10 of our favourite new acts from The Great Escape 2018

This year's festival lineup featured as eclectic a lineup as ever, which emerging artists from all over the world performing across the weekend

Rina Sawayama (Press image)

There’s no question about it, The Great Escape is the UK’s best new music festival. Whether you’re looking for your favourite new indie band, pop superstar in waiting or for that elusive debut UK show then you’re bound to find it at some point over that weekend in Brighton.

This year’s lineup featured and showcased an eclectic mix of artists from all over the world, we saw a lot of them, walked a lot back and forth between venues, the beach and the pub and generally just had a pretty great time. Here’s a list of the best things we saw over the three days of glorious sunshine.

Joan

This indie-pop duo from Little Rock, Arkansas could be your favourite new band. With their ridiculously catchy string of singles, joan will have you eating of their hands once you see their pitch perfect live set. “love somebody like you”, for want of a better word, is a straight-up banger, as are all the tracks they blast through bringing sonic sunshine into the dark.

Rina Sawayama

On her debut mini-album, Rina Sawayama gives us saccharine pop perfection perfectly bringing the sounds of 90s megastars like Britney and Christina back to life. Live, she’s every part the pop star from her incredible sense of style to the backing dancers who are giving everything. Sawayama is the creative visionary music has been waiting for.

G Flip

Melbourne drummer turned solo star G Flip may have only released two songs thus far, but they’re both incredible tracks she’s made in her bedroom.

We caught all three of her shows and while Thursday’s set was shaky due to technical difficulties, she more than made up for it with electric performances on Friday and Saturday sharing new material alongside her breakout debut “About You”.

Flohio

Flohio’s flow has an urgency that makes the South London MC one of the most exciting artists we caught this weekend. AKA Funmi Ohiosumah, she will make you sit up, stand up and listen. “Watchout” pairs sinister industrial production with undeniably real lyrics and in unison, as the tracks ends, the crowd are all asking for someone to “save [their] soul”.

ALMA

Finnish export ALMA brings her fluorescent hair and twin sister with her for the party set of the weekend. The crowd at Wagner Hall cannot stay still as they scream along in a mass karaoke session for hit single “Chasing Highs”. Playing tracks from the Heavy Rules Mixtape, ALMA shows there’s depth to her songwriting too on “BACK2U” which deals with the pressures of fame and being far away from the one you love.

WWWater

Charlotte Adigéry is WWWater her set at The Marine Room at The Harbour Hotel was a highlight for so many reasons.

She raps, sings like an angel and can hit crazy whistle tones like Mariah. The music is a mixture of so many diverse genres and her live set up capitalises on the most exciting, electronic elements of her sound. Truly unique, a captivating performer, Adigéry and the WWWater project are best experienced in the flesh.

Maximilian

Brooding, dark synth-driven R&B is at the heart of what Danish upstart Maximillian is doing. His show at The Great Escape was his first in the UK, but nevertheless brimming with confidence, tracks like “Strangers” and new single “Hollow Days” show real promise and an unbreakable vocal.

Hatchie

Australian sensation Hatchie played a lot over the weekend and we managed to catch her set at Horatios and it was great. Her debut EP, forthcoming on Heavenly Recordings, is a masterclass in driving and swirling indie-pop, “Sugar & Spice” is hard not to love, even on first listen.

Nadia Nair

Swedish soul from Nadia Nair packed an emotional punch at Shoossh on Saturday evening. Having released her criminally underrated debut album Beautiful Poetry in 2016, last year Nair began sharing new tracks from her upcoming new project. Brand new single “K” was the set highlight with Nair’s message reverberating with her intensely personal lyrics.

Easy Life

New on Chess Club Records, the label that brought you the first releases from Jungle, Wolf Alice and Mumford And Sons, is five-piece Easy Life from Leicester. Their set at The Haunt saw live saxophones and trumpets amp up their mix of jazz, punk and hip-hop, good vibes all round. We had set closer “Pockets” rattling around our heads for the rest of the weekend.