In the process to filter out the average new bands, there needs to be more than one basic parameter of appraisal: simply being “good” is not the point. “Good” is hardly helpful, in fact.

Because being “good” is easy. “Good” implies finesse, adroitness, being slick.

Often the best new bands seem a bit shonky, half-baked, even bad on the first listen: yet they turn out to be the artists that stick in the mind, and differentiate themselves.

It’s an inexact science, which is why there are more music blogs than there are decent new bands.

Bagel Project is not the greatest new-artist name of all time, yet Funmi Wittle, the person behind it, has one of the best given names of all time. This is only the start of the good/bad dichotomy that defines Bagel Project, and it is part of the process that elevates her music to the very top of the pile.

What I love most about Bagel Project, and what I find most simultaneously frustrating, is Funmi’s total absence of structure, consistency or fear at shoving all her brut-samples together and dragging songs out of the mess.

Structure is out of the window. Finesse is nowhere. Songs are quickly assembled, with little thought given to shape, depth, or complexity. And yet that’s the point. Her collection of songlets, which are part-musique concrete, part sound-sketchbook, are as thrilling as anything I’ve heard for weeks.

The devil, here, as always, is in the details. And all of Bagel Project‘s songs are a collection of tiny, detailed fragments, all scraped together. Rough, but very ready.

NB: As an obsessive connoisseur of band names, I would prefer it if Funmi made music under her own name. But what do I know?

MORE: bagelproject.bandcamp.com