We all know how picky Bowery Presents is with the artists it books – bring no crowd to one of their shows and you are out! In this perspective, a slot at Mercury Lounge during CMJ week can be seen as a valuable prize for artists respected by booking staff of the NYC venue giant. In truth, this year not many emerging locals made it on the Mercury Lounge’s CMJ week listings. One of the lucky ones is the electronic tinkerer that goes under the name of Saint Pepsi (aka Ryan DeRobertis). From his ambient disco beginnings, enriched with the soul of vocal samples, Ryan in his more recent release on Carpark Records has switched gear to a more direct synth-pop format, graced by his own vocals. His music is more appropriate for a loungy party than a wild night of dancing, although – while lounging – you might not be able to prevent parts of your body from moving to his beats. Listen to single "Fiona Coyne" below and check out Saint Pepsi live at Mercury on October 22.

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

Sometimes records grow on us – such is the case for Zula’s "This Hopeful," released in October 2013.
There are two sides to psychedelia: dream and hallucination. Shoegazer and Dream Pop embrace the first, Psych Rock the second. Brooklyn band Zula perfectly blend both. The band finds itself at home when it’s time to engage in sonic experimentations mostly fueled by frantic stomping on guitar effect pedals ("This Hopeful"), but can deliver – a few minutes later – the perfectly placid dreamy melody of NRGZ. These are the two stronger songs in the band’s debut LP "This Hopeful" (although we also dig "Poison," streaming below), an album that never ceases to surprise, and that showcases a band that dares to explore every possibility given by every single musical element at their disposal, without renegading neither melody nor noise, but admirably succeeding in retaining a stylistic identity in the process.

Read The Deli’s interview with Zula from earlier in 2014 + see them live at CMJ next week, it shouldn’t be hard to fit into your schedule, they are playing seven shows!

We booked NYC duo Blonds two years ago for our CMJ 2012 Rootsy Stage – we remember the band complained that they weren’t really a rootsy band. Well, maybe they weren’t, but we must have detected some of those soul influences that are now pouring out of the band’s male half Jordy Asher’s new solo project BOOTS. (For the record, soul music belong to the roots music umbrella). The young musician and producer suddenly rose to relevance (rather than fame) when in  2013 he signed to Jay-Z’s entertainment company and Sony Music Entertainment imprint, Roc Nation, and produced the big majority of Beyoncé’s self-titled fifth studio album, released in December 2013. He’s now focusing on his solo material, which – from single Mercy (streaming below) – sounds extremely soulful and intensely mellow. Boots will be touring with FKA Twigs in November, see him at Baby’s All Right on Tuesday 10.28.