Born and bred in Brooklyn, New York but with roots in Vancouver, Canada, the history of Bob Moses is as curious as the cool house music duo’s name. Members Jimmy Vallance and Tom Howie knew one another from the Vancouver high school they both attended and were drawn together thanks to a shared love of pop-punk bands like Rancid and Green Day. Adulthood found them both in Brooklyn, with Vallance recording Berlin-styled techno while Howie worked in the realm of the singer/songwriter. Both felt musically stuck and hungered for something new, a problem solved by the simple union of their styles, which created something cool and decidedly “post-club.” Named after the urban planner who designed the modern New York City, they became Bob Moses and joined the Scissor & Thread label in 2012 with the EP Hand to Hold. The Far from the Tree EP followed on the label in 2013, then a year later the group released the First to Cry EP on Domino. In 2015, the label gathered up all the duo’s early EPs for the compilation All in All and also released their debut album, Days Gone By. ~ David Jeffries

Recommended by City Beats dropping straight from the hot releases feed at Apple iTunes /