Who: Super-quirky twenty-four-year-old Cleveland native Joe Williams, who records experimental electronic music under the alias White Williams, and has toured extensively with his friend and fellow pastiche-aficionado Gregg Gillis a.k.a. Girl Talk.

Sounds Like: Williams takes a mad-scientist approach to his debut album Smoke, chopping, looping and reshuffling samples (sometimes randomly) of P-Funk bass lines and vintage drum clips. The result is an engrossing, dancey, atmospheric patchwork that takes cues from T. Rex, David Bowie and Brian Eno.

Three Things You Should Know:

1. The cover of Smoke — which features a transexual model sucking a hookah hose while crying — was, well, based on a true story. "There was this girl smoking weed while bawling about a guy," he recalls of the party tale that inspired the shot. "Being sad and wanting to be high is so weird, and I tried to re-create that weirdness."

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It's time to meet the new kids who'll rule 2008: the A&R girl turned New Wave singer; the Led Zep disciple from L.A.; the home-schooled hippie folk-rocker. To read more about Santogold, MGMT, OneRepublic and seven more up and comers — and to check out videos and must-have tracks from the whole bunch — click here.

WHO Talk about a self-made star: British singer-rapper Estelle spent her childhood "flipping secular music to gospel" with her eight siblings. "We'd take Brandy's 'Best Friend' and make it about God being your best friend," says the twenty-seven-year-old West London native, born Estelle Swaray. Years later, she took a job at a London record shop frequented by stars like Talib Kweli, and started making her own rap albums. But local labels were baffled by her unique style. "That's been the story of my career," Estelle says, sighing. " 'We don't know what to do with you because it's not been done before.' So I just do it myself."

SOUND Estelle started a label, released mix tapes and approached a pre-College Dropout Kanye West cold after spotting him outside Roscoe's House of Chicken 'n Waffles in Los Angeles. Kanye hooked her up with John Legend, and the two R&B singers hit it off at a studio the next day, and later collaborated on The 18th Day, her debut full-length, which got play nearly everywhere but the States. Together, Legend and Estelle also prepped her forthcoming album, Shine, the first release on Legend's Homeschool Records. Kanye, Mark Ronson, Swizz Beatz and Cee-Lo make cameos on the disc, which swings with the boogie funk of "American Boy" and reggae-rooted tracks like "Magnificent."

REMINDS ME OF . . . When Estelle jumps from singing the hook of the Will.i.am-produced soul-hop single, "Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)," into a laid-back but feisty rap, it's nearly impossible not to mouth the words "Lauryn Hill" — even Wyclef Jean says Estelle's an artistic dead ringer for the Fugee. But Legend says his protégé holds her own creatively. "I think because she's West African and West Indian and British, that unique blend comes through in the eclectic nature of the album," he says.

Cementing that point, Estelle reveals, "Freddie Mercury is my dude, and I loved Guns n' Roses, Aerosmith and Duran Duran." And if that sounds like a strange combination of influences to you, she doesn't really mind. "Love me or hate me, who gives a damn?" she says with a laugh. "I'm a real chick."

>> Watch every episode of our weekly New Breaking Artist video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click "Launch application"). Every Wednesday, an exclusive video profile of an emerging artist will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.]

WHO Liam Finn is such a dynamic performer that a biker gang once forced him to play all night. When the New Zealand singer-songwriter was in his first band at age sixteen, some brawny motorcyclists invited the group back to their clubhouse for an after-party gig. "We were like, 'OK, we're going to stop playing,' and they were like, 'No, you're not!' " Finn recalls. "All of a sudden it was seven in the morning, and they were all off their faces." Luckily, his more recent gigs have been less intimidating: The twenty-four-year-old has toured with Crowded House, his dad Neil Finn's band, over the past year while also recording his gorgeous folk-rock solo album, I'll Be Lightning.

SOUND Recorded with a mixing deck that once belonged to the Who, I'll Be Lightning melds Elliott Smith-style melodies with loosey-goosey execution and the big, airy harmonies of yacht rock. Finn plays every instrument on the album — and during live shows. Triggering loops he creates via pedals, he'll riff on guitar, go nuts on theremin and pummel a drum kit for a one-man-band extravaganza. "The aesthetic is DIY, leaving the woolly edges," he explains.

IN THE NAME OF ... During his decade-long career, Finn has learned a valuable lesson about band names. His first one was Betchadupa. "I got a T-shirt that said 'Betchadupa I'm Polish,'" he says. "I later found out it meant 'Bet your ass I'm Polish.' It wasn't a wise move because we were forever asked what it means." Things have been smoother as plain old Liam Finn, he says. "Plus, it's a lot easier to stay alive when you're only looking after yourself."

>> Watch every episode of our weekly New Breaking Artist video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click "Launch application"). Every Wednesday, an exclusive video profile of an emerging artist will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.]

Who: Staten Island-based instrumental funk twelve-piece the Budos Band, who are currently on the road with labelmates Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. After ten years of lineup changes and style shifts, the current Band came together at a jam session hosted by Brooklyn Afrobeat legends Antibalas.

Sounds Like: Parliament infused with a bit more Funkadelic. Their second album, simply titled The Budos Band II, finds the outfit diving headfirst into dark atmospheres of Fela Kuti and Ethopian funk, while having a rollicking party on the way down.

Three Things You Should Know:

1. The band's influences are eclectic, to say the least. In one breath baritone saxophonist Jared Tankel big-ups Ethopian funk god Mulatu Astatke ("It's pretty wild stuff, and it's definitely been a big influence of ours"), and in the next he's listing off inspirations like "Heavy metal, death metal. The drummer and bass player love that stuff. Black Sabbath, Slayer," he says, "Even though you can't hear that easily in our sound, a lot of our songs have a dark sound — a lot of that comes from the metal aesthetic."

2. The strangest concert the band ever played? A yoga studio in tiny Ashland, Oregon. "There were yoga mats and pilates balls. We started playing, and granted it was a Monday night in the middle of February, but there were ten to fifteen people there. And people started doing yoga in the middle of the set," Tankel reminisces, "That was one of those times we started playing new stuff, we're like 'Fuck it, let's use this as rehearsal.' "

3. The Budos Band briefly entertained the idea of adding a singer. "One of the incarnations did have a vocalist. They were Dirt Rifle and the Bullets," Tankel admits, "Since that, and the turn toward Afro-funk, we've thought of maybe having a vocalist once, and the thought passed really quickly. At this point, we're never going to have one," he adds. "We have enough people as it is trying to make music together."

Get It: The Budos Band II hit stores in August, and is available on iTunes. Check out the band's electric live performance opening for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, or at their special Hanukah concert at New York's Webster Hall on December 8th. Click the above video to watch the band's "The Volcano Song," from their first album.

>> Watch every episode of our weekly New Breaking Artist video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click "Launch application"). Every Wednesday, an exclusive video profile of an emerging artist will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.]