It's that time of year: the largest summer music festival in Northern Europe, held since 1971 on the outskirts of Roskilde west of Copenhagen, kicks off June 29 and wraps up July 6. Some of the big names performing on the larger stages include The Rolling Stones, OutKast, Drake, Stevie Wonder, Trentemøller, Deftones, Interpol, and Lykke Li.
After looking through the full line up however, I opted to blog about four lesser known bands/artists: two U.S. acts and two European acts that all caught my attention by way of sublime music and videos.
Classixx's delicious, thumping, back-to-the-future track "Holding On" makes Daft Punk sound like Sigor Ros. The busy production/DJ team released their debut album 'Hanging Gardens' in 2013. The simple, yet highly effective clip was shot in and around the duo's home base of Los Angeles.
On "Down on My Luck" 21-year-old Chicago artist Vic Mensa mixes hip hop with club and jazz sounds and comes up with an utterly intoxicating musical cocktail. The brand new single is taken from his debut EP 'Street Lights" which will drop later this year. The outstanding video cleverly explores alternate scenarios during a night out on the town; it was directed by Benjamin Dickinson of Brooklyn creative production company Ghost Robot.
The stellar track "19" by Danish trio Mont Oliver is taken from their 2013 EP of the same title. The excellent video was directed and edited by Mathias Nyholm and was shot in and around Copenhagen, including the co-ed dormitory Kollegiegården.
Moderat has been around since 2002, yet last year's release, aptly named 'Moderat II', is indeed only the Berlin collaborative's second full-length album. The hypnotic clip accompanying the equally trance inducing track '"Bad Kingdom" features impressive hand drawn artwork and was produced by fellow Berlin creatives Phadfinderei.
https://www.facebook.com/CLASSIXXOfficial
https://www.facebook.com/VicMensa1
https://www.facebook.com/montoliver
https://www.facebook.com/moderat.band
