Niia - Whatever You Got (Live)

A live version of the slinky 'Whatever You Got' from this years La Bella Vita album, you can watch the whole of Niia's set from The Standard East Village NYC in January here.

Tyson - Moonlight Mixtape

I'm in the slightly unusual position of including an artist in a Fantasy Festival lineup who has no clips on YouTube, let alone any live clips. Because she's just too goddamn new.

As such, please instead listen to Tyson's Moonlight Mixtape over on Soundcloud.

Fantasy Festival number 11: The Lineup

Tyson: Tyson McVey is such a new singer and songwriter that there's very little to listen to, to know, or to find out about her (musically speaking that is. On a personal level: She's from a famous family) online. Lauren Laverne played one of the tracks from her Moonlight Mixtape recently on her 6Music show, and I was smitten. As such, all I can really do is refer you to her Insta and her Soundcloud.

Niia: Sophisticated pop singer/songwriter and pianist Niia Bertino is two albums into her career, and her sound would sit well between Jessie Ware and Ariana Grande. You can find out more here.

The Japanese House: Comprised of Buckinghamshire singer/songwriter Amber Bain and her band, The Japanese House make stylishly arch but emotional synth pop for Gen Z. You can find out more here.

Poppy Adjudha: The South London singer/songwriter has ties to the metropolis's ever mushrooming contemporary jazz scene, and you can hear it in her voice as surely as you can feel it in her music. She mixes styles and genres with ease and her music is fresh and very 2020. Find out more here

Khruangbin: Hailing from Houston, Texas, Khruangbin are comprised of bassist Laura Lee, guitarist Mark Speer and drummer Donald Johnson. They initially got together over a shared love of Afghan music and middle eastern acrchitecture, according to Wikipedia, and take a similarly international approach to their music, combining a love of soul, psychedelia and dub. You can find out more over on their Bandcamp.

Sampa The Great: Sampa Tembo is a Zambian rapper and songwriter raised in Botswana but nowadays based in Australia. She is two albums into a career that has been looking healthy for a while but also has the potential to go stratospheric. You can find out more here.

Gossip: Fronted by Beth Ditto, a woman with a highly arresting, once heard never forgotten blues-y punk holler, Gossip originally formed in 1999 and split in 2016. Their surprise return in 2019 cemented their reputation as a fantastic disco punk band. You can read an interview with Beth in Clash magazine here.

Janelle Monáe: Singer, songwriter, producer, rapper and actor Janelle Monáe has been compared to everyone from James Brown to Prince to Outkast to Fela Kuti. Which is a damned impressive list, however you look at it. Her song 'Hell You Talmbout', always socially relevent, has gained ever more relevance since the murder of George Floyd at the end of May this year, but she's equally as well known for her Sci Fi influenced concept albums, particularly 2010's The ArchAndroid and 2018's Dirty Computer. Her Insta is here.

Fantasy Festival number 11

The book pile has been replenished

The libraries are (semi) open again in these days of Covid. As such, I've been able to replenish my book pile for the first time since March!

Billie Eilish - i love you (Live At The Greek Theatre)

This live clip of Billie Eilish (and brother Finneas) from her gig at the Greek Theatre last year really brings the house down, and makes for an excellent closer for this Fantasy Festival. If you don't believe the hype, watch her full live set from Music Midtown 2019 here.

Grimes (live) "Genesis" @Berlin Feb 17, 2016

This is actually the same live clip I used of Grimes back in 2017 for the original Fantasy Festival series. It's one of my favourite clips from that series and, given that there isn't anything more recent available on YouTube, I thought I'd use it again. Grimes did a performance at The Game Awards back in December 2019, which you can watch here, but you don't actually see that much of her performing. The cyberpunk effects are great though.

Kate Tempest - Holy Elixir (Live on KEXP)

Kate Tempest recorded this session for KEXP at Christmas 2019, seemingly in the midst of her US tour. You can watch the full set here.

Hollie Cook - Ghostly Fading (The Biggest Weekend)

You can watch several full live sets by Hollie over on YouTube, but the one I've chosen for you today is her 2018 set from the Lion Stage at Rototom Sunsplash, a huge European Reggae Festival that takes place in Spain every year.

Speech Debelle - Strange Ways (live at PRS Presents)

This clip of Speech Debelle performing 'Strange Ways' live at PRS Presents is from 2017. I haven't been able to find anything more recent, or a full live set alas, but if you want to see a nice early clip, here she is performing 'The Key' on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury in 2009.

Automatic live "Calling It" @ Desert Daze Festival Lake Perris, CA Oct...

There's a lack of professionally filmed live footage of Automatic and, while this clip is far from perfect, it's not too wobbly or shoddy. This film of the full set is filmed by someone else, and scores slightly better in the quality stakes.

MENTRIX - WALK

Mentrix only released her first singles, and her album, a few months ago. As such, there isn't really any live footage online as yet. In a Covid free world, she would undoubtably be on the promo trail at the moment. As things stand, please do watch debut single 'Walk' and take a listen to album track 'If'.

Jessica Winter | SLEEP FOREVER | Live

You can watch Jessica's performance at the launch party for Hate Zine issue 6 here.

Fantasy Festival number 10: The lineup

Jessica Winter: Brixton based artist Jessica Winter began her career in 2018 with a Halloween mixtape made with a laptop, piano and microphone. Her bedroom music is eclectic and varied, and she's been prolific since 2019. You can find out more here.

Mentrix: Iranian artist Samar Rad emigrated to Europe in the 1990s with her parents, returning to Iran as a young adult. She now lives in Berlin. Her music reflects both her Sufi heritage and Berlin's history of hard industrial music, but there's space and tension amidst the unyielding percussion. You can find out more here.

Automatic: Los Angeles band Automatic (not to be confused with Welsh band The Automatic or 1990s Mancunian guitar boys Automatic) make flawlessly executed, effortlessly cool post punk flavoured synth pop. You can find out more about them here.

Speech Debelle: Writer, activist, podcaster and MC, North Londoner Speech Debelle has been incredibly busy since she featured in 2017's Fantasy Festival lineup. While she's clearly looking to diversify her career, her creativity is not in doubt. You can find out more here.

Hollie Cook: Baby Slit, creator of 'jungle pop', and a key innovator within modern day lovers rock, Hollie Cook is three albums into a career that, with each album, has seen a rise in awareness and acknowledgement of her work. You can find out more here.

Kate Tempest: Poet, playwright, activist, mc and sage. Kate Tempest is no stranger to festival stages. You can find out more here.

Grimes: Five albums into an increasingly eclectic and innovative career, Grimes released her most recent album earlier this year. She is known for her intricate electro soundscapes, which incorporate influences right across the musical gamut, literally everything from classical music to grime. You can find out more here.

Billie Eilish: Teenage dark pop star Billie Eilish has been smashing records across continents these past twelve months. Getting her first UK number one single with the James Bond theme 'No Time To Die' and, in the process, becoming the youngest person to have a UK number one ever, being just one example. She should have been doing a UK arena tour this summer and it would be excellent to see her headline a festival. You can find out more here.

Fantasy Festival number 10

Valentino | FKA Twigs Live Performance x #ValentinoMenFW20

The above is FKA Twigs performance for Valentino For Men as part of the ill fated Fashion Week 2020 season. You can watch her full live set at Maida Vale for Annie Mac on Radio 1 last year here.

Little Simz - 101 FM (Glastonbury 2019)

This is Little Simz putting in a full on impressive performance of her single '101 FM' at Glastonbury 2019. You can watch her full set from Lowlands 2018 here.

Georgia - About Work The Dancefloor (Glastonbury 2019)

A suitably energetic performance by Georgia at Glastonbury 2019, you can watch her full live set from Song van het Jaar 2019 here.

Let's Eat Grandma - Falling Into Me (Reading + Leeds 2018)

A suitably atmospheric performance taken from their Reading and Leeds Festival set in 2018, the band have also just made available their full set from Ypsigrock 2019 here.

Shopping - Initiative (Live on KEXP)

This song is taken from a set Shopping did as part of a UK live showcase KEXP filmed on an Atlantic crossing trip to London. You can watch the full KEXP set here.

JGrrey - Better Off (Glastonbury 2019)

This live clip of JGrrey performing 'Better Off' is taken from her Glastonbury set of 2019, as part of BBC Introducing. You can watch her full live set for Bumble London at the Boiler Room here.

Babii - Carniivore - Liive

Alas there's no more live footage of BABii over on YouTube, but you can watch some studio improv footage of Umrul x BABii making music form sounds you send in for the Boiler Room, if that's your thing.

FRAN LOBO High

Fran Lobo has been building her career slowly but surely, experimenting with her sound before making her moves. As such, there's very little video content of her on YouTube at all. 'High' is a track she released in 2019, and - along with 'Monster' - it reflects her most recent output. You can watch all of her videos so far over on her YouTube channel.

Fantasy Festival number 9: The Lineup

Fran Lobo: North East London artist Fran Lobo has released a couple of highly distinctive dark electro collages in 2019 and 2020. You can read her PRS Foundation profile here and she's also on Bandcamp.

BABii: The innovative electro artist BABii is described in biogs, somewhat whimsically (and very much tongue in cheek) as "a small girl who makes big noises". Her debut album HiiDE was released in 2019 and you can find her on Bandcamp.

J Grrey: Soully South London born singer and musician JGrrey has been building a buzz since 2017, with impressive sessions and EP's and strong interviews such as this one for Line Of Best Fit in 2019.  You can find out more over on her website.

Shopping: London/Glasgow based post punk band Shopping are achingly cool; all angular riffs and fat baselines, but they also make music that you can dance to in the spirit of all the best early 80s music. You can find them on Bandcamp.

Let's Eat Grandma: Norwich duo Rosa and Jenny have been making music together since they were in their early teens. Now touching 21, they are veterans of the live scene, and have turned in two albums of experimental soundscapes. You can find out more about them over on their website.

Georgia: Woman of the moment, Georgia has come a long way since she initially featured in the 2017  Fantasy Festival series. Then, she'd not long released her post grime self titled debut album, and was working on her second album. That second album was a much dancer affair, went down well with, well, everyone it seems, and the drummer, singer and producer has been rightly lauded ever since. This should have been a summer of gigs and festivals for her. Maybe next year.

Little Simz: London rapper and actor Simbiatu 'Simbi' Abisola Abiola Ajikawo is onto her third album of fast and ferocious energetic hip hop. Recent track 'Might bang, might not' has become a staple of the 6Music playlist, and was recorded in lockdown. It is taken from her new EP Drop 6. You can find her on Bandcamp.

FKA Twigs: Tahliah Debrett Barnett, better known as FKA Twigs, makes often ethereal, frequently mercilessly unyieldingly hard, experimental electronic and R&B influenced art pop. There really is nothing, and no one, like her in music and she deserves a headline slot. She is signed to the famed Young Turks label, and her page is here.

Fantasy Festival number 9

Halsey - Graveyard (Live From The AMAs / 2019)

This is Halsey performing at the American Music Awards in 2019. You can watch her full Pandora Live set, also from 2019, here.

MØ – Final Song (Live at Roskilde Festival 2019)

A rainy set climax here from MØ, seen here playing at Roskilde Festival in 2019. You can watch her full set from Ruisrock festival, also in 2019, here. 

Nasty Cherry - Live Forever (Official Music Video)

Because Nasty Cherry are such a new band and, specifically, because they literally just started touring in February 2020, mere weeks before UK lockdown, there's only really dodgy phone footage quality live clips of them on YouTube. I believe the TV show is still available on Netflix, so you could always watch that, and they released a new track in May, 'I Am King', which you can watch here.

The Regrettes “Poor Boy” [Live from The Fonda Theater in Hollywood]

It's worth putting up with the slightly wobbly camerawork in this live clip just to see a full 'Girls to the front' moment in action and, with any luck, it will not be the only time during this Fantasy Festival series that there will be reference made to that particular campaigning aspect of the live scene. I couldn't find the full Fonda Theater live show, but I have found for you the bands Paste Studios live session from 2019, which you can watch here.

SOAK - Crying Your Eyes Out (Glastonbury 2019)

\\

I haven't been able to track down the full Glastonbury 2019 set, but if you'd like to watch SOAK's 2019 session for KEXP, you can do so here.

Geowulf - Hideaway | Audiotree Live

If you'd like to watch Geowulf's full Audiotree live session, you can do so here.

Georgie - Too Much TV | Sofar London

If you'd like to watch a full live set from Georgie live at LKWD HQ in 2019, you can do so here.

Fantasy Festival number 8: The lineup

Georgie: Mansfield singer/songwriter Georgie has toured with Jake Bugg and her live album Georgie: Live! was recorded at Nottingham Trinity Church and released last year. You can find out more about Georgie here. 

Geowulf: Australian dream pop duo Geowulf are onto their second album, from which the recent single 'He's 31' was taken. You can find out about them here. 

SOAK: Northern Irish Bridie Monds-Watson, aka SOAK, released her second album, Grim Town, in 2019. It included the highly acclaimed single 'Everybody Loves You'. You can find out more here. 

The Regrettes: The LA punk bands second album How do you love? was released in 2019, and was an express ride through a landscape of hyperactive punk pop anthems. You can find out more here.

Nasty Cherry: Nasty Cherry are a manufactured pop act with a difference: Their svengali is Charli XCX. Also, in a nod towards the Monkees, they had their own TV show before they played their first gig. Also like the Monkees, they write surprisingly good songs and put on a good live show. You can find out more here. 

MØ: Danish singer, songwriter and producer Karen Marie Aagaard Ørsted Andersen has been making innovative electro flavoured music since 2012, and has released two albums. Perhaps best known for her collaborations with Iggy Azaelia ('Beg for it') and Major Lazor and DJ Snake ('Lean On'), she has been compared to Grimes (musically) and Lana Del Rey (vocally). You can find out more here. 

Halsey: "Anti-Popstar" Halsey seemed like a logical choice as a headliner. She makes pop music, and operates in the pop world, but she also plays it awkward often enough for it to be hard to box her up and easily market her. Her music can be high gloss, big, emotional and slick, but it can also be glitchy and messy, as her three albums have shown, and she's not afraid to mix politics with pop. You can find out more here. 

Fantasy Festival number 8

Anna Calvi - Don't Beat The Girl Out Of My Boy (Hyundai Mercury Prize 2019)

A stirling performance as part of the Mercury Music Prize ceremony in 2019, you can also watch Anna's full 6Music Festival set, also from 2019, in Liverpool here.

Sleater-Kinney - Broken (live)

An untypically subdued piece from Sleater-Kinney, 'Broken' is taken from 2019's The Center Won't Hold album. You can watch the full set the band did for The Current as part of the The Center Won't Hold tour back in 2019 here.

Jehnny Beth - I'm The Man (6 Music Festival 2020)

A suitably charged live performance from Jehnny Beth from just before lockdown this year as part of the BBC 6Music festival. I haven't been able to find a full live set online, but you can watch a rehearsal performance of 'Innocence' here.

Zola Jesus - Exhumed (Live from SOUNDWAVE)

*STROBE WARNING*

A suitably atmospheric and commanding performance by Zola Jesus, live from SOUNDWAVE. You can also watch the full Zola Jesus set from Pitchfork Music Festival, 2018, here.

Gazel - Pointing At The Moon (Acoustic) Live at Hackney Road Studios

This is Gazel performing an acoustic version of album track 'Pointing At The Moon' last year in Hackney. I can't actually find a full live set by her, as such, online, but I did find that she's recently taken part in the Camden Live Lockdown stream. It went out in April, but you can watch it here. Gazel is the first of the four acts to perform.

Lauran Hibberd - Call Shotgun (Glastonbury 2019)

This is Lauran Hibberd performing live on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury 2019. She recently did a PRS Presents LCKDWN show, which you can watch in full here.

Becca Mancari - Summertime Mamma | Audiotree Live

Becca Mancari playing 'Summertime Mamma' as part of her Audiotree live session. The full session can be watched here.

Fantasy Festival number 7: The lineup

Becca Mancari: Understated US folk musician Becca Mancari has just released her second album, The Greatest Part. She's also a member of the supergroup Bermuda Triangle. You can find out more about Becca here.

Lauran Hibberd: Isle of Wight 'slacker pop' star Lauran Hibberd should have been in the middle of a summer of gigs right now but, even though that's on hold, she continues to get radio support, particularly across the BBC. Good things are expected, and rightly so. You can access her Soundcloud here.

Gazel: London based composer, songwriter and producer Gazel Algan draws on her Turkish roots to create mesmerising soundscapes fuelled by dance music and traditional instrumentation. Gazel's Book Of Souls was one of the most underrated albums of 2019. You can find out more about Gazel here.

Zola Jesus: Nika Roza Danilova, aka Zola Jesus, has been creating brooding, sometimes bleak, industrial soundscapes since 2009. Most recent album Okovi was a hard but necessary listen, and probably her strongest release yet. You can find out more about Zola Jesus here.

Jehnny Beth: Former Savages front woman, now rising solo star, Jehnny Beth was one of the stars of the 6Music festival just prior to the UK lockdown. Her solo album, To Love Is to Live, is out now. You can find out more here.

Sleater-Kinney: After more than twenty years (and, it's got to be said, partly due to that ten year hiatus in the middle...) Sleater-Kinney are finally being appreciated for what they always were: A thumping great rock band. You can find out more here.

Anna Calvi: Four albums in to her career (this years Hunted being a re-working of last years critically acclaimed and Mercury nominated Hunter), Anna Calvi has most definitely arrived. With a commanding stage presence, voice and excellent guitar skills, she is a woman more than ready to be given a festival headline slot. You can find out more here.

Fantasy Festival number 7

Patti Smith - People Have The Power - Live (Check-In Party 2019)

This is a fantastic opening set number from Patti Smith. I'm happy to report that there are full live sets from 2019 that you can watch on YouTube, but less happy with the overall quality, hence not linking. Your tolerance for wobbly phone camera footage might be greater than mine though, so do take a look.

Martha Wainwright - Factory (live)

An easygoing, intimate acoustic clip from Martha Wainwright. You can watch the full set for this show here.

Sharon Van Etten - Seventeen (Glastonbury 2019)

Sadly the full Glastonbury 2019 set isn't available online, but you can watch Sharon's full 2019 NPR Tiny Desk session here.

Neko Case - "Deep Red Bells" [Live from Austin, TX]

You can watch Neko's full live set from the Palace Theatre, which was live streamed on the night by The Current in late 2018, here.

Marika Hackman - The One (Live Acoustic Session) | OFFSHORE

You can watch a full live session from Marika for Studio Milwaukee here.

Fantasy Festival number 6: The lineup

Marika Hackman: Singer/songwriter and multi instrumentalist Marika Hackman released her third album, Any Human Friend, last year and continues to write brooding guitar driven indie folk. You can visit her website here.

Neko Case: Neko case has been making atmospheric Americana since the early 2000's. More recently, she was one third of the supergroup case/lang/veirs. You can visit her website here.

Sharon Van Etten: Sharon Van Etten's fifth album, Remind Me Tomorrow, was one of the highlights of last year, featuring a slightly off kilter synth infused sound and wry songwriting, it should stand the test of time. You can find out more about Sharon over on her website.

Martha Wainwright: Martha Wainwright has not been having a quiet lockdown. In fact, she seems to have embraced the lockdown live and the balcony gig with great enthusiasm, which is nice to see. You can find out more about her on her website.

Patti Smith: The legend that is Patti Smith emerged from the New York underground scene of the early to mid 1970s. 1975's debut Horses was a rock and design classic even at the time, and remains so. Recently, Smith is known as much for her books as for her music, but she is still performing. You can find out more at her website.

Fantasy Festival number 6