review
Dream Analysis by Jesse Ruins
A new gem has surfaced in Tokyo in the form of Jesse Ruins, a duo project marked by dreamy atmospherics, thwacking beats, and a hefty dose of mystery.
Comprised of producer Nobuyuki Sakuma and a woman...
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Blog post
From the Berlin Club to the Bright Lights: Emika Steps Out
The German electronic underground has always been a world apart, but Emika is on the crest of a wave that's crashing the depths of sub-bass on everyone's doorstep in...
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List
Wine-spiration: Your Soca Mixtape for Carnival 2012
Soca isn't like other music. The rest of the musical world has SXSW buzz, taste-making blogs, and indie posturing to determine who is a big deal. Soca musicians have...
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Interview
The Rap Prince of Persia Rules with a Pen, Paper, and a Microphone
فارسی Whether he means to dominate lightweight flyboys and grimacing pranksters or not, when YAS speaks, the current American hip hop landscape looks awfully shallow....
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Interview
The World Wants Zaz
“Je veux.” I want. In this song, which became a huge summer hit in France in 2010, Zaz shares a wishlist that’s anything but materialistic. All she wants is “some love,...
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Blog post
Artist of the Week: Russia’s Electrifying Retro Outfit, Tesla Boy
Sultry synth lines, bouncing new wave beats, and anthemic vocal melodies—prepare to party like it's 1985. The infectious neon-philes Tesla Boy are MTV Iggy’s Artist of...
review
Dreams Say, View, Create, Shadow Leads by Dustin Wong
We hope Dustin Wong never learns to read music. It might ruin everything. Like countless great musicians, Wong studied art before playing in the art-rock...
review
Faces by Mike Gao & Daisuke Tanabe
From the land of future beatmaking obscura, Faces bubbles up from a subterranean jazz club where reality is spotty, and the hookahs are plentiful.
The 12" split between Los Angeles' Mike Gao (a...
review
I-Octane — Crying To The Nation
Lying somewhere between the sex-fueled, crime-glorifying grit of Vybz Kartel's dancehall, and the peace, love and weedsmoking roots reggae of the 60's, is I-Octane. At once a purist and a commercial...
review
You Make Me … Surrender by Farmer Nappy
Carnival season is approaching and excitement is building. Fueling the fire Trinidadian singer-songwriter Farmer Nappy, AKA Darryl Henry, is releasing his second solo studio album You Make Me ......
review
Freedom of Speech by Speech Debelle
Speech Debelle has an interesting relationship with her public. She won the Mercury Prize for her 2009 debut album, but subsequent sales were notoriously low. She released an incendiary track for free in...
review
Anachromie by KELLS
"Female-fronted metal" isn't just a metal band with a frontwoman -- there are plenty of those -- it's its own sort of genre. The term tends to connote clean, even operatic female vocals working as a...
review
La Bala by Ana Tijoux
Featuring lots of blood, bullets, and corrupt colonels, the lyrics on Ana Tijoux's new album read something like a Gabriel Garcia Márquez novel. Except the album isn't set in some sleepy colonial town,...
review
Live Your Life by Yuna
Today we got our first intimation of what MTV Iggy Best New Band finalist Yuna has been working on with Pharell Williams. "Live Your Life," the lead single from Yuna's forthcoming self-titled album,...
review
Porcelain Raft — Strange Weekend
Mauro Remiddi’s solo work, which he writes and performs as Porcelain Raft, floats with urgency – yeah, it’s a contradiction I’m still working out.
The Italian-born wanderer, lately of Brooklyn, favors...
review
SMOD @ Webster Hall, NYC
The members of Malian hip hop trio SMOD wore Western-style street clothes while mingling with the crowd at globalFest 2012 held at New York City's Webster Hall. But for their own headlining set in...
review
Six Cups of Rebel by Lindstrøm
After Lindstrøm's cosmic LP Where You Go I Go Too and his widely-lauded collab with Christabelle, I was expecting another exercise in outer space jazz and sexy electronic funk house in his sophomore solo...
review
Decadence by Nothnegal
Decadence, the debut album from Maldivian quintet Nothnegal is an interesting development in the field of death metal -- one that warrants further observation. It's a densely packed blast of melodic...