Listen: The Joy Formidable Go Acoustic With 'Whirring' To Celebrate Ten Years Since Debut EP

Words: Saam Das

It's around a decade since we were asked to be part of the BBC's esteemed Sound Of poll, promoting emerging new acts with a significant chance of commercial success. Back then, we put forward The Joy Formidable, The Drums, and Two Door Cinema Club for the 2010 poll, and we're pretty happy with how they've done subsequently. Indeed, The Joy Formidable are now celebrating ten years of their debut EP, 'A Balloon Called Moaning' with a special limited edition double album version.

Album Review: The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law

The Joy Formidable - 'Wolf's Law' (UK Release: 20 Jan '12) // Words: Saam Das

For Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd, 2013 is more significant than most. This year represents a decade in the music business for the duo, with previous outfits like Tricky Nixon and Sidecar Kisses casualties in their dedicated quest. 'Wolf's Law' is a confident statement from a band who are well set to succeed both commercially and critically in 2013.

Listen: The Joy Formidable - This Ladder Is Ours [Album Preview]

Words: Saam Das

Somewhat unexpectedly (yet brilliantly), Welsh trio The Joy Formidable have been chosen as Muse's European tour support across their arena dates in the UK, as well as in Spain and France. All that ahead of their second album ('Wolf's Law') which comes out in January, from which we have another new track - listen to 'This Ladder Is Ours' below.

Download: The Joy Formidable - Wolf's Law [New Track]

Words: Saam Das

It seems a heck of a long time since The Joy Formidable first burst onto the scene. For two of the Welsh trio, Ritzy Bryan and Rhydian Dafydd, the journey dates back to 2003 and former bands Tricky Nixon and Sidecar Kisses. Their latest track 'Wolf's Law' may just be the moment they move firmly into the mainstream, a Biffy Clyro-esque transition.

Singles: June 2011

Words: Saam Das

June, you have disappointed me with your relative lack of brilliant singles. Anything, however, is better than Cher Lloyd's upcoming single, 'Swagger Jagger'. I weep for humanity. Check out ten MUCH BETTER singles from last month below, and the photo above is a hint to our single of the month winner.

Glastonbury: 2011 Festival Preview

Words: Saam Das

The eager amongst us may already be at Glastonbury Festival but for those who are yet to head to Somerset then these last minute recommendations for bands to see/things to do might come in handy. You may already have seen my guest blog at BBC 6Music and well, this is a variation on that theme. Hopefully with fewer typos....

A Balloon Called Moaning

Yesterday evening I made a short trip down to the "new" Pure Groove establishment in the Farrington region to see one of my favourite bands of the past year, The Joy Formidable play a free instore in celebration of their release, 'A Balloon Called Moaning'. Clocking in at just under half an hour, its eight tracks represent a potted back catalogue, with tracks dating back to their proto-outfit Sidecar Kisses.

If you're fortunate enough to witness the force of The Joy Formidable in person then you will be enveloped by their sonic exploits. Seriously, they go all out for the "wall of noise" and considering there's only three of them, they make an impressive racket. That's probably painted a slightly skewed imagining as there's hooks aplenty in the tracks, most notably in the effervescent singles 'Austere' and 'Cradle'. In fact, if I had photoshop I may well have constructed a wonderfully informative Venn diagram displaying the neat overlap of 'shoegaze' and 'pop' that The Joy Formidable inhabit. Sadly, you must simply use your imagination instead. Or your ears. The plentiful Pure Groove audience appeared to enjoy the set and despite my high expectations, I was suitably impressed as they zipped through much of the EP.



On a minor tangent, Twitter (follow me - http://www.twitter.com/keephopeinside) is proving more and more useful. Winston of [winstonszen.com] directed me to his photos of the gig so have a photo. Shame he didn't get a photo of the balloons labelled moaning (geddit?). More gigs need balloons. All gigs need balloons. For the rest of Winston's photos, head [here]. Go visit his blog too.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE - THE GREATEST LIGHT IS THE GREATEST SHADE

The original 'A Balloon Called Moaning' ltd ed boxset has sold out but you can pick up one of the new run [here] for a meagre 7 quid. To whet your appetite, download half the album over at [Music Glue]. Their BBC 6Music Session is still good to go, download from my [Futuresounds post], and listen to the demo of 'Cradle' from early 2008 on [KHI podcast#6].

Futuresounds Part Two

This post was rather unceremoniously removed by DMCA notification "for copyright reasons" in early March, a full month after it was posted. Seeing as none of the mp3s were commercially available, I can only assume that I'll have about 3 posts left if they continue in this fashion. If you'd like the mp3s, email me and I'll try to get them to you.

My tips for 2009 continues in its time old fashion of one hyped act, one Keep Hope Inside golden oldie and one band who I've never blogged about. There's a lot of radio session action going down in this post. You can find part uno [here]. Surely worth clicking through simply for my lolbama photo?

Little Boots
Former frontwoman of the tipped-but-never-really-got-anywhere Dead Disco, Victoria Hesketh went solo and has won plaudits for her wonky electropop and use of that funky tenori-on gadget. In fact, she's the BBC Sound of 2009 following Adele (2008), Mika (2007) and Corinne Bailey-Rae (2006). So hyped to the max. But understandably so. And yeah, she's a fittie mcvitie.

LITTLE BOOTS - MEDDLE (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
LITTLE BOOTS - STUCK ON REPEAT (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)

The Joy Formidable
Probably my favourite emerging act of 2008 but a band in a brief transitional period - previous drummer Justin has been replaced by new boy Matt Thomas. Not that such a change has particularly affected the trio, they are still go-go-go with their quest for world domination. Their UK headline tour starts about now, they've recorded a couple of sessions for BBC Radio and they'll be dropping their ltd ed mini-album boxset 'A Balloon Called Moaning' (only available from [Puregroove]) in February. Their shoegazey dream pop will enthrall and enrapture. Expect to see plenty more about TJF on Keep Hope Inside (and maybe even elsewhere, like in my interview with the Record Of The Day mag). Here's their third BBC 6Music Session, recorded just the other week with Marc Riley.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE - AUSTERE (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
THE JOY FORMIDABLE - CRADLE (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)
THE JOY FORMIDABLE - THE LAST DROP (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)

The Temper Trap
Empire Of The Sun appear to be the artist du jour from Australia according to many industry tipsters but if we're tipping an Aussie band for success, I'd much rather have this lot. Reflecting the same melodic desperation of Frightened Rabbit and a soaring crossover indie rock sensibility similar to early Coldplay, they've got a good chance of success. Even more so perhaps, having signed for the newly rebooted Infectious Records. Not forgetting soundtracking the trailer to the hyped indie film '500 Days Of Summer' (which looks fantastic - watch the trailer [here] with the utterly magical 'Sweet Disposition'.

THE TEMPER TRAP - FOOLS (BBC INTRODUCING SESSION)
THE TEMPER TRAP - LOVE LOST (BBC INTRODUCING SESSION)

George Lamb vs The Joy Formidable

Instalment number next one for my George Lamb vs Music series. For those who don't know who George Lamb is, he is a lothario of the radio waves here in England, manning the studio at BBC6 Music. Much maligned yet much listened to, I decided to bring you some of the best sessions from his shows. This one's with Welsh Londoners The Joy Formidable, who George actually had in for another session last year too. See, he's not all bad.

If you're unfamiliar with The Joy Formidable, you may have come across them in their former incarnation, Sidecar Kisses. No? Me neither. But now they're preparing to take 2009 on and win. Mixing the likes of JJ72, Pixies and Yeah Yeah Yeahs into a surprisingly coherent and melodic form, they've just finished supporting White Lies on their UK tour. Debut 7" single 'Austere' (a throwback to the Sidecar Kisses days) was well received and I put 'Cradle' on [Keep Hope Inside podcast#6] at the start of the year.

With nods in the likes of mainstream national newspapers like The Guardian and The Times, as well as support from NME, don't be surprised to hear more of their beguiling scuzz pop. For the time being, have a listen to the session version of the recently released single as well as new song, 'The Last Drop'.

THE JOY FORMIDABLE - AUSTERE (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)

THE JOY FORMIDABLE - THE LAST DROP (BBC 6MUSIC SESSION)