SHADOW ON STARS – “WHEN IT BUILDS”
New Portland Indie band SHADOW ON STARS unveiled their début album at the back end of March and as we reported HERE, their self-titled début album was a 13-track affair of well crafted Intelligent Pop music with brilliant New Wave and Punk elements. Selecting one song from the album to share with you on this instalment of our Best New & Emerging Music series proved to be a hard feat as the songs onShadow On Stars are really really good. In the end, it came down to the energetically brilliant “When It Builds” or the superbly slow building “Here” and we chose “When It Builds” when in all honesty, we could’ve chosen either song and the outcome would have been the same – Shadow On Stars is an exciting new band that you need to keep your eyes firmly on and their songs are pretty much amazing! Listen to “When it Builds” below:
DOT ROTTEN – “OVERLOAD”
British Grime/Rap artist DOT ROTTEN scored the “Hottest Record in the World” accolade from the mighty Zane Lowe on his BBC Radio One show on Monday, March 26 with his brand new single titled “Overload” which is due for release on May 28 via Mercury/Universal. Produced by TMS and sampling the familiar sounds of Robert Miles’ “Children”, Dot Rotten’s “Overload” is one hell of a monster of a record – emotional, heavy hitting and well crafted lyrics combined with an excellently intense musical milieu as provided for by veteran London production trio TMS. Listen below:
JAI PAUL – “JASMINE (DEMO)”
The second “demo” to grace this new instalment of our Best New Music series seems well and truly overdue. XL Recordings enigmatic future Pop star JAI PAUL finally teases us with some brand new music titled “Jasmine”. After the huge success and criitical acclaim of his debut single “BTSTU” which was released around this time last year, we waited and waited and waited for something new from Jai Paul BUT we got nothing – well not until now and can we just say that the wait was/is 100% worth it! “Jasmine” is a brilliant record laced with heavy drum patterns, Funk-infused electric guitars, hand claps and a lush distant falsetto. Listen below:
RYE RYE – “BOOM BOOM”
21-year old Baltimore Dance/Hip-Hop artist and M.I.A-protege RYE RYE is prepping to release her hugely anticipated and long awaited début album titled Go! Pop! Bang! on May 15 via Interscope Records and just in time for Summer. Interpolating the Vengaboy’s 1999 hit single “Boom Boom Boom Boom” to stellar effects, Rye Rye’s latest single “Boom Boom” – from the forthcoming album – is an enjoyably catchy, witty and infectious Pop song that follows superbly in the same vein as her two previous singles – the M.I.A-featured “Sunshine” and the Robyn-assisted “Never Be Mine”. Watch the perfectly fitting visuals for “Boom Boom” below:
Best New & Emerging Music: Week 10 & 11 // Week 8 & 9 // Week 6 & 7 // Week 4 & 5 // Week 3 // Week 2 // Week 1 // 2011
Check out Elle Varner’s new single “Refill”: http://bit.ly/HWdgOU There’s also behind the scenes footage from the video shoot where you can hear about the concept of the video and song: http://bit.ly/HZ9P4Tbr /Have the song for yourself from this iTunes link here,: http://bit.ly/HdCwQG