5 Under 15k is a feature on Dancing Astronaut dedicated to spotlighting talented up-and-coming and largely undiscovered artists who we believe deserve more exposure. Each edition highlights five artists from a wide variety of genres with under 15,000 followers on SoundCloud or Spotify (at the time of writing).
Bassically
When the word “live” is attached to dance music in any form it creates a certain sense of illusion. Does it mean there’s going to be some light guitar noodling and vocals over a DJ set? Does it mean an artist who usually DJs is going to flaunt their affinity for intricate hardware? When referring to Bassically, “live” means fully and completely live. Originally conceived by established composer Raz Olsher, Bassically is a collective of musicians that come together to deliver house music in it’s most collaborative form. Currently in quarantine in Thailand, Olsher is now purporting the name himself. He even made a new track every day in April as a part of his Corona Chronicles series, all of which are in the playlist below:
Find Bassically on Instagram and Facebook.
Nox Vahn & Marsh
Usually, in these features, singular artists get their own spot, but Nox Vahn and Marsh came together to produce one of the years best releases so far Anjunadeep, and they both have less than 15,000 followers. Anjuna faithfuls may recognize “Come Together” from the Anjunadeep 11 compilation, and Eastern philosophy aficionados may recognize the voice of the one and only Alan Watts sampled to give the track a sense of enthralling profundity. To cap it off they added “Marsh” a swirling chilled out house track perfect for late-night drives rife with deep thought.
Find Nox Vahn on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
Find Marsh on Instagram and Facebook.
My Cat Snoop
“Quality over quantity” is how the saying goes, and that saying applies resolutely to musical output. However, there are some artists out there who put out a huge quantity of music without sacrificing quality at any point. My Cat Snoop (MCS) is one of those artists. Coming from Brighton, an area of the UK with a long history of dance music reverence, MCS simply doesn’t stop releasing music. Already this year he’s had EP’s on Cr2 Records, Elevate, and Hannah Wants‘ Etiquette, adding to his already impressive catalog that includes TrueSoul, Elrow, Farris Wheel, and the list goes on.
Find My Cat Snoop on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
MindChatter
Mindchatter in an artist who has his entire profile on lock. In addition to finding recent, considerable success with his music releases on Mind Of A Genius—an imprint that’s hosted music from defining crossover artists like ZHU and Gallant—he’s adopted a milky neon visual aesthetic that interlaces succinctly with his sound. At less than 2,000 Soundcloud followers, it’s beyond clear that more of these effervescent images will soon be seen with the Mindchatter name attached both on album artwork and tour visuals.
Find Mindchatter on Instagram and Facebook.
Yulia Niko
Every house and techno artist approaches four-on-the-floor beats in their own way, and Yulia Niko approaches those beats as nothing more than blank canvases. Honing to a style that applies percussion in minimal form, Niko uses that extra space to better fill that canvases strokes and splatters from her sonic brush. She may have been born in Russia, and she may now be based in Berlin, but her music across labels like Crosstown Rebels and Get Physical morphs into the culture of Spain, Detroit, Romania, and various other scenes around the globe.