Four Brooklyn acts to check out this fall

By Colin Kirkland

To say Brooklyn isn’t lacking in the “emerging music” department would be an understatement. Trying to keep up with every interesting creative project spanning the borough would mean losing your mind (and, for that matter, your hearing).

So, these new tunes are just a taste — some flavors to savor as winter looms. We promise your interest will be piqued, your concept of genre muddled, your sonic palate expanded (that is, unless you do know every emerging artist in Brooklyn).

Whether you’re on a train, a bus, a ferry, or you’re just strutting your shit down Broadway, turn up the volume and lean into autumn’s first unexpected chill.

RAMS MONTERO

Genre: Lo-fi rock
Sounds like: Drugdealer, Chicano Batman, Orville Peck

When he isn’t spinning obscure records in dimly lit bars across the borough, Rams Montero is honing his skills on original recordings — writing and playing a variety of instruments on a debut four-track EP produced by Max Shrager of local hypno-rockers The Shacks.

After cutting his teeth in Big Jon and the Mattress Factory— “Boston’s #1 mattress-oriented rock band” — Montero now dwells in the laid-back neighborhood of Red Hook, where he’s rediscovering his sonic self as a first-time solo artist.

Channeling AM gold sounds from the 1970s — you know, “yacht rock” — Montero’s first two tracks, “Push Me Away” and “Don’t Turn Me Around,” deal with complex themes like police violence, immigration and heartbreak, yet provide a hopeful space for contemplation. The songs burrow their way into your brain via bright nostalgic guitar riffs perfect for drifting through the glare of an autumn sunset behind the wheel of a 1970 Dodge Challenger — shades on, a cold one in hand.

But this soft-rock psychedelia leaves room for genre play, such as on “Time and Time Again,” which fuses a horse-trot beat and an expansive pedal steel for a moody dose of vintage country often exemplified in modern music by the likes of Orville Peck or Dougie Poole.

“All You Ever Wanted,” a tender, crunchy Strokes-adjacent romp made up entirely of two chords, closes out the release, perhaps speaking to Montero’s longtime dream of putting out something all his own: It’s all you ever wanted / It’s all you ever needed.

PANIK FLOWER

Genre: Dreamgaze
Sounds like: Chastity Belt, Best Coast, La Luz

If you happen upon a Panik Flower show, expect to see lead singer Sage Leopold’s grandmother Phyllis in the front row, nodding her head to the distorted, high-velocity dreamscape playing out before the crowd.

“It’s different than anything I’ve ever heard,” she admits. “But it’s great!”

And the octogenarian isn’t wrong. Trying to boil down this new female-fronted five piece means first contemplating Leopold’s voice, powerful in its ability to go low, then break into a calm, breathy rush reminiscent of The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan — dark and vulnerable all at once.

Then there’s the band as a whole — a wall of surfy and washed-out guitar, driving bass lines and dynamic drums that squanders and builds momentum in tight, catchy turns, steering the audience from a place of silent awe to a mass communal headbang.

Panik Flower’s most recent single and music video, “Dark Blue,” is a family affair, the first track written by the band as a whole. The song explores what it feels like to imagine losing the person you love most, long before they’re gone — an anxiety that is perhaps inseparable from the band’s name, which refers to a flower that suddenly dies mid-bloom.

After countless hours in the studio hashing out specific parts on “Dark Blue” and trying to further define their sound, the members of Panik Flower realized what the song was missing: a collective guttural scream.

JOHN ROSEBORO

Genre: Singer-songwriter / Post-bossa nova
Sounds like: Seu Jorge, Joao Gilberto, Mei Semones

It wouldn’t be a leap to say John Roseboro’s music has an inherent healing quality.

Maybe it’s his velvety vocals. His soft, mesmerizing finger-picking. His ability to address the deepest throws of grief through earnest lyricism brimming with childlike wonder and a cheeky sense of humor (for starters, check out “I Took The L” and “Topo Chico”).

Whatever’s in the special sauce, Roseboro brings crisp confessionals and daily observations to folksy bossa nova rhythms, reinventing the genre while providing enough comfort and space for listeners to look inward and sit with the same existential questions Roseboro asks himself.

These questions live front and center on the Haitian American artist’s newest project, “Four Cantos,” a four-track EP made up of songs titled “How To Pray,” “How To Love Right,” “How To Go To Heaven” and “How To Cope.”

The release features fellow Brooklyn artists Mei Semones and Ron Gallo, as well as U.K.-based chiller Brad Stank, and is accompanied by an interactive book of prose of the same name.

Roseboro says “Four Cantos” is more orchestral and intimate than his previous work; it may even “live in a different way when listening alone.”

MAASSAI

Genre: Experimental hip-hop
Sounds like: Mavi, Nappy Nina, Noname

For Maassai, pushing boundaries is kind of her thing.

Journeying through a treasure trove of complex, genre-defying beats, the Brooklyn MC embraces jazz and daring experimentation while creating what she calls a “hood avant-garde” sound composed of sharp, philosophical lyrics and unpredictable shifts.

“I’m not a monolithic artist or person,” she says, citing a broad range of creative tastes — R&B, soul, street rap, punk, house, etc. “There’s no particular scene I feel like I belong to.”

Maassai’s newest solo release, which is set to drop mid-winter, signifies the end of a five-year creative era in her work that she calls the C0N$TRUCT!0N series. The new LP, composed of New York-based scenes, is focused on “connecting with the heart of the matter — of self, of systematic oppression, of friendships and social settings, and existence in general.”

In addition to the solo work, Maassai is dropping a new record with producer and collaborator JWords under H31R (pronounced “heir”) in a collective effort that builds off the duo’s 2021 “Ve·Loc·i·Ty” album.

Together, both artists blend nuanced, confrontational hip-hop with heavy drum patterns and smoke-fueled synth landscapes that hold the improvisational aura of jazz while remaining clever with a purposeful weight.

Maassai says being part of H31R allows her to tap into a different side of her creative self that can be latent in her solo projects. Overall, the duo is thrilled with their ongoing communal exploration and their ability to challenge an industry that is predominantly cis male.

“Our synergy has evolved,” says Maassai. “Will be dropping more things to come, and getting weirder and more expansive!”

This article originally appeared in the fall/winter 2023 issue of Brooklyn Magazine. Want it delivered to your door for a nominal fee (plus a free hat)? Click here to subscribe.