It’s Friday, and you know what that means. The Ides of March? An ironic Charlie Sheen movie marathon? Beer soup?
Well, yes. But even more importantly, it’s time for MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week poll!
This is a round-up of our five Bands We Like columns this week.
You have until Monday night at 11:59 p.m. USA Eastern Standard Time to vote for your favorite, using the bottom poll!
On Tuesday morning, the crowned artist will get prime placement on our MTV Iggy homepage and stay there for the whole week! The title-holder will also be announced with a write-up on MTVmusic.com!
May the best music walk away with the victory!
Gabriel Prokofiev Throws Hip Hop Into the Mix
Photo credit: Gabriel Prokofiev/MySpace
Gabriel Prokofiev is a DJ that blew the dust off his grandfather’s records, dropped them on his decks and cut them up. His brand of turntablist classical music is experimental, bringing the purist elements of his composer grandfather Segei Prokofiev into London’s clubs. It’s not just orchestra+scratching though. Prokofiev experiments with composing pieces using everyday items, like Fanta bottles and drums of oil.
Polish Art Rock Innovator, Bajzel
Bajzel. Screen grab from "Window" video, via Vimeo
Bajzel the one-man band has been weirding up indie music since his 2007 breakthrough LP. In honor of his first trip to the USA (he’s going SXSW and has some dates in New York) he recently made a compilation of old and previously unreleased English and Polish tracks. Bajzel for Anglophones (Bajzel means “mess”) is a blend of experimental, whimsical garage, indie, sexy electro, and hints of folk without a single breath of predictability. His tracks vary, but this compilation is overpowered by distorted looped guitar and phased vocals that have such enormous sound, it’s hard to believe he’s all on his lonesome.
South Africa’s Incendiary Spaza MCs, Driemanskap
Driemanskap. Photo Credit:Pioneer Unit
Driemanskap are forerunners of South Africa’s spaza movement, which calls for a return to indigenous languages in hip hop. The quartet has been dominating the underground hip hop scene for about a decade, though they only recently dropped their debut album Igqabhukil’ Inyongo (which translates to a phrase that means “things are about to get crazy”), featuring hard Xhosa flow over golden-age production styles.
Brooklyn Garage Punks Xray Eyeballs
Brooklyn’s Tiê’s Enchanting Brazilian Folk Pop
Tiê Photo: last.fm
Brazilian singer-songwriter Tiê’s music could be described as a collaboration between Cat Power and Caetano Veloso. In fact, that’s just how we described it when we included her in our top ten list of exciting artists heading to SXSW in Austin this year. Her introspective ballads are characterized by complex textures that marry modern indie folk songwriting to Brazil’s own psych folk tradition. And her voice is the clear, warm, and unaffected kind that casts spells.
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