Artist You Should Know: Ladi6

(Today’s guest blogger, Frank Aceves, is the Underwriting Traffic Manager at KCRW. But, like most of us here, he is a HUGE music fan. In fact, he’ll be spinning the platters that matter tonight at a Valentine’s Party hosted by Lea Thau, who is behind The Strangers podcast.)

There’s something going on in the music scene down in New Zealand!

From Fat Freddy’s Drop, Lord Echo, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Lorde and now to Ladi6, there is a great deal of quality music coming from NZ worth checking out.

I could even say that they are seriously challenging my long held notion that the UK is the hub for great music right now.

Ladi6 recently released their third studio album, “Automatic“, featuring production from Bling47’s Wajeed.The bounce heavy drum swing in many of these tracks is unmistakably his, and Karoline “Ladi” Tamati’s smokey vocals, similar to Andreya Triana and Lianne La Havas, make this record a complete package.With a late 2013 release, I’m sure this will start making it’s way on to DJ’s playlists.Tracks like “Ikarus” are perfect for that opening DJ set, and “Diamonds” can easily be utilized as a surprise dancefloor warmup song.Special thanks to Derrick Ahsam for introducing them to me. We are so happy to share the music with you all, as well as a free download of their track “Automatic“.

Stream Below.

Stream the full album here.Ladi6 will be performing live at The Mint in Los Angeles on Friday, March 7th, as part of their US tour. Pre-sale tickets are available now at their website.