The guys in Milagres belong the the category of musicians who keep at it (while most rock acts fall apart within a few years, in particular in NYC where it’s very hard to find committed band mates). The group has been around for almost a decade under a name or another, and is about to celebrate the release of a new album – their third under this moniker – entitled "Violent Light." Marrying intense emotions with sophisticated arrangements featuring both orchestral and electronic elements, Milagres’ new album touches new production heights while delivering consistently in the songwriting department. Check them out at Bowery Ballroom on April 10 celebrate their album release.

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

We’ve been following Leah Siegel’s musical journey  for a while, both during her solo early years and the following Firehorse period, which apparently has just come to an end, since the Brooklyn based songwriter announced yesterday the adoption of a new band moniker, coinciding with the beginning of a new collaboration with Dave Hodge of Canadian collective Broken Social Scene. The project’s new name is Leisure Cruise, and the two electro-pop tracks they  released this far have already grabbed the attention of many bloggers and booking agents, so much so that the duo will celebrate their live debut at the Bowery Ballroom, tomorrow (April 10) – on the bill also Brooklyn bands Milagres and Conveyor.

We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best Electronic songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

 DC favorite Drop Electric have just released a BSide Session at Baltimore’s Mobtown Studios. BSide Sessions are a unique way to connect bands to their fans. The band spends a day in the studio, recording two songs and a 10 minute video. Mobtown has provided both live tracks for download (featuring songs off Drop Electric‘s upcoming album) and the short documentary about the band. Check out the video below. –Natan Press

Cinematic and dark, Calla was a rather established NYC band that formed in the early 90s and broke up some time in the mid aughts. The group’s lead singer Aurelio Valle (oh boy… I guess today is the day we exclusively cover artists with Italian origins!) is making a comeback with a self-produced solo album entitled "Acme Power Transmission," composed "after five years of private, contemplative musical experimentation carried on while he worked day jobs in motorcycle repair and in a tailor shop." Preview single "Superhawk" showcases an intriguing mixture of lightly industrial arrangements and exotic rhythmic patterns, reaffirmed later in the song by horn and mallet sections that would make any Afrobeat band proud. But Aurelio’s vocals, tortured and chilled, and the song’s controlled tension, intentionally prevent the party from happening, creating a musical paradox that makes this song stand out for its originality.

There was a time in the 80s when a lot of people enjoyed truly anguishing, borderline funereal music. Bands like Dead Can Dance, This Mortal Coil and to some extent also Japan (and later David Sylvian) who dared to mix sadness with weirdness in their music, actually managed to sell a lot records. We are not sure if the stars will align to favor a similar situation in the near future (although we doubt "lots of records" will ever be sold by anybody again), but if they did, Brooklyn electro-freak band Nicholas Nicholas might benefit from it. The kitchen project of Chris Masullo (that’s where everything is recorded), Nicholas Nicholas makes music that sounds like a bad trip that somehow becomes a surreal adventure: it’s a dense world where dissonances suddenly make perfect sense, and a dreamy stream of consciousness leads to the discovery of new truths through random associations. Check out our favorite track "Pink Contacts" below and see the band live at Pianos tonight for Cosmonaut’s residency.