School of Seven Bells is getting ready to release their sophomore album, Disconnect from Desire (July 13 street date). Their first album was critically acclaimed. We caught up with main main and former Secret Machine member, Benjamin Curtis to find out some of his favorite obscure bands.

Active Child: An incredibly powerful voice, dark synth textures, and songwriting that most bands could only dream of.  We’re lucky to have discovered Active Child in time to invite him along to play shows with us in the UK this summer, and in the US this fall.  I hate to compare bands, but I will say that I love this for some of the same reasons that I love Tears For Fears and Talk Talk, though Active Child is definitely in it’s own world.

Light Asylum:  Big songs, dark and heavy atmosphere, and powerful vocals are qualities I’ve been missing in new music for a while, and Light Asylum totally hits the spot.  The singer, Shannon Funchess, is a star.

Shigeto: One of the best post-flying lotus beatmakers happening right now, Shigeto brings a certain compositional complexity to the genre that I haven’t heard in very many other places.  Very off-kilter, psychedelic, and melodic all at the same time.

Noveller: Solo guitar dream machine music. I haven’t heard anything recorded yet, but have seen her play live a few times now and it’s really beautiful.  I find I’m always interested in the way the she transitions between sounds and moods, and I hope we here a lot more from her soon.

Walls: One of my favorite new producers out on Kompakt.  It goes from oceans of infinite guitar textures to scratchy, rhythmic grumbles.  Perfect music to fold your clothes to.