The Great Escape: 8 artists to watch out for, including duendita and Just Mustard

Every May, the music industry descends on Brighton’s lanes and windswept seafront to seek out the next big thing. The Great Escape is the UK’s answer to South by Southwest, and features hundreds of bands and musicians playing in every available pub, club and hotel lobby. We hopped a train down to the south coast to seek out your new favourite acts – here are eight artists to tell your friends you were into before they made it.

duendita

On the first night of the festival, a handful of lucky music fans crammed into the bowels of a tiny music hall to hear some of the most impressive soul music of the weekend. It felt very special to experience duendita’s voice, which is warm and epic, and just about managed to quiet a rowdy, beer-soaked crowd. A reverent hush was necessary to hear her sparse melodies giving the whole experience a reverential, church-like feel that was echoed by her music which speaks of ancient emotion, love and grief wrapped up in songs that felt like hymns.

Ohtis

Also struggling with big, existential questions were American band Ohtis, whose gentle, reflective country songs about addiction and recovery were just the balm needed to soothe aching heads in the early Saturday afternoon. Singer Sam Swinson sings like a dazed cowboy and with warm, wavy guitars slaloming around him, it felt very much like a musical hug.

Biig Piig

Jess Smyth aka Biig Piig sings with her eyes closed, which manages to keep the crowd at arm’s length while simultaneously inviting us in to her intoxicating world of intense, teenage feelings. Her poetic rhymes spill out over vintage beats and seductive sax solos. Her slot is a tricky one – early in the festival, on one of the biggest stages on site – but she seems unfazed, even when her DJ’s sound completely cuts out and she’s left to hold the thread of the song alone.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs

Some of the most ferocious guitar music of the weekend came courtesy of Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs over on the Fender Stage. Smashing the absolute heck out of their instruments, they unleashed an unholy noise over an enthusiastic crowd while scores queued outside for a chance to engage with the mayhem. The kind of music seemingly created to allow men of a certain age some emotional release, the swine-loving band’s leader, Matt Batey, was soon down to just his shorts, sweat dripping, gut to the world and a crackling aura of swagger around him. Devilishly good.

Lava La Rue

West London rapper Lava La Rue turned in one of the most fun sets of The Great Escape this year. With an impressively louche flow and commanding stage presence, Ava Laurel (her stage name is an anagram) cut an extremely likeable figure, eking more from her audience than you’d expect at a mid-afternoon, day-lit set in a grotty seafront club that seems more used to hosting stag dos than rising rappers. As founder of the NINE8 collective, her songs are mellow but fierce scrapbook-like vignettes, like a Ladbroke Grove Erykah Badu.

Just Mustard

It takes two attempts to get to see Just Mustard, whose first show of the festival is so over-subscribed that a haggard pub landlord stands outside the Prince Albert begging the crowds not to bother queueing. Their woozy, Warpaint-esque set later in the weekend is worth waiting for, with crisp vocals over droning guitars and surprisingly inventive beats, it’s a heady combination that swerves, unexpectedly, from chill soundscapes to angry industrial noise at the drop of a hat.

Girl In Red

With songs like ‘depression’ and ‘dead girl in the pool’ you might expect a fairly downbeat time with the Norwegian Girl In Red, but she manages to find the fun in her darkest emotions. It’s a bouncy set, with long hair flying everywhere as singer Marie Ulven gets so into it that she keeps missing the mic during We Fell In Love In October’s swooning chorus. The set felt a bit samey – but that’s not necessarily a bad thing when it sounds this good.

Askjell

A perfect marriage of venue and artist, Norweigan composer and producer Askjell’s cinematic soundscape played perfectly in One Church on Saturday. He’s worked with Sigrid and Aurora as a producer but his solo work uses synths and strings to create wintery instrumentals that will have you feeling some serious feelings. “I hope you’re ready for some sad piano,” he quipped before playing what can only be described as some devastatingly sad piano – turns out we weren’t ready at all.