Music Recommendations Based on the Artists You Already Like (February 2014)

Who says you can't be experimental and accessible at the same time? Miike Snow expertly balanced pop appeal and top-notch production quality with elements you don't usually hear from chart-toppers or radio regulars. Australia's Thief does the same on his new music. He ditched the guitars and started playing around with synths, and it turns out he's pretty good at playing around with synths. And at writing huge choruses.

Michael Christmas is funny, but he's not a joke. If you like Das Racist for the humor, the rapping, and the lack of flash, then you should check out Boston rapper Michael Christmas' new Is This Art? mixtape.

When we talked to Thomston, he told us that he was already tired of Lorde comparisons. But he's a teenager, he's from New Zealand, and shit, it's not hard to imagine Lorde singing a song like "Midas." It's not a bad thing to be compared to Lorde—unless you're sick of Lorde comparisons. Sorry, Thomston.

If you liked Kelela's brand of experimental alt-R&B that took the blogs by storm at the end of last year, especially the slower, gentler songs like "Bank Head" and "Something Else," LA-based BC Kingdom should be on your radar. With a song on Solange's Saint Heron compilation from last year, and a couple of new ones this year, the duo are slowly building a collection of solid songs. Watch our video profile of BC Kingdom below.

Another rapper from Atlanta associated with Archive Entertainment, Lil Silk is bound to be compared to Young Thug. But it's more than that. He's got the same level of unhinged energy, an animated delivery that comes in spurts, like Silk just thought of it on the spot and had to excitedly spew it out as fast as he can. While so many other rappers go for smooth and in control, Silk goes wild and spontaneous, and it's extremely entertaining to listen to.

With its '80s inspired R&B/pop vibes and gentle melodies, fans of Blood Orange will feel right at home listening to "Touch."

Osca, a South London four-piece, who met through mutual friends, have spent the last eight months locked away in the studio writing and rehearsing. The first we heard of those sessions was “Blood,” a song that is as emotionally charged, slow building, and subtly catchy as London Grammar’s best work, especially their early songs “Hey Now” and “Metal + Dust." Even more though, the singer's voice, and the piano-based pop backdrop is reminiscent of Coldplay, back when they were still (kinda) cool.

19-year-old Swedish singer Adna doesn't make the grandiose, expansive kind of music that Florence and the Machine is known for, but she strikes the same mature, serious tone. Far more sparse and less reaching, Adna's music is like Florence and the Machines at three in the morning, when everything is quiet and still.

Listen to her entire album here.

Sonically, there are some major differences between dd elle and Jai Paul, but there's that same disjointed beauty—the sound of an unfinished masterpiece—in "Kind 2 U." And there's the mystery. We know nothing about dd elle (even the associated Facebook account seems to have been removed), but it's hard to keep yourself from going back to "Kind 2 U" and wondering.

Okay, so this might seem like a thoughtless comparison, based around the fact that Royce Wood Junior actually lives with Jamie Woon, and has played in his band, but it's really so much more than that. The experimentally minded production is there, as are the rich, soulful vocals and a faint sense of nostalgia or sadness. "Nuff" could easily fit into Woon's 2011 album Mirrorwriting, and that is no doubt a compliment.

Futuristic alt-soul from New York. The easy comparison is Prince, but Gordon's sound is updated and taken to places that Prince's music never went. If Prince was a young man living in New York in 2014, he might sound something like this. The bass is deep, the production is chopped and layered, and the chorus is unforgettable. Listen to his entire Bad Études mixtape here.