It’s finally the weekend and time to choose MTV Iggy’s Artist of the Week!
This is a round-up of the best global bands we found this week. You have a week, until next Friday morning at 9 a.m. USA Eastern Standard Time to vote for your favorite new artist on MTV Iggy, using the bottom poll!
The band with the most votes will be have prime real estate on MTVIggy.com this week, along with a tell-all interview!
Good luck!
EL
Photo Courtesy of the artist
EL, a ghanian artist, sound is nothing if not uniquely African, but it doesn’t fit neatly into the hiplife or GH rap categories. In addition to hip-hop and Afropop, he is equally influenced by R&B and global dance genres, collapsing the question of what style of music is ascendant. The buzz around this rapper/vocalist/producer has been big. Not one to disappoint, he went big with his double disc debut album released June 1. From Azonto bangers to suave-but-cool ballads, Something Else lives up the the hype over 25 tracks.
Emil Friis
Photo Courtesy of the artist
Emil Friis is a country and folk-phile from Copenhagen, he even tells his own story like a wry Sam Elliot-voiced porch-dweller, corn cob pipe and everything. His music, and clearly some of his bio-writing sensibilities, reflect his Americana predecessors, from Elvis (who inspired Emil as a kid) to Johnny to Leonard Cohen — for whom Emil once played backup guitar in the States. Emil is an honorary cowboy really, but his tracks have a unique ghostly “today” sheen that sets him apart from the imitators.
Angger Dimas
Photo Courtesy of the artist
Angger Dimas, hailing from Indonesia, has made a name for himself playing sets around the world, including supporting Steve Aoki’s North American DEADMEATS tour, and he’s just come off a triumphant set at this year’s Electric Daisy Carnival. And his star is only rising. He’s already started a trio with Tiesto and Showtek, called Boys Will Be Boys, and his two collaborations with Steve Aoki, the glitchy “Steve Jobs,” and the Iggy Azalea-graced “Beat Down,” both have been burning up the charts. Most recently, he’s released a free bootleg of Avicii’s Levels, to celebrate his 20,000th Facebook fan.
Trash Talk
Photo Courtesy of Brick Stowell
Trash Talk is the first band to sign with Odd Future. The Californian quartet/collective plays hardcore like the ’90s and 2000s never happened and it sounds much better than whatever “mysterious guy” outfit you are crushing on this week. They take the proudly maladjusted mind state of Cali punk predecessors like Circle Jerks or Suicidal Tendencies and succeed in not just getting it right but often actually kicking it up a notch. Just finishing up a European tour, their fourth studio album 119 is to be released in the fall jointly by themselves (Trash Talk Collective) and Odd Future
La Santa Cecilia
Photo Courtesy of the artist
La Santa Cecilia play cumbia. But they don’t drown it in synthesizers or club beats or any of this hipster nonsense. The LA band’s cumbia – in the track “La Negra” below, for example — is stripped-down and soulful, made up of whirring accordions and reverbed-out guitars. And cumbia is just one of their sounds; the group can a do a rollicking ranchera or corrido, Doors covers, and are even known to bust out some klezmer on occasion.
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