Whilst the world has been captivated by EDM for the past few years now, Norwegian producer Kygo has set himself aside as essentially being one of the spearheaders of an entirely-new dance-offshoot, ‘tropical house’.
First finding acclaim thanks to his exciting remixes of of Seinabo Sey’s Younger and Syn Cole’s Miami 82 at the turn of 2014, Kygo’s prominence has been fairly-heavily documented since then, and it’s probably to Ed Sheeran that he needs to thank for this rise. The producer’s remixes of Ed’s I See Fire, alongside a perfectly-formed reinterpretation of Sheeran and Passenger’s Thrift Shop / No Diggity ‘mashup’ essentially help catapult Kygo into the big-league, particularly in front of the eyes of Avicii – the latter whom hand-selected Kygo to remix his own Dear Boy. Meanwhile an appearance on Diplo’s Radio 1 Guest Mix in the first-half of the year also caught the attention of Coldplay’s Chris Martin, in turn reaching out to Kygo to remix Midnight, the lead track from Coldplay’s [at the time, forthcoming] album, Ghost Stories.
With a new genre pretty much at his feet, there’s lots to be excited for from Kygo, hence the reason why he’s on our list. Whilst 2014 may have been all about the young 23-year old finding his feet, we’re certain 2015 will lead with Kygo breaking out on his own anticipated material. He’s already unveiled his debut track, Firestone, which enlists emerging Australian artist Conrad on what sounds like a sequel to Porter Robinson’s infectious Sad Machine, and with output of this quality, we can’t wait to hear more panpipes and steel-drums enrich our iTunes over the course of the next year.
