We’re already halfway through Indie Music Month! What better way to celebrate creativity at it’s fullest than by discovering and supporting quality music from independent artists and record labels.
We’ve put together an Indie Music Month Spotify playlist dedicated to some of the best indie music from the Symphonic community.
We wanted to highlight some of our favorites from the playlist, featuring up-and-coming indie artists and artists that stay killing the indie music game.
The Lagoons
Multi-instrumentalist brothers Joey and Ryan Selan grew up playing and writing music together in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Joey was drawn to Austin while attending The University of Texas at Austin and Ryan soon followed suit to pursuit music.
Fast forward to 2015 where The Lagoons were born. Their unique blend of synth-pop, jazz, indie-rock, soul and electronica was first heard on their Summer 2016 single California and followed up by their Spring 2017 Gems EP.
California has since been featured twice as the #1 Most Popular Track on Hype Machine, in a Golf Digest/BMW ad series starring supermodel Kate Upton and baseball star Justin Verlander, and on the Netflix series “Easy”. The duo just released their follow-up Escape EP.
Calma Carmona
The product of a nomadic existence, Calma Carmona’s musical background is as varied as the different cities where she lived and grew up. After seeing the world, she absorbed the aspects that appealed to her sensibilities and took the road that led her to the stage of Café Seda in Old San Juan in 2007. With the musical maturity she has gained in the last fe years, Calma Carmona now aims to break with traditional patterns and create songs in her own way. As she said, “What I have always done well is express myself, that’s what fulfills me. I don’t want to do what everyone says I need to do.”
With her music denominated as Latin Soul, Calma Carmona has a display of influences ranging from Sade, Theolonious Monk and Santana, Ismael Rivera, Al Green, even PJ Harvey, La Lupe and Tina Turner. Her sound is painted with subtlety and passion, seeking to attract listeners with every verse and chorus. In all the cities she has walked on, Calma has had the opportunity to digest local and musical vibrations. As a gyspy moving from place to place, the artist she is today is now looking to share everything with her audience. It is with this desire in mind that Calma climbs on stage each night, seeking to turn spectators into believers with magic and intensity of her Latin Soul. “I give myself on stage. It is where I want to be,” said the artist.
CloZee / Gravitas Recordings
In a feedback loop of adventure, music, and love, CloZee and her fans are ready to let the force of the sound carry everyone to places they have never been before. Being based simultaneously in Toulouse, France and on stages across the world makes this electronic musician stand out. With inspirations far afield from music – a painting, the weather, a dream – in her craft, Chloé Herry’s derivations are difficult to trace. Under the broad structure of electronic and bass music, and informed by sound the world over, CloZee finds her best fit in World Bass’ corner.
CloZee has performed on many continents: from Coachella to India, on four US Tours, and everywhere around her native France. She is a standout on the roster of her labels, Gravitas Recording & Otodayo Records. Followers in many languages drive streams counted in millions. But art’s ability to transport other is this talented producer’s special magic – manifest whenever someone presses play.
In the way the clean curve of a Japanese roof is understated and exotic, CloZee pulls her power from a bold simplicity. Her classical guitar roots allow her an informed, melodic space tat draws influence from flamenco to edIT of The Glitch Mob. This melting pot of instrumentation and cinematic flair puts listeners in a mood to move, with international crowds now cultivating the evolution of her genre. Chloé says she rarely lays down only electronic sounds. Her favorite sources are organic and real.
Lorn / Wednesday Sound
Lorn (real name Marcos Ortega) is an electronic producer, composer, and DJ from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Exposed to music at an early age, Ortega decided to pursue music as a career path after having been seduced by the dark, hypnotic, and schizophrenic sounds of the Apex Twin classic “Come to Daddy”. Making his first appearance on the scene with his remix of grime MC Jammer’s track “Better Than,” he eventually became disinterested in working with eight- and 16-bar loops for scratch beat remixes, and his compositions gradually became longer and progressively layered.
Hector Couto / Roush
Over the last decade, Spanish born Hector Couto has established himself as a driving force on the international Tech House scene. His unique take on the genre fuses the jack of Chicago with the atmosphere of old school techno and his own roots, resulting in fresh, compelling productions that always get floors moving and, importantly, feeling. He is prolific, too, with a steady and standout stream of EPs coming on labels such as Saved, Hot Creations, 20/20 Vision, Moon Harbor and Viva Music. Because of this, he is often featured in Resident Advisor’s Top 100 Most Charted artists, and has been nominated multiple key industry awards in his time.
When Doing, he is just as diverse and he never repeats the same trick twice. It means he is able to skillfully mix up a wide array of sounds that are perfectly suited to whatever club or festival he plays, whether that’s Pacha Barcelona or Amnesia Ibiza (Music On / Together), We Are Festival in London or Halycon in San Francisco. On top of all this, he also heads up his own Roush Label, which mixes up established artists including DJ W!LC and Steve Lawler with upcoming talents, and has helped make Hector Couto a respected vote in the global house conversation.
A regular at the best clubs in Europe, Hector’s skills have also taken him around North and South America, Australia and New Zealand. Despite a busy DJ diary, he still finds time to turn out underground hits.
Stream the full playlist below //
Photo by Austin Neill
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