ed tracy

One of the biggest (guilty?) pleasures in the music blogging world is to be the first ones to pick up on some hot new band, to be able to say I was there first. Here’s someone I’m confident will be absolutely huge in about six months or so, and I’ll get to be smug at the annual music blog dinner dance.

Ed Tracy is an acquaintance of mine through a mutual Birmingham friend. He used to DJ at our parties, and once planned to arrive via motorcycle through the front door but this dream was sadly quashed after we couldn’t find a driver. He used to play under the moniker Chopper Harris, and has been tooling around the toilet venues of London for a while. He also occasionally played live saxophone, naked, for now-defunct white 2-step/dub outfit Crack Village alongside Akira The Don and one of Ray Winstone’s female sprogs. Via a chain of command involving former members of Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Prefab Sprout his demo got him signed to Parlophone. He’s just been recording his debut album in L.A. with Greg Kurstin (who’s produced Lily Allen, Peaches and Kylie) and Rick Nowels (Dido, Madonna, Tupac and perhaps most impressively Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth”).

His stuff is classic British guitar pop with a creamy layer of white soul, and vocals that chew their way happily around juicy non-sequiters and vaguely slapstick imagery. Think the more carefree bits of XTC, the madcap yet vulnerable energy of Dexy’s and the unashamed heart on sleeve of the aforementioned Sprout. This is one of his earlier efforts with some very nice guitar-hero soloing, and a catchiness that ruled my summer about three years back. Check out his myspace for some of his excellent new songs (including “Too Much Money” which WILL be #1), and his blog featuring tales of Keith Flint eating apple crumble amongst other topics.

Ed Tracy – Foxes Of New Cross