Salt Cathedral’s latest EP, "Oom Velt," is a richly textured, futuristic affair. Made up of swirly, intertwined parts, close inspection reveals an openness to symmetry too. At its heart, each song is centered around the breathless vocals of Juliana Ronderos, who shape-shifts as she mesmerizes. We chatted up drummer Tommy Hartman recently, who brought us up to speed on how the band got their sound. 

Read Emilio Herce interview with Salt Cathedral.
We added this song to The Deli’s playlist of Best mellow pop songs by emerging NYC artists – check it out!

Brooklyn’s duo BLKKATHY inserts itself in the tradition of moody, psych and DIY influenced soul music coined by TV on the Radio’s first EP, and takes it to an extreme level of introversion and self-absorption – qualities that almost fight with the nature of this genre. In their most popular single "Dem Bones" (streaming) Kate Faust sounds as if she was singing to herself, without an audience, mumbling about some skinny girl who’s taller than her: "I can see why you don’t want me, she’s so skinny…". The melody is almost just a draft, but catchy nonetheless, and the minimal electronic arrangement perfectly complements her whispers. The duo has caught the attention of the talent scouts at Pianos, who booked them for a three week residency starting on December 30.

For those who, like us, enjoy the power of emotions but cannot be asked to sit through two hours of a romantic drama (unless it’s a British recreation of a novel by Jane Austen), this new video for "Toledo" by Brooklyn’s Glass Elephant might work as a concentrated, extremely well executed, 4 minutes shot of cathartic and sob-inducing love-related rollercoaster. It’s got all the essential soul stirring qualities of a Hollywood flick without the unnecessary baggage, thanks to Russ Flynn’s tormented lyrics and the band’s evocative music, that team up to exude longing and describe the often unresolvable complications of love. The video’s beatiful imagery greatly contributes to magnify these emotions, emplyoing at times the overlapping images technique borrowed from TV series’ True Detective stunning intro. Check out the Glass Elephant’s new, self-titled EP here.

NYC’s Teen Girl Scientist Monthly coined a new genre to describe their upbeat, energetic music: "pop stomp" (why not "stomp pop"? It sounds better…) Here at The Deli we are fans of the band’s fast paced pick-me-up single “Summer Skin”, which feels like a well needed shot of unpretentious rock’n’roll, something kind of rare in our tense and often angry rock scene. The Brooklyn band has a super fun live show that has the potential to get even the laziest of humans out of their seats for some frantic dancing. That’s why they are asked to play Rockwood Music Hall on a Saturday – in this case January 3, 2015. – Robert Frezza