Emerging: Zambri

(photo by Ian Quay)

Sinister, sexy and vicious sister-sung electro pop from the heart of our fair city, Zambri are the coalescent result of frontwomen Jessica and Cristi Jo Z, the two XX-chromosome-having voices, cooing and cackling, cracking a whip throughout their debut EP, Bang For Change, backed with a fair share of synths, guitars and explosive drums. If you like dangerous pop music that's danceable at points and soaring at others, this band is for you. The group's new single, "Easier" is equal parts this century as it is shades of the last decade of the last century, distorted guitars and grungy emoting, but it's this mixture that brews brilliance. Zambri play a Jezebel-hosted show at Public Assembly with The Drums on July 9.

(mp3)    Zambri - Easier

(mp3)    Zambri - Easier (Does It Offend You, Yeah? remix)

Godspeed!

Emerging: Forest Fire

(photo by Victoria Jacob)

There's a general sense of ramshackle in the eyes and hearts of the members of the band Forest Fire, a Brooklyn-based set of kids who set out to record music and in the process (a long process, mind you) created a sort of punk ethos-infused folk music that from song-to-song seems to meander all the hell over the place. That's Survival, the group's new record. Maybe it's because the band didn't record songs day after day and instead opted to piece things together, let them sit and then come back to them when it felt right, but you instantly get the vibe that each song matters just as much as the next, a spirited explosion of shared vocals, sometimes-out-of-tune instruments and foot-stomping progressions of capital-F feelings. Sometimes sparse, at other points nearly too filled with overdubbing and corrective measures, the band's delicate balance of their own veering one way or the other on all spectrums possible (from the ache of "Sunshine City" to the pure pop romp "Fortune Teller", for instance) is the key to their imminent success. And maybe it's that balance, mixing the looseness of their songs with the tight-knit group element they seem to embody that will find you wanting more.

(mp3)    Forest Fire - Fortune Teller

Godspeed!

Emerging: Olivia Broadfield

(photo by Andrew Robert Fox)

As the first female artist ever signed to independent label Vagrant Records, UK-based electronic singer/songwriter Olivia Broadfield is stepping out in front of the boys' club with the release of her debut disc, Eyes Wide Open, on July 14. The album, an array of beautifully harmonized and arranged musings on love, loss and all that goes in between, Broadfield's least attentive listeners will pick up only on her influences (cf. Imogen Heap, Feist) but those that in fact dig deeper will fully realize the sense that Broadfield is very attuned to her subject matter and not just replicating a process done too many times before. Her vocals are those of whispered professions in your lover's ear, just loud enough for him or her to hear you but not loud enough to catch the attention of the outside world. The arrangements, a mix of subtle beeps and blips and mechanized drum loops. With the attention already coming her way in the form of song placement on TV ("The Hills", "The Real World") and film ("The Eye") and little blog notice as well, but we're pretty sure that next month will find her getting more than just pats on the back, replaced by that of thunderous applause and acclaim, whether critical or populist. More than likely it'll be both.

(mp3)    Olivia Broadfield - Don't Cry

Godspeed!

Emerging: Ouch My Face

(photo by Jake Treacy)

It sort of figures we guess that it would take a small-framed Asian girl with short hair and Coke bottle spectacles to revitalize the notion of true punk music emanating from Australia. That torchbearer is Celeste Potter, frontwoman and lead songwriter for Aussie trio Ouch My Face, probably the most ferocious voice and talent we've heard jump out of the rock 'n' roll genre in a very very long time. Along with the rhythm section of Ben Wundersitz and Steve Huf, Ouch My Face create crunching, messy, screeching, breakneck rock music that thrills and kills. It's wild and unhinged, just the way we like it, but it's not filled with sameness or anything to grovel about. Just listening to this band makes you want to rip your nemesis's face off at a moment's notice, which, for us, seems pretty okay right now. Make sure you pick up the rad debut EP from the band. Potter graciously designed the packaging and did the artwork, because that's just the type-A personality she is.

(mp3)    Ouch My Face - Don't Take A Knife To The Graveyard

Godspeed!

Emerging: VOICEsVOICEs

(photo by LA Underground)

"Ethereal" might not be the best and only word you'd want to fish for when you try and describe the noisy, distorted, driftwood music of Los Angeles indie duo VOICEsVOICEs, but it may just be the easiest term to do so. The girls, Jenean Farris and Nico Turner, create amazingly intricate melodies of sugary sweet dream clouds that ooze into your membranes and latch on, unwilling to leave. Keep an eye and ear out for this LA band on the rise and make sure you get your paws on their EP, Sounds Outside, produced by Guillermo Scott Herren aka Prefuse 73.

(mp3)    VOICEsVOICEs - Tape Noon

Godspeed!

Emerging: Mochipet

What Trent Reznor means to the vision of a future world of barren landscapes devoid of souls and caustic conditions for those that still remain standing, California's Mochipet means as much if not more to the vision of a technicolor future, rivers of electronics and digital blips that mimic analog heartbeats, sort of the 2019 "Blade Runner" minus the rains and Tokyo replacing Los Angeles. Mochipet, an electronic artist who's had his fair share of praise and wonder, released his latest project, Master P On Atari, digitally (of course) in April of this year to overwhelming awe. This is "urban" music, not hip-hop-and-R&B-as-urban music, but truly a soundtrack for the Metropolis, heavens-reaching skyscrapers and digital wares. These are enigmatic anthems for this-century citizens.

(mp3)    Mochipet - Turbo Thizz Petnation

Godspeed!

Emerging: Kniife Prrrty

Chicago electronica duo (we know that "electronica" is a loaded term regardless of what it's attached to, but we're not troubled by it) Kniife Prrrty sound so much like a decade-old accompaniment to the first two records by Sneaker Pimps or the dozens of various projects that UK producer/remixer/composer Nellee Hooper touched, it's nearly uncanny and mostly really really great. The kids released a 12-song full length debut this past March and it's filled with slow-burning, addictive, lilty and swerving numbers. If today is more of a downtempo day, or you've been wondering when the hell the next time you reference Sneaker Pimps will be, today sounds pretty good to do both.

(mp3)    Kniife Prrrty - Change Your Mind

Godspeed!

Emerging: Wild Moccasins

(photo by Molly Rodriguez)

There's a feeling you get when listening to the quintet of 20-somethings from Houston called Wild Moccasins--a mix of freedom, unbreakable spirit and terribly reckless, that's so undeniable and effervescent, you can't help but wonder how it even exists in the present tense. It's almost like an Easter egg, a red herring that you have to squint to understand. But it's there. The kids are young, fresh-faced and rife with explosively subtle, fun-as-hell songs that incite riotous feelings, copious sweat and nevereverending smiles. It's the sort of thing we remember like it was yesterday: driving in our car (a 1988 Dodge Colt affectionately known as the "bronze bomber") with friends, popping in tape after tape with "you gotta hear this" and "what do you think of so and so?"s all around. It's all harmony and hope and teenage heat and, seriously, is the sort of music that no one--no one--could ever not feel.

The band dropped their EP, Microscopic Metronomes, a while back and have some tour dates lined up in its support.

Dates:

Jun 11 Houston, TX Mango's
Jun 12 Lafayette, LA Atmosphere
Jun 13 Mobile, AL Alabama Music Box
Jun 14 Tampa, FL Transitions Art Gallery
Jun 15 Athens, GA Flicker
Jun 16 Atlanta, GA WonderRoot
Jun 17 Charlotte, NC Ping! Island
Jun 19 Brooklyn, NY Death By Audio
Jun 20 Brooklyn, NY Union Hall
Jun 21 Philadelphia, PA Dock Street Brewery
Jun 23 Cleveland, OH Kitsch Inn
Jun 24 Newport, KY Southgate House
Jun 25 Rock Island, IL Theo's Java Club
Jun 27 Kansas City, MO The Brick
Jun 28 Lawrence, KS Eighth St. Taproom
Jun 29 Norman, OK Universe City
Jun 30 Austin, TX Emo's

(mp3)    Wild Moccasins - Fruit Tea

Godspeed!

Emerging: Telephoned

(photo by Brooke Nipar)

What initially started out as just another hang out session between Fool's Gold madman Sammy Bananas and the five boroughs' finest hype woman--her voice is fly too--Maggie Horn, Telephoned has, sort of, spiraled into three separate tracks, each pecking their existence from a hip hop standard from 2009. And what's become of this jumping off point (T-Pain's "Can't Believe It", Ron Browz's "Pop Champagne" and the latest, "Turn My Swag On"--riffing off Soulja Boy Tell-Em and featuring Telli from Ninjasonik) is an edit that transcends the original's ace aim and shifts it from the center, in whatever direction Bananas or Horn are feeling. These three are all tracks made specifically (and really, only) for the party. It's "night out" music, floating and pumping with high energy for the floors and soaring into spacey, atmospheric terrain for the come down. What we happen to favor most is the fact that there's not a sense of either Maggie or Sammy really wanting to give more room to the other, meaning that neither the production nor the vocals swoop in on the opposite's territory, making for a clean, nearly-too-infectious time.

(mp3)    Telephoned feat. Telli Federline - Turn My Swag On

(mp3)    Telephoned - Can't Believe It

Godspeed!

Emerging: TSD

Calling their output "future music" is a loaded description rife for interpretation and the sort, but the Atlanta-based duo of Movement and Source One aka TSD don't seem all too bothered by which way it could go. Sounding a bit like mixing Chromeo's funk, Wallpaper.'s sexed-up variance and auto-tune and the kind of basement production that far outreaches their unsigned status, the guys know how to bring about the best parts of a song, fill their sequencers with simple yet completely engulfing beats and let the whole mix just dissolve into what we could only imagine as instantaneous sweaty love fests. If you close your eyes and try to imagine what it would sound like if computers could get busy, it'd probably be soundtracked by TSD.

(mp3)    TSD - Shiny Shoes

Godspeed!