It’s time to tackle the last category of our open submissions for the 2015 edition of our Best of NYC Poll for emerging artists: ALT ROOTS! You can see the results we published so far here.
SUBMISSION CATEGORY: ALT FOLK
Total submissions in this category: 13
Jurors: Michelle Bacon (The Deli KC), Jordannah Elizabeth (The Deli San Francisco), Zach Weg (The Deli NYC).
Artists qualified to the next stage (i.e. the Readers’ Poll, starting around 01.20):
1. Mappa Mundi– 7.8 (out of 10)
Almost a year ago exactly, New York chamber pop six-piece released ‘At Sea,’ which is more of a sonic novella than a traditional EP. On such wistful, guitar-strummed songs and horn-sloped tracks such as “So Obscure” and “Mirabelle” (streaming below), the Adam B Levine-led band imbued poignant scenes of love and loss with a literary purity that was not only impressive in its vividness but preciously moving in its effect. Mappa Mundi plays Pete’s Candy Store on 2/5.
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2. Big Thief– 7.7 (out of 10)
Almost sounding like an indie folk version of Allen Ginsberg’s eternal poem ‘Howl,’ “Masterpiece” (music video playing below) by Brooklyn’s Big Thief is a guitar-fuzzed portrait of people searching for serenity. Especially memorable with the soothing vocals of Adrianne Lenker, the poignant song marks Big Thief—which released the quietly strong ‘side-as’ two years ago—as a group not just that conveys, but almost, celebrates pain. Big Thief, currently on tour with Here We Go Magic, plays The Bowery Ballroom on 2/18.
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3. Echoscape– 7.7 (out of 10)
On the May-released ‘Square Two’ EP, Brooklyn “math folk” project Echospace (aka Satoshi Inoue) doesn’t so much play the guitar as conure it into being. On such sweetly fleeting songs as “Rainsong” or “Undulating Place,” one marvels at the deeply deft musician’s ability to convey the deepest of emotions with a single strum. Echospace plays The Shop Brooklyn on 1.29.
Honorable Mentions: Brooms, Ransom Pier, Brother Valiant, Out of System Transfer, Juliet K Seldomo
– Zach Weg