The Best Music You’ve Never Heard

BY DESIREE DEMOLINA & JACK BRADY

RJD2– A hypnotic fusion of electronic beats and hip-hop essence, RJD2 embodies soulful portraits of cruising through a strange fantasy. Like a modern-day Disney’s Fantasia, there is a tight creative and majestic force behind RJD2’s songs and albums. This artist has the imaginative ability to generate both a realm of fun, and dark soundscapes that may enervate. Strikingly distinct in either a downtempo or upbeat rhythm, RJD2 is a certainly a collection of jazzy throwbacks and instrumental funk.

Moloko– Moloko is like freakshow jazz with the vocals of a contortionist, able to deliver either a lively performance or a deep cry. Like a three-ring circus of illusion and glamour, Moloko enhances the idea of taking a risk. A playful sort of darkness, Moloko is vibrant in sound and unconventional in lyrics. An undeniable silhouette of a touching spectacle, Moloko embodies a recital of clowns, electro-funk, and delight. When listening, it’s like watching an animated show under a large tent.

Flying Lotus- As the grand-nephew of jazz legend John Coltrane, Flying Lotus is at the forefront of experimental dance music, creating impossibly complex works of genre-shattering diversity through eclectic sampling. Each song leaves you in awe of the creative capacity of the human mind. On his most recent magnum opus Cosmogramma, individual tracks are nonexistent, as the listener is carried in and out of veritable galaxies of sound in lightning-fast Coltrane changes. Flying Lotus takes his listeners to a non-stop flight to the celestials. Flying Lotus shows no signs of slowing down and is a must-listen for fans of any type of electronic music.

Angus and Julia Stone– Brother and sister, Angus and Julia Stone implement a fairy-tale that is soft, airy, and romantic. Moody, yet innocent, the duo captures delicate strums upon a guitar as well as vocals that sing to a whistling wind. Influenced by jazz and folk, Angus and Julia Stone are smooth, poetic and extraordinary. For those who are wistful and visionary, the twosome is certainly worth a listen.

The Kills– Somewhere between spite and garage-rock fall The Kills. Accomplished in both attitude and depth, The Kills serve genres of blues and alternative on a smoky, seductive platter. The duo may be aligned to The White Stripes, but the band goes beyond such comparisons with their creative capacity in guitar, drums, and lyrics. The Kills somehow seem to capture sass and drama while maintaining a cohesive message.

Trombone Shorty– Within the deep horns, jazz, and rock, Trombone Shorty unifies his audience to dance to music that you cannot dance to. Instead, Trombone Shorty is understood only through energy and brass. Although increasingly diverse in each album and track, Trombone Shorty is always horn-heavy and talented. What might otherwise seem like a mess, with a skein of funk, trombone, and rock, actually ties together quite flawlessly. Energizing and fresh, Trombone Shorty is a jack-of-all-trades, and surprisingly, a master of all, too.

Wax Tailor- Wax Tailor just stands out. Multi-layered symphonies of trip-hop create a smooth atmosphere even for listeners with undeveloped ears.  His debut album, Tales of the Forgotten Melodies, artfully samples a smattering of eloquent dialogue and vocals while conveying a signature ambience of fond nostalgia mixed with meditative dread. An undeniably skilled sound engineer, Wax Tailor allows themes to develop from song to song and album to album. With lush soundscapes and an art for sampling, Wax Tailor weighs in with something refreshingly different.

Cat Power: As one of the most earnest, dedicated, songwriters of the last two decades, Cat Power’s music is often intimate to the point of sheer discomfort, every lyric a wrenching revelation detailing the trials and tribulations of her existence. Yet by no means is Cat Power’s music constrained to introspective dread, she has mastered the elusive art of the cover to such an extent that one of her most acclaimed albums consists solely of her unmatched interpretations.

Chelsea Wolfe: Chelsea Wolfe is a gothic doppelganger of Lykke Li and Cat Power, mirroring both the acoustic, rustic elements of Cat Power and the stylized atmospherics and emotional turbulence of Lykke Li. While much of the shuddering gloom of her music seems contrived and almost forced, it’s clear Wolfe is rapidly evolving away from this belabored sense of melancholy and towards a more diverse, earnest expression in the overhauled versions of tracks from her debut album on her second record, Apokaplypsis, released less than year after her debut The Grime and the Glow. If Wolfe can move past her image and keep expanding the scope of her work, success is sure to follow.