Hey holidaying people out there,

Our Deli jurors just finished rating all the Electronic artists that submitted to be considered for our Year End Best of NYC Poll for Emerging Artists – and here are the results for you to check out! The top 3 artists in this list will qualify for the next phase of the poll, and will be added to the bands nominated by our jury of local scenemakers.

P.S. If you are interested in understanding how our Year End Poll for Emerging Artists works, please go here.

NYC YEAR END POLL 2011 OPEN SUBMISSIONS RESULTS – ELECTRONIC
Jurors: Jason Behrends (Deli Chicago), Dawn Reed (Deli DC), QD Tran (Deli Philly).

– QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S NEXT ROUND

1. j.viewz

NYC’s j.viewz mesmerized our jury with his mid to downtempo, soulful and absorbing electronic compositions. Compelling songwriting, refined production values and beautiful female voices  work together in making this one of the best Electronic albums coming out of NYC in 2011. Apparently, the CD art isn’t that bad either – it was nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package!!!

2. Tayisha Busay
Williamsburg hypsters’ favorite party band has proven, with their new album "Focus/Virus" that they are much much more than just some kind of weird and hilarious cabaret act. Songs like "Nothing’s Happening" and "Heartmeat/Lovemuscle" (streaming here) are pure electronic pop gems, from a record that’s as consistent as it’s varied.

3. WAZU
Recent transplants from LA, the duo in Wazu crafts an almost scary electro-rock with industrial tinges and a pop soul. Their guitar sound alone commands awe, while the overall apop-calyptic mood of their music brings to mind that masterpiece of the 80s that is The The’s "Infected".

– ALMOST QUALIFIED TO THE POLL’S THE NEXT ROUND
These artists had outstanding ratings from our jurors (they all shared a final score of 7.66 out of 10) but won’t qualify to the next round of our poll because… I guess because we need to put a limit to the total number of nominees. We really wish they were in the final list though because they are really good, so check them out!

4a. Masterface
Atmospheric and textured, Masterface is a patient bunch: the band likes to build their songs slowly, letting their angelic melodies intertwine and feed each other, supported by (and often buried under) layers of gentle electronic sounds. This is an interesting project that bridges genres as antithetical as pop and ambient.

4b. Treasure Teeth
A collaboration spanning from London to Miami to NYC, Treasure Teeth is probably one of the most emotionally intense quirky bands we have ever heard. The fact that the sensitive female lead vocals don’t sound at all disconnected from the constantly evolving, somewhat bizarre electronic arrangements represents some kind of production miracle.

4c. Ghastly City Sleep
Also textured and atmospheric, Ghastly City Sleep conveys to its music an almost religious intensity through sparse arrangements and spacious melodies often drenched in reverb, showcasing also a penchant for intricate rhythms borrowed from Africa.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
These artists also had really good ratings from our jurors (between 7 and 7.5 out of 10): Kodomo, Cultfever, Papertwin, Great Tiger)

Deli readers, indie bands and artists,

This year, our Year End 2011 Polls for emerging artists are proving to be more challenging than ever, with 11 US scenes involved and 1,500+ submissions between our own system and the Sonic Bids applications. We are spending a significant portion of the our Holidays listening to your music (thanks for that by the way!), and we haven’t even had the chance to check out the bands selected by our jury of local promoters, bloggers and scene makers yet…

ANYWAYYYY… the results of the Open Submissions are slowly coming toget and we are slowly going to publish them starting with NYC (check back!). Sonic Bids selections will be coming after that.

Whether you were selected or not, it’s always good to remember that in 1961 The Beatles were rejected by Decca with the following gems: "guitar groups are on the way out" and "The Beatles have no future in show business." Take that as a friendly reminder that there is no final authority on music, despite what pitchfork.com would have you believe.

Year End Poll Next Phase: The Fans’ Poll
The next phase of the Poll – a vote open to the fans – is likely to start in the first week of January and end at the end of that same month. We’ll spread the cities out a little bit to minimize contemporary traffic spikes that repeatedly brought our site down last year. So stay tuned. We should have the final results for our two separate final charts (fans poll and composite chart including the jurors’ vote) by the end of January.

Also, of course all this is possible also because of our sponsors – many of them are providing free studio time and prizes for the winners. Here they are – God Bless ’em!

LIST OF PRIZES FOR POLL WINNERS COMING SOON!

The Deli’s Staff

If you live in or around Austin and during New Year’s Eve celebrations you intend to escape that ubiquitous aural cheese also known as "generic party music," we recommend you spend the last few hours of 2011 at the Deli sponsored, 3 stage indie show at Cheer Up Charlie, featuring 9 indie Austin based artists, including Ringo DeathStarr, TV Torso, and The Sour Notes. In the best indie/DIY tradition, tickets are very affordable (only $5) and quite unbelievably also include free champagne for a proper year end toast.

Check out all the bands playing in the compilation embedded below. And may 2012 be a very indie year indeed!

The Deli’s Staff

VA’s indie rockers Mokey Doris have been putting out their sound since 2010 when the quartet of Kalem Jones, Cody Jones, Michael Pion, and Robert Mays originally formed. With a solid self/titled album released this month (now available), they’ve gone on to gather a super strong fanbase that easily pushed them to the top of our recent poll, voting them as the Band of the Month. So we got a hold of Kalem (singer/songwriter) to find out more about the good vibrations backing Mokey Doris. Here he tells us about Aunt Mokey & Aunt Doris, an upcoming tour, and hopes for the next big wave in the DC scene. Now onto the interview...

Catch Mokey Doris at Axum DC Lounge on Saturday Jan. 28, @9 PM!

Don’t let Ghost Ghost fool you. While yes, they are friendly spirits, they have seen things. Dark things. Perhaps that is still why they walk the earth, playing shows in New York City until they attain whatever it is they are looking for and are at peace. Or maybe they’re just some musicians, a painter, and a video artist (their live show incorporates both video projections and live painting.) Ghost Ghost’s most recent release, "No Clothes on Ragged Island," is a concept album about the life of poet Edna St. Vincent MIllay, recorded in one day, the soothing guitar work and earnestly sweet vocals belie the ominous lyrics. Tragedy and heartbreak lurk around every corner, and, it seems to Ghost Ghost, the best thing to do is keep a shaking smile on their lips as they tread out into the unknown darkness. – Read Allison Levin’s Q&A with the band here.