Having migrated from its birthplace, the Shaw, into the loving bosom of Twisted Pepper’s stage room, Forward/Slash is the number one Thursday night destination for music fans with empty pockets. With Sunken Foal, Eomac, Owensie, Feel Good Lost, and Sleep Thieves all on the schedule for January/February, FS’s commitment to booking by quality rather than genre lends it a cutting edge. Forward/Slash don Frankie Grimes picks his 7 essentials.
Nosaj Thing – Eclipse/Blue
First single off the forthcoming album (January), and it’s a corker. Amazing video to boot. Hoping to reschedule the cancelled show for 2013.
Lakker – Spider Silk
Killer dark broken-beat techno, deservedly getting played out by Blawan. Forward/Slash gets a double dose in January as Lakker support Pete Swanson and Eomac supports Sunken Foal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QayQUvaefts
Ocho – Be My Baby
Ocho are one of the Irish acts to come out of 2012 we’re most excited by. Beautiful vocals, nods to Portishead in the dark trip-hop beats, and a knack for song-writing, Ocho are our ones to watch.
Jeremih – 773 Love
The best hipster-hop I’ve heard since the Weeknd. ‘Late Nights with Jeremih’ is a great album, and 773 Love is one of many standout tracks.
Jai Paul – Jasmine
I tried to resist the hype, just for the sake of it, but it didn’t work. Seriously excited for the album.
Nicolas Jaar – Encore
Nico had to fit in here somewhere, and seeing as he gave the closer to his 2011 XLR8R podcast away during the year, I thought this’d do. One of my favourites.
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/43689576″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Nouveaunoise ft. Mark James – Aretha
One of my personal favourites from the 2012 Forward/Slash compilation.
