So you may have heard of naas, the Cape Town collective who focus on a range of things from throwing parties to making music videos. They also have a music side, aptly titled naasMUSIC, which of course is all about helping to create an outlet for South African bands and producers to express styles of music that they normally won’t be able to do under despotic record labels.
Collaborating on what was undoubtedly one of the biggest songs of this year, Sam Smith has certainly made a grand entrance into the pop music scene. Since working on Latch with Disclosure, the 21-year-old has continued to show he isn’t a one trick pony. Earlier this year, Smith released his EP Nirvana, featuring the genius title track and one of my favorites, Safe With Me, which was met with great success.
How in the hell did this duo slide under everyone’s radar for so long? Liverpool-based Southern are seemingly the kickstarters of a kinda non-existent UK blues rock scene. I mean, we all know the UK as the Indie and Folk stomping grounds, so when a blues rock group comes around, it’s gonna be kinda unique.
So Portugal. The Man, one of those bands that are huge, and their success is of course extremely well deserved. They’re one of those bands that everyone talks about and when they announce a new album, it’s all very big and exciting. Evil Friends, the band’s eighth studio album, was released in June this year, to mixed reviews.
Eliza and the Bear have just delivered what is one of the most fun indie-folk pop songs of the week. It Gets Cold is everything you want from a great fun indie song. Catchy lyrics with a great chorus, really quirky piano and some fun percussion work. Eliza and the Bear are a five piece from London.
Glass Caves are about to release their latest EP Summer Love, another great summery EP that we’ll appreciate at this time of year. The standout track for me is This Road. Glass Caves have come a long way, they actually started out busking on the streets of Yorkshire and now they sell out venues and have started getting picked up for the festival scene.
![Yo Grapes Talks Socialising, His Lame Emotions & Making A Song In 24 Hours [Interview]](/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Yo-Grapes-Inter-1-201x201.jpg)
Recently, one of our favourite people and artists, Yo Grapes, released his first full length album, Grape Juice. We decided to waste a large amount of his time asking him some really complicated questions about his music, being his own producer and being nice to promoters. And of course about having a sense of humour.
Another-Day‘s favorite leggy brunette, Chantel Van T, recently signed a recording contract with Just Music. Since then she’s rebranded herself as ‘Van T‘ and her first EP Tides will go on sale on 9 December. The EP was produced by Matthew Fink, who’s also produced for other artists in the Just Music stable, like Shadowclub, Matthew Mole, Nakhane Touré and Tailor.
It’s been a while since Cape Town four-piece The Oxygen Thieves released any new material but their latest offering Celesta shows that the boys are growing up and so is their music. Last year the guys released their first EP Shade Movement and have been touring with those tracks for quite a while, so it was a rather pleasant surprise to find this track in my inbox.
Now 2013 has been all about RnB but sometimes you just need a little bit of Soul. Well, London born Ella Eyre is bringing back that soul with a vengeance (not that it disappeared – she’s just that good). Ella‘s been on everyone’s radar pretty much because she made one hell of a good first impression, featuring on Rudimental’s massive hit Waiting All Night.