Sound Signal is a bi-weekly newsletter produced by Third Bridge Creative for people in the music industry that identifies emerging artists, tracks, as well as new scenes and genres. This week, we’re exploring nostalgia-based R&B, rising indie rock, and euphoric dance. If you enjoy this newsletter, pass it on to a friend. They can sign up here.

TRENDING ARTISTS

Armand Hammer

Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

TBC Score: 73

Underground rap pioneers billy woods and E L U C I D make vivid, heady experimental music as Armand Hammer. The two have released solo projects, as well as five albums together that expertly pull from personal narratives and compelling character writing to critique racism and capitalism. On July 25, the duo used postcards, phone numbers, and fliers to announce the September 29 release date of their new album, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips. In the week following the August 29 release of their lead single, “Woke Up and Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die,” featuring JPEGMAFIA, their Chartmetric artist rank rose from 28.1k to 11.3k. The track has been added to major Spotify playlists like POLLEN and Alternative Hip-Hop. The project will feature artists like Moor Mother, Pink Siifu, Junglepussy, and will be accompanied by a European and North American tour. 

LAYA

Genre: R&B/Soul

TBC Score: 63

Staten Island-born singer-songwriter LAYA’s adventurous R&B style blends vintage sounds with a modern twist, showcasing lush vocals atop melodic atmospheres. In 2022, her career saw a major boost after signing with Warner Records and re-releasing her 2019 EP, Um, Hello, followed by the Missy Elliott-inspired hit, “Sock It 2 Me.” Cruising on last year’s momentum, she released her new EP, Bet That on September 1. Its top-streamed singles, the disco-flavored "F'd Up" and trap-hued "Need 2 Know” have seen spots on several editorial playlists, including Apple Music’s Breaking R&B and Spotify’s R&B Weekly. The fan favorite "Left, Right, GO!" currently tops her most popular songs on Spotify, with 198.8K streams. Thanks to her growing social media buzz, LAYA sits among the top 1.5K R&B/Soul artists by Chartmetric artist rank. 

Äyanna

Genre: Pop

TBC Score: 64

It’s Äyanna’s Perfect World, and we all just live in it. An East London native, the British-Jamaican singer-songwriter established herself behind-the-scenes in 2021 through a publishing deal with Love Renaissance (LVRN). Now a signed artist on the Atlanta record label, also home to R&B stars Summer Walker and 6lack, on September 13, Äyanna released her debut EP, In A Perfect World. The cinematic rollout–with each music video having an episodic theme—fulfills Äyanna’s ‘Cuiii’ aesthetic, the phrase being a portmanteau of “cute and innocent.” Cutesy and diaristic lead single “Girlfriend” has gained the most traction from the 5-song project, increasing by 268.4K Spotify listens (831.9K total streams) since the EP’s release. Äyanna’s Chartmetric artist rank has risen 33.9K positions since August, and her kiss-off anthem “Good Ex” is noteworthy on editorial Spotify playlists R&B Weekly, New Music Friday, and Chilled R&B. 

removeface

Genre: Pop Rap

TBC Score: 75

On removeface’s instagram page, alongside an image of a masked figure, there’s a single cryptic phrase “i am all.” There’s little else known about the artist, but one gets the sense that’s by design. As one of the rising stars of the internet-born microgenre known as sigilkore, removeface makes music full of mysterious melodies, elusive beats, and otherworldly vocalizations. “ON THE FLOOR,” removeface’s biggest hit thus far, is a watery club track that’s taken off on shortform video, soundtracking nearly 30K videos on TikTok since July. With that viral boost, removeface has also landed on some high profile editorial playlists, including the official sigilkore playlist and UwU, which is dedicated to similar strains of internet rap. With over 565K monthly listeners on Spotify, it’s clear that people will know removeface’s name, even if their face stays hidden. 

TRENDING TRACKS

Drawing on sugar-rushing rave pop and the heartfelt emotionality of emo, SUICIDAL-IDOL’s “ecstasy” was a genre-blurring dance track aimed straight at the saddest corners of the dancefloor when it was originally released in 2022. But the version that’s taken off on TikTok this summer (to the tune of 140K creates) is a little different. It’s a slowed version that totally transforms the song into something more delirious and strange. It’s easy to imagine with the pummeling, slow motion beats that its connecting with creators who are used to similar sounds from TikTok-popular genres like phonk and synthwave. Consequently, it’s landed on several editorial playlists like big on the internet and Viral Hits Deutschland. Its success is a testament to the power of these sorts of remixes; it can change an older song's potential audience and impact. 

British artist Kenya Grace released her major label debut, “Strangers,” on September 1, and is already projected to hit No. 3 on the official UK Singles Chart after debuting at No. 20. The track, which pairs drum’n’bass with dreamy, yearning-tinged vocals reminiscent of 2010s indie-rock artists like Stars, went viral on Instagram Reels as well as TikTok, where it has been used in 401.3K posts. Grace experienced more minor bouts of virality with previous songs (like last September's "Oranges" which was used in 10.9K posts), but her latest effort is evidence she knows how to work her social media presence. After she posted a snippet of “Strangers” on July 13, she made videos of herself working on the song twice more, released slowed-down and sped-up versions of the track, dropped a snippet on SoundCloud, continuing to promote the single long after its release. 

With their latest TikTok hit, “Sleepwalker,” three relatively unknown musicians, Akiaura, LONOWN, and STM, made their mark on the goth internet when the track debuted at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in the first week of September. Influenced by the gloomy sounds of Crystal Castle and darkwave, producers Akiaura and LONOWN first released “Sleepwalker,” featuring ethereal vocals from 20-year-old electronic artist STM, on their June 30-released EP Ketamine Girl. The song instantaneously started circulating, amassing 12K TikTok videos and 14M Spotify streams since June, along with a “slowed” remix released July 14 that has garnered 6.3M Spotify streams. With some TikTok curators categorizing the song as phonk, originally a subset of Southern trap now popular on TikTok as a form of EDM, “Sleepwalker” shows how amorphous the label has become. 

Gifted with a soaring, resonant voice that's a cross between Adele and Amy Winehouse, 17-year-old Australian singer-songwriter JACOTÉNE’s buzz is rising, thanks to her second single, “you already know [demo_2021].wav.” True to dusting off pre-fame demos in the wake of her triple j Unearthed High win, the Epic Records UK signee revealed in an Instagram post that she penned the tearjerking power ballad at 15 years old. Her captivating delivery of the song’s wistful lyrics is striking a chord, attracting 124.4K views on TikTok with posts of her singing it in various settings. Since its August 9 release and viral buzz, the song has had 264.4K Spotify spins and landed on its editorial playlists, Next Gen Singer-Songwriters, and R&B Weekly. These gains in the song’s growing appeal prove that JACOTÉNE is destined for stardom. 

TREND OF THE WEEK

By Michelle Hyun Kim

What if you produced a girl group by casting internationally but trained, developed, and marketed the young artists through the K-pop system? That’s the question that HYBE (the South Korean media conglomerate home to BTS and NewJeans) and Universal Music Group label Geffen are exploring with their joint venture Dream Academy.

On September 1, two years after first announcing auditions for the project, the two labels unveiled 20 finalists from around the globe aged 14 to 21. Through the web series The Debut: Dream Academy, they will be evaluated by a global audience, who live vote for the members that make the final group, as well as an expert panel: a VP of A&R/Marketing at Interscope, an executive creative director from HYBExGeffen, and HxG’s president. Fans have already bought in. The trainees’ first mission videos, which show them covering both American and Korean pop songs, have amassed a combined 3M YouTube views in the first five days. 

Though K-pop agencies like JYP are already attempting to create US crossover acts through the K-pop approach—which usually means rigorous training, high beauty standards, and highly conceptual, glossy visuals—what sets HYBE’s Dream Academy apart is its emphasis on making a “global girl group.” While the US-based Geffen provides infrastructure for the group to be marketed in America, its contestants hail from all over the world—mainly from South Korea and the US, Slovakia, the Philippines, and Belarus. Its brand revolves around the fantasy of multinational harmony, established in its brand trailer (1.7M views) that debuted August 28, which sees the contestants speaking to each other in their native languages and dancing to funk carioca in one scene, while doing Bollywood moves in another. 

The concept is a natural outgrowth of the increasing globalization of K-pop, where labels pick members from different countries to bolster the group’s popularity in multiple international markets—a strategy that first found success in the mid-2000s with groups like Super Junior. With the proliferation of K-pop, South Korean companies have the resources from Western labels to cast a wider net and produce a group directly for an English-speaking audience. With followers clamoring to root for the contestants representing their home country and praising Dream Academy for its “diversity,” its success could mark a turning point for South Korea’s presence in the international pop market.