The Best New Artists of the Month (September 2014)

We've been talking about D.R.A.M. (pronounced drahm) all month, and for good reason. The Virginia rapper/singer released a project called #1EPICSUMMER this month and it's full of fun, feel-good music and unpolished charm that makes him an instant favorite. He's got songs like "$" and "Feet in the Water" that show a deeper side, but it's "Cha Cha" that keeps us coming back. It's only a matter of time before this song blows up, so embrace it now and get familiar with an artist full of major potential.

Read our interview and hear more from D.R.A.M. here.

When your debut track has all the best qualities of Solange's best song ("Losing You") but still feels fresh and very much your own, you're definitely doing something right.

Quite apart from having a fantastic first song, JONES has all the right names backing her. She’s been working with XL Recordings’ in-house producer Rodaigh McDonald (The xx, King Krule, How To Dress Well) and Jai Paul’s brother Anup (who recently appeared on “So Good” with Nao), so we can't wait to hear what she's been cooking up in the studio.

SOAK is 18-year-old Bridie Monds-Watson and she's a singer/songwriter from Ireland. While so many other young artists are trying to keep up with the fashionable styles of left-field synth pop or moody minimalism, SOAK has a more traditional approach. Her music features strings and keys and music rooted in sturdy songwriting and delicately gorgeous vocals. Her fundamentals are strong, she's already got tons of experience performing—"I’ve played probably about fifty foreign shows and nothing’s gone terrible so far," she told us—and she just joined the Rough Trade team. Things are looking good for SOAK.

Tula are a five piece band, originally from Sweden, but now based in Berlin, and after three years without sharing any music on their Soundcloud, they came back earlier this month with a gorgeous cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game." Taking on a classic song like this is a risky move, but one that totally paid off for Tula, who created a swirling, dreamy, mellow landscape for the lead singer's lush vocals to inhabit. Look out for more new music from Tula soon.

Originally from Birmingham in the UK, T.O.L.D. moved to LA, and has since released his excellent debut "Lucifer's Eyes," a sparkling pop epic that was finished off in Iceland with Biggi from the GusGus. There are lush steel drums and a bold, catchy chorus, but the more you listen, the more the song reveals its heavy emotional weight and nuances. T.O.L.D. says:

It’s about the struggle, fear and mourning that comes with the loss of a long held identity, maybe it’s a coming of age song. Maybe it’s about addiction?

Get to know T.O.L.D. a bit better with our interview here.

Detroit rapper Dej Loaf’s "Try Me" dropped a few months ago, but the song owned September. After getting a subtle Drake cosign and a more obvious Wiz Khalifa boost, "Try Me" took off this month. It's one of those infectious viral hits that could have easily turned Dej Loaf into a one-hit wonder that blew up too quickly for her own good, but just a few days ago she released "We Good" and made it clear—she's no one-hit wonder.

With his very first song, "Departed," UK artist Turan proved immediately difficult to place into a box or categorize. He sang, rapped, and produced a beat that swelled from gentle keys to pounding, pummeling drums. The rest of his debut EP is a similar story—a mixture of styles and sounds all tied together by a moody, dim-lit aesthetic that extends from the EP artwork through to the videos.

Atlanta is a city where musical anomalies are becoming the norm, each creative pushed by surrounding inspiration to venture into unusual new dimensions.

22-year-old Atlanta native COMMAND is exactly the sort of dazzling, rough hewn creator the city has become so known for nurturing: a rapper, singer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and engineer raised by musical parents, a child singing in church now grown into a young man drawing inspiration from N.E.R.D, Madlib, and untold others on his ambitious 18 song debut project WATERMOUTH. A pervasive, inventive playfulness colors COMMAND's sprawling work, tales of love and lust accompanied by vibrant, dense instrumentation and a unique melodic sense. It's unusual and mostly excellent, making up for lack of polish with honesty, idiosyncrasy, and a bold, restless buffet of sounds and ideas.

Another voice to watch from Atlanta.

The latest new artist coming for James Blake's spot as master of mixing otherworldly, manipulated vocals and experimental electronic production into a package that is somehow still accessible, is Sylas. The duo have been recording in both Frankfurt and London, and their debut EP is being released via Aesop, the label who brought us SOHN's first single "The Wheel" and TALA's first EP.

In that respect, they are in good company, and although only "Hollow" has been shared with the public so far, we know that they've got more awesome music on the way.