8 Women Who Are About To Pop: Alt-R&B Edition

Carl Williott | October 10, 2013 10:12 am

5. Maxine Ashley

MAXINE ASHLEY

This Bronx-born singer brings a refreshingly off-kilter sensibility to her music, making it stand out in the already off-kilter universe of Internet R&B darlings. Ashley’s classic-sounding voice recalls a restrained Beyonce, but she pairs her instrument with decidedly non-classic elements, folding in everything from psychedelia to dubstep.

Her debut EP/mixtape, the aptly named Mood Swings, features a Pharrell joint (“Perpetual Nights”), a Portishead cover (“Glory Box”) and a song that sounds like and/or samples vocoder-wielding weirdos Black Moth Super Rainbow (“Mary (Prelude)”). But the key is that Maxine somehow gets these wide-ranging elements to coalesce into a whole.

Check out Mood Swings below or grab a free download of the release.