You need badass new music? We’ve got badass new music. With our pumpkin cheesecakes in the oven and the Thanksgiving turkey taking its final mortal breaths, Crave has put out a Voltron call to our on-staff music contributors from around the world to bring you our next installment of our ongoing weekly mixtape series, and inspire your soul with some fantastically delicious sounds.
Open your ears and feast on a wide assortment of goodness from Tricky’s new project, Jack Stirling, Bibio and more. If you see something you haven’t heard, that’s a good thing. That’s why we’re doing this. Trust us with your ears, and we’ll bring you the goods.
Free: Download Foo Fighters’ New EP ‘Saint Cecilia’
Check out this week’s playlist below and feast on this aural gravy – and if you’d rather skip the descriptions, the full playlist is at bottom:
LDRU – Keeping Score (Ft. Paige IV)
Sydney producer LDRU’s latest single “Keeping Score” is getting an absolute belting on the local radio at the moment, and I for one welcome our new indie-electro overlord. Dripping in screeching, cemetery strings and beefed up with an infectious beat all held together by Paige’s MØ-esque sublimely powerful vocals Keeping Score is en route for Song of Summer status.
A new video for the track dropped this week and sees Paige fall down the proverbial rabbit hole into a perfectly paired tropical cartoon world.
– Mitch Feltscheer, Australian Editor
Jack Stirling – Lovers
Following the sparkling disco magic that was his last single Honey, Aussie must Jack Stirling has sliced up another fresh cut from his debut EP Pink Paint (out now!). Lovers is a decidedly downtempo turn on the record, seductive (obviously, given the title) in its r’n’b groove and woozy production, all whilst remaining danceable as ever thanks to Stirling’s crisp vocals.
Put this one on high rotation, but you might want to limit your plays at work. You’ll probably find yourself spelling out “c-o-c-a-i-n-e” intermittently throughout the day.
– Nastassia Baroni, Australian Editor
Bibio – Petals
Ok look it’s been a shit of a week but the one thing that’s stopping me from walking casually into the ocean never to return is this soothing new gem from English producer Bibio.
Swirling with delicate strings swooped through with twangy synth strokes which attack like a magpie in Spring attacks a bike helmet (google it non-Aussies, it’s a thing) Petals, unlike an aerial attack from a bird-in-heat, leaves you chill AF.
I can almost feel the songs tendrils massaging my back and whispering “everything’s going to be allllllright” gently into my ear. Thank you Bibio.
– Mitch Feltscheer, Australian Editor
Erykah Badu – Phone Down
Phone etiquette is a polarising subject in our social media crazed era and forever a gripe amongst baby boomers in their attitudes towards millennials. “Can you even maintain a normal conversation without that phone in your face?” they’ll drone. “Look up at me when I’m speaking to you.” OK MUM. What it’s not though, is an obvious subject choice for a sensual r’n’b slow jam. Unless you’re Erykah Badu.
When she says she knows how to “make you put you’re phone down, you ain’t gonna text no one when you’re with me”, you believe her. Yes there’s a suggestive element to exactly how she’ll achieve that, but mainly the power comes from Kween Badu’s call for mutually living in the moment.
“When you talk I’m going to listen,” she promises too. No one but Badu could make etiquette sound so damn alluring.
– Nastassia Baroni, Australian Editor
Tricky Presents Skilled Mechanics – Diving Away
After moving to Berlin early this Spring, trip-hop pioneer Tricky broke ground on a new musical project called Skilled Mechanics. “It’s from a documentary about espionage,” he explains. “There was an ex-C.I.A. agent on this programme speaking about assassins who were sent abroad by the US to start revolutions and topple governments. He called them ‘skilled mechanics’. I thought that was a great name for someone who was a killer basically. The name was so dark and cynical it just stuck with me.”
“I haven’t been alone at the front of the stage on my own since before I released my first album Maxinquaye 20 years ago,” Tricky confesses. “I needed to change. It is good to change and to keep on pushing yourself.”
So he formed Skilled Mechanics, a loose collaborative project that would allow him to work with many different artists, while at the same time pushing his unique vocal talents to the forefront. This is the first offering… and we can’t wait to hear more
– Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
Mezko – Journey’s End
I have a huge crush on Mezko. A fan ever since seeing them play a year or so ago in their old drummer and guitarist backed four piece line-up, they’ve stripped it back to core members Laura Bailey and Kat Harley and a burbling conglomerate of synths, drum machines, live guitar and bass, the girls mixing up duties with plenty of instrument switching.
“Journey’s End” being the duo’s third single released this year, the track pays tribute to it’s name with a kind of coming age movie finale vibe, albeit refracted through some 80s techno future vibes. Hint’s of John Carpenter’s iconic Escape From New York soundtrack hide in the tracks opening before the first chorus sees bright textured synths wash over everything and open up the sound into expansive pop territory. Watch out for Mezko in 2016 as they have some very big moves ahead of them.
– Michael Carr, Australian Staff Writer
Full playlist:
