VMP Magazine

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring the deluxe edition of Freelance from Brooklyn-born rapper Ben Reilly. 

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring Amindi’s debut EP, nice. 

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring a compilation from Project Traction, Project Traction Vol. 1.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring Annahstasia’s debut EP, Revival. 

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring Topaz Jones’ breakout sophomore album, Don’t Go Tellin’ Your Momma (which shares a title with its companion piece, Jones’ critically acclaimed short film).

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Playroom, the debut LP from lo-fi alt-R&B artist Nathan Bajar. Playroom is out on vinyl now in the VMP store, and you can read our interview with him below.

Photos by Harshvardhan Shah.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring the self-titled EP from hip-house artist Channel Tres. You can buy our edition here.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring Kilo Kish’s debut album, Reflections in Real Time. 

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Free Form Mixtape, the first full-length release from Minneapolis’ Dizzy Fae. You can buy her album right here, and read below for an interview with Dizzy herself.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring BANBA, the new EP from Chicago rapper Ric Wilson. You can buy our exclusive edition over here.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring the new album gelato from boylife.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Shadow On The Wall, the debut EP album from TATYANA.

Photo by Nwaka Okparaeke

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Watch This Liquid Pour Itself, the second full-length album from Okay Kaya.

We tend to lose our sense of imagination as we get older, a functional decline we mourn among the many sacrifices of growing up. But this loss is, at least in part, due to having less of a need for it over time. We learn language before we've lived its contents, becoming endowed at a young age with a vocabulary to describe experiences we’ve yet to understand, many of which we won’t come to for a long time after. Eventually, we encounter those definitions for ourselves, forming our own relationships with the meanings of words that make their imprint hyper-specific and personal, rather than universal and open-ended.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Arthur Moon, the self-titled debut from Arthur Moon.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Low Grade Buzz, the debut LP from Australian trio Huntly. Low Grade Buzz is out on vinyl now in the VMP store right here, and you can read our interview with the group below.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Nūr, the debut EP from the Sudan-born, Twin Cities-based Dua Saleh.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Love, Nostalgia, the debut LP from Dreamer Boy.

In December 2016, when VMP Rising — our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl — was in its fetal stages, we pressed Moses Sumney’s third EP Lamentations onto gold vinyl and sold it for $17. Just 10 months later, in October 2017, Sumney’s debut full-length record Aromanticism was our Essentials Record of the Month, and that same EP now sells on Discogs for well over triple what we sold it for. In that time, Sumney had blown up as one of the hottest emerging artist of that time.

Through our 24 Rising artists so far — from our first (Madison, Wisconsin, rapper Trapo) to our latest (Swedish singer/songwriter/producer Becky and the Birds) — our Senior A&R and head of our Rising program Alex Berenson always had this in the back of her mind as she scouted for who to feature: “If they came out with a debut album, do I think it would be the type of record we’d wanna go all in on?” Sumney was the first, and probably won’t be the last.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Becky and the Birds, the debut EP from Stockholm singer, songwriter and producer Thea Gustafsson, aka Becky and the Birds. You can buy our exclusive edition over here.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Tacoma Night Terror, the new double EP from L.A. singer-songwriter Jackie Cohen. You can buy our exclusive edition over here.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Bad Bonez, the new album from Michael Seyer. You can buy our exclusive edition over here.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring CDW and Stone Woman, the debut and sophomore releases from the soulful Toronto musician Charlotte Day Wilson.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Heaven's Only Wishful, the debut EP from MorMor, which is out today and available now in the VMP store.

On March 15, at Empire Control Room in Austin, Texas, Vinyl Me, Please will be having our first ever VMP Rising Showcase, a celebration of the who's who of young musicians on the verge of being your new favorite. VMP Rising is our emerging artist program where we collaborate with the best & brightest who are forging their own path in the music industry, and we'll have performances from Ness Nite, TYE, Suzi Wu, the Shacks, Caroline Rose, Gang of Youths, and Knox Fortune.

That's not all! We'll have a limited edition vinyl pressing of a VMP Rising Compilation available to people who come. Quantities are limited, so get there early. Learn more about the showcase over here, and see the comp and the flyer below.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Dream Girl, the debut release from New York-via-Minneapolis rapper Ness Nite.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Day Camp for Dreamers, the debut release from L.A.-based rapper emoniFela.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring we think we alone, the second release from Queens rapper Deem Spencer.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Give It To Me / Strange Darling, a release of two EPs from singer songwriter Miya Folick. Give It To Me / Strange Darling is out on vinyl now in the VMP store, and you can read our interview with Miya below.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Paradise, the debut LP from Chicago singer and producer Knox Fortune. Paradise is out on vinyl now in the VMP store, and you can read our interview with Knox below.

Photo by Adam Alonzo

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today, we’re featuring the new EP There's Always Going to Be Something from Jackie Hayes.

Titling songs is not an exact science. Some artists go for rambling and poetic (think Sufjan Stevens), while others go for droll absurdism (i.e. JPEGMAFIA, Sidney Gish, Fall Out Boy). Experimental figures like Arca often opt for curt, one word titles that belie the complexity that lies within. For All Things Blue, the indie project led by India Coombs, the titles on their new record Get Bit underscore their music’s charming idiosyncrasies and good-natured accessibility.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Lately, the debut EP from Still Woozy.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Teenage Witch, the debut EP from Suzi Wu.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Haze, the debut release from New York’s the Shacks.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Extended Plea, the debut EP by Toulouse. Extended Plea is out on vinyl now in the VMP store, and you can read our interview with Toulouse below.

It doesn’t take long for the conversation to turn to religion when you’re talking with David Le'aupepe about his band Gang of Youths. And in a way, it’s pretty unavoidable. The band, originally based in Sydney, Australia, has it’s roots in the church. It’s not a topic he seems to mind talking about either. In fact, he almost seems invigorated by it. While on the phone walking through the busy streets of New York, the Australian songwriter talks quickly and decisively. He can jump from Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to David Foster Wallace without taking a breath, while fitting in observations of someone wearing a Jawbreaker shirt passing him on the sidewalk. He speaks like a philosopher with the spirit of Sid Vicious.

It’s good that Le'aupepe likes to dialogue on these high-level concepts because there’s a lot to talk about with the band’s latest LP, Go Father in Lightness, out now on Mosy Recordings. God, humanity, politics, and almost every weighty existential topic imaginable comes up in the 16-track, hour and 18 minute long record. Despite Le'aupepe’s punk attitude, listeners won’t find short, crunchy tracks in the vain of the Dead Kennedys on here. Instead, it’s a sweeping record packed with massive piano ballads and enveloping string arrangements. It’s a record that feels as large as the emotions and ideas it’s grappling with. As Le'aupepe himself explains it, it’s a “take it or leave it” opus made because it was what he wanted to do – not necessarily as a means of garnering more praise or success for the band.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming acts to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring T.Y.E., a Dallas-based rapper who makes his debut on Passion of the Weiss Recordings with 32. We talked to T.Y.E. about depression, growing up in a rough neighborhood in Dallas, and trying to see the light through the darkness.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we’re featuring Bernice, the Toronto experimental pop project of Robin Dann. Their EP Puff is in the Vinyl Me, Please store right now, and you can read below for an interview with Robin about their unique recording process, Dann’s musical peers, and her observational writing influences.

When we pegged young Dallas rapper T.Y.E. as an Artist to Watch in 2017, we noted that we were excited to hear his full album, which he was working on. His mix of being a classically trained opera singer, and sounding like a long-lost member of Dungeon Family was unfrozen in Dallas, made him one of the young artists we're most excited about. We're also excited to announce that T.Y.E.'s debut album, titled 32, is due out on June 5 via POW Recordings. But that's not all we have that's T.Y.E.-related: We're also premiering his video for "Unusual," one of the tracks from the album, below.

VMP Rising is our series where we partner with up-and-coming bands and press their EPs/shorter albums on vinyl. This edition covers Australian band Flowertruck, whose Dirt EP is in our store right now.

Sydney three-piece band Middle Kids--one of our bands to watch in 2017--are dropping their first release, a self-titled EP of six tracks that ride together narratively on the back of singer Hannah Joy’s absorbing vocals and the band’s instrumental mastery. On Middle Kids, folk-tinged indie-pop does the softly powerful piano pleas on “Doing it Right” just as well as the adventurous rock-driven wandering of “Edge of Town.” The songs travel from one to another, from hook to hook with autonomous unity that begs you to sit down and listen to it front to back, uninterrupted.

Despite this being the band’s first EP, the members have lush individual histories in music, and the power of joining forces bleeds through each track. We talked to band member Tim Fitz about the forthcoming release, getting signed to Domino, their EP release through Vinyl Me, Please, and what it’s like to play music with the people you love most.

VMP Rising is our series (which now has a name, after our releases with Trapo and Chester Watson) where we partner with up-and-coming artists to press their music to vinyl and to highlight artists we think are going to be the Next Big Thing. Today we're featuring Jack River, the nom-de-rock of Australian Holly Rankin. Her EP, Highway Songs No. 2 is in the Vinyl Me, Please store right now, and you can read below for an interview with her about Australian radio, driving the California coast, and what's next.