Welcome to Thursday. April Fools! It’s Friday! Which means it’s time for MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week poll. We’ve got a line-up so hot and eclectic this week you’ll wonder if it’s all an elaborate prank. (Yeah, it’s not. Too much effort.)
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!
May the best music walk away with the victory!
Singapore Grindcore Gamechangers, Wormrot
Wormrot. Photo Credit:Facebook
Wormrot is a trio out of Singapore, and their alternating blast beats, incomprehensible screaming, shredding, a notable lack of a bass player, and artwork of rotting faces have launched them into the grindy crusty spotlight. Their debut album Abuse was discovered and disseminated in the US, and they’ve been touring across the globe ever since. At the moment, they’re in the States and blowing out their vocal cords on their upcoming album Dirge (out in May.)
Balún’s Dreamy Indie en Español
Balun. Photo Credit:Kaori Sohma via MySpace
Every track off Balun’s mini album Memoria Textil and subsequent compilations was woven from dreams. That is, if your dreams are really meticulously arranged. The Puerto Rican-American band’s synth, percussion, and fairy vocals are often strategically chopped up, but an ambient haze offsets the discrete conventions of electropop. They also diddle with 8bit sometimes, which only makes them cuter. I would so play their 80s video games.
New Zealand’s Rillest MC David Dallas
David Dallas. Photo Credit:daviddallas.net
The world was in need of smart kiwi hip hop, which is why David Dallas came barreling into the ranks of the huge US record label Duck Down without raising any eyebrows. His raps are just good. They’re not some New Zealand pastiche — in fact his accent sort of sneaks up on you during his speaking interludes. The half-Samoan rapper just sounds like a mature MC with an Eminem flair for new, but deceptively simple beats. He’s too cool for the bling rims bitchez fare. He knows his raps speak for themselves.
Wake’s Concrete Oakland Beats
Wake. Photo Credit:MySpace
Wake is based in Oakland, but he’s with the LA-based Proximal collective. Like his beamaking cohorts, Wake has a crisp sound that incorporates less ambient noise and more G-funk than the more well-known producers from the area. This is their competitive advantage. While the rest are experimenting with synthesizing dream states, Wake is just making chunky beats that require neck braces.
Mompox’s Mad Argentinian Psych-Pop
Mompox. Photo Credit:MySpace
Mompox’s combination of adept songcraft and reckless, smirking experimentation makes them the modern-day descendants of Brazil’s Os Mutantes and the US’s Captain Beefheart. Their wildly imaginative debut Mompox and the Big Umbrella has the quirky bounce of ’90s art rockers like Cake and Soul Coughing. Then there are the flashes of klezmer on the “The Sisters Klein,” while “Love Will Rise Again” swings violently between noise rock and bossa nova.
Voting Booth!
