Who: From growing up in a provincial town in Denmark to sharing a label (Anti) with Tom Waits: not a bad start for 25 year-old singer-songwriter Majke Voss Romme, who records as Broken Twin. "He's one of my personal heroes," Voss Romme told us recently. "It's a bit overwhelming." Mr. Waits is appropriate company: Voss Romme's raw, emotionally gripping songs, anchored by mournful piano chords and her quavering vocals, bare a certain resemblance to Waits' sad-bastard early work on albums like Closing Time. Throw in the somber side of Kate Bush, the hushed fury of Tori Amos, and the roiling intensity of contemporaries Daughter, and you've got the formula for May, Broken Twin's heartrending debut. Sounds Like: Daughter, Tori Amos, James Blake Where to Start: "Sun Has Gone," "Out of Air"

Who: Childhood friends Matt Pulos and Evan Laffer, both 19, specialize in crazed art-rock that gets the blood — and toxins — pumping. Dub Thompson's core duo originally hails from California, but Pulos (guitar, vox) and Laffer (drums) took refuge in Bloomington, Indiana last August to record their soon-to-be-released debut album with Foxygen guitarist/co-leader Jonathan Rado. The resulting eight-track collection, misleadingly titled 9 Songs, relishes in its own sleaze: grimy grooves, itchy noise-pop, sung-with-a-sneer vocals, and blown-out percussion chafe alongside each other throughout. Due June 10 via Dead Oceans, Dub Thompson's first LP resembles a long-lost DIY cassette classic that was left in the sun to warp. Sounds Like: Pere Ubu, Big Black, Liars Where to Start: "Dograces," a highlight from 9 Songs, interrupts its predatory bass line with bursts of chintzy, carnivalesque melody.[videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed]

Who: Greg Haines and Peter Broderick, a pair of classically-oriented, folk-inclined composers and songwriters whose halting attempts at collaboration eventually sent them down a dub rabbit hole. Haines is English, and Broderick grew up in Oregon, but it was in Berlin where they eventually bonded. On their eponymous mini-album, they toss scraps of Broderick's campfire acoustics down a funhouse hallway of drum machines and analog delay; the results variously recall Arthur Russell and Songs:Ohia, but touched up with tricks learned from King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry. Sounds Like: Jason Molina, Arthur Russell, Mapstation Where to Start: Greg Gives Peter Space, the duo's debut mini-album, out June 16 on Erased Tapes.

Who: Kaytranada is an incredibly young, incredibly talented Montreal fidget house funkster; his embrace of tasteful bass, the kind that swallows itself, belies his youth and tricks you into thinking he could be a 20 year veteran straight out of Detroit. An official remix for Disclosure solidified the producer's reputation for retrofitting sturdy house and techno grooves. And if his overflowing Souncloud is any indication, he's got plenty of bootlegs and refixes in his back pocket ready to drop during a thrilling live set. Sounds Like: Detroit; from the Dilla-inspired beats to the city's sleek techno Where to Start: "January (Kaytranada Edition)"

Who: This ambitious, retro-leaning Dallas hip-hop collective consists of a trio of charismatic characters. Together MC Mel, rapper and spacey-eared producer Dorian, and fervid technician Jayhawk focus on gritty, small-stakes stories of Southern living from the perspective of a regular dude. What separates them from the latest batch of nostalgists is both their good-humored self-awareness and a trap-gone-psychedelic production that invokes the past without recreating it. When the initial duo of Mel and Dorian scooped up Jayhawk, his energy seemed to have challenged the group to transcend whatever elements of traditionalism they were previously hanging onto. Sounds Like: Big K.R.I.T., G-Side, OutKast Where to Start: Try and sit down with all 27 tracks of double solo record Cognac/Four Corner Room (Cognac is Mel's album, Four Corner Room is Dorian's), but definitely make time for Dorian's tripped out trip-hop track, "Hourglass." [videoembed size="full_width" alignment="center"][/videoembed]