Hotly Tipped for 2011

Now's the time of the year when the iTunes team heads over to the office's "clairvoyant cupboard" and opens the secret drawer where the names of all next year's breakout bands are kept . . . and for 2011 that roster looks especially promising, not least because it's headed up by Yolanda Be Cool — named after that Samuel L. Jackson line in Pulp Fiction — who'll be looking to follow-up devilishly clever global club smash "We Speak No Americano" with something equally addictive. Southern California's Avi Buffalo offer a whole new level of West Coast jangle with "What's in It For?," and North-East England's Frankie & the Heartstrings stir up feelings of great hope with "Ungrateful." From Adelaide to Astro Coast, our Next Steps will guide you further into 2011.

Anyone who took "Atacama Beach" on a road trip in 2010 — and we know plenty of you did just that — will be expecting a bright 2011 showing from Adelaide's the Salvadors, whose sound is as worldy as it is free-spirited and uplifting. Florida's Surfer Blood have discovered something rather special in the water, on the evidence of "Floating Vibes" from debut album Astro Coast, which positions their sound closer to Los Angeles than Miami and revisits the surf-rock arena with fresh ears, while Kendrick Lamar (formerly known as K. Dot) offers a new perspective on South Central hip-hop with the skillfully stuttered rhymes and diagonally chopped beats of "Ignorance Is Bliss." Our 2011 tip sheet catches fire, in Deep Cuts.

It's always great to encounter a new band that doesn't just turn your head, but also drills you a new set of ears because the old ones, quite simply, are not up to the task . . . and that definitely holds true of Brooklyn's Sleigh Bells, a noise pop/dance punk duo from Brooklyn who'll blow you away with Treats featuring the electrifying "Infinity Guitars" — music this explosive and sexy is sure to make a massive impression on 2011. Great things obviously come in twos, because the Sydney-based alliance of Freya Berkhout and Alyx Dennison — aka Kyü — have created something truly captivating, quasi-tribal and otherworldly with "Pixiphony."

We might not be able to tell you, with any great certainty, who's going to win the 2011 Melbourne Cup, or if the total lunar eclipse in June will herald the arrival extra-terrestrials, but when it comes to breaking artists, we've got a fairly good idea who's going to rock your world, possibly your entire decade. Our brief for these Essentials involved checking out who truly turned heads in 2010, and who would be most likely to continue the great work once all the initial hoop-la has died down. Sure, we love the shock-of-the-new, but a hint of lasting quality is more important than a flash in the pan — so hopefully you'll warm to the self-styled "new hip-hop culture" of South Carolina's C.Khid, the whimsical melodies and arrangements of Andreya Triana, and the cacophonous-pop brilliance of Sleigh Bells, along with all these other ultra-fresh contenders.