We profile 10 of the hottest
artists who are climbing the
charts, breaking the Internet
or just dominating our
officestereos...SOUNDS LIKE:Buzzy electronica with killer
hooks and kind eyes
FOR FANS OF: Chet Faker, Bonobo, Aluna-
George
WHY YOU SHOULD PAY ATTENTION:
Brisbane-based Danny Harley, AKA the Kite
String Tangle, makes music in the same
way he listens to it, collecting parts from a
mish-mash of sources while avoiding the
confi nes of hyper-curation. Beginning his
music education with Papa Roach and Limp
Bizkit records, Harley steered quickly into
the pop-punk world, performing Green Day
songs in his high school band. “It feels to me
like you used to have to be a ‘rock guy’ or a
‘rap guy’,” he says, “and that would defi ne
you as a person. Now it’s a lot more open.”
On his self-titled debut album, the Kite String
Tangle’s distinct sound rings, but the record
blends micro-moments from various genres- uplifting beats that ignite the dancefl oor,
hooks that command like an old-school
funk bass and intimate lyrics that shimmer.
Harley himself hears the pop sensibilities and
structural bones of his earliest infl uences.
“I’ve tried to be tastefully restrained and
cohesive in genre, and it just doesn’t work.
I don’t write like that. But that’s how I listen
to music.”
HE SAYS: “I was trying to make something
that was honest and something that I was
happy with. They were my two parameters
going in, but they kept changing. It’s taken
me on a tailspin over the last three years and
I’m still on that journey, but it’s a good one to
be on. Mid-existential crisis – that’s what the
album was written in [laughs].”
HEAR FOR YOURSELF: With its gliding vo-
cals, lyrical heft and structural panache, “The
Prize” is a standout. LUCY SHANAHAN
The Kite
String Tangle
The Future
Is Now
36 | Rolling Stone | RollingStoneAus.com September, 2017