With the year winding down, we at The Most Radicalist wanted to take this opportunity to look back on the wonderful year of music we’ve just had with a ‘Best Of’ list. We asked our writers to pick out their top emerging artists of the last 12 months and needless to say we were presented with both an exceptional and deliciously eclectic group of artists.

We’ll be unveiling this list over the course of the next few days so stay tuned!

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JERKCURB



South London’s Jerkcurb, aka Jacob Reed is a multi-talented artist - from his unique song writing, to his mind-bending illustrations, screen-prints and animations that evoke a childish sense of wander. His creative and aesthetic persona embodies a kind 1970’s crooner with magic powers – with his large lapels, romantic lyrics, deep voice and trippy cinematics, as seen in the video for his phenomenal album title track 'Aircon Eden', which was made with help of director Max Jedwab. Jacob has stayed true to his vision, throughout the many years of making music in various projects such as DIK OOZ with Archie Marshall (King Krule) and Jack Marshall (who remains as the Jerkcurb bassist), to more current projects like the theatrical Horsey. This September, he released his debut album, which we couldn’t wait to get our hands on, after clinging tightly to the steady drip of enticing singles that preceded it since his first release Night on Earth from 2016. Exceeding our already high expectations, the songs on Aircon Eden are full of unusual jazz melodies and unconventional time signatures that blend a multitude of genres, and are complimented by the blissful backing vocals by Woom members Ella and Lara who add a wholesome undertone. If that wasn't enough, Jerkcurb is as exciting to see live as it is on record, which is a true testimony of a great artist. Having played with the likes of Goat Girl, Tony Njoku, Puma Blue, and most recently, Joviale, we're counting ourselves lucky that Jerkcurb still plays venues that are the perfect size for feeling the intimacy of the music. His last London outing was a sold out show at Chats Palace in Homerton and his next is in his home area of Peckham at Bussey Building on 12^th March 2020 – maybe it’s the perfect Christmas present? - Ellie Rose-Davies

deep tan



Emerging for the first time with the soft release of their debut single 'air' back in January, London-based trio deep tan have continued to make waves with their majestic melancholy dream-pop, stunning otherworldly visuals and frankly killer fashion sense. Pricking not only our ears, but those of former NME Editor Matt Wilkinson, who rinsed their track on his Beats 1 show, as well as welcoming praise from fellow audiophiles The Quietus, So Young and The Line of Best Fit, deep tan teamed up with Practise Music (the team behind early works from Squid, Woman's Hour Osquello and more) to bring us another intoxicating release in double A-side 'Shimmer'/'Constant Inconsistencies' just a few weeks ago. Having spent 2019 cutting their teeth on a series of well-selected line ups across the capital, which has seen the trio sharing the stage with fellow TMR faves PREGOBLIN, Phobophobes, and more recently Crumb, deep tan are on a well-deserved upwards trajectory and show no signs of slowing down. - Holly Mullineaux 



 Jy



Right at the start of this year, we premiered Jy's blissful piece of romantic electronica ‘Glide’ and our love for the Los Angeles songwriter, singer and producer hasn’t let up. From there, Jy’s fluctuation from head-over-heels love as heard in ‘Glide’ to renewed independence in follow-up ‘Blossom’ and back again was the theme that carried his sonic evolution throughout 2019. A stand out moment for the producer was undoubtedly his ‘Paradise’ video, which was directed by Frank Felipe and starring Jy alongside amour Jennifer Yi. Not only did this video return to one of our favourite tracks from 2018, but it also transports the viewer to the world that Jy so masterfully creates through his genre-blending productions. His work is consistently defined by subtle pop melodies, extroverted beatwork, romantic synth progressions and those ever-soothing vocals. With repeated appearances here at TMR, it was only right that we connected with Jy for an interview, in which we dug into his musical background, the music scene in L.A., and what we’ll be hearing next from one of our Top 20. With that, Jy promised, “I’m always trying to push myself to create something that I feel is better than what came before.” - Hannah Thacker



FEET



The quirky, fun-loving stylings of FEET have been building a dedicated following over the recent years, but their debut album What’s Inside Is More Than Just Ham provided their audience with a collection of tunes that were every bit as funny as they were expertly crafted. Tunes like ‘Dog Walking’ and ‘Outer Rim’ are firmly centred on the noisy indie pop that has truly taken a hold recently, with FEET bringing out an interesting, left-field music video to accompany each single. We had a chat with them about what goes into making their music earlier this year, and we’re looking forward to seeing what comes next for the Coventry based five piece. - Dan Peeke