lesser known yet streamable artists

The Velvelettes were a 60's femal vocal group founded in 1961 by sisters Carolyn and Millie Gill with cousins Bertha Barbee-McNeal and Norma Barbee (both from Flint, Michigan) on the Western Michigan University campus, where they were students. The group signed to Motown Records, but weren't given top priority, as other female vocal groups were attracting audiences and recording hits. While the group awaited their chance at stardom, they recorded backing vocals for more established Motown girl groups, including The Marvelettes, Martha & The Vandellas, and The Supremes.

Menswe@r were a short-lived Britpop band in the mid 1990s from Camden in London. They signed their record deal after their fifth gig, appearing on the cover of Melody Maker (in an article about Camden club night Blow Up) before they had recorded a note. They were featured in a Select article about the mod revival when the project was still purely in the imaginations of Chris Gentry and Johnny Dean. Their dress sense was Mod (tight fitting suits etc) whilst their music was influenced by both Blur's second album Modern Life Is Rubbish and Elastica.

Read more about Menswear on Last.fm.

Northcape is the ongoing work of a British artist, and can broadly be described as downtempo melodic electronica. Northcape self-released his first CD in 2005, following this with a second independent release ('Detach') in 2007 and an EP ('Some Bright Valley') on the monotonik netlabel. Northcape's latest album is Captured From Static, released by Sun Sea Sky Productions on April 6th 2010. The aim is to express ideas and evoke environments, landscapes and memory rather than to focus on the technology and techniques used.