“Contact,” the latest from San Francisco-based alt hip hop artist Morsifire, is a painful song about loss and coping. Raised with a mother suffering from addiction and in a household full of trauma, the artist wrote “Contact” as an emotional reaction to the loss of his sister. He says, "This song is about the immediate aftermath of my sister’s death and everything that came with it. By the end of the song I’m actually addressing her, wherever she is. It’s a raw song, an open wound..."

The track features indie pop singer Emily Afton, who helps infuse and soften the song with her spellbinding voice. "Contact" reminds us of that Eminem track with Dido, and accomplishes a similar feat: a wounded rapper’s anger and pain softened by powerful female vocals. Stay tuned for Morsifire’s live shows in San Francisco and beyond.

-Michelle Kicherer, Associate Editor

Deli Readers,

Our Best of SF Bay Area Poll for Emerging Artists has been - as usual - a lengthy and painstaking journey which took us through prairies of numbers, horizons filled with band names, and a dense, (mostly) joyous rain of music. We have finally reached our destination and we can announce the final results!

Heartwatch

The Bay Area has spoken and the local indie pop band, Heartwatch has not only won this year's overall poll, but they dominated the Deli SF's Reader Poll as well making them our undisputed Artist of the Year! We can tell why with their dancible brand of pop music and admirable work ethic. It all paid off this year!

Emily Afton

Emily Afton's sultry, soulful style of indie pop melds elements of pop, soul and electronica to create original and penetrating modern ballads. She didn't come in too far after Heartwatch. She deserves a huge congratulations and we look forward to seeing more from her.

Annie Girl and the Flight

Well, Annie is nothing but pure rock and roll! We're thrilled to see her come in third place as she's been a relentless force in the local underground rock scene. A great songwriter, composer and live musician is something that is sorely needed in the Bay Area right now. Congrats to Annie Girl and the Flight!

Check out our poll's top 15 below, and don't forget to get even deeper, exploring all the finalists organized by genre:

AVANT INDIE - ELECTRONIC - INDIE POP - PSYCH- REVIVAL POP/ROCK - ROOTS MUSIC

BEST OF 2015 POLL FOR EMERGING SF BAY AREA ARTISTS ****** FINAL RESULTS - TOP 15 ******

ARTIST J OS R TOT   1 Heartwatch 5.5   2 7.5 2 Emily Afton 5.5   1 6.5 3 Annie Girl and the Flight 3.5   1.5 5 4 The She's 4.5   0.009 4.509 5 Eight Belles 2 2 0.029 4.029 6 The Seshen 3.5   0.015 3.515 7 Zodiac Death Valley 3.5   0.004 3.504   Night Shapes 2 1 0.054 3.054 9 Bells Atlas 3   0.015 3.015 10 Waterstrider 3   0.009 3.009 11 Wicked Man   3 0.005 3.005 12 Useless Eaters 3   0.004 3.004   Cellar Doors 3   0.004 3.004 14 Fuzz 3   0.003 3.003   Cathedrals 3   0.003 3.003 Legend: J = Jurors, R = Deli Readers, OS = Open Submissions

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If you wonder how this chart came into existence, here is how it all went down: first, we let the local bands submit their music (for free), and got our Deli editors to pick the nominees. Then we polled a list of 15+ SF Bay Area scene expert (our jury) and asked them to nominate 3 more bands of their choice each (3 points for the top choice, then 2 and 1). Then we polled our readers. We tried to keep things open for each single genre, from Indie Rock to Roots Music to Hip Hop.

If you are a geek interested in all the subtelties related to how this poll works, you can read its rules here (happy reading!). But if all you care about is the awesome new music SF Bay Area produced in the year 2015, this list is all you need. Enjoy!

Many Thanks to our Jurors: David A Sikorski (Writer at SF Weekly), Doug Kinsey (The Night Light), Dace James Hines (Writer for SF Critic), Anisa (Sofar Sounds), Barry Smyth (Brick and Mortar Music Hall), Dennis Gonzales (POW Magazine), Jason Black (Writer for Beatport), Aisah Gemora (Sofar Sounds), Derek See (Indie Record Collector/Retailer), ​Sam Lefebvre​ (East Bay Express), Audra (Thee Parkside), Ash Reiter (Founder of Hickey Fest), Bob Patterson (SF Critic Managing Editor), Jordannah Elizabeth (The Deli SF).

Hope you'll find some awesome new artists you weren't aware of!

The Deli's Staff

We´re excited to share another premiere today!! Emily Afton’s voice is transporting. Deep and smokey, Emily delivers her emotive and honest songs from a place that feels lodged in the past, rooted in a dreamy barefoot era. You can hear the Georgian lineage on her mother’s side, conjuring a Southern swamp, mixed with urbane pop relevance. Oakland indie-rock meets an after hours quest for mischief, with ribbons of soul and electro-pop interwoven.

"Archetype is an episodic album which explores themes of time passing, love, and the cycle of life/death (It’s also produced by Lila Rose and David Earl). The newest single "Someday" is one that particularly focuses on exploring death and relates it to "falling down the rabbit hole". I wrote it last summer when my mom was very ill and for the first time, was forced to explore what death means to me. It sort of has a mix of blissfulness and existentialism, because it begs us to be in love with our lives while we're here, while also always remembering that we are inevitably going to die." - Emily Afton on the forthcoming album, Archetype and the single, “Someday”