Fresh Buzz | New Artists
elliot moss
strange names
torres
kuroma
21-year-old songwriter Elliot Moss has generated lots of recent buzz, mainly on the basis of his sonically-alluring debut, Highspeeds (self-produced). It’s rare, in fact, to find songs so incredibly intense and altogether quirky, maybe because musicians interested in intensity tend to stick with traditional genres, while those reaching for originality go for trickery. Either way, Moss’ breakout single, “Slip,” is bare-edged and soulful, despite its vocoded vocals. It almost sounds, in fact, like the masculine flip-side of Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman.” (paolo de gregorio)
Feel-good riffs and dancy rhythms constitute the majority of Kuroma’s first full-band record, Kuromarama. The Athens/Brooklyn quartet was conceived in 2008 by MGMT’s current guitarman Hank Sullivant, but only congealed last year when they enlisted James Richardson, Will Berman (both of MGMT), and Simon O’Connor (of Amazing Baby) as permanent members. The results show the whole to be greater than the sum of its many parts. First single, “Love Is on the Way” is an island-flavored ‘80s-style bacchanalia that, like the rest of the album, oscillates between the hearty and the way-out. (JP Basileo)
Photo: Amber Simiriglia
Despite rumors of a mass exodus out of NYC, we recently snagged Mackenzie Scott (of songwriting project Torres) from Nashville—cause for celebration. For if there’s something dangerous happening, she’s touching it. On songs like “Honey” and “Cowboy Guilt,” Scott sings couplets over and over until every inch of grace and tolerance are replaced by shrieks of pure madness. In the past, Torres gigged with Lady Lamb the Beekeeper and worked with Sharon Van Etten. Now they headline Brooklyn Night Bazaar and Bowery Ballroom. Sophomore album Sprinter was released on May 7. (Leora Mandel)
Mark Twain once said: “Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.” Brooklyn-via-Minneapolis trio Strange Names know a little something about that. Eschewing nudity (or musical austerity, at least), the band’s Hall and Oates-like soul-pop has injected new life into NYC’s decade-old ‘80s revival. New video “Ricochet” conjures the hedonic, strobing minimalism of early MTV, minus the technological glitches (which could go either way). The trio released their debut LP in May after opening for Azelia Bank on four dates. (paolo de gregorio)
honduras
Kudos to Brooklyn indie rockers Honduras, who were first hand-picked by Blur to open for them at a May 1st live show at Rough Trade, then, a few weeks later, opened for METZ and Fidlar at Bowery. Honduras also recently unleashed a new single, titled “Paralyzed,” which bears more than a passing likeness to a home-grown New Jersey favorite: the Feelies. (There’s also hints of Blur during their more frenetic days here.) Pop-punk choruses spice these rock anthems with plenty of crossover potential. (paolo de gregorio) 10
the deli Spring 2015
oshun
In the video for “#,” hip-hop duo OSHUN—nee Niambi Sala and Thandiwe— resurrect the time-tested spirit of Public Enemy. And though they flaunt the shibboleth of Afrocentrism in lines like, “No this ain’t conspiracy/We know we ain’t equal/This the revolution, motherfucker/This the sequel,” there is complexity to their locus. Topical songs, once schlepped out to mark new periods of revolution, are now a staple of pop as much as the underground. Either way, OSHUN have taken the temperature of the times and declared it red hot. (Jason Grimste)