Mister Lies

Mister lies is a young producer/philosophy student based in Chicago. This stuff is really smooth and beautiful. Exceedingly chill and elegant. Very very inspired by UK dubstep (the good kind of Dubstep, like Burial, et al). He's picked some catchy enough, just melancholic enough samples, which make for a chilled out, fun and slightly sad vibing out experience. This is really great.

Savages

Savages are a fucking amazing new band from London. It's really brutal post-punk. A bit of Joy Division, a bit of psycho-billy and a lot of driving, harsh guitar. They play with a lot of fire too, which is unusual for such a young band. London has so much amazing music coming out of it (always has). It's great to see the scene rocking out more recently in addition to all those electronic artists...

Peaking Lights - Lucifer

Peaking Lights recently came out with this gem of an album. You can listen to the entire thing above. It's a little different from their previous album --- more head-bobby, more trippy, more down-tempo. You feel like your in the clouds a lot. Tasteful simple song-writing. 

Fear of Men

Fear of Men is a great London/Brighton band trading on a combination of freak-folk, 60's bubble-gum pop and lots of laid-back, yet emotional, vibes. I detect a hint of 90's nostalgia too. Actually, their "Ritual Confession" below reminds me a little of the Cranberries. In any case, it's all really well executed and great to vibe out to.

Sand Circles

Sweden's Sand Circles is a really brilliant ambient/electronic project that's just come out with a new album called "Motor City". If you like loopy, new-agey stuff like Blondes and perhaps Oneohtrix Point Never, but wish it was all a little more hazy, blurry and mysterious, then Sand Circles is it. Just catchy and dancey enough, yet contemplative and damaged. Good shit.

And here's an oldie but a goodie....

Molly Nilsson

Molly Nilsson is a Swedish composer based in Berlin who has worked with John Maus and makes a similar kind of naive pop music using simple synths and clever, dramatic lyrics. She recently released an album called "History" and a few of those tracks are below. I, personally, can't stop listening to an older track of her's called "Truth", posted above. This is fun, occasionally goofy, pop music that is, at it's heart, subverting the, usually hard to embrace, nature of experimental music. Excellent stuff.

Also, she actually wrote the standout track on John Maus' new album "Hey Moon".

A$AP Rocky

Harlem rapper A$AP Rocky just released a new track called "Goldie" which is a good as everything he's released so far... which is pretty fucking good. Rocky is making some of the best druggy hip-hop around. Most of his stuff is really smooth and hazy but still keeps a kind of classic hip-hop style intact. And it's made even more fun by the fact that Clams Casino produces some of of tracks, like these below: