Temporex
If you want to stop listening to ASMR and start listening to dream-pop, 19-year-old Joseph Flores (aka. Temporex) has got you covered. His first (and only) album, Care, came out in 2016 and is a laid-back, dreamy, twenty-minute look at love and teenage innocence. Since then, he’s released seven singles on Spotify, all with beats and vocals that are far more pronounced, but can still lull you to sleep with soft minimalistic melodies. Give him a year, and hopefully, he’ll slap you back awake with another full(er)-length LP.
What I Recommend: “Open Letter” (if you’d rather cry than sleep) and “Georgie” (it has the most wholesome music video ever made)
Superorganism
It’s 2018. Everything’s on the internet, especially music, and indie pop band Superorganism is as literal as that gets. The band was never all in the same room until after their first album, self-titled Superorganism, came out early this year. They met through online music forums, mutual friends, and at live shows, and pieced together their project entirely over Skype. It’s bouncy, experimental synth-pop that sounds like the Gorillaz on a sugar high, and their lead singer, Orono Noguchi, is a real-life Noodle. That’s kind of ironic, considering everyone thought she was a hologram before Superorganism came out. She’s only 19, but she already sounds completely fed up with the world, her melancholic vocals clashing like socks and sandals with the bright, synthy beats and chord progressions surfing through the album. Noguchi sings “Everybody Wants To Be Famous” at the very beginning of the LP, and at 19, she’s already on her way.
What I Recommend: “Something For Your M.I.N.D” (if you want something for your M.I.N.D.)
Tierra Whack
Wild, warm, weird! That’s what’s written on the cover of Tierra Whack’s debut, Whack World, a 15-minute long audiovisual album with so much packed into its sixty-second tracks it’ll take you an hour fully grasp it all. Check it out on YouTube before you add it to your Spotify library because the album’s really a fifteen-minute music video. Whack is only 23 and she’s already changing the music game, ditching the traditional album format for a visual experience. She raps about her missing her family in “Bug’s Life”, satirizing mumble rap and her bug allergies wearing half a swollen face in her video. “Pet Cemetery”, a song about her friend, Hulitho, who passed away in 2017, features a chorus of barks and is set in a graveyard where Tierra mourns her dead “dog”. It’s a beautiful, messy, screaming plea that rap is poetry, and you need to see it on the page—or in YouTube video—to truly understand that.
What I Recommend: “Cable Guy” (unless you have fifteen minutes to spare, in which case, watch the whole thing on YouTube)
The Lemon Twigs
Brother duo Brian (21) and Michael (19) D’Addario are trying to take us back to the 1970s, and with their rock ballads and outrageously retro taste in clothing, they might be succeeding. They’ve released two albums and an EP on label 4AD. Their “first” (don’t ever ask them about their real first), Do Hollywood, is carnivalesque power pop LP full of wacky lyricism and guitar melodies that sound like something straight out of a Kinks album. Their second, and my personal favourite, is Go To School, a concept album about failed rockstar parents, nice-guy bullies, a girl way out-of-your-league, and a misfit who burns down his high school. It’s the teenage experience, it’s a rock opera, there’s a monkey on the cover and it’s absolutely ridiculous.
What I Recommend: “Queen of My School” (if you wanna see what’s she done to me)
Rex Orange County
Alex O’Connor, better known by stage name Rex Orange County, is 20-years-old and already has two studio albums under his belt (both self-released). Self-taught drummer, pianist, guitar player, Rex released his debut bcos u will never b free in 2015, full of jazzy, lo-fi hip-hop, catching the attention of producer Two Inch Punch—who set him up with his management team—and Tyler, the Creator. He actually features on Tyler’s 2017 Flower Boy (and co-wrote two tracks on the album). Rex’s newest release Apricot Princess is an orchestral indie pop album about falling in love, and God help you, you’re going to fall head over heels for it. An indie hip-hop fusion, Apricot Princess mixes smooth, often jazzy beats with electric guitar. It’s Frank Ocean and Mac DeMarco’s lovechild, and man, she’s way prettier than you thought she’d be.
What I Recommend: “Portrait of Ned” (if you want a bit of bedroom pop) and “Television/So Far So Good” (if you want a fricking head-banger)