Olga Bell

Proper polymaths have one guiding principle: love every genre you explore.

And it’s clear from the first note of any Olga Bell album she’s dedicated to that rule. The classically trained pianist, electronic warlock and hip-hop connoisseur hasn’t found a sound she can’t warp and adore. At the beginning of the decade she toured with The Dirty Projectors and Chairlift and released Край an exceptionally ambitious project dedicated to the music of her native Russia.

But a wondering spirit like Bell gets bored and her next album, Tempo, was an ode to dance music, bouncing from BPM to BPM and dance move to dance move. The opening song “Power User” was a stately mix of G-Funk, Beastie Boys brattiness, dancefloor empowerment and terrifyingly catchy synth-pop. So, listen to our interview with Bell, read up on “Power User” and see why we think it’s one of the best of the 10s.

“I think being an artist requires a certain amount of delusion and then checking that delusion. ”

— Olga Bell