Monday 4 March 2013

Josh Record - New Waves

As soon as a new artist begins to breakthrough and find public interest you can almost guarantee that the cynics will be lurking in the shadows ready to plunge their knives deep. Of course a certain degree of cynicism is healthy to keep things in perspective, but the difficulty for all those with this negative world view is that it’s nigh on impossible to keep the momentum going on just one target. Witness for example Lana Del Rey; an artist that found herself the subject of a heightened level of early career backlash before the internet assassins moved on to their next target leaving Lana to find a fan base who appreciated and cared for what she was doing.

For those looking to fire their bow of bitterness, Josh Record could be the next one to aim for. The reason?  No, not for wearing a silly hat (although the photo above suggests he's pretty gutted about that) but because he’s committed what some may see as the musical crime of getting an education. For attending the London School for Performing Arts and Technology (or Brit School as it is more commonly known) conflicts with dated views that the school just churns out manufactured artists. Yet ask many a musician from the past who had their fingers burnt by dodgy music business managers or accountants and you’ll find that they would have welcomed the opportunity to be educated about the industry they were entering in their time. Besides, not every artist out of Brit school is terrible by default. Adele and Amy Winehouse were both key alumna. OK it also gave us The Kooks, but as Ian Brown of The Stone Roses once said “it’s not where you’re from it’s where you’re at.”

So let's see where Josh Record is at. When he’s not running a young person’s music / film project in London or music workshops in schools and prisons he records his own songs, the results of which are demonstrated on his debut EP Bones. It shows off his considerable talents as a singer songwriter. We’re streaming the lead track from the EP For Your Love below. With a falsetto style not dissimilar to the likes of Bon Iver or Fleet Foxes, Record croons in a way that has the potential to make knees tremble, hearts melt and other body parts do things that they weren’t designed to do. 

Josh Record - For Your Love

No comments: