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!
La MiniTK del Miedo
Photo Courtesy of the artist
La MiniTK del Miedo, a Colombian band who claim to make their music with a combination of “two synths, a Ouija board and Garage band,” combine ominous walls of sound, church organs, horror movie clichés and the occasional Gregorian chant with Bowie-esque synth pop and, of course, the grinding “chh-chch-chh” of the Afro-Colombian guacharaca behind the whole damn thing. So far, eight funereal tracks have surfaced online over the last three months. While there’s very little information available as to the identities of these mysterious, existential cumbieros, rumor has it that MiniTK’s debut EP will be produced by Eblis Álvarez, of Colombian indie-tropical fixtures Meridian Brothers and Frente Cumbiero.
Haleek Maul
Photo courtesy of the artist/Credit: Rebecca Maya
Haleek Maul, born in Brooklyn, raised in Barbados, the sixteen year old rapper records rawly existential hip-hop with lyrics the vacillate between the streets and the next world. He sounds bummed beyond his years. His recently released Oxyconteen EP is drawing fast respect for his chillingly plain but wiry flow and brooding avant ghetto beats provided by the unlikely likes of Supreme Cuts, The-Drum, Strat Carter and King Britt. Each of the six songs is a freakishly memorable submersion into the most desolate aspects of coming of age.
Nakhane Touré
Photo Courtesy of the artist
Nakhane Touré, from South Africa, is drawing from everywhere. He lists black American writers Toni Morrison and James Baldwin as influences alongside the musicians who inspire him, which is everyone from Nick Drake to Marvin Gaye to Miriam Makeba. He has a very personal way of synthesizing his source materials and, based on the songs we’ve heard so far, his forthcoming EP Oh David, It’s a Sin will arrive a musical missive from a very fertile mind.
Monster Cat
Photo Courtesy of Samantha Eve
Monster Cat, from Singapore, layers harmonies — often in the form of all-out wailing — is always a part of their songs, visceral cries that alternate between pained and gorgeous. A near absence of electronics makes you feel like they narrowly escaped the Radiohead era of this sort of music, and they’re a welcomed 90s alt-gothy time capsule with subtleties you can ruminate on forever. Dropping dark, atmospheric folk rock with distinct climaxes, psych rock guitar and sturdy minor keys, they’ve got a Billy Corgan seriousness about their music, and a clear predilection for the supernatural.
Poolside
Photo Courtesy of the artist
Poolside, from Los Angeles, sound like a jam band switched to the glossiest disco, an endless party track that you could lie down to. That kind of sums up the new LA duo’s debut album Pacific Standard Time, which takes the conceit of neo-disco and turns it on its head (and onto a deck chair). Conceived in part while hanging out on their studio’s rooftop pool (is LA for real?) relaxation and positive vibes are key ingredients. Also, the producing acumen to keep it taut and energetic and not dissolve into a melting mess of reverb.
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