Congratulations to Alt-J on the success of their album An Awesome Wave, the winner of 2012′s Mercury Prize. We’ve been firm fans of the band since we first discovered Matilda on amazingtunes.com back when the band went under the name of Films and it’s been a pleasure to see the band’s music find a wider audience. No doubt the Mercury Prize exposure will help even more people discover an album we described a while back as:

a compilation of downbeat intricate melodies and delicate vocal harmonies, broken down and separated by a handful of short interludes. An Awesome Wave is a special album, to say the least.”

It’s been a great year so far for Alt-J and it’s a coup to have won such a prestigious award ahead of  artists such as Michael Kiwanuka, Richard Hawley,  Ben Howard. Let alone other artists who have featured on Amazing Radio like Django Django,  Jessie Ware, Lianne La Havas and Field Music.  

So, pats on the back all round for all involved. If you haven’t already seen Alt-J‘s performance for The Amazing Sessions then  you’re missing out. Take a look at their performance of Tesselate, recorded exclusively for us earlier this year.

Celebrating the best in British albums, The Mercury Prize shortlist highlights 12 records that have impressed over the last 12 months. The full shortlist reads as follows:

Django Django // Maccabbees // Jessie Ware // Roller Trio // Field Music //  Michael Kiwanuka // Richard Hawley // Ben Howard // Alt-J // Lianne La Havas // Plan B

We are so excited to see some of the bands we’ve supported heavily in the list. In celebration, let’s have a sneaky look back at Alt-J‘s live session for us:

Boston two-piece Sonnymoon create a strange and intriguing hybrid of R&B, intelligent electronica and ambient textures. As alumni of Berklee College of Music, their influences are rich and diverse, from jazz to dub reggae to avante-garde; and all are expertly executed, stirring these influences into something wholly new and exciting.

The duo balance Dane Orr’s tight, glitchy beats and Anna Wise’s delicate, whispered vocal with perfect poise throughout their eponymous album. The track featured above, Nothing Thought, is a perfect introduction to the album which is also accompanied by this psychedelic video:

Sonnymoon is out on September 17th through Plug Research.

Each week Ruth Barnes at Breakfast looks at the most interesting blogs on the ‘net. Taking the spotlight this week on the show is the Abacus Post which is a blog that’s run by two friends, Neil and Dan, who are based in South Tyneside. Neil and Dan described the Abacus Post for us:

“mainly we tend to write about upcoming and emerging artists. I think our blog is better than other blogs because we have quite a wide span of genres and artists that we follow and offer coverage too.”

The Abacus Post is an excellent read for fans of new music, and we were drawn to it because Neil and Dan prefer quality over quantity. Whilst you won’t get a new post or review every single day, the content that is available always offers a unique opinion that isn’t just copied from another source.

The Abacus Post aren’t just an online blog, they also put on live events in the North East too.
They’re celebrating their first birthday in November in Sunderland with a line-up consisting of The Lake Poets and Joe Banfi, both artists we love here on the breakfast show.

If you’d like to recommend a blog to feature in My Blog’s Better Than Your Blog, then email Ruth with all the details you think she needs to know.

Today we were sent an image of two people wearing a furry bunny head and a fox head. Of course, we took to the blog. Oh, and there’s a glorious, hazy lens flare. TRY AND STOP US WRITING ABOUT THIS.

Don’t get us wrong, we listened to the accompanying track too. It’s effortless and languid as it meanders through hushed vocals, laid back instrumentation and that hooky chorus. Little shimmers and tingles creep in and out as the track floats around you; testament to Dom Morley‘s light and airy production.

The lyrics are touching as well; “Write me boy, with the reasons that you like me“. It’s cute and charming, reminiscent of passing love letters across a classroom. So consider this our love-letter to INK, with a doodled heart and IDST written on it.

INK are a London two piece and Ink Goes On is the first glimpse into their world that we’ve been offered. We can’t wait to hear more. Be sure to grab this track free from the player above!

We’re absolutely thrilled to be able to put on a free gig with three of the finest new bands the capital has to offer.

Freshly signed to the Transgressive imprint Paradyse Records, LULS are more than worthy headliners for us. Not only has their track Young graced the Top 10 of our very own Amazing Chart, but this London gig will come hot on the heels of their debut single Swing Low being released on limited edition 7” vinyl.

Despite having received plenty of positive attention for their song Graceland, MUST are still cloaked in a veil of mystery, so it’ll be great to see them unveil themselves as part of our live line-up. They say: “We’ve been keeping our cards close to our chests and locking ourselves away in studios across North London, recording in disused pig farms and writing in remote locations.”

Fellow Londoners Entertainment have been together for a couple of years now, but it’s only been in the last six months that we’ve heard them write and record under this name. Fruitful sessions with Rory Attwell aboard the Lightship95 have led to them creating a brilliant selection of new songs which are as hazy as they are catchy.

Come and see all three bands for free at the OId Queens Head on Thursday 29th November. Various members of the Amazing Radio team will be there spinning tunes on the night too, with doors opening at 7:30pm.

Oxford indie outfit Spring Offensive are no stranger to Amazing Radio. We’ve been shouting about their particular blend of emotionally charged and effecting indie-pop for some time now. We even invited them over for a live session, that’s how much we love them.

They make a staggering return with their new track, Not Drowning But Waving – a five and half minute epic with impassioned lyrics and a powerful climax. The track creeps and builds with subtle instrumentation and stunning four part harmonies before clattering to its finale of jarring guitars, howls of feedback and smashing drums. We think this might be their best offering yet.

It is accompanied by a deliciously bleak video, directed by the band’s own Matt Cooper. The video plots a narrative following the eb and flow of the track and is played out with stunning imagery. Check it out below.

This week the band embark on a huge (seriously, huge) European tour to promote the track. Check out the full dates over at their website. The track is available digitally now and will be available on limited edition vinyl when the tour kicks off.

This track from Kitsune‘s Swedish twins, Saint Lou Lou, has mesmerised us from the moment we first heard it. Today they unveil the stunningly beautiful music video to accompany it. The artistic black and white shots collide perfectly with the floating and atmospheric sounds of Maybe You. Director Philippe Tempelman has captured the dark undercurrent that flows throughout the ghostly track and transferred it to film in a wonderful fashion.

We also invented a game that you can play with the video. Load the video up and let it buffer fully. Then just click anywhere along the time line for an incredible piece of art. We recommend 1 minute, 36 seconds in.

Maybe You is out now on Kitsune.

Maybe it’s because we were lost in a sea of terrible chillwave tracks but whilst making the rounds of our usual music discovery sites, we stumbled across Kandle and were immediately stopped in our tracks. Something about it struck us. The scraping ball and chain sample, the dark manner in which it lurches onwards and the obvious delta-blues influence all completely took us by surprise.

Musically it’s ominous, threatening and a little uncomfortable but Kandle Osbourne’s soothing and smooth drawl hangs above it all making for an incredibly interesting piece of music.

It sits outside of the usual hype-tracks and buzz-bands and feels like a breath of fresh air because of it. It’s authentic, organic and rustic.

Her six-track EP is available digitally and on CD now. Check out more from Kandle at her amazingtunes.com profile.

From the creative minds of producer Ash Gardner (Mumford and Sons, Noah & the Whale, Ash), Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers) and Hugo Shepherd, emerges this slice of dreamy, haphazard pop.

Fishes and Wasps, the two tracks we’ve been introduced to, are wonderfully sweet. They’re sugar coated, dipped in honey and instantly charming. It’s all tinged with nostalgia; there are a ton of analogue synths present and it’s all served up on a cassette this October. Oh, and Wasps comes with a retro, Japanese VHS-inspired video too.

The collaborative effort also extends beyond the music with Emperor Yes hosting a month-long exhibition showcasing works by graffitti artists and selling a bunch of limited edition screen prints.

Fishes // Wasps is out on Tape Club Records on October 8th. Watch out for more from the band at their amazingtunes.com profile.