Dancing Astronaut Presents 5 Under 5k: Vol. 5

by: Toby Reaper Jun 17, 2016

5 Under 5k is a feature on Dancing Astronaut dedicated to spotlighting talented upcoming and undiscovered artists who we believe deserve more exposure. Each edition of 5 Under 5k will highlight five artists from a wide variety of genres with under 5,000 followers on SoundCloud (at the time of writing).

Starting off this edition of 5 Under 5k is Shadient: a shining example of what this feature is about. Shadient is one of those hidden gems that already has a defined style and the production skills to back it up. Though self-described as a “clumsy 18 year old,” he betrays this label by fitting an inordinate amount of sound into each of his songs while keeping them clean and polished overall.

The track “In Disbelief,” true to its name, has a very high chance of leaving the listener in a state of awe. Skirting around monumental melodies and textures is a dark and heavy bassline, waiting to pounce. His newest track, “Escape” follows this track up in quality, but focuses more on the atmospheres and creating a harmonic “wall of sound” not unlike some of the tracks on Porter Robinson‘s Worlds. The two older tracks he has his SoundCloud are worth a listen as well.

Outermost Reaches, though with a different tone and groove to his music, is another diamond in the depths of SoundCloud. With a tasteful mixture of future, melodic dubstep, and even a little bit of indie thrown in there, Outermost Reaches at times sounds something like Virtual Riot, and would be right at home on a label like Monstercat.

Some of his productions would be amazing as soundtracks to video games like Sonic or Zelda, while others take a much heavier quality. His track “Trinket” is somewhere in the middle, with carefree melodies that could easily be the backdrop to Mario Party right alongside well-balanced basses and jazzy chords.

Taking a step back from loud productions and continuing the jazzy vibes from the last track, though on a much softer note, Lovelights has developed what may be the best style of lounge music possible. His subtle, futuristic production blends in elegantly with smooth jazz piano and synth layers to lead the listener into a sophisticated retro-future world.

Lovelights’ classy sound truly belies his age, which, if his SoundCloud is to be believed, is only 16 years old. His one and only release, “Something You’ll Find,” can be described as something akin to jazz-hop or future jazz, and is sure to be impetus of many more people finding him in the near future.

Next up is Maya Vik, who provides the perfect way to bring the energy back up without losing the funky retro grooves. Her music has enough character to match her fashion sense, which is saying something.

Her latest track “Going Insane” is about as close as one can get to a female version of Chromeo, though with a certain unique twist that’s hard to pin down. It takes a huge amount of creativity to be able to have a personal style that so precisely corresponds to a defined musical sound. Maya does it with ease, delivering one hell of a funky three-and-a-half minutes.

Over the last year or so, Kid Lizard has been releasing some quality tunes that tend to land somewhere between trap, future bass, and glitch-hop, though often range around some other similar realms.

His remix of Kanye West’s “Gold Digger” is a fun departure from the original, and continues to pave the road to a unique sound that consists of, in its most basic form, bass-house wubs hitting at a breakbeat midtempo rhythm. The kick pattern gives it an almost Jersey bounce that keeps the energy high and the bass loud and low.