Ones to watch: Deap Vally to Joey Bada$$
Our weekly look at the best new acts to follow and fall in love with features grit spittin’ rock duos and underage rappers with cool names.
Deap Vally
Sending the interwebs crazy this week, making everyone forget about Savages, were two bad ass Californian girls who sweat liquor-bar rock and swig from kegs of attitude. The duo of Lindsay Troy and Lucy Edwards, take the Black Key’s grit and shoot it from Tony Iomi’s Blunderbuss towards DZ Deathrays. The wailing LA blues of Gonna Make My Own Money, crafted from years cruising the LA rock scene, has earned them gigs with The Eagles Of Death Metal, and desert guru Josh Homme is a fan. Their spit ‘n’ blood rock makes Joan Jett and Jack White sound like the Disney Club.
Deap Vally – ‘Gonna Make My Own Money’ by Deap Vally
Torches
Adding grittiness to the wave of ethereal nu-gazey scene coming out of London are Mile End five piece Torches, whose barroom-doom packs a bulldozer clout. Their debut single Sky Blue and Ivory combines a lolloping mechanical rhythm with pulsating fuzz and vocals akin to a crooning Mark Hollis. Indeed had Talk Talk, or even The The, peaked during the shoegaze era then Torches could be the result- maybe we should call them Torches Torches. Nevertheless, their sound is enchantingly contemporary with their phasing textures coating a gentle tremolo twang, like a fun I Like Trains.
Torches – Sky Blue & Ivory by .Torches.
Py
Gone are the days of having one skill; if you’re a writer you need people skills as well- going against why we chose to write, even admin needs additional team skills. It’s a HR world. Luckily London vocalist Py can add visual, and sound installation, artist to her Reed profile, which adds to her vibrant elegance. For her debut mixtape, Tripping On Wisdom, she worked with cutting edge producers including Lapalux and Breton to create Moloko-esque vocals with pioneering house. Py eschews the electropop dogma, so prevalent in hipster circles, to firmly gear herself towards graceful art-noir electronica which is both uplifting and late night.
DIIV
No, not an acronymic Death In Vegas with a stammer, but the brilliant Brooklyn wave-gazers lead by Zachary Cole Smith from Beach Fossils. By sounding more like Californian slackers than NY hipsters they manage to avoid the Brooklyn band cliché to become feverishly talked about globally. Deservedly so, they’re incredibly hard working, playing several gigs a week and their forthcoming albums Oshin is achingly anticipated. How Long Have You Know is filled with jaunty indie reverb, like a C86 Girls, while Geist could be a west coast Siouxsie and The Banshees. Indie kids are guaranteed to love everything about DIIV; it’s as though they’re a musical Dr Frankenstein, creating everyone’s dream indie band.
Joey Bada$$
The rap world is becoming increasing splintered, whether it’s Jay West’s #firstworldproblems about 3D glasses and velvet rope or the Weeknd’s Hipster Runoff friendly Luther Vandross impression. So, it’s inspiring to see rap’s most authentic and quality rhymes coming from a 17 year old Brooklyn kid with a cool name. Bada$$ rejuvenates hip hop by ambushing mid 90s rap, by the likes of Nas, and forcing it to address the zeitgeist of modern disillusionment over some crisp beats. His new mixtape1999 is lyrically dynamic and artfully produced. There’s scratching, jazzy samples and quality spitting- just as hip hop ‘s meant to be, timeless.
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