Ambient
Artist: Forrest Fang Album: Forever Cascades Description: atmospheric electronic textures with a wide array of acoustic instruments Listen to First: “Forever Cascades”
Folk
Artist: firekid Album: Muscle Shoals Metaphysical Description: Experimental Appalachian duo Listen to First: “Put It in the Ring”
Artist: Spell Songs Album: Spell Songs II: Let the Light In Description: draws inspiration from the creatures, art and language in the acclaimed The Lost Words and Lost Spellsbooks Listen to First: “Red Is Your Art”
Funk
Artist: Majid Soula Album: Chant Amazigh Description: synths, driving drums, guitar & strong lyrics make a unique sound Listen to First: “Win Terram”
Indie
Artist: Aeon Station Album: Observatory Description: miles of timeless melodies and the kind of overpowering songwriting that will reaffirm your belief in life itself Listen to First: “Everything at Once”
Artist: The Brandy Alexanders Album: The Brandy Alexanders Description: existential lyrics are expressed via dream like vocals that weave themselves into a wall of propulsive guitar riffs, textured synths and a bold rhythm section Listen to First: “IDK What I’m Trying To Do”
Artist: Honey Guide Album: A Tidy Room Is A Tidy Mind EP Description: an incandescent and misty-eyed picture of Love, Sadness and all the sweeter things in-between Listen to First: “In My Room”
Artist: Horse Show Album: Falsterbo EP Description: the energy of prime FEWS with the shimmering melodies of Hater’s finest work, but all together creating something new that fizzes with nervous energy Listen to First: “Used To” Artist: Safety Town Album: Fake It Description: softly sung vocals over layers of programmed beats and carefully composed synthesizers that swell and swoon Listen to First: “Fake It”
Artist: San Fermin Album: In This House Description: electronic pop and experimental rock adding new colors to their distinctive modern chamber pop Listen to First: “My First Life” (ft. Wye Oak)
K-Pop
Artist: Monsta X Album: The Dreaming (English language album from K-Pop band) Description: fusing together a variety of genres and styles, and singing compelling songs with an emotional core Listen to First: “Blame Me”
Pop Punk
Artist: Jack Kays (with Travis Barker) Album: My Favorite Nightmares EP Description: Scumbag from Cincinnati 🖤* Listen to First: “SIDEWAYS”
Rap/Hip Hop
Artist: 2KBABY Album: First Quarter Description: reflective, vulnerable songs about the struggles and hardships growing up in Louisville Listen to First: “Like This”
Artist: Mauvey Album: The Florist Description: unique batch of alternative music with Pop, Hip Hop, R&B/Soul always alongside his message: Love Listen to First: “Insecure”
Special Mention
Artist: Fleet Foxes Album: A Very Lonely Solstice Description: A live version of songs from the album Shore as well as other popular singles. Shore was my favorite release last year so worth a mention but not technically a “new” release in the way I typically consider for this list.
This list is created by listening to all the releases listed on Consequence. If you have an upcoming release that you’d like to be considered for a future list, please fill out the "New Artist Submission" form on our site with the above information as well as a link to listen.
Please note: submission does not guarantee inclusion.
All band descriptions and genres come from their own words on either Spotify, Bandcamp, Soundcloud, social media, or their website. If our “Listen To First” song by an artist was unavailable on SoundCloud, we have tried (when possible) to replace it with another recent song. Our playlists are also available on Spotify. Other streaming services coming soon.