ANBAD is running through the best new bands of the year. For explanation of why and how, click here.

Yikes, we’re rattling through the Top 10 now, aren’t we? If you missed the fascinating and fabulous artists that made up numbers 10 – 6, check them out first, because there are definitely some new bands you won’t want to miss, honest guv.

Once you’re down to the final five, as we are now, the margins get both tighter (why is Band X in second place two spots better than Band Y in fourth?) but also, in a weird way, the choices get easier – some of these next five bands were simply heads, arms and torso above their nearest peers.

Of course, like the X Factor, I’m spinning out the countdown as much as possible. The winner of the moderately-coveted #1 spot will be revealed on Saturday, by the way.

But today, here’s fifth, fourth and third best new band of 2012. They’re all – and this is actual honesty now – brilliant.

ANBAD’S BEST NEW BANDS OF 2012: NUMBERS 5, 4 & 3

5 – Aeirs TV –  ANBAD said then: “the act of extracting rhythm, repetition and – yes – groove from a slim selection of radio buzz, electrical humming and insistent, warped cries. A rare delight for some, and pure pain for others – just as it should be.”

ANBAD says now: Still slightly bewitching, slightly hypnotic but still brilliantly minimal and terrifyingly lean. It’ll still divide opinions, but this is the kind of soft, demanding and insistant techno that this writer, at least, loves.

 

4 – Blonde Bunny – ANBAD said then: “How Do You Cope, Hope?  flits between reference points so subtly that everyone is, at least, convinced that listening further is a good idea. This is a song of technical and sonic brilliance, but, crucially, treads that laser-thin line between brilliant and nonsense with consummate ease. And the song has a false ending. Perfect.”

ANBAD says now: Still swirling and all-encompassing; still careful and overblown, here’s a song that deserves a spin from everyone, simply because everyone will find something to love in it.

Overlong, overwrought and over-theatrical – these are the highest compliments I can pay. Excellent.

3 – Chris Devotion – ANBAD said then: “[this is a] tasty, up-and-at-’em rock  song  A Modest Refusal – the type of song that doesn’t get written often enough, with a howl-along chorus, a genuinely anthemic feel, and the kind of gosh-darn perfect chord changes that make grown men leap about with joy.”

ANBAD says now: I’ve been humming this song all year, and spontaneously breaking out into the chorus whilst walking along the street.

Actually, I’ve also I’ve whistled it whilst at the urinal. I’ve bellowed it in the shower. Do you need another reason?