If you’ve been having a hard time keeping up with new music these days, you’re not alone. No matter how devoted a sound junkie you may be, we’re inundated with so many new bands and songs, it’s easy to miss out on something amazing. There’s just too much damn music out there to keep up with all of it!
Thankfully, Crave’s music staff is here to help. We’ve pulled contributions from our music writers from around the world to bring you a killer weekly mixtape playlist. Here’s how it works – each week we’ll deliver a handful of must-listen tracks, most of them new, some of them classics, all of them awesome. You can kick off your weekend with the best sounds and just a little bit more sauce in your step, knowing you’ve got a leg up on the best tracks on the circuit.
This week we’re focusing on the kinds of sounds you won’t hear at the holiday retailers, bombarding you with high-energy shopping music and, of course, the endless run of Christmas music at every turn. These tracks are decidedly more relaxed, a chill playlist to counter the year-end insanity.
Boo Seeka – ‘Fool’
Sydney’s Boo Seeka have been dropping fire single after fire single this year, landing them some covetable airplay on local radio, and for good reason. Their latest single, Fool, continues the trend with its Jeff Buckley-esque vocals layered over an irresistible groove and highly danceable samples.
For bonus points, it comes with a video helmed by Sydney-based director David May and starring Instagram wunderkind GKHZ, as he treks across Sydney’s rooftops and tunnels, dodging trains (aka being a ~Fool~) for a typical night on the town.
If you dig the track and you’re a local, good news! Boo Seeka are kicking off a nation-wide tour early next year. If you’re not, come visit! It’s lovely here that time of year.
– Nastassia Baroni, Australian Editor
Daye Jack – ‘Hands Up’ (ft. Killer Mike)
We have a new protest hero in Run the Jewels rapper Killer Mike, who has been highly outspoken about police brutality in the U.S. over the last year. He takes the mission to a new intensity on the political track “Hands Up,” by fellow Atlanta artist Daye Jack.
The track features an infectious beat produced by Ryan Hunter and Ryan Spraker, as Daye lays the foundation, “Living with my head down, hands / No, no, don’t shoot.” Mike steps to the mic halfway through and delivers the uppercut, “Maybe the kid you refer to as a thug is just somebody else’s baby.” This one’s a keeper.
– Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
Charles Murdoch – ‘Privacy’ (Ft. Oscar Key Sung)
The silly season is about to get to the level of silliness where you lose all track of time and become devoured by present buying, party attending and building up the courage to deal with your racist Uncle Mark, so before all that shit, inject some chilltronica into your life to calm your farm.
This new track from Brisbane producer Charles Murdoch features the droopy yet electric vocals of my future ex-boyfriend Oscar Key Sung and flows towards you in frenetic bursts of colour. Couple spins of this and you’ll be zen enough to handle December, trust me.
– Mitch Feltscheer, Australian Editor
James Blake – ‘Retrograde’ (Feki & Glasshouse Cover)
James Blake’s Retrograde is one of my favourite songs. Blake’s crooning falsetto and smooth production forever transport me to a place of ennui-infused serenity. So 19-year-old Brisbane producer Feki had some lofty heights to scale in covering the Overgrown track, and boy oh boy have he and collaborators Glasshouse come through with this gorgeous reimagining.
The brass right up front takes you straight to chill-town, then those reverberated synths kick in, making you feel like you’ve just launched into outer space, only to subside, leaving you blissfully floating around in the ether.
– Nastassia Baroni, Australian Editor
Made In Paris – ‘Dancing In The Dark’ (Heretic Remix)
The Heretic remix of “Dancing In The Dark” by Sydney synthstress Made In Paris has been in my headphones a lot this week, as has the original. The latest release Australian techno institution Motorik, this is walkin’ in the club music on a heavy dose of ketamine and I love it. Heretic does a great job with the tracks, the regular R$N favourtie’s remix taking the original’s high energy dark synth work and reeling it back into some seriously drugged up and downtempo death disco. Out on Friday be sure to grab the whole EP, which you can preview here.
– Mike Carr, Music Writer – Australia
Tashka – ‘Each Time’
Don’t let the chill electro-lounge intro of Each Time delude you into thinking this fresh track from Sydney producer Tashka is anything but the red-hot injection of funk-laden dance it is.
By the end of the first chorus this gem really kicks into gear, dropping a whole mess of synthy production and crystal clear pop vocals onto the end of your week and if it doesn’t gee you up for whatever you’ve got on next, you may be dead inside. I’m so sorry, RIP your guts, you monster.
– Mitch Feltscheer, Australian Editor
Equals – ‘No Ordinary Love’ (Sade cover)
It’s been a long while since we’ve heard anyone do justice to a Sade track, but Equals have stepped up with a new take on one of her most ethereally perfect tracks, “No Ordinary Love”. The East London duo – Ade Omotayo and James Low – build on a pulsating rhythm that escalates intensity, becoming a sonically overwhelming scene. The video is no different, centering on a new obsessive focal point.
“For ‘No Ordinary Love,’ we wanted to produce something unusual and erotic without being heteronormative,” Low explains. “So we decided to depict a woman’s relationship with an inanimate, but intimate, space – her bed.”
– Johnny Firecloud, Crave Music Editor
