It’s that time of the year again where we can begin to speculate about the bands we will all be talking about throughout 2012. You have to speculate to accumulate, and I enjoy accumulating, so outlined in this post are my tips for grandeur as we cross into the year to come.

Clock Opera
First up, Clock Opera [pictured] hailing from London. This four-piece act fronted by Guy Connelly, who it must be noted showcases a powerful beard, produce uplifting, free flowing and beautifully constructed pop songs. The use of fractured samples provides a rich soundscape, accompanied by clear, driving bass lines and impressive melodic vocal harmonies. All these components together make for a lush indietronic delight. The Clock Opera live offering is no less impressive, ensuring the audience is captivated throughout, from the soft piano and sing along vocals in ‘Belongings’ to the use of household objects with interesting result during ‘A Piece of String’. Look out for these gents’ debut album in 2012 which judging by releases thus far promises to be a beast.

Alt-J
Alt-J or △ (delta sign created with the key combination of alt+j on Apple computers) is the name of the band creating seemingly minimalistic tracks which you simply cannot listen to just once. They like triangles as clearly depicted in click-percussion infused track ‘Tesselate’ with the lyrics ‘triangles are my favorite shape’. Their songs maintain a real chill out element yet exhibit interesting and variable percussion ensuring you are constantly engrossed. These features build a superb foundation for which frontman Joe Newman, reminiscent in sound to an intriguing and experimental Jack Steadman of Bombay Bicycle Club, can muster catchy and almost haunting vocals. Having done a string of well received shows outside their base town Leeds, and with the prospect of further recordings to add to their currently available demo, Alt-J are certainly a band to lookout for.

Jonquil
Jonquil are a four-piece band from Oxford with the ability to create beautifully flowing music with a folk edge that makes you feel like you’re in a nice dream… except you’re not, you’re actually doing a dance you didn’t know you could do. With a blend of technical guitar riffs and trumpet leads supported by drum beats and tidy synth, Jonquil have managed to create an infectious sound that makes it difficult for the listener to feel dissatisfied. ‘I Know I Don’t Know’ is a track of particular note which quickly throws you into an up-tempo and unforgettable clean guitar lead which will stick in your mind and result in withdrawal symptoms until you hear it again. With the almost salsa sounding ‘Mexico’ having recently been released as a taster to their upcoming album in 2012, it seems hard to see how these boys from Oxford, fronted by Hugo Manuel (aka Chad Valley), will fail to have a big part to play in our musical lives next year.

Dry The River
The penultimate band to make my list are one that I simply could not leave out. After an already strong year, Dry The River are building up an enormous amount of anticipation with electric live performances and big records which send a tingle down your spine. The vocal harmonies that DTR create are nothing short of phenomenal and classically trained violinist Will Harvey provides masses of supporting depth to well constructed folk rock dittos. Their songs are dramatic and powerful with absolutely no compromise in quality on the live stage with the whole performance maintaining maximum fluidity, the band clicking together like a Lego brick to… another Lego brick. The percussionist’s past in heavier punk projects is apparent by his use of snappy snare fills and effective kick drum work and this greatly enhances the melodies of Dry The River ensuring that their songs build up suitably and do not disintegrate into obscurity. The recently released Weights and Measures EP is available now on iTunes and really is a thoroughly worthwhile and absorbing listen.

Theme Park
Theme Park are a youthful project playing out of London town. Having seen them own the stage at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, I saw enough in that performance despite only their recent emergence to warrant their name appearing on this list. They play sunshine indie songs which you can easily envisage being the next pain relieving soundtrack to your journey to work each day. The intermittent guitar strumming and almost 80′s spin-off samples in ‘Milk’ produce a groove dancing extravaganza which for brief moments is reminiscent of Everything Everything. The vocals are more complimentary to the sound rather than domineering with synth often taking centre stage to good effect. Although it is premature to know how well Theme Park will progress over the coming year it is safe to say they have made a very encouraging start.