Who: The U.K.-based duo comprised of Kye "Foamo" Gibbon and Matt "RackNRuin" Robson-Scott whose straightforward house production comes with a heavy helping of springing, melodic bass. Signed to London's independent Black Butter imprint (home of Rudimental, John Newman, and Kidnap Kid), the pair's comparison to crossover dance acts like Disclosure is both immediately apparent and less prominent than it may initially seem. Handpicking soulful, rising vocalists like MNEK for the warm blanket of "Ready For Your Love" and Yasmin for the R&B-infected "Real" is part of it too; Gorgon City's work is in kneading those vocals out into enveloping, pop-loving dance-floor-ready jams.Sounds Like: Disclosure, Rudimental, Cyril HahnWhere to Start: The impassioned, deep-house collab "Ready For Your Love."[videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed]

Who: The son of Bay Area legend E-40 and younger brother of IDM-meets-hyphy producer Droop-E, ISSUE rocks a creepy robot mask, has an ear for energetic ambient beats (that span from Supreme Cuts to jacked Aphex Twin instrumentals), espouses the healing powers of drinking way too much tea, and often delivers his rhymes in a lackadaisical surfer-dude voice. Recently signed to Himanshu Suri's Greedhead imprint, ISSUE carries some of the crew's joking-but-not sincerity. The sarcasm is tempered with simple Lil B-esque hooks that make his latest release, Liquid Wisdom, ideal for both turning up and vibing out. Is there such a thing as being too #BASED?Sounds Like: Das Racist, Forest Swords, Lil BWhere to Start: The hypnotic "Ten Monks" produced by Supreme Cuts off  the rapper's latest free release, Liquid Wisdom.

Who: Four Motor City misanthropes with a gift for marrying hyper-melodic post-punk to hyper-specific lyrical observations from one of our country's bleakest cities. Frontman Joe Casey is 10 years his bandmates' senior and an unlikely, often highly uncomfortable showman. He rants, he barks, he bellows, he forces out glimpses of his crumbling hometown that transcend the news-media narratives generated outside of it. Their forthcoming sophomore LP, Under Color of Official Right, is arguably the finest rock record of 2014 thus far.Sounds Like: Wire, Joy Division, WildernessWhere to Start: In addition to "Feral Cats," a deliriously dark cut from their overlooked 2012 debut, No Passion All Technique, seek out "Come And See," a street-level anti-anthem from the second half of Under Color of Official Right.

Who: Los Angeles' Nikko Gibler and Jake Patrick, a pair of musicians who sound as versed in the minutiae of Peter Gabriel and Talk Talk's immaculate studio concoctions as they are in the nuts and bolts of contemporary electronic beat-making. Ricoshëi's studio, in a complex they share with Droog and Martin Buttrich, among others, brims with instruments digital, electronic, and plain ol' electric, which might help explain the lush textures of their debut single, "Perfect Like You." Released on DJ Koze's Pampa Records, it makes the Hamburg producer's most bittersweet tracks sound practically emotionless in comparison — billowy as a cotton-candy sunset and almost ecstatic in its inconsolability, as they mull a simple mantra in voices on the verge of cracking: "I wish that I could find somebody perfect like you."Sounds Like: DJ Koze, Dixon, SuperpitcherWhere to Start: Listen to "Perfect Like You" below.

Who: A recent graduate from the University of Kansas, Taryn Blake Miller holds a degree in linguistics, but the one-woman band is also fluent in emotionally resonant, desolate songs that feel at once lush and spare. Miller records under the moniker of Your Friend, a project that began in her bedroom and was later developed onstage — an arc that can be felt all throughout Your Friend's debut EP, Jekyll/Hyde. Every one of the collection's six tracks starts as a hazy sketch, one that eventually fills itself in and opens itself up, layering Miller's pensive vocals with parceled-out guitars, keyboards, bass, drums, and warm ambiance. These are faded photographs rendered as songs.Sounds Like: Wye Oak, Atlas Sound, Sharon Van EttenWhere to Start: "Tame One," a disarming slow-blossom found on the Jekyll/Hyde EP, which was self-released in 2013 and due for a physical release on April 8 via Domino.