Little Boots: 6 Music's Sound of 2009

Once more unto the breach, my friends: I've finally emerged from the ravages of the Christmas holiday (relatively unscathed, you'll be pleased to hear) and I'm back at the blog.  Hurrah! 2009 should, if all goes to plan, be a really busy year for all things Eaten by Monsters related.  The band's EP should be finished by next month (we're mixing at the moment) and there should be load of gigs on the horizon too.  I'll try to get back into the habit of updating the EbM Journal, too; so pop over there for up-to-the-minute band news.  Blog-wise, things should start hotting up soon as well.   There'll be a few more Bearfaced Podcast Sessions, and I'm gonna try harder to get interviews etc to post here.  Exclusive content here we come!

But to the matter in hand: BBC 6 Music have finally, after an awful lot of fuss and bluster, announced the winner of their prestigious accolade, The Sound of 2009.  It's Little Boots, who I've only come across via Later... but who seems to be causing a bit of a stir, mostly as a result of her nifty little toy the Yamaha Tenori-On.

If I'm honest, I'm not too sure there's much to here beyond the live gimmicks, as all the recorded stuff I've heard seems to be pretty generic and is easily dismissible.  I'd definitely recommend checking out her live stuff.  As a result of winning the Sound of 2009 she did a BBC session at The Hub, but her best work (so far) is to be found on her youtube account, particularly here and here.  The Tenori-On makes for quite a visual show, and the stripped-down versions of her songs are far superior to the band renditions.

I doubt anyone can ever accurately predict the "next big thing", and just because we're at the dawning of a fresh new year doesn't change that.  No matter what emerges, I'm certainly looking forward to it.  2008 was in my opinion one of the best years ever for new music (though this seems to be going against the opinions of almost every other music blog I've read lately), and I'm hoping 2009 will be even better.

Little Boots' Stuck on Repeat is the iTunes single of the week at the moment, so check that out (and beware the sneaky remixes of it that many blogs are passing off as the real thing).  In the meantime, here's her cover of Hot Chip's Ready for the Floor, made using nowt but her voice and the snazzy Tenori-On:

Little Boots - Ready for the Floor [audio //www.bearfacedrecords.com/EbMBlog_mp3s/LittleBoots/LittleBoots_ReadyForTheFloor.mp3]

Happy new year.