11 Nov Sam Smith: Get Familiar
You've probably heard of Sam Smith by now. This 21-year-old British singer's name has been on everyone's lips of late: the no-brainer of new music; President-elect for pop superstardom in 2014. You might've heard his star-making turns on Naughty Boy's "La La La" and Disclosure's "Latch" - the former remains one of the biggest selling singles of the last year whilst the latter is perhaps the best 'dance' song of the last ten. He can count Maxwell as one of his biggest fans, after the soul music titan spent the entire summer gushing about the Brit to his millions of fans online, and he's sold out shows in New York and LA; all without an album or even a proper single release to his name.04 Jan The Neighbourhood : Get Familiar
"Don’t tell them anything," whispers The Neighbourhood’s Jesse Rutherford to the languid beat of "Female Robbery." Since forming in August 2011, the Californian quintet [employing the deliberate Anglicised spelling of their name] have spent months driving the blogosphere into a hot mess of wild curiosity, bagged BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe’s Hottest Record In The World title four times and played a string of sell out shows. Yet somehow they’ve managed to keep a tight lid on their rapidly increasing profile.
18 Oct Femi Temowo : Get Familiar
It's probably about time that you're introduced to Femi Temowo. The Nigerian-born guitarist (and producer) is amongst the most talented jazz musicians currently residing in the UK. Fittingly, he's just been nominated for a MOBO in the Best Jazz Act category.
08 Oct Will Brennan : Get Familiar
In the overly populated musical genre of Hip-Hop, making your presence known as an up-and-coming emcee can be a hard task. With artists slotting into existing positions of conscious rap, hipster rap, non-lyrical rap etc, finding your lane can come with disappointing outcomes, and working extra hard to get your music out. For Florida born rapper Will Brennan, he finds not having a defined lane to be almost a blessing in disguise.
23 Jul Marie Dahlstrøm: Soul with a Scandinavian touch | Get Familiar
As an avid listener of R&B and Soul music, I've found that over the last couple of years the sudden swoop of electro-pop has taken over and left the genre to slowly but surely come to an end. On a quest to reignite my hope, I stumbled across London-based Scandinavian R&B, Soul and Jazz singer Marie Dahlstrøm.
01 Apr Emily King : Get Familiar
We all know New York as the land of dreams and talent and we at Soul Culture will like to introduce you to another star. Born in 1985, singer/songwriter Emily King was raised by Jazz duo Kim and Marion. Blossoming under the musical roof was another singer in the making who went on to receive a Grammy nomination and a record deal.
24 Mar Submotion Orchestra : Get Familiar
The path of Submotion Orchestra is definitely the one less traveled. Having formed like voltron in Leeds, UK in early 2009 after some of the band were involved in an Arts Council-related project to perform live dub step at York Minster, the seven-strong band from diverse musical backgrounds have been building themselves a dedicated following ever since.
05 Jan Dot Rotten : Get Familiar
This time last year, Dot Rotten was already a highly accomplished MC and producer with a substantial reputation in the UK's underground music scene. Now, after an outstanding 2010, the South Londoner, signed to major label Mercury Records, heads this year's queue of underground rappers on the cusp of breaking through into the mainstream. Last month, he was one of 15 highly-touted artists on the longlist for the BBC's prestigious Sound of 2012 award - whether he makes the final five (which is being announced this week) or not, Rotten's status as the only UK rapper in contention speaks volumes about how highly he is regarded by tastemakers in the music industry.
06 Dec Angel: Get Familiar
In the space of around 18 months, West Londoner Angel has gone from virtually unknown to UK R&B's prince-in-waiting, signed to a major record label and with a quality debut EP (that featured guest appearances from almost all of the UK's hottest artists) already under his belt. Having signed a publishing deal with Universal alongside his songwriting and production team Parallel Music Group back in 2009, Angel dropped a mixtape called Patience Is A Virtue last year - whilst the mixtape didn't have a substantial impact, it did begin to generate some buzz for the young singer/songwriter.