CityLife

Here's nine for 2009

HOT TIP: Florence And The Machine

POPTASTIC music writer Gary Ryan picks the acts he believes are destined for big things this year:

Lady Gaga
SHE ain't no lady... Possessing sky-scraping ambition, New Yorker Lady Gaga is aiming to take over from Madonna, who is now more Lady Saga.

Known to her mum as Joanne Germanotta, the 22-year-old has already seen her album, The Fame, reach number 17 in the US, and her single Just Dance has been nominated for a Grammy.

She's written songs for The Pussycat Dolls, Britney and New Kids On The Block. We're tipping her to be the pop sound of 2009. Talk about going out on a limb, eh readers? Cribbing her name from a Queen song (clue: it's not Don't Stop Me Now), Gaga sounds like an electro-pop Xtina or a PG-Rated Peaches.

Lyrically, saucier than a phone call to your grandparents from Russell Brand (imploring on the track Love Games that she's going to `take a ride' on some bloke's `disco stick'), her debut album cocks a snoot at celebrity-chasing rich kids, despite the fact she attended the same school as Paris Hilton. We're as shocked as you are...I mean, who knew Paris Hilton actually went to school? With visual nods to Dame David Bowie, she cites her main inspiration as Andy Warhol. Gaga, your 15 minutes start...now.

Think: Katy Perry for hipsters.

You can see Lady Gaga supporting The Pussycat Dolls at the M.E.N. Arena on January 29.

Florence And The Machine
MADDER than a box of Roisin Murphy's hats... Coming on like Cassie from Skins impersonating Kate Bush, kooky Florence Welch and her 'Machine' - much like Dannii Minogue's tearducts - is something you wouldn't think would work, yet surprisingly does.

Having impressed us last year with the Moshi Moshi- released singles Kiss From A Fist and Dog Days Are Over (a fantastic collision of yodelling and Adam Ant drums), she's now signed to Island Records and is working on her as-yet- untitled album with ubiquitous producer James Ford.

You can imagine she's like the daughter that Patrick Wolf's parents locked in the attic for being `weird'.

Fact: At Camberwell Art School College, she once put in a 6ft installation of fake flowers that spelled out `You're a t***' "just because I was so annoyed with myself". If nothing else, she's given us some ideas for the wreath at our grandmother's funeral.

See Florence and the Machine play the ShockWaves NME Awards Tour at Academy 1 on February 6.

Empire Of The Sun
THIS year's MGMT... Resembling indie Timelords, Empire Of The Sun are part of the on-going Antipodean dance invasion (Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts, The Presets); a collaboration between Luke Steele, frontman of The Sleepy Jackson, and Nick Littlemore of electronic outfit Pnau (and formerly synth duo Teenager, with Pip Brown, aka Ladyhawke). Akin to Air producing Fleetwood Mac, they dole out gorgeous saucer-eyed pop songs.

Watch the brilliant, luridly-coloured video to their debut single, Waking On A Dream, which was filmed in Shanghai, at myspace.com/empireofthesunsound.

White Lies
NEW Grave ... They dress in any colour as long as it's black. Formed out of the ashes of jolly indie-popsters Fear Of Flying, White Lies specialise in melancholic yet immense anthems about fear, emotional turmoil, kidnappings and murder. Same Difference they ain't. Deciding to embark on technoir/goth-disco when they were 19/20, the Boy Division - frontman Harry McVeigh, drummer Jack Brown and bassist Charles Cave - signed to Universal offshoot Fiction after a fierce bidding war, and have had Mark Ronson, Nick Cave and cheer-monger Morrissey roll out to see them live. If everything slots into place like musical Tetris, they could be this year's Interpol. Or - heaven forfend! - this year's Editors.

Check out: The 'banging' Crystal Castles reswizz of White Lies most upbeat song, titled Death, at myspace.com/whitelies

See the White Lies play the ShockWaves NME Awards Tour at Academy 1 on February 6.

Little Boots
ONE-Woman Hotter Chip... Victoria Hesketh - aka italo-disco diva Little Boots - is officially the most exciting thing to come out of Blackpool since...well, let's not belittle a point with examples, eh? Previously found inanimately fronting Leeds trio Dead Disco, her opening salvo as Little Boots - the towering six-minute Moroder-style epic Stuck On Repeat (produced by Hot Chip geek Joe Goddard) - occupied the upper echelons of Hype Machine for most of last year, and her debut album (featuring collaborations with Metronomy and Heartbreak) should see her mining for more pop gold.

Check out Mathematics, a song inspired by Sylvia Plath that's so good, if the depressed poet had heard it, she would have pulled her head out of the oven and made a bee-line for the dancefloor.

Frankmusik
DON'T call him Mika with a Moog... Frankmusik (alias Vincent Frank) has had his fingers in so many pies over the last year, Mr Kipling should take out a restraining order.

He's produced other artists for his own Apparent Records imprint including Matt Weller (Paul's sprog) and feted grime act Tichy Strider, as well as furthering his reputation as a Grade-A remixer, tinkering with the likes of CSS, Bloc Party and Keane. He's even found time to whip his pants off for magazines. The hussy. Yet it's his own music - neon-hued 80s pop songs with schizophrenic beats and emotionally turbulent lyrics - that should see the Croydon virtuoso go supernova. His debut album, Complete Me (due in January), has been produced by one-time Madonna cohort Stuart Price, and plans are afoot by label Island to 'ensure I'm the next Sam Sparro'.

La Roux
RED raw emotions ... With a haircut purloined from Flock Of Seagulls, Robopop chanteuse La Roux first made waves with the ace Quicksand, which sounds like The Knife covering Prince's When Doves Cry.

Having spectacularly turned down the opportunity to collaborate with Gallic robots Daft Punk, 20-year-old Elly Jackson (and studio partner in rhyme Ben Langmaid) are due to unleash their debut album this year, lyrically inspired by the highs and (mostly) lows of a five-year-relationship.

La Roux plays Contort Yourself at the Roadhouse on February 7.

Passion Pit
AN electro Sesame Street... Blending wide-eyed children's music with dance music, they sound a bit like Hot Chip (doesn't everyone this year?) partying with The Clangers. The group was started when frontman Michael Angelakos wrote a collection of songs for his girlfriend as a Valentine's gift (the cheapskate), and they haven't looked back since.

Think of a synthed-up The Boy Least Likely To, if that band name hadn't proved so prophetic.

You can see Passion Pit at the Ruby Lounge on February 25.

The Temper Trap
THE Aussie Coldplay ... Another outfit that proves there's more to Australian music than Wolfmother watching their career go down the toilet anti-clockwise. For those mourning the lack of ITV-indie on the list, The Temper Trap have recorded their debut album with Jim Abbiss (Arctic Monkeys, Adele, Goldfrapp) and have rousing Coldplay-shaped songs primed to soundtrack the segments of X Factor where a contestant is babbling on about how 'my grandmother's last wish was that I belt out Black Lace's Gang Bang on national TV'.

MOR with a twist, expect them to be everywhere in 2009, like musical Tinnitus.