Who: A thoroughly Scottish, wonderfully cheeky post-punk fivesome that manages to channel more than just Orange Juice and Josef K. Their "Stroh 80 / Soft School" single, out today on Moshi Moshi, is a sneering, smartly written debut that sews together elements of quilled krautrock, feathered glam, and roiling dub, while also striking poses by Lou Reed and David Bowie to devilish effect.File Next To: Franz Ferdinand, Orange Juice, the Velvet Underground Where to Start: "Stroh 80," heady A-side to that seven-inch, out now.
Who: Atlanta deep thinker with an ear for out-there beats (mostly from Waka Flocka associate DJ Spinz and Childish Major, a down-south Clams Casino) and a pen that creatively takes on typical hip-hop topics. On "Ice Cream Man," he declares dead-eyed, grind-until-you-get-it determination as "the no emotion route," and on the next track, "DanceDance," pleads a case for booty rap songs with "There's poetry in strippers."File Next To: Big Boi, Stalley, Trinidad Jame$Where to Start: "Balcony," a minimalist rap ready for radio off Rome's latest mixtape, Beautiful Pimp.[videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed]
Who: Russian-born, Chicago-raised, and New York-based, Slava makes dance music of a border-hopping bent, mixing together Chicago footwork, U.K. bass, and sparkling deep house into a potent cocktail that plays tricks on mind and body both. Yes, his name is confusingly similar to the rising trap star Salva's moniker, but don't blame him: He was born Slava Balasanov. (With a first name that translates to "fame" or "glory," he'd be crazy not to use it.) After hooking up with Washington, D.C.'s Future Times label for 2010's Dreaming Tiger EP, he jumped to Oneohtrix Point Never's Software Records with last year's Soft Control EP, a blissed-out exploration of buoyant juke and house. His upcoming album, Raw Solutions, showcases a tougher, fuller sound, with rave-grade pyrotechnics offset by doe-eyed ambient miniatures and pneumatic drum and bass.File Next To: Addison Groove, Scuba, DJ RashadWhere to Start: Raw Solutions' lead single "Werk," which plays MK-styled organ bass off staccato sample stabs to highly combustible effect.[videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed]
Who: This Maplewood, New Jersey R&B singer's sound feels very right now, mixing the cloudy, half-screwed atmospherics crucial to many bleeding-edge subgenres while nodding to the '80s sounds of Sade and other patient sophisto-soul. SZA croons with the fragility of a confessional singer-songwriter, though her lyrics lean towards swaggering, ambiguous tough-talk: "Go to church if you're scared," she threatens on "Ice.Moon"; "Aftermath" finds her telling a lover, "You made me care less / I like it."File Next To: Bjork, KING, Nite JewelWhere to Start: Trip-hop slow jam "Aftermath," from the S EP, out soon.
Who: California-bred, Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter M.C. Taylor, a UNC-Chapel Hill graduate (in folklore) whose gorgeous country-soul is both regionally astute and deeply satisfying on a number of levels. His latest, Haw, takes its name from a river that winds through North Carolina's Piedmont region and features contributions from recent 5 Best New Artists alum William Tyler, as well as Megafaun's Phil Cook and Black Twig Pickers banjoist Nathan Bowles. File Next To: Megafaun, Charlie Patton, William TylerWhere to Start: Haw, his finest full-length yet, out this week on Paradise of Bachelors.