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!
Leo Justi
Photo Courtesy of the artist
Leo Justi, from Brazil, has remix skills that pack satisfying dance floor punches. His recent take on M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls” made it onto the UK/Sri Lankan diva’s remix EP, putting him on the same tracklist as Azealia Banks and Missy Elliott. The alternating tinny baile funk and dirty south beats had the blogosphere suddenly using Leo’s original term, “heavy baile,” which seems to mean: a little bit of everything + hard + dark + Brazil. eo has remixed Blaqstarr and Savage Skulls — and the latter earned him love from Diplo himself. Leo is dropping an EP O Homem Mau, or “the bad man,” recorded at least in part in India featuring throat singers and local percussionists.
Mario & Vidis
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Mario & Vidis, the Lithuanian duo, specialize in deep house of the soulful, relaxed variety — unafraid of disco, but specializing in the kind of party that you can have all by yourself in your head. Their first team effort, “Test” was immediately snapped up by radio DJ Gilles Peterson for his compilation. Their album title track grooves like house but shines sleek like eighties pop with warm falsetto by Swedish singer Ernesto. It all adds up to a new pop sound coming out of Eastern Europe, built on dance tracks but going beyond it, like a refined Thievery Corporation.
Young Empires
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When you hear “Canadian haute world beat,” what comes to mind? Well, maybe nothing yet, but guaranteed that Young Empires,a young indie outfit coming out of Toronto, will burn into your mind what that means. Mapping some new sonic territory somewhere between Vampire Weekend and The Killers, they combine syncopation and melodrama to excellent effect. Big single “White Doves” yawns with eighties synth meets nineties alt-melancholy, and it’s the mellowest of their tracks. They’re actually frenetic dance rockers, and they’re known for winning over cold audiences with their live act.
Camp Mulla
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After achieving Internet notoriety with Kenya’s college set, teen-aged Nairobi quintet Camp Mulla (pron: mule-ah) made a quick leap from Soundcloud to radio. But really, that was their destiny, with a mix of hip hop, dance beats, R&B and Kapuka rap, their songs about pretty girls and partying aimed at the charts, and the club, of course. And that’s where they landed. Their bouncy, hook-equipped party tracks aren’t typical of Nairobi’s music scene but they might be the sound of things to come.
Fallulah
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Joining the ranks of Scandinavia’s alpha femmes is Fallulah, a Danish singer/songwriter steadily making her way across the world with smoky indie-pop that already topped charts in her country. Armed with a debut album out and one on the way in 2013, Fallulah is easily the world’s next Lykke Li — shared continental region aside. She has toured the world, garnering recognition as a do-it-yourselfer with a breezy, melancholy sound and a strong soprano.
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