Best New Artists of the Month (March 2013)

A welcome addition to the new school of music-makers with minimalist stylings, Azekel does R&B that feels complete without adding any of the extra. Fans of Frank Ocean should like this London singer's style, and although he's only got a few songs to offer on Soundcloud, he's already convinced us that he's someone to keep a close eye on. Oh, and he produces too.

Honestly, these days it seems like anything coming from Norway, Denmark, or Sweden is the best. A piece of fucking driftwood could wash up on Denmark's shores of the North Sea and I'd put good dollars on a bet that this particular piece of driftwood is a better piece of driftwood than, say, 80% of the driftwood from other shores. It's just facts, you guys. And even if you don't agree with the driftwood thing, it's impossible to argue if you replace the word "driftwood" with the word "pop" and ignore that other stuff about shores and the North Sea.

Chris, Betty and Jon are three friends from Norway who have been friends for a long time. After Chris heard Betty singing while she was getting ready for a party, the two decided to record. They brought Jon on board, and now they are Musique Le Pop.

They have three songs on Soundcloud and only 196 Facebook likes. Show some love.

Ready to fall in love? Los Angeles singer Dana Williams' first offerring is a timeless piece of pop and she's making the kind of tried and true music that could have a massive appeal. She is the daughter of the late David Williams, the guitarist who collaborated with Michael Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston, and other big names, and her father was a source of inspiration to pursue a career in music.

"Keep Me Waiting" is an elegant song and showcases a voice that will hopefully be a very familiar one by the end of the year. For now, it's all we have in terms of studio material, but check out some live performances on her YouTube, including this great acoustic take on Rihanna's "Stay."

It's always good to make a big impact with your debut single. Bristol band Coasts took that idea to heart—"Coasts" is nothing short of anthemic, and after only one listen, you can already imagine this becoming of those signature summer songs that accompanies things like wind through hair, sand between toes, intertwined fingers, and wide open skies.

If you like the melody but wish it was a little more electronic, you're in luck you greedy little brat. Twice As Nice remixed the track and put an electronic spin on it, providing proof that if Coasts chose to put down the instruments and put the synths to work, it would be no less effective.

This is the kind of music that's so immediate it will probably skip the whole indie cred thing and move straight to the mainstream when it does inevitably catch on. It flirts with that corniness that comes with lyrics like "we fell in love right by the ocean" sung in dramatic fashion, but it's hard to deny that it's an extremely well written song.

Hear more here.

Belgian Fog is the project of Seattle's Robert Dale. Citing Flemish songwriter Jacques Brel as his main influence, he does all his own recording, mixing, and mastering from a home studio and brings a mature, forward-thinking indie pop/rock sound that fans of Andrew Bird should adore. "Wait For Help" is proof that his songwriting skills are on point.

This is his debut track, but keep an eye out for more.

Informed by styles of the past, Lapland—the project of Josh Mease—offers a debut album that sounds well-informed, comfortable in its own skin, well-dressed, and timeless. Surprisingly, it also feels incredibly textured and full-bodied. I say surprisingly because the project was one born out of solitude. From the bio:

"The beginning of Lapland started before it even had a name. It was born in a tiny half-bedroom in Brooklyn, where songwriter Josh Mease began recording a new batch of songs in early 2011. Mease has always found comfort in the solitude of his own thoughts, often preferring the landscapes within his mind’s eye over the bustle of the city that surrounds him. So it seems fitting that in making Lapland’s self-titled debut, he worked alone using whatever was within reach – only rarely using other musicians.

"The name Lapland only presented itself after the album was completed, when Mease picked up a book from the $2 stacks at a used bookstore called “Lappland Wanderland.” The book contained photos of other-worldly landscapes and vast open spaces which seemed to connect with Mease’s new recording. It was not a difficult decision to adopt the name Lapland for this new phase of Mease’s career. The scope of his work deserves a moniker of symbolic significance. And so, Lapland began."

Listen to Lapland's self-titled debut below:

Tom and Benjamin Page aren't new to music. For almost a decade they've been doing it—they've collaborated with Four Tet, opened for Radiohead, and developed their skills to a level of professionalism that few musicians ever reach. Now they're ready to release a project all their own. Their debut album MeYouWeYou will be released May 21.

"Rotunda" is a percussive instrumental track that combines tribal beats and a live jazzy feel with electronic elements and enough energy and variation to make all five minutes of it extremely engaging. Just imagining seeing this one live is enough to make us hope that the rest of their debut is this good, because a RocketNumberNine concert could be a potentially excellent affair.

That voice. With such a stripped down song, something needs to be extremely engaging. The xx gets by on their minimalism thanks to ghostly, deadpan boy-girl vocals, and Slow Skies does it with a voice that reels you in with every word. By the time the vocals sink in, you realize that the music driving "On The Shore" has slowly built into a beast of its own. It's a perfect combination of power and restraint.

Listen to more from Slow Skies here.

Listen to the full EP below:

Brooklyn's Ski Lodge channels Talking Heads on "Just To Be Like You," employing a poppy upbeat sound with a touch of quirkiness and dark undertones. Their debut full-length is out in April, but for now you can check out an EP here.

We don't know much, but their Facebook says that there's four of them. In the "about" section: "whatever."

Neon Gold has a solid track record, and their latest addition keeps their winning streak going. Their first single is a piece of pop that doesn't take long to win you over. With a bit of the excitability of Passion Pit but a little less spaz and a little more bounce, "Paris" is a great first impression.

Listen to a second song here.

If you handed Cosmo Sheldrake a stapler, three rubber bands, and an empty pot, he could probably make some very interesting music. He's a master looper who plays bass, piano, banjo, drums, and plenty more obscure instruments, and he draws influence from foreign and wide-ranging musical soundscapes old and new. He also runs beatboxing workshops and wilderness camps, and he sometimes sings in a made-up language.

When you listen to his music, all of this kind of makes sense. His song "Rich" with Anna Roo won us over, and you can hear a couple others on his Soundcloud.