The Best NEW & EMERGING Music - Week 12 & 13, 2012

And JUST like that, the first quarter of the year is well and truly gone! 2012 is not waiting around for anybody it seems and as we draw ever closer and closer to the Summer time and all the music festivals that come with it, I hope we all have our tickets and Wellington boots ready! Our Best New Music of the final two weeks of the first quarter range from UK Grime to Indie Pop to Brit Soul/R&B to Hip-Hop to Experimental so let's get right into it, shall we? Week TWELVE (19/03/12 - 25/03/12) and week THIRTEEN (26/03/12 - 01/04/12) of 2012 produced these entries into our Best New and Emerging Music series...

AZEKEL - "STUCK (DEMO)"

Emerging British singer, songwriter and musician AZEKEL impressed us last year and made our Best New & Emerging Music of 2011 with his one and only released track "New-Ish". He has now released a follow-up to that excellent song by way of this demo titled "STUCK" and can we just say, this is pretty amazing stuff from the young London native. Filled with heavy drum patterns, excellent keyboard chords, lush synths, rich vocals and those creatively distorted horns, "Stuck" is an excellent piece of progressive music accompanied by some very decent songwriting. My only question is, if this is only a "demo", I'm excited to think what a complete record from Azekel will sound like. Listen to "Stuck" below:

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 on Shadow 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:

And there you have it! Our FIVE picks of the Best New Music from the second half of March to complete the first quarter of 2012! See you on the next instalment and just in case you missed it, all of our previous Best New & Emerging Music instalments can be found below and as always, do leave your thoughts in the comments section underneath.

Until the Next Time...

Best New & Emerging Music: Week 10 & 11 // Week 8 & 9 // Week 6 & 7 // Week 4 & 5 // Week 3 // Week 2 // Week 1 // 2011