Antenna: Nine Artists You Need To Hear

Google Play is not only the place for you to connect with the music that you love, but it's also a venue for discovering great new bands. As part of our Antenna program, our staff of music experts picks out the up-and-coming groups that we believe will have an impact on music for years to come. This month we survey 9 acts impacting rock, folk, indie, electronic and hip-hop with their novel new albums.

First, we start with a question: Has indie folk reached international critical mass yet? It certainly makes the strongest showing here, with well-mannered Denver trio The Lumineers, foot-stomping Seattle harmonizers The Head and the Heart, and prodigious Swedish sister duo First Aid Kit. California band The White Buffalo share some acoustic folk DNA but take things into more rambling and rollicking alt-country territory.

Indie rockers Japandroids and Said the Whale both proudly hail from Vancouver, B.C., and they hint at the strength and breadth of that city's scene: drums-and-guitar duo Japandroids with the anthemic Springsteen-gone-punk sing-alongs of their aptly named Celebration Rock; Said the Whale with more delicate chamber pop and acoustic rock.

Japandroids might get loud, but they've got nothing on NYC band A Place To Bury Strangers, whose industrial-edged guitar assaults and walls of distortion once famously earned them the tag "the loudest band in New York."

On the electronic front, there's the sleek, minimalist electro-house of Danish producer and one-time Bon Iver remixer Tomas Barford (a.k.a. Tomboy, also of dance rock jokers WhoMadeWho). And on the outer limits of hip-hop, there's SpaceGhostPurrp, whose murky, syrupy-slow flow got him signed to the unlikely home of dream pop label 4AD. So kick back with free tracks from each of these surprising new acts. Check back monthly and discover a new favorite. – Eric Grandy, Google Play

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