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" Ah, a new year. And here we have some &amp;quot;in with the new&amp;quot; for you, a preview of some great new \u2014 and not-so-new \u2014 musical acts you should have on your radar for 2014, culled from the playlists of our music writers. We know you&amp;#039;re anxious to get on with writing those resolutions, so without further ado. PLUS: Listen to a Spotify playlist right here or scroll down. CASHMERE CAT One of the biggest things to happen to hip-hop and R&amp;amp;amp;B in recent years has been their head-on collision with EDM, which has produced some massive pop hits while also reshaping the forms in a substantial way. And right in the thick of it is Norwegian DJ/producer Magnus August H\u00F8iberg, aka Cashmere Cat, who&amp;#039;s equally comfortable playing to edgy underground scenesters and making beats for the likes of Lil Wayne and Drake. His upcoming Wedding Bells EP combines big-room EDM sounds with compositions of enough complexity to deserve to be called &amp;quot;songs&amp;quot; instead of &amp;quot;tracks.&amp;quot;      NACHO PICASSO The latest phenomenon to emerge out of the frequently overlooked Seattle rap scene is a tatted-up party animal with a morbid sense of humor who infuses his lyrics with the same post-adolescent angst that drove the city&amp;#039;s grunge scene. With his new album High &amp;amp;amp; Mighty he&amp;#039;s poised to become the Pacific Northwest&amp;#039;s answer to Odd Future and the A$AP Mob, and might even make people forgive Seattle for giving us Macklemore.      CHUCK INGLISH As one half of the disbanded duo Cool Kids, MC/producer Chuck Inglish was responsible for bringing back &amp;#039;80s-style electro-rap beats and &amp;#039;90s street-wear looks long before hyped-up retro revivalists like Joey Bada$$ were on the scene. Over the summer he released a new solo EP, Droptops, that positively drips low-key swagger and has hopes for his upcoming album Convertibles at a career high.      EARL SWEATSHIRT A member of LA&amp;#039;s Odd Future hip-hop collective, the 19-year-old lil dude released the sleeper album of the year with Doris \u2014 an album light years beyond his peers. &amp;quot;Chum&amp;quot; is 4 minutes of intensely personal yet insanely catchy headphone rap. So, so good.       JOANNA GRUESOME The favorite new indie band of 2013 had an awesome album with Weird Sister, which they&amp;#039;re touring in 2014. It literally sounds like My Bloody Valentine covering The Vaselines. This is probably what all good indie will sound like in 2014 and what will get guitar-based music back into the spotlight.      BLOOD ORANGE Solange Knowles&amp;#039;s producer released his own album of keyboard-soaked R&amp;amp;amp;B that sounds like Prince if Prince had been raised entirely at nighttime under Miami&amp;#039;s neon lights. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re Not Good Enough&amp;quot; is solid enough to be a massive hit but dude has stayed (largely) under the radar until the release of this album.        Follow The Culture Blog on RSS and on Twitter at @ESQCulture. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/a26587/2014-bands-to-watch/>