XL Recordings artists at SXSW: Jungle, RATKING, Empress Of
We have some great new acts heading to SXSW this year. Jungle, RATKING and Empress Of will be down in Austin to play music from their upcoming albums. Schedules below…
JUNGLE
With an intriguing online debut last year through a set of clever music videos for singles “Platoon” (starring B-Girl Terra) and “The Heat” (starring High Rollarz), it was soon reveled that the group’s main figures were a duo of West London artists known as J and T.
4 Million views later of the “Platoon” music video plus mentions on the BBC Sound of 2014 Longlist and Spotify’s 2014 Spotlight list, the duo, joined by five close friends, set out to play their first set of live shows in London.
Hailed by The Fly as “impressively slick, they pack their skillfully crafted tracks with complex layers of old-skool hip hop beats, hypnotising grooves, all dressed with rich, soulful vocals and presented with striking unity,” you will not want to miss Jungle at SXSW 2014.
Watch Busy Earnin’
RATKING
Don’t ask Ratking for ID. If the accent and the attitude don’t give it away, the shout outs to Canal Street and Lenox, the shitting on NYU kids infecting Washington Square Park, and the references to Puerto Rican judo will. This is the rotten manzana in 2014, under fire from all angles, but still able to spawn something as grimy as So It Goes, the debut LP on XL imprint Hot Charity out April 8, from arsonists Wiki and Hak, and producer, Sporting Life.
It’s this mentality that earned the group raves out the gate. Shortly after the release of their 2012 Wiki93 EP, the New York Times hailed them as “clever, sardonic and intense…a product of the city – not just the physical streets, but also a frame of mind and a set of experiences.” The Fader raved that Wiki’s flow is as “nasty as his broken tooth.” Complex said that So It Goes’ first single, “Canal” is “the perfect blend of old- school sensibility with modern energy.”
Watch Canal
EMPRESS OF
Empress Of is the solo project of 23 year old artist Lorely Rodriguez, who released her hauntingly beautiful Systems EP last spring on Terrible Records. Empress Of is currently writing and recording her full-length debut, which will be out later this year on Terrible Records/XL Recordings.
You will not want to miss what the New York Times raves, of her recent CMJ performance: “Empress Of (Lorely Rodriguez) was busy making music as well as singing, triggering samples and arpeggios from her keyboards. She also, without fanfare, defied the four-on-the-floor tyranny of dance music, shifting into odd meters while dancing up a storm. She was a pop songwriter freeing herself from burdens of the past, offering one idea of what the future might sound like.”
XL Recordings HxC Recordings Terrible Records