It’s peak list season now, so I’ll keep this intro short. This year has felt like such an inspiring one in which to be following UK music. Sure, the usual chart big hitters have made their marks on commercial radio – Jess Glynne, Clean Bandit, George Ezra and so on – but 2018 has also seen new names elbow their ways onto our radars. And I mean across guitar music, pop, R&B, rap, afropop, drill… As anyone who’s heard me yelling “*insert brilliant new act name* are one of the best bands in Britain m8!!” over dinner knows, there’s plenty to get excited about. Here’s a selection of some of the acts who’ve made an impression on the Noisey UK team this year, and those who look like they have plenty more to give in 2019 and beyond.
Octavian
Who? A France-born British rapper whose backstory – he was homeless for a bit, now makes incredible music, your fave could never etc – and inventive sound earned him love from Drake off the back of one song.
Videos by VICE
What do they sound like? This is tricky with Octavian because, yes, some of what he does is rap but he also sings, covers his voice in distorted effects, and vocalises over beats that rumble and send your feet wobbling.
Where to start? “Hands,” from earlier this year. If you weren’t lucky enough to catch him at our Great Escape festival party (soz), then in a live setting. He tours Europe and the UK from February next year.
Serine Karthage
Who? A 23-year-old singer, rapper and songwriter who’s seemed to come from nowhere this year since being signed by Song imprint Since ‘93. Bit mad to say she “had a huge year” off the back of one song but she’s fully positioned to blow in 2019.
What do they sound like? A rose: smooth one moment and prickly the next. Serine’s vocals are thick and emotive, and since first appearing with a few Soundcloud cuts in 2016 and an A2 feature last year, she’s setting off on what looks like a new direction.
Where to start? “Ruler,” her only single from this year. Her name is all over the credits on its video: direction, editing, styling and hair. Fair enough.
Hak Baker
Who? A 52-year-old Cockney geezer trapped in a 26-year-old’s body.
What do they sound like? See above, singing over acoustic guitar about everything from being fucking broke to a friend who died young. It’s intimate, raw stuff paired with almost disarmingly simple guitar lines.
Where to start? Our interview with him from earlier this year, then his debut EP Misfits.
Mahalia
Who? A 20-year-old from Leicester who wrote one of my favourite songs of the year (“I Wish I Missed My Ex), was signed at 13 and really crossed over to the US in 2018. She’s made good on her ‘one to watch in 2018‘ list inclusions, and in mid-November also picked up YouTube’s first-ever One to Watch top billing.
What do they sound like? A genre magpie, gravitating towards elements of soul, pop, R&B and folk – but her lyrics tap into relationships in a way that makes her music transcend strict genre boundaries anyway.
Where to start? This autumn’s Seasons EP, and the interview we ran with her once she’d got back from her sold-out US dates on a tour of the same name.
Denzel Himself
Who? A distressingly talented all-rounder, who writes and produces his own music, directs his videos and destroys your self-confidence, all at once. He’s 23.
What do they sound like? As Ryan Bassil put it, speaking to Denzel this year, “a computer chipboard might if it became sentient.” Denzel blends genres together in novel ways, pulling from hardcore, industrial electronic music, rap and his film studies background.
Where to start? His “HIGHER” and “Be There” singles from earlier this year.
Lava La Rue
Who? A singer/rapper/creative director of what she and her friends have named the NiNE8 Collective. Exactly the sort of person whose CV and slashie identity confuses the hell out of baby boomers.
What do they sound like? A voice of reason over elements of boom-bap, dub, electronic production. Lava learned independence from a young age, after growing up in and out of care, and channels that intelligence into her lyrics.
Where to start? A live show – they’re insane. Failing that, we spoke to her earlier this year before she put out her Letra mixtape.
Yellow Days
Who? A lad from Haslemere who was born George Van Den Broek and had his music used on Atlanta before his 18th birthday (he’s 19 now).
What do they sound like? A bit like falling asleep on a sunny day outside, but under some trees so your skin isn’t damaged, and you’re eating fresh berries. He makes breathy, dreamy guitar-pop that folds inquisitive lyrics into seemingly sweet instrumentation.
Where to start? His latest single “What’s It All For,” which we premiered.
Greentea Peng
Who? A weed-smoking, raspy-voiced Londoner who shifted from wild teen years to the calming songwriting that’s had people paint her as a new-age saviour for our hunched-over-screens times. She’s… not fussed about being seen as spiritual though.
What do they sound like? Erykah Badu crossed with Amy Winehouse, vocally, while singing about everything from romantic love to why money is not as lit as capitalism would have us all believe. Like a sentient, high-quality sandalwood candle.
Where to start? Our interview with her, and October’s Sensi EP that inspired it.
Miink
Who? A ~mysterious~ musician and producer, whose falsetto first knocked people back in late 2017. He wants to play the long game in music, as he told us earlier this year.
What do they sound like? Bass rattling and guitar lines plucking under a voice that recalls Maxwell and Dev Hynes. Like, he’s sort of R&B but also soul but also not easy to slot into one genre.
Where to start? That interview I mentioned, and his Small Clan project from September.
Flohio
Who? An upstart rapper, who first started to bubble up in 2017 (we pointed her out as a rising MC to watch in February that year) but had her real breakthrough this year.
What do they sound like? Poetic bars, a ‘hear me suck in these huge breaths in the gaps I can find’ flow and enough electric energy to singe your brows off.
Where to start? Recent single “Wild Yout,” off November’s EP off the same name.
Loski
Who? The 18-year-old Harlem Spartans alum who’s been striking out on his own, during a year when the UK tabloid press’ sloppy reporting on UK drill has thrust his genre into the spotlight.
What do they sound like? A driller who can also dip a toe into the pop pond, as he did on last year’s smash “Forrest Gump.” Mostly Loski’s all about tongue-twisting wordplay and storytelling about his daily realities.
Where to start? His Call Me Loose mixtape, which came out this year and nudged just shy of the UK album top 40 in April, peaking at number 44.
Cosha
Who? A 22-year-old Irish singer, songwriter and producer who rebranded with a new artist name this year. Since then, she’s earned co-signs from Charli XCX while collaborating with Nile Rodgers, Rostam, NAO, Mura Masa and more.
What do they sound like? Noticing a pattern yet? As with so many of the new talents from this year, Cosha pulls from different genres, like someone putting together a lurid, flower arrangement of dyed petals. She marries woozy electronica with pop, funk-disco and juuuust-about club music.
Where to start? The dreamy “Flacko,” off her RIP Bonzai mixtape. We spoke to her about it, and about her reinvention, at length here.
D-Block Europe
Who? Sort of the European arm of JadaKiss, Sheek Louch and Styles P’s D-Block label. What that really means is that rappers Young Adz and Dirt Bike are at the forefront of D-Block Europe’s UK rap releases, which often feature guest spots too.
What do they sound like? Auto-Tuned sweet talkers one second, and 16 bars of heat over an Atlanta-inspired beat the next. They catch some flack for sounding “too American” but since the start of this year they’ve been putting out one banger after the next, so they’re probably not too bothered about that criticism.
Where to start? Their debut album The Shard, from March.
Rina Sawayama
Who? The 28-year-old Londoner whose credentials – Cambridge politics undergrad, model – make her sound more like the Tinder bio wet dream of an oil baron heir. In reality, she’s a hugely talented complete sweetheart, who had a big old year after putting our her self-titled project in November 2017.
What do they sound like? A knowing pastiche of 2000s bubblegum pop, slicked with the gloss of 90s and 00s R&B. Think Mariah crossed with Britney, N*Sync and Charli XCX.
Where to start? Her track “Tunnel Vision” with Shamir, which came about off the back of a piece on pop and internet culture written by our managing editor Daisy Jones (!).
Sports Team
Who? Six men and women in west London who aren’t embarrassed about the fact that they met at Cambridge Uni. If you write your own punchlines, people can’t use them against you.
What do they sound like? I almost fought a friend who said Sports Team’s singer Alex Rice “sounds like the guy from Electric 6 to me.” Actually, they’re a bit baggy, a bit indie, very silly and also highly skilled at writing hooks and slightly outlandish guitar lines.
Where to start? Their Winter Nets debut EP, which came out in January. If you haven’t got time for all that, go straight to their “Margate” video. Alex’s dance moves :’)
Bakar
Who? Quite frankly a north Londoner who could just as easily be a model or full-time skater, but instead makes genre-smashing, high-energy music with his band the Bad Kids.
What do they sound like? Early Bloc Party, a Libertines cover band, a teen’s diary and that one shouty mate of yours from sixth-form, all put in a blender. I was initially cynical and sceptical about this guy (‘Walked for Virgil? Somehow also on Elton John’s radar??’) but saw a live set and he’s outrageously fun.
Where to start? In the crowd, during a live show. Otherwise, his “Dracula” video and Badkid mixtape, from May.
You can find Tshepo on Twitter.