UK Blog Sound 2015

It's hard to work out whether it's the decreasing quality of my memory (late 20's syndrome as I like to call it) or a genuine reflection of the increasing health of the music scene, but 2014 has been one of the best years of independent and emerging artists I can remember.

Platforms such as Tom Robinson's weekly BBC Introducing podcasts, amazing bloggers such as Goldflakepaint, When the Gramophone Rings & Breaking More Waves, Daisy Digital's ever brilliant weekly mixtapes, as well as any music blogger's trusted sources in Hype Machine & Amazing Radio, have been key touch-points for bringing brilliant up-and-coming music to my attention.

For anyone wanting to start writing a music blog, or just wanting to be able to have a bit of pithy dialogue like this - Person A: "I really like this new band called [insert new hype band name] I just heard on Radio 1, have you ever heard them?" Newly established music aficionado: "Yeah, I listened to their lead single from their debut EP 18 months ago on [insert obscure new music source]" - I'd recommend any and all of the above for broadening your musical horizons.

Being one of these irritants myself it gave me great pleasure to be asked to take part in the UK Blog Sound pole again this year; there's loads of blurb about what this is at the bottom, but the important thing is it showcases UK blogger's favorite emerging artists. Below is the 15 act strong longlist. The winner will be announced on January 2nd.

The Full Blog Sound of 2015 Longlist (In alphabetical order)

All We Are - Liverpool 3 piece who describe their music as 'psychedelic boogie'.

Black Honey - Brighton based indie band formerley known as Kill Moon

Chløë Black - Tags her music as 'goth 'n' soul'

Coasts - Indie rock band from Bristol who have comparisons with Foals

Deers - A band from Spain who first created a stir with some lo-fi demos earlier this year.

Fickle Friends - Danceable indie music from another Brighton based band.

Flyte - Classic old fashioned songwriting with an indie pop twist.

Halfrican - Glasgow based punk rock

Honne - R&B influenced electronics and soul pop.

Låpsley - Solo artist from Liverpool making downtempo electronica with a range of influences.

Prides - Synth pop group from Scotland, who performed at the Commonwealth Games

Shura - Singer songwriter and producer using synths to create a mellow pop sound.

Soak - Singer songwriter from Derry whose real name is Bridie Monds-Watson.

Sophie Jamieson - Singer songwriter who has been compared to Daughter. Was alos on last year's list.

Tei Shi - Describes her music as 'mermaid music'. Make of that what you will!

Descriptions courtesy of Breaking More Waves.

Listen to a full playlist of bands below.

What Is The Blog Sound of 2015?

The Blog Sound of 2015 poll aims to showcase some of the best new emerging artists. However, unlike the ubiquitous BBC Sound of poll, the artists nominated aren’t picked just by industry experts. Instead they’re voted for by music bloggers, a small number of whom may work in the music industry, but the majority of which are just hardcore fans who write their blogs because of their genuine passion for music, normally with no financial incentive to do so.

This poll is not about picking acts who bloggers think will be famous. The bloggers involved are asked to vote for their favourite acts, irrespective of chances of commercial success.

How The Voting Worked

This year the Blog Sound Of 2015 poll canvassed 62 UK music blogs in November 2014, the most ever since its 2011 start. It asked each one to pick its 3 favourite emerging artists and rank them in order of preference. In total 148 artists received at least 1 vote, showing the diversity of bloggers' tastes. The acts scored 3, 2 and 1 points respectively.  The bloggers could choose any artist they wanted, providing the artist had not had a top 40 hit (including as a collaborator on a song) by the time voting started and that they weren’t related to or have any financial interest in any artist they selected. Where 2 artists tied on the same number of points, the artist with the most first place votes was ranked higher.

The 15 most popular acts that form the long list include artists that are on major labels as well as indie and unsigned ones, such as Brighton based indie band Fickle Friends, fuzzy sounding Glasgow punks Halfrican, goth ‘n’ soul singer Chloe Black, recent XL signing Lapsley and singer songwriter Sophie Jamieson, an artist who appears on the list for the second time running having also appeared the previous year.