Fopp Award for New Music 2006 - Winners Announced
The winners of this year’s Fopp Award for New Music, a partnership between Fopp, the PRS Foundation and Clear Sound & Vision, have been announced.
Singer/songwriter Conrad Vingoe; eclectic, electronic pop seven-piece Morton Valence; three piece indie band Olympus Mons and Brighton-based quartet The Dials will all be recording brand new material in professional studios this autumn. The new EPs will be distributed nationwide throughout Fopp’s 32 stores at the beginning of next year, ahead of a showcase performance by the bands at London’s prestigious Dingwalls in February.
Unsigned bands from all over London and the South East were invited to send in their original material, with the winners Conrad Vingoe and The Dials both from Brighton and The Olympus Mons and Morton Valence based in London.
The initiative will give these unsigned bands a great opportunity to raise their profile and get their music out there. They’ll be recording at professional studios before then having their recording mastered, edited and mixed. The bands will then work with industry manufacturers Clear Sound & Vision in designing artwork for their EPs before having them pressed.
Fopp Head of Marketing, Ryan Latham explains their involvement:
“Our aim is to support unsigned talent, whilst giving Fopp customers the chance to be the first to discover some of the best new music out there, we very much look forward to hearing the completed output from all the bands and seeing them on sale in Fopp shops soon."
Judges were really pleased with the number and standard of entries this year, organiser Max Bondi from the PRS Foundation says:
”2006 is our third year of Unsigned, and it’s great to see the level of interest from this region in this unique initiative. We had a really excellent range of groups and artists apply this year and the standard of entries was really high, leaving us with a really hard task in choosing the winners. However, the four winning acts are those which the judges felt represent the best in creative and innovative music happening in the UK today”
Danny Sperling from Clear Sound & Vision adds:
"We have been impressed with the demos of the Award winners and are eagerly looking forward to working with each of the bands through to seeing and hearing their finished EPs and seeing them perform live at the winners showcase."
The Winning Acts:
Olympus Mons:
www.theolympusmons.com
www.myspace.com/theolympusmons
Olympus Mons are a three piece indie band based in London, with bohemian sympathies, melodic passages and a subdued feeling of anxiety. Your Oscar Wilde meets a modern day new romantic. With a sound that is a mix of philosophical tales of woe, broken hearts and savvy dreams, they deliver their romantic and emotional heart felt stories detailing the path of three unlikely individuals who clearly do not know where they are going but know that any road will take them there…
Olympus Mons say: “We’re really happy to have won this award as it’s a great opportunity to get recognised as a new band.”
Morton Valence:
www.mortonvalence.co.uk
www.myspace.com/mortonvalence
A regular kind of band, Morton Valence consist of four Colombians, girls from Hong Kong and Ireland and a bloke in a flat-cap from South London. The Metro describes this set-up as "the most interesting and intriguing band on these shores". They produce a unique brand of electronic pop, considered “irresistibly infectious” by a reviewer on The Times’s website.
Morton Valence say: “Morton Valence are extremely flattered to have won the 2006 Fopp Unsigned Award for New Music. We would like to thank Fopp and PRSF and all our mothers, and some of our fathers, except for the ones that keep telling us to get “proper jobs”. We are delighted at the opportunity to spread our music nationwide and hope that all who are smart enough to search Fopp for quality new music enjoy our offering. Thank you.”
Conrad Vingoe:
www.conradvingoe.co.uk
Writing what has variously been described as melancholic, lo-fi and off-kilter pop, Conrad's songs draw on his own experience and explore a range of emotions from desperation to great hope.
Influenced by classic singer songwriters such as Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell, and contemporary artists like Talk Talk and Sparklehorse, Conrad composes fresh and intelligent songs with a timeless relevance, delivered in his own unique style. Conrad has a growing fan base on the Brighton scene which is sure to increase with the exposure winning this award could bring. Conrad has already self-released the High Wire album last year, and is in the midst of recording a second album in Denmark.
Conrad says: “I am very pleased to win the award and look forward to recording and putting a record out which people will be able to buy all over England. This will hopefully give me and the band the further exposure we need to take things to the next level, as well as enabling us to play at a great London venue and showcase material in front of industry.”
The Dials
www.thedials.co.uk
The Dials formed in Brighton four years ago. They fuse classic country rock with '60s psychedelic garage, folk and much, much more. Over the last few years they’ve been steadily winning over people with their intoxicating cocktail of instant but sometimes strange classics. BBC Radio 2’s Mark Lamarr is a fan and describes them as “really, really good”.
About to finish their first album, they take on board influences from The Byrds to early Pink Floyd, and from classic soul to Nick Drake, but The Dials occupy a space that is completely their own.
The Dials say: “This is excellent news. It’s all been going really well this year, we’ve had American radio airplay, UK national airplay and have even been invited to play a Radio 2 live session, and now we win this fabulous new music award. It’s all looking up”.