Having arrived in New York as an aspiring audio engineer, Johanna Cranitch instead made a name for herself in the city’s broad indie-pop scene under the guise Johanna and the Dusty Floor. Since recently repackaging herself as White Prism, the Australian is now investigating a long-standing interest in more electronic-based instrumentation, and has already cut one of the most accomplished releases within the genre to come out of NYC in recent memory with the project’s smooth, soulful self-titled debut EP. – LINKS: Read Dean Van Nguyen’s interview with White Prism.

Having made his name collaborating with husky Queens rapper Action Bronson on last year’s aural idea factory Blue Chips, Justin Nealis has fleshed out his Party Supplies guise for the release of his debut album "Tough Love." Adding multi-instrumentalist Sean Mahon to the mix, Nealis opts to move away from the sampled-layered beats of his hip-hop collaborations towards a dinky electro-pop sound loaded with plenty of taut drum machines, sharp hooks and throwback New Wave vocal lines. – Dean Van Nguyen

Synth-pop artist Wolf in a Spacesuit might be the happiest guy in New York. The man has filled his music up with as much joy and optimism as one can muster using only bright synths and drum machines for his just-released ‘Blighter Days’ EP. Tracks like ‘The Honey Glows’ and ‘Full Color Visional’ should make you see the Spring even on these cold days.

Just like his music, the horizon looks expansive for Wolf in a Spacesuit. ‘Blighter Days’ is an exciting addition to Algebra Huxley’s growing catalog, and he’s slated to play more shows soon. Check out ‘The Honey Glows’ below and warm up a little. Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Chalk And Numbers evokes a long lost sound and a sense of nostalgia with their well crafted pop perfection. Seemingly plucked from a time capsule, the format and content within these songs will harken back to days before most of our time. Sable Young and Andrew Pierce find a way to transport us back to a time and place without today’s worries, or tomorrow’s sorrows. Instead, we hear tales of love, heartbreak, and music that resembles late 50’s rock-pop.

After just recently playing a free show after a Sleep No More performance in the Manderley Bar at The McKittrick Hotel, look for Chalk And Numbers to be playing live again very soon. In the meantime you can hear their ultra-slick pop sound on their latest EP, Parade. – Joe Fish

The versatility to jump from jazz and soul to electro-pop and hip-hop isn’t most artists’ strength. However, Erin Barra is as much electronic producer as she is confident blue-eyed soul singer with notes of Adele and Florence Welch.

She sees her career as a patchwork of opportunities – not limited to seeking notoriety as a performer. In her own work, Barra switches between recording pop soul with a full acoustic band and more computer-driven electro-pop. But she can also be found writing and producing for pop artists and producers like John Oates, who heard her when she was a student at Berklee College of Music. Her style is less experimental than stylistically diverse, with distinct threads of R&B. And her long-term goal is to maintain a career in music where she can keep inventing her own role. – LINKS: Bianca Seidman’s interview with Erin Barra.

For folk rocker Imran Ahmed’s first record since 2010, he’s giving us a first look at how some of his latest romantic exploits have been going: with the simple but seductively charming EP ‘Simone Staring Away.’ With this record, the Greenpoint artist has surpassed his own legacy in creating music that compliments hammocks rocking sexily in exotic locations. It sounds something like Serge Gainsbourg, if the Parisian troubadour was comfortable singing with solo guitar. I’m excited to hear the full-length from where this material is being pulled from. Titled ‘Life at the Zoo,’ the full-length is set to drop sometime next year. Take a listen to ‘Forgiveness’ below to get a sample of what’s to come. Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Dance music is making a big comeback in Brooklyn, prompting some of us to wonder whether we listen to too much white boy indie rock and not enough music that is more a) optimistic and b) representative of women and minorities. Indeed, in ‘White Boyz,’ Cold Blood Club’s lead singer Kendra Jones shouts "I need a nice white boy," over borderline schizophrenic beats. It’s an ecstatic track that highlights how much fun a warehouse show can be instead of another white boy singing about his suburban upbringing. Check out the track below, and see them when they play tonight at The Bell House at 8pm with The Woes and Late Cambrian.

Brooklyn’s Fool’s Gold, the label that brought you Danny Brown, Kid Kudi, and Duck Sauce, is celebrating its 6th Birthday.  And what better way to enhance your slur that to bring up one of the champion voices of the Big Easy, Juvenile.  Joining the Dirty South Spitter will be Bodega Bams, Brenmar (pictured), GrandeMarshall, Nick Catchdubs, Party Supplies and High Klassified.  Expect a healthy dose of swagger, booty clappin, and wacky microphone antics. SRB Brooklyn hosts this green carpet event on Friday Nov 22.  Wear your flat brim low. – Broke MC

Independent Bands and Artists,

THE DELI’S YEAR END BEST OF [YOUR SCENE] POLL IS  BACK!
SUBMIT YOUR MUSIC HERE! – it’s free.
(see prizes below)

PRIZES: FEATURE IN SXSW ISSUE + RECORDING SOFTWARE

Once again, the big prize for the Year End Poll winners is to be featured on our upcoming SXSW issue (see last year’s edition on the left, read it in pdf HERE), and this year we’ll also have a bundle of recording software (to be announced soon).

HOW IT WORKS
The process to determine these lists is rather complicated – if you want to try and get your head around it, be our guest and go HERE. But if all you are interested in is to be part of it and get some exposure, then read on.

The first phase of this poll allows ANY BAND OR SOLO ARTIST based in one of the scenes we cover to submit their music for a minimum of 3 spots in the pool of the "Best of" your city nominees. This phase starts right NOW! 

Submit your music to The Deli’s Local Scene Year End Polls 
HERE 
Deadline: 12.09.2013

A team of Deli writers will choose a minimum of 3 artists that will be added to the pool of nominees for the next phases of the poll. The bands selected  will be announced in early 2014.

Please spread the word about this and good luck!

Deli readers in bands,

Every year, The Deli’s Year End Polls highlight hundreds of the best emerging artists in the 11 (soon 12) US scenes we cover – and reward them with prizes from our sponsors. 

As you may know, the winner of the NYC poll will grace the cover of the spring issue of The Deli – and will be rewarded with other prizes.

Now established artists like Foxygen, Vampire Weekends, Lucius, Caveman, Fidlar, Snowmine, Local Natives, Yeasayer, Twin Shadow, Vivian Girls, Ra Ra Riot, Girls, Kurt Vile, Baths, Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Blank Dogs, Buke and Gass and many others won or did well in our polls months if not years before getting international recognition. 

The end of the 2013 is quickly approaching and we are ready to go through the painstaking 2 month process involved in selecting the artists and processing the various votes. We are already asking our local jurors (mostly venue promoters, bloggers, record store and radio personnel) to cast their vote for their favorite local emerging artists. But of course, our polls are open to all bands who want to be considered: free submissions are open from now until December 9th HERE. All these submissions will be grouped by genre and filtered by The Deli’s local editors and some Deli writers.

To submit for consideration and for more info about our year end polls please go HERE.

Good Luck
The Deli’s Staff

We kinda missed this new single by Empress Of – deservingly the most buzzed about new dream pop band from Brooklyn. Led by 23 year old artist Lorely Rodriguez, the band – highlighted in our Best of NYC Emerging Artists of 2012 Poll – had a great 2013 that led to sign with Terrible Records (run by Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor) and to a series of important shows, including a few dates in Europe (one for a Pitchfork curated show in Paris). You can see Empress Of live at Glasslands on November 25.

Brooklyn’s Spires was one of the "buzz bands" at this past edition of the CMJ Music Marathon – we were really sorry they had to cancel at the last minute our show at Pianos on CMJ Friday. The daydream pop* quartet, whose sound is reminiscent of an intriguing combination of The Cure and early Doves – just released the video for their single "Candy Flip" – check it out below. See them live at Union Pool on November 26 with Temples

* "Daydream" rather than dream pop, since they sing: "Sleep, that’s an option I don’t need…"