Random Slices: Sound of 2014!

Random Slices is now so Random that it seemingly appears but once a year, a bit like Father Christmas (who, like this writer, is also a lazy git). Last year we went all Mystic Meg and looked into our dirty crystal ball to make a prediction on the big musical trend for 2013 – on that occasion it was that jungle would fuse with noisy, hardware driven techno and bring forth a new hybrid, catchily called Tungle or Jechno. Did it happen? Yes, it fucking did. Demdike Stare Test Presses anyone?! Everyone and their auntie using a scuzzed out variation on the amen break?! Thank you, thank you, youre all welcome. 

So, anyway, without further gloating, lets move onto the BIG PREDICTION for 2014……  

The tea leaves in the bottom of the cup say that next year will be all about….Drum Roll Please….. Lo-Fi Soul. Thats right! You heard it here first. Soul is, of course, perennial. Its been about since the 60s and hasnt gone away. But the key shift in 2014 thatll bring it back into the consciousness of trendy blog writers and, eventually, the fucking Guardian, will be the application of the raw, DIY aesthetic thats smothered house music in the last couple of years. Weve had some trend-setters towards the end of 2013, Samuel davis Jr for one, the rising star of Reginald Omas Mamode IV for two. Think Andrew Ashongs Flowers, at boogie speeds (115-120), with cheap analogue synths, dusty drum machines and sounding like it was recorded through a sock, in the kitchen, during a static storm. Thats the sound of 2014, right there. For the sake of prosperity, and in order to capitalise financially on this prediction Im going to name this BIG NEW THING LOL, as in Lo and Fi and Soul, mashed into itself. Its got legs, this one, I know it.