill our hunger to enjoy show for eyes and ears.

Now, Vincent Vega consists of Fikri Hadiansyah (Guitar), M.Saugan Najib (Guitar), Rhesatama Anthony Orah (Vocal), Aryo Bangundityo (Drums),  and Aulia Ramadhan (Bass).

Released an album, Always Hard to Make a Change, Just Like How to Stay the Same, ideas are bulletproof. Not only to share good music, but also good inspiration to bands nowadays. Well, wait for their enigmatic live performance, as well as their concept- based studio releases.

And another, we give you their songs for nostalgia and our reminder to move forward, without forget our roots.

Photo Documentation: Superbad Facebook.

Youth are often related to being free, vibrant, wild, and fun. It is the time where we are filled with enthusiasm and curiosity to explore this bizarrely enticing giant playground called life. Until it finally phased out into the post-adolescent era: adulthood. Bedchamber, a Jakarta-based band consisting Ratta (vocals/guitar), Abi (guitar), Smita (bass), and Ariel (drums), expresses their doubts and worries in their newly released single “Youth”. Bedchamber brings out the mixture of happiness and melancholy of growing up in this introductory number. “This song puts us in a limbo,” Smita remarks, “between ages and different feelings while facing the close of teenagehood.”

After the recording session on July-August 2014, “Youth” becomes the first released single from bedchamber’s debut EP, Perennial. The track is available to download on bedchamber’s soundcloud page, while the EP will be launched by the end of September 2014 under Kolibri Rekords in both CD and digital format.

We’re really hooked up with music that comes from California (after New York). So we got carried away with one of our nicest discoveries when we saw this unique and intriguing band at SXSW 2014. Say hello to Cherry Glazerr. Cherry Glazerr are a Californian punk alternative rock band with a blitz of psychedelic. They are consisting of Clementine Creevy (vocals/guitar), Sean Redman (bass) and Hannah Uribe (drums). If you’re a listener of KCRW’s morning session, then you’ll be familiar with their band’s name. Cherry Glazerr were named after Chery Glaser, the NPR News Reporter.

In early 2012, Clementine started making some music and the next thing is, she should thank to her mom’s socializing skill. Here’s what happened, her mom overheard Paige’s (from Tashaki Miyaki) conversation about music, and she went to Paige, telling that her daughter also plays music. After that, Clementine got teamed up by Lucy Miyaki with Joel Jerome to work on some demos in his music studio. With all of the things that happened, Clementine found the formula for her band, she met Hannah (who also went to the same private school) and Sean to form Cherry Glazerr. Cherry Glazerr lash a garage punk music with a very interesting and catchy lyrics. To name a few, one of their songs is called ‘Grilled Cheese’ and the music doesn’t sound cheesy at all, it has a spooky groove which will drive you to some gloomy that a garage band used to have. The spooky groove is also complimented by Clementine’s mild vocals, and it adds another colour of their music.

In January 2014, Cherry Glazerr released their debut album ‘Haxel Princess’. The album contains of four new songs and three re-recorded songs. The songs in their debut album are not only circling around the ‘grilled cheese’, and each song has a deeper meaning. We’re giving a huge credits with the lyricist of songs in Haxel Princess because the lyrics are seriously splendid. Consequence Of Sound wrote “Cherry Glazerr are snotty, but smart about it, and as a lyricist the cynical Creevy deals in broad but swift strokes. This is from “Cry Baby”, the album opener: “Don’t tease me, I’ll shove you on the ground.” Here’s the mantra of “Bloody Bandaid”: “I feel weird.” Or what about this observation from “Teenage Girl”: “Rob Kardashian’s a tool.” Creevy has a nice, pretty voice, sure, but she’s usually closer to writhing than sashaying. As long as she manages to keep her sense of humor intact, she’ll keep us hanging around.”

Cherry Glazerr have been making some impressive slots by performing at SXSW 2014, opening for Red Kross, Mikal Cronin, and their song ‘Had Ten Dollaz’ was echoing in Paris (for more than a half an hour) for Saint Laurent’s show. Sean the bassist said that the band are still floating around to figure out what’s next. He also added “It’s encouraging when our friends, who are amazing musicians, really like our songs, our simple little songs. That’s what makes us feel the best.”.

Some of you may know him from his collaboration with British post-dubstep artist, SBTRKT. But Sampha’s got something bigger than his signature lush vocal and soothing voice. Sampha Sisay as known as Sampha is an electronic music singer-songwriter and producer from Morden, South London, United Kingdom. He reached the airwaves after his work on SBTRKT’s debut album back in 2011. He also worked with Solange Knowles, Drake, Katy B, and other notable artists. Sampha is known for his soothing voice, which we could barely hear on some SBTRKT’s hits such as “Hold On” and “Something Goes Right”. Sampha is also helping SBTRKT’s live set by providing vocals on keys during SBTRKT’s tour of his self-titled album.

After receiving a critical success following his collaboration with SBTRKT, Sampha has decided to follow the steps of another artists who also have collaborated with SBTRKT such as Jessie Ware and Little Dragons. Sampha has decided to show his musical and production skills by releasing a follow up to his first EP last year. His second EP, titled “Dual”, has gotten mixed reviews from the reviewer in the UK. Sampha is also releasing some stand-alone tracks such as “Too Much” and “Happens”.

The success of his sophomore EP and the release of these two stand-alone tracks have led Sampha to another form of fame. BBC has dubbed him as an artist to watch in 2014. Sampha’s musical direction is a little bit different in every release that he made. During his collaboration with SBTRKT, Sampha was playing in a post-dubstep territory where his soulful voice could match perfectly with SBTRKT’s soothing electronic music. Meanwhile “Too Much” and “Happens” is a basic ballad with a classic piano and lush vocal as its main attraction. I won’t be too surprised if Sampha’s got the fame that he deserves. He’s still working on his long-awaited debut album and his previous works such as “Indecision”, “Too Much/Happens” and his new instrumental track “Slow Lights” showed us his capacity as a musician. Not only using his soulful voice as his own weapon of choice, he also uses his slick producing skills and instrument to prove that he’s not only here because of his voice, but also for it’s creativity. No wonder why BBC dubbed him as one of their choice for their “Sound of 2014” selection. He’s got everything he needs to be a good artist.

Living in a big city is not only exhausting but also emotionally draining. Having to commute daily, being too busy to even be able grab a quick lunch, dealing with mountain of tasks or irritating colleagues. Man, life is indeed hard.

Now put on your headset and listen to the voice of Danilla.

Her pick in wordings combined with the sweet tunes of bossa nova, swing, and all that jazz will soothe your tensed nerve. Most of her lyrics from the recently released album “Telisik” were written in Indonesia in a modest yet poetic manner.

Lihatlah senja
Tertegun terpikat oleh dirimu
Malam pun terang benderang cahayakan hadirmu
Buaian
Menerpa merasuki jiwa yang tengah disentuh
(Danilla – Buaian)

Tenggelam aku di rupamu
Ke palung rindu yang tersemu
Tak ada ruang yang tersisa dalam sendu
Tersimpan batas saat sayu mengadu
Kuingin kepadamu

(Danilla – Terpaut Oleh Waktu)

Nothing can sugarcoat traffic madness like good music, so make sure this stays on your playlist. May you have a pleasant day ahead.

Follow Danilla on twitter and listen to her music on soundcloud

It’s time to ditch the ‘featuring’ label for the British singer-songwriter, Sam Smith, as he starts walking on his music. He is mostly known for his work with Disclosure on the duo’s ‘Latch’. The song hit the music charts, and it prominently places Sam Smith’s name on the map. Samuel Frederick Smith who was born in Lincolnshire got his vocal’s power by getting a singing lessons with local jazz singers, and the lessons definitely did a charm to his musicality, it can be heard on both of his early works with the Lawrence brothers and Naughty Boy’s ‘La La La’.

Before making a huge succes on his features, Sam Smith had created an album and got his first manager when he was 13, and in fact he went through about three managers at that time until he turned 18. At that time, Sam Smith mostly got his influences from female singers, such as Chaka Khan, he also said to Interview Magazine that he used to sing along Chaka Khan’s songs in the car with his mother (which we believe it led his parents got him a singing lesson). Smith’s love to singing has surpasses anything in the world which makes it not only a hobby, and it gives him another round of love when he keeps singing. His career began changing when he was working in a bar in London and he met Jimmy Napes, a songwriter. He and Napes wrote ‘Lay Me Down’, and Disclosure liked the song, so the brothers, Napes, and Smith worked on ‘Latch’, and you know the rest.

‘Nirvana’, his debut EP was released in 2013. The EP contains four songs ‘Safe With Me’, ‘Nirvana’, the acoustic version of ‘Latch’, and the live version of ‘I’ve Told You Now’. According to Sam Smith, the EP is only to fulfill his experimental works and would sound different from his debut album which will be released in the mid of 2014. Before he released his EP, he started writing and collecting materials for his debut album in the end of 2012, and continued the writing process in the whole 2013. On February 26, he released his second single ‘Money On My Mind’, to add more of his achievement in this year, he was nominated for MTv Awards, Brit Awards, and BBC’s sound of 2014 which he ended up winning for two nominations.

Sam Smith is totally a real deal in this year of horse. His enchanting and entracing vocals are going to echo louder than what you could expect. His musicality also helps his music to be really powerful yet very emotional. He also added that he wants people to picture his emotional side on his debut album, as he said to Pigeons and Planes “I want the album to really showcase my emotional side. I think guys put on a front sometimes in music—actually not just in music. In every form of life, they don’t show their emotions like a female does. And that’s something I love about myself, without sounding too big headed.”. With an incredible voice, new elements of music, and strong lyrics, we assure you that his debut album ‘In The Lonely Hour’ has great chance to beat the success of Adele’s ’21′.

We’ve been bombarded by psychedelic music from the new bands all over the world (thanks to Tame Impala who might have influenced the other new bands for picking up this genre to their bloods), speaking of this ‘trend’, this week’s ‘The Next Big Thing’ brings up one of the hypest up-and-coming bands who’ve been talked on so many music magazines, Glass Animals. Glass Animals are an Oxford quarter consist of Dave Bayley, Drew MacFarlane, Edmund Irwin-Singer, Joe Seaward. The band started gaining the limelight with their indie elctronic, R n’ B, and psychedelic infusion, and everything hit the bar when Paul Epworth scouted them.

The members grew up together and went the schools where music is definitely not being something that matters, and it all started when Dave gave Drew some of his songs. “I just started writing late at night because I was a bit bored and I showed it to Drew and he was like, ‘Oh, that’s pretty cool’. Drew and I put it online on MySpace, which was all the rage back then, then basically told the other two that they were in a band with us and they were like, ‘Yeah okay cool’, and that was it.” Dave explained to Australia’s Tone Deaf. The band had been stumbled in an on-and-off condition since the members live in a different four cities which made it quite hard for them to do a rehearsal. But then, the band decided to pour all of their times for music and released their LP ‘Leaflings’ via Kaya Kaya. However their debut LP was not strong enought to put them on the map, and it took Paul Epworth to fire up the steam. After working with XL’s Kaya Kaya, the band moved to Epworth’s Wolf Tone. Just like what we predicted, Epworth’s midas touch that worked on Friendly Fires, Florence Welch and the famously known Adele, is followed by Glass Animals. Paul Epworth pushed the band to surpass their boundaries and experimented the band with new instruments which led them to their infectious tracks.

Glass Animals’ music will remind you to Alt-J and Radiohead. With a smooth and tingling sound, you’ll be taken afloat to their hallucinating grooves. Dave’s gentle vocals also drive the ambience that does not sound over powering but strong. To make some contraries, the Oxford-based band sound so elusive with their RnB influence but the drums make their music sounded traditional, in a good way. Their songs like ‘Psylla’ or ‘Gooey’ has a sentimental mood in an addictive tune, it is weirdly good which will keep you in a replay mode, the only thing that we can think of from their musics is a slow trippy dancing. It’s hard to describe their music but according to the band, “Like the sound of unicorns whispering, but with no cowbell. Probably not actually… We take inspiration from lots of different places. Dance music to R&B and also more traditional bands, which means we’ve ended up with a weird, psychedelic cocktail of electronic and organic sound. It’s probably easier to just have a listen really.” Said by Dave on how they would describe their music to the fans who have never heard their music.

The band will release their debut album, ‘ZABA’, in June 2014. We might be going to hear more of unicorns’ whispers or a sticky oozy song like ‘Gooey’ on their full length album. One thing for sure, the band who attracted bunch of attention after their show at SXSW, are going to give us something good and addictive.

This week we are bringing you one of the finest breakthrough acts who will wow you with their music and stage act. They are Reignwolf, the Seattle-based rock blues band. Reignwolf is actually a one-man band founded by Jordan Cook, assisted by Joseph Braley on drums and David Rapaport on bass. The first time we heard about Reignwolf was in 2012 when we saw a video of a new name called Reignwolf, and then we were caught into some curiousity after reading a review for the Austin City Limits Festival. Antiquiet wrote “Bloodied, sweat-soaked and openly exhilarated, Jordan stumbled off the stage, grinning like he’d just beaten Satan at his own game. What remained behind was a wreckage of instruments and amps, broken strings and cords tangling the lot of it in what Guitar Center might look like after a full-scale earthquake. “ on his performance, they also wrote that Reignwolf outshone Jack White and the festival’s headliner.

Reignwolf has been applauded for his amazing guitar playing and his skill at multitasking on stage. It’s clear that his mystical performance has wowed some of the notable guitar players. The story of his way to guitar is started at the age of 5 when his father took him to some place where there were so many blues musician did a jam together. By the first time you listen to Reignwolf’s musics, it’s so obvious that Reignwolf is majorly influenced by blues and the he also composed with a heavy rock nuance. The other great thing about this one-man band is Reignwolf’s abbility at doing a world-class multitasking on stage. He would straightly feel to ripping his guitar, banging the drums, and howling his vocals for the live act. “ I was on tour with Matt Chamberlain (session drummer extraordinaire) and Ben Shepherd (Soundgarden bass player) and we were discussing how we could close the show. I just ended up jumping behind the drum kit and it sort of went from there. Its great fun and people always respond really well to it when I do it live.” said Jordan to Atlasjams on his multi-task skills on stage.

In 2012, Reignwolf did a show at Primavera and he dropped the balls at last year’s Lollapalozza. As nothing could slow down his steam, Reignwolf has scorred a Canadian tour alongside the legendary English rock band, Black Sabbath. Reignwolf has produced two singles ‘In The Dark’ and ‘Are You Satisfied’, and both of their singles received good critics from various music magazines. All in all, what we can say about Reignwolf is that he is going to be one of the biggest things to storm 2014, with an amazing feedback on his musics, Jordan Cook is going to be everyone’s new guitar hero. He slays every string of it with a perfection, his cover of Fleetwood Mac’s song also has proven that this man is no one hit wonder.

If you are a fan of post-punk music and raw guitar playing (or melodic rants), there’s no way you should miss this Leeds lads that we’re featuring for this week’s The Next Big Thing. They are Eagulls. People tend to know and recognize them because of “the open letter” that they put on their blog, and then they recently took it down. Because some people really took their post out of the context (even worse, some consider it as a publicity stunt, which seriously confuses us), we are not going to bring what the letter is all about, and we’ll be focusing more on their music.

Eagulls are a five-piece band consist of Mark ‘Goldy’ Goldsworthy (guitar), Henry Ruddel (drums), Liam Matthews (guitar), Tom Kelly (bass), and George Mitchell (vocals). The story of how they met is created by a circular friendship. Henry and George are a long-time buddy, and Liam met Henry at Leeds University. At that time Liam split up from a band which used to jam together with Goldy’s band, and their band stopped jamming. Long story short, after a couple of times of hiatus, the band decided to play together, and then George suggested the band to pick Henry as their vocalist since he used to play in a punk band.

Eagulls emerge as the ones to watch with their post-punk music and the genuine vocals that we really hail because we find them as a more rock version of the Cure. In March 2014, they launched their self-titled debut album. The album is opened by a raw intro, with a fierce bassline that will constantly remind you to the other post-punk bands. Some of their songs like ‘Possessed’ or ‘Tough Luck’ will give you a little vibe of the early Clash (and once again we have to mention the Cure). If you listen to their previous work, the album sounds darker and gloomier, and it’s agreed by Mitchell on his interview with Interview Magazine “When we first started, it was experimenting and stuff like that. As we’ve gotten older, we’ve gotten more bitter, and more agitated with what we’re doing. When you’re doing the same thing over and over again you do get pissed off. Working shitty retail jobs, moving house every year because we’re on student contracts, shit like that. That’s why the music has gotten a bit darker.”

They may sound darker, but Eagulls deliver a music that totally will satisfy post-punk music fans. Their amazing adrenalin rush sounds give a tight melody and a great combination of a loose noise. Eventhough The Guardian’s Paul Lester wrote “Arguably the least interesting thing about Eagulls is their music. It is, to our ears anyway, standard trebly/tinny ramshackle punky thrash that sounds like a rocky Cure attempting to approximate the primeval clatter…”, we still in an awe with this Leeds-based post-punk’s tremendous potential and everyone is going to agree they will be one of the best England’s exports, especially after their performance on David Letterman.

Here comes the first band for 2014’s edition of The Next Big Thing (We know you all are cheering “Finally!” over there, since we have been postponing to debut the first article for this weekly feature)! So, we decided to pick Darlia. The band who are hailing from Blakcpool but now are a Manchester-based rock band. Darlia consist of three members, they are Nathan Day (vocals), Dave Williams (bass), Jack Bentham (drums).

Nathan and Jack used to play together when they were 12 (however, they didn’t start it as a band), Nathan was on guitar and Jack on drums. As the time went by, they also stopped this ‘jamming-session’ and didn’t have any image to do anything about music.A couple of years later, the boys got to have a same shift as a cleaner at their college. They got their rhythm together again, and by the time Dave jumped in, the three decided to form a band and have found their vision for music. The name ‘Darlia’ is not a slang from a sexy looking supermodel Daria Werbowy. Nathan has sort of obsession with flowers. And one day, when they were about to have their first live show in Blackpool, right before they hit the stage, a girl came to him and brought him some flower. Since the band hadn’t settled with any names, the band decided to come up with Darlia as their name.

In 2013, they launched their debut E.P, ‘Knock Knock’. Most of the riffs ftom their songs will revive you to Nirvana, which you can clearly hear in their song, ‘Queen of Hearts’. It’s really hard not to find their music has a major influence of Nirvana’s, and a bit of reminiscent to Queens of The Stone Age’s. Eventhough the band state to QmunicateMagazine that they don’t have any influences to their music, Nathan said “Honestly, not in a negative way but I just don’t think there really is. We don’t try to make anything sound like anyone else. We can appreciate what people and other bands do but nothing really affects the way we sound. It literally sounds the way it is, because that is the way it is.”. What is really interesting to us is how Nathan’s vocals can channel from a Brit-pop sound to a howling rock n’ roll. The other thing that makes this band becomes very dynamic in sound is how they will remind you to The Cure and a bit of Placebo on song ‘Candyman’. The other track from Darlia that will hook you is ‘Choke On Bones’, the song erupts with a killer intro and a quiet chorus to get you into some mosh.

Darlia may sound like a mixture of modern age of Nirvana or Queens of The Stone Age, but they are surely going to resound the guitar music to be on track. Their bass-line, thrashy drums, and also addictive raspy roar that comes out of Nathan’s voice are the things that will make them go big and hard to forget (especially with the bleached-look that Nathan has, Kurt Cobain’s doppelgänger award!). The band made it very clear that they are not trying to be another version of others, “We’re not trying to sound like rock and roll; how can you make rock and roll sound different? We don’t want it to. We’re not inventors, we’re musicians.” said Nathan on who inspired their music. No matter how close or similar they sound to the other legendaries, Darlia have hooked us with their E.P (too bad it only has three songs) and also their other works which will bang our heads.

Loneliness is the isolation that comes with nursing a feeling unreturned — an expectation unmet. Aloneness is different. Aloneness is finding freedom in this very same isolation; it’s the strange state of bliss that comes with being truly, honestly, unapologetically content in your own company.

Being alone is one thing we usually forced to face. By that time, music is a key we must have to accompany us. Here is one music we recommend you to listen when feel alone, Strange Fruit!

The revival of 90’s music is on. This Jakarta-based band is catching the hype. The quartet of Baldi Calvianca (vocal), Wing Narada (guitarist), Irza Aryadiaz (bassist), and Ilham Endah Putra(drummer) is coming to your head with their music. Try their latest “Jolly Good Fellow”.

When you already heard them, you have another key to not feel lonely. Share their music. Find the fellow.