20 Black Voices for the New Century: No one quite captures the exploratory zeitgeist of 21st century rock music like TV On the Radio.

The Brooklyn ensemble traverses styles in leaps and bounds: their nervy post-punk leanings mingle with a deep soul sheen, their body-moving disco beats match up with driving, aggressive rock and roll. They’re a party where The Pixies, Portishead, PiL and Prince are all on the guestlist, but the scene never collapses into superficial retro-fetishism. Under the creative direction of founding members Tunde Adebimpe and Dave Sitek – along with multi-instrumentalist Kyp Malone – TV On the Radio crafts music informed by a rich and eclectic past, but is wholly contemporary.

The band has released four albums to date – 2008’s Dear Science is arguably one of the essential rock LPs of the past ten years –  and is currently at work on its fifth.

Read more in the series: Twenty Black Voices