Name: Empress Of
Based: New York
Listen: Soundcloud.com/empressof
Similar to: St. Vincent

At first Lorely Rodriguez aka. Empress Of’s debut single proper ‘Champagne’’s overlapping textures sound not too dissimilar to an exasperating YouTube advertisement playing in unison, discordantly above an original track. It’s disorientating, almost intentionally so. But after a couple of listens the swooning instrumental layers that are piled atop of Rodriguez’s vocals lend an artistic ambience to the track, with a real sense of depth and Metronomy-style smoothness.The song is accompanied by her debut music video, directed by Samuel Morris Hamad, providing a tri-split screen that witnesses the singer feasting upon a juicy watermelon for the majority. Lorely’s first online offering – ‘Don’t Tell Me’ – is similarly impressive; a gripping, dreamlike ballad, encompassing a vastly minimal soundscape. From the scarce amount of available information we’ve gathered from her bizarre, Craigslist-inspired website and a selection of video teasers (all spanning just over a minute long, titled ‘Colorminutes’), Rodriguez is gradually revealing more about her identity and in turn, her potential. In ‘Champagne’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me’, Empress Of’s already proven to be an act to keep at least one eye on for 2013.