A simple question, a difficult answer...

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Your favourite British band making music today...who are they?

Let's not include bands who no longer function (sorry New Order lovers), solo artists, duos (but trios and above are OK) or boybands/girlbands who 'only' sing and dance. I'm being deliberately rockist in this respect as I'm curious as to how much people here go for the traditional band dynamic. I can think of only about 5 or 6 active acts from the UK I like and listen to and I'm not sure I really love any of them. I still think it matters!

My answer: Hot Chip. I don't think they're very good live (altho some do) but I like their ideas generally and I suppose I can relate to them as people pretty well which is often a plus for reasons that should be obvious ('that could be me without massive lifestyle change' etc.). Something is definitely missing from their 'sound' that would make it truly awesome but 'My Piano' is ace.

Comments

Re: Improv/Skronk/Noize groups

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Yes to Ascension (love to see Descension reform), one group whose act of reforming I'd actually be inclined to approve (unlike so many of those new wave/great 80s groups - such as The Pixies :-)).

Although I've listed a cpl for Tom obv the one great thing about any free improvisation grouping is its likely short-termism, innit, with economic/social viability playing as much of a part as the inherent nature of the music, consisting of musicians vampirically sucking each other's musicianships and moving on.