This month marks our penultimate mixtape of the year and our final regular fifteen-song mix, with the next being our ten-song mix highlighting our ten favorite albums of the year.

Traditionally, this time of year can be a little quiet on the new music front, with artists tending to want to wait until the new year for big releases. And indeed, we’re excited about more than a few full-lengths that have already been announced for January + February of 2019. But, be it the abandonment of album mentality by some newer artists or just the equivalent of family style dining in the music world, with people wanting to grab attention as soon and as often as they can, this month actually seems awash with excellent new music.

Starting with Melbourne electronic artist Alice Ivy and her sophisticated dance track “Chasing Stars” featuring Bertie Blackman. Then we have newcomer ford. (AKA Luc Bradford) out of Provo, Utah, who’s new album, (The) Evening comes to us via ODESZA‘s label Foreign Family Collective and is highly recommended for any fans of intricate, layered electronic music. The track we feature has Sarah Kinsley on vocals, but another couple from the album feature the subsequent artist on our mix, Durango, Colorado-based signer Sophie Meyers (who, awesomely enough, includes a PayPal link on her Soundcloud page—no beating around the bush with this one).

Then we’ve got a fun, addictive track from Brooklyn’s Anna Wise, featuring Jon Bap; the return of London’s biggest Missy Elliot fan, Georgia; edgy, rhythmic, almost industrial-sounding pop from Montreal’s Annie Sama; and then three in a row from fellow Angelenos—a darkly beautiful debut from Phoenix-born, LA-based Kailee Morgue; a new one from another Angeleno, Lawrence Rothman, who now has a new EP out; and a new single from one of our favorite singer-songwriters in town, Ella Vos.

We’ve also got some subtly beautiful work from London’s (Will) Westerman, who plays the Moroccan tomorrow night; one of our favorites from (Thomas) VILDE‘s most recent album, out of Stockholm/Melbourne; catchy electronic music from another all-caps-er from Melbourne, LANKS (AKA Will Cuming); a great song from Andy Shauf’s new collaborative effort with his childhood friends from Saskatchewan, Foxwarren; a sleepily beautiful song from singer-songwriter-actress Alison Sudol; and we end out with a sweeping, dramatic song from Norwegian singer-songwriter and producer, AURORA (Aksnes).

Enjoy!

As per ushe (we’re assuming that’s how you spell an abbreviation of ‘usual’ but we could see it going a number of ways—uzsh? Yoosh? Something with an umlaut?)—anyway, as per üzsch, this month’s mixtape is pretty evenly split between new-to-us artists we’re excited to share for the first time and favorites who are back with notable new music.

In the former category, we’re starting with someone who’s new to us, but maybe not other listeners—Shungudzo, AKA Alexandra Govere, the Zimbabwe-born philanthropist, singer, songwriter, record producer, gymnast (1999 All-Africa Games), journalist, and reality television (Real World: San Diego, 2011), who, in addition to co-founding a non-profit that supports orphans living with AIDS, wrote a pretty excellent single, “Paper”, which both starts our mix out and can be heard in her pretty stellar video for the track below (directed by Carlo Corbellini). She’s pretty much the female version of that most interesting man in the world guy. Like the lion’s share of creatives in the US now, she currently lives in Los Angeles; that isn’t bragging on our parts, just cold science and astute observation, man.

Other, likely less accomplished new artists we’re featuring this mix include Sydney electronic artists Clypso; Liza Anne out of Georgia/Nashville, who gives us a catchy, rocking track with a sentiment with which I think most of us can identify; South Australia’s Heaps Good Friends, with a song about hugging; Leeds electronic pop duo Litany and then two more groups from across the pond, London electronic duo APRE and the sweeping, dramatic four piece Dahlia Sleeps, also out of London. Then closing things out, we’ve got a beautifully stripped down song by Graham Van Pelt (FKA Miracle Fortress) out of Toronto.

Returning favorites include Norwegian Angeleno Mr Little Jeans, who we interviewed a few years back; Art School Girlfriend (AKA Polly Mackey) out of the seaside town of Margate in southeast England; Melbourne duo Oh Pep! with some peppy pop; NYC via Columbia band Salt Cathedral; the always amazing Lorely Rodriguez, known more widely by the moniker Empress Of, who just moved from NYC to her native Los Angeles (told you); Stockholm trio Peter Bjorn and John, who are back with their eighth studio full-length; and badass English rapper Simbiatu “Simbi” Abisola Abiola Ajikawo, better known by her stage name Little Simz (“I’m Jay-Z on a bad day”).

Enjoy, and happy fall, y’all (currently mid-80s in LA, by the way).

Like we mentioned at the open of our last mixtape, one of our favorite things about putting those together is having to push past what we already know and are exposed to in terms of music and seeking out the very new, things we’d almost certainly miss or never hear otherwise. Doing so results in some beautiful discoveries more often than not. With this most recent foray into the unknown, our big take-away was New Orleans band, People Museum, an experimental pop duo comprising producer/trombonist Jeremy Phipps + composer/singer Claire Givens. As we’d mentioned last month, we’d hoped to interview the band to find out more about them and were lucky enough to do so recently, talking about the band origins, the music scene in New Orleans, and more.

You can read the full interview below, stream their debut full-length here or via Spotify, and purchase the album via iTunes or your favorite discerning local record store. Photos by Daniel Grey.

raven + crow: Alright, first thing’s first—how’d you two meet and how did the band develop? Were you both in bands previously and already on the hunt for a new project or did this just naturally develop from an existing mutual friendship?

Claire Givens: We met at a spot in the French Quarter in New Orleans called Marigny Brasserie after a mutual friend suggested we would be good collaborators. Jeremy had just gotten back from living in Los Angeles for a few months pursuing a solo project and I had just come off of a music project that broke up pretty dramatically after 3 or 4 shows. I was definitely itching for a new musical partner. We went to our buddy’s house in the Treme the same day and started writing songs. We finished two complete songs and realized it was a perfect match. The music basically developed our friendship.

Are you both originally from New Orleans?

Claire: I am from North Louisiana, Monroe, which is basically the polar opposite of New Orleans culturally. Jeremy is from Uptown in New Orleans.

What’s the music scene like in and around New Orleans? I know a band from Baton Rouge (thought they’re here now—Moon Honey, do y’all know them? Nicest people in the world), but I can’t off the top of my head think of many bands from NO that don’t live very precisely in the jazz or swamp rock worlds.

Claire: I LOVE Moon Honey! They seem to be killing it in LA. The New Orleans music scene is really difficult to describe. Parts of it are the exactly the same way they’ve been for 50 years (Frenchmen street jazz/funk scene), but if you go downtown or to the Bywater, some pretty radical things are going on. We love what the Pink Room Project and people connected with them are doing. It’s a mix of house, hip-hop, and punk that is what New Orleans is to us in this moment. Nondi is also a very interesting performer who mixes meditation with R&B vocals. It’s a shame that a lot of great music and musicians here don’t get the credit they should because it isn’t what people expect or are trying to take away from New Orleans. They want a Disneyland experience.

Right, no, I can’t imagine a ton of people coming to New Orleans from the outside are looking for anything beyond the traditional or even cliché—New Orleans playing New Orleans. But I’d read that you all view the band as a kind of means to explore the sounds of future New Orleans—can you explain that a bit? What do you see as the future of New Orleans sound and music and even the arts there?

Jeremy Phipps: When I said future New Orleans I meant we’re taking elements involved in traditional New Orleans music like my primary instrument, trombone, but filtering it through effects.

It wasn’t a concept I created in the beginning. It was a practical way of trying to fit inside the soundscape I created with synthesizers and other futuristic instruments.

I think the future of New Orleans art is building a bridge between tradition and progression. It’s inspiring some amazing art.

If your music is any indication, then definitely. How do you two break up song-writing tasks? Or is it different song to song? I know you’re primarily the singer, Claire, and, Jeremy, you play trombone, but there’s a lot more going on there song-to-song.

Jeremy: I usually make a full instrumental track and send it to Claire. She spends some time with it, writes the lyrics and melody, then when she tells me she’s ready I’d go to her house and record a demo. That was the process for the 9 songs on the album and all the other songs that didn’t make IDYTC.

There’s not much debate between us, she gave me the freedom to express myself and I gave her the freedom to express herself. We trust each other a lot.

That’s great. And I feel like that freedom plays out in the creativity shown in the songs too.

I don’t generally like to play the comparison game, but I did find it interesting to discover you toured with Rubblebucket, Jeremy—that’s honestly one of the only sonic parallels that I can think of for your particular sound. I feel like there is this shared approach to the song structure—layered, hyper-melodic, vocal-forward, beat-driven and even a little dance-y at times. All aspects of sound that draws me to both of your bands. Do you feel like that very general musical umbrella is some of what you’re exploring in terms of the future of pop music?

Jeremy: I’m a huge fan of Rubblebucket, so when I got the opportunity to tour with them I soaked in as much as I could. Alex Toth, their leader/trumpet player and Adam Dotson, their old trombonist, are big influences my horn playing. I don’t listen to many horn players so they are definitely the exception.

The album cover immediately brings to mind modern dance and movement to me—does anything like that enter your live shows ever?

Jeremy: I’m constantly dancing on stage. Our weird drum beats inspires the atypical movements.

And is it just you two on-stage for those or do you build out the band for live performances?

Jeremy: It’s a 3 piece live band at the moment. We have an amazing drummer and producer Aaron Boudreaux playing with us.

Any plans to tour out west? We’d love to see y’all live.

Jeremy: I lived in LA, Koreatown for awhile, so I’m dying to play a show in LA. We’re definitely wanting to go west early next year.

Oh, excellent. Finally, we love talking names—can you explain yours?

Jeremy: This is a funny story actually. When I lived in LA, way before People Museum started, a friend of mine brought me to stand outside the arena the VMAs was held in. Along with a couple thousand people you could watch the stars walk back and forth to their dressing rooms through a huge glass.

It’s a surreal and a bit invasive experience. Most of the stars would just ignore us but every now and then one would wave and everyone would cheer.

I felt pretty jaded from it until I saw Willow Smith wave at us! Hah! I love Willow Smith. After that I could see the appeal in it.

Anyway, I said to myself “this feels like a People Museum.” I wrote that name down and held on to it until I started this project with Claire a year later.

Yeah, I’ve never done that. Maybe I should. That place is right down the street, I think. What about the album title, I Dreamt You in Technicolor?

Claire : This came from one of our first songs we ever wrote together that we never released called “Technicolor Dream”. We decided to not include that song on the album, but we felt like “I Dreamt You in Technicolor” perfectly summed up this soundscape we made. It’s all this crazy dream, full of our memories and color and life.

Nice. Well thank you both for taking the time to talk and we’ll keep an eye out for a live show in 2019.

Every time we do one of these, we discover new future-favorite musicians. More than anything else, it’s the thing that keeps us doing these mixtapes year after year, pushing us past complacency and into creative experiences we likely wouldn’t otherwise have, both in terms of recorded music and live performances of artists we first discover and then share on these pages.

Last month, the big impact new artists for us were Your Smith and Sorcha Richardson; this month, New Orleans duo People Museum is our musical obsession, and we’re hoping to bring you an interview with them in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you an enjoy one of our favorite tracks form their new album on our mixtape and, if you like what you hear, give their entire debut a much-deserved full listen (not to be confused with these guys’ new album, which is also likely awesome).

Also in the exciting new-to-us realm, Tokyo/Berkley’s Curling, who self-describes as “Crosby, Stills, & Nash meets Cap’n Jazz” which is fucking amazing, like their track “Still Green”; Belgium’s Pale Grey, who plays some pretty catchy shit; Brooklyn trio Big Bliss, whose debut full-length both reaches back into new wave’s best and forward into new new wave’s best; new experimental cold wave (if you like waves and over-categorization of music) from Athens, Georgia’s Mothers; and English electronic duo Maribou State.

In the welcome return category, South African artist Petit Noir (AKA Yannick Ilunga) is back with a wonderful new EP; Gabrielle Smith (who we interviewed back in 2015) is back with the newly minted Gabby’s World; SoCal’s own Trevor and Tim from Tall Tales and the Silver Lining are back with an album as Parting Lines (Trevor’s another past interview subject); friends of the studio Moon Honey have a just-released album full of crazy-insane-prog-psych-rock-your-face-off-ness (video from the single we feature below); Bristol’s Elder Island are back with a very much smoothed-out, slick sound; Los Angeles’s own Viaa gives us some trademark hook-filled pop; more LA love—Kito teams up with New Zealand’s Broods for a lovely nuanced single; studio favorite Amber Bain out of Buckinghamshire, AKA The Japanese House, has a just-released single that’s kicking the mix off; and conversely, Toronto’s Lowell closes things out for us with a beautifully epic, danceable, anthemic track that we should all bounce around to and sing at the top of our lungs at least a few times this fall.

Enjoy, friends. And remember—love wins.

This is how it goes with us. As we near the end of the year, the lofty web-posting goals of monthly mixtapes coming out at the beginning of months slowly slips to the middle, then to the end as we get busier and busier with all the other, non-web-related things in life (which, happily, is many and much), to the point where we’re, for example, releasing the ‘August mixtape’ on the actual last day of August. But what can you do? Priorities are priorities and IRL > URL. Also, from what I’m told, no one really reads blogs anymore? Even blogs you call ‘web journals’ to sound more sophisticated?

So, mreh.

But music! Always music! ‘This month’s’ mixtape starts off with the new Robyn, because how could it not. And, maybe as a result, we have a bit of a Robyn feel weaving it’s way through a number of the subsequent tracks—the exciting new single from Christchurch’s Yumi Zouma; a new danceable track from London’s Millie Turner; and a somewhat more subdued song from an exciting, new-to-us artist out of Dublin, Sorcha Richardson.

Also on the new awesome artists front, we’ve got Melbourne’s Jordan Dennis, who gives us a nice, laid back late summer hit with “Crumbs”; Utah duo, Sego, who walks the line between drone core and catchy pop; Toronto’s Verzache, who’s cooking up some nice foot-tapping bedroom music up north; Brooklyn-Minneapolis duo Tiny Deaths, who we interviewed earlier this month; Richmond’s own Lucy Dacus, who Claire from Tiny Deaths turned us on to in said interview (typing this from Richmond, VA, for what it’s worth); a beautiful single from trio, DYAN, that seems to call just as many places home—Winnipeg x Los Angeles x Cincinnati; and a catchy, fun single from Your Smith (née Caroline Smith) out of Minneapolis.

Then back to some studio regulars and also from Minneapolis, trio Bad Bad Hats is back with what’s looking to be one of our favorite albums of the year so far; moving only slightly eastward, St. Paul’s Hippo Campus just released a promising, woozy new single from a forthcoming full-length; we’ve got a new single from Portland, Oregon’s Liyv, who we featured last year; and we have one of our favorites from Mitski‘s new one.

Enjoy the music and enjoy these last days of summer, friends.

The whole concept of the sophomore slump is a pretty cruel one—that you can never live up to that first creative exploit with your subsequent effort. Which is why it’s always so nice when the opposite happens, especially in music, when you can hear a band getting so much more comfortable with their sound that their collective voice comes through so much more clearly and confidently. That’s the case with Minneapolis-Brooklyn duo Tiny Deaths, composed of vocalist/song-writer Claire de Lune + producer/instrumentalist Grant Cutler. The new full length, Magic (out next month), pushes their creativity beyond the whispering wash of your traditional dream pop into a new, more decisive, more compelling realm of music.

We took some time to talk with Claire about the band and their forthcoming sophomore bump (likely would have gone with ‘trump’ had things panned out differently a couple years back).

raven + crow: So, first off, thanks for talking. We really like what we’ve heard from the new album so far. I feel like I’ve got my own opinions on this, but wondering how you feel like your sound has evolved since Elegies.

Claire de Lune: Thanks so much! This album means a lot to us. I think we’ve become comfortable enough with our sound that we’re able to push the boundaries a bit about what a tiny deaths song sounds like. Some of the songs on this album are a pretty big departure from the “dream-pop” label and I like that about it. We’re not scared to explore.

Yeah, we’re definitely hearing a lot more of you in these new songs, which I love. I feel like it reminds me of early noise pop vs later noise pop (e.g. Velocity Girl), where you can actually hear the settling into a sound and maturing in the music—it’s great. I’m wondering though—this shift in sound, is it something that came about pretty naturally for you both or was it something you more set out to do in deliberate manner?

I think it came about really naturally. We’ve been making music together for 5 + years now, and I think at first we were more conscious about trying to create a world for the sound to live in and to stay within that. Now that we’re sort of firmly living in that world it gives a lot more space to stretch that and the evolution sort of just happens over time. Also, lyrically I was super inspired by things that aren’t relationship-based for this record, so there aren’t as many “love” or “breakup” songs on it, whereas the last record was basically entirely a breakup record, an “elegy” to a relationship.

How do you all break down song-writing responsibilities between the two of you?

Grant makes the instrumentals and I write the lyrics and vocal melody.

You’re split geographically speaking, right? How does that affect your song-writing?

Grant moved to Brooklyn before we’d even officially become a band, and it’s really never been an issue. We just bounce ideas back and forth over email and when it comes time to track vocals, Grant is always in the studio with me. It’s still super collaborative, it’s just long distance.

Yeah, I heard an interview recently with a band we’ve long loved, Wye Oak, and they were talking about how used to living apart and writing in that manner they’ve gotten that, now that they live in the same place for the first time in a long time, they think they’re going to have to manufacture that distance to keep the song-writing strong. I could see how that’d really develop into a healthy creative pattern for two people, weirdly enough. So, I’ve always felt like it can be a challenge for some electronic bands—especially duos, where the responsibility is split between just two people—to create a compelling, engaging live show where it doesn’t just come off as someone singing over pre-recorded tracks. How do you all approach your live sets?

That’s actually something that’s always been important to me, because I feel like a lot of electronic based music is super boring live and you’re just distracted by the light show and I really didn’t want to be that band.

So true.

Grant actually doesn’t play live with me but I play with a group of really amazing live musicians for almost every show (I play solo, stripped down versions very rarely). I’d way rather invest resources in making the songs sound the best they possibly can than invest in some crazy light show or costumes or something like that. Music is #1, always.

Nice. Are you all planning to tour to support the album?

Yes!

We’ll be sure to keep an eye out for you when you’re in Los Angeles. Can you talk about the band name? I’m guessing it’s a reference to the French expression for an orgasm, but wondering what the story behind it is.

Yes, that’s what it’s referencing. I guess it’s not much of a story, I just thought the name was a perfect balance of sexy and sort of dark and macabre, which I feel like fits the vibe of the music pretty perfectly.

That balance, in general, is very French. And the new album title? Magic—is there a story behind that?

The name of the album comes from the title track, a song called “Magic”. It’s a song about being a youth during this crazy time in history, and the fear but also the freedom that comes with that. When I wrote that song I knew instantly that it was sort of the perfect mission statement for the album, which I really feel is at its heart, a growing pains, coming of age record. So it became the title.

Yeah, crazy times indeed, but they do tend to bring out the best of us at times, creatively—I feel like there’s a lot of that going on here. We always like to get an idea from bands we like of other bands they like since you’re out there playing shows and maybe hearing a lot of what we aren’t—who are some lesser-known or up-and-coming musicians you’re liking of late?

My friend Katy makes music under the name “Morly” and she’s so great, I’ve been listening to her music a lot.

Sleeping In My Own Bed by Morly

I’m also really into this sort of crew of young women coming up and taking over indie right now. Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus. They’re all making really great music with really incredible lyrics.

I’d never heard Morly or Lucy Dacus, but they both sound great, thanks. And Julien Baker + Phoebe (fucking) Bridgers are superb. Awesome. Thanks again for talking and, again, love the new work.

Thanks so much! Thanks for chatting.

‘Eclectic’ is a word that’s thrown around when it comes to music, or, more accurately, collections of music. But this month’s mixtape strikes us as especially eclectic in earnest. Maybe it’s this unrelenting heat that’s effectively vaporized our brains and pushed our aesthetics to the outer boundaries or maybe independent music itself is changing, getting more diverse. Regardless, we have a pleasingly erratic, explosive-feeling mix for you this month, bookended by new music from midwestern brethren—Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s Collections of Colonies of Bees + Minneapolis, Minnesota’s Poliça in collaboration with Berlin-based orchestral collective s t a r g a z e.

The remainder of the mix is largely new-to-us artists (which may owe something to the aforementioned diversity) with some beautifully hyper-melodic pop from Portland, Oregon’s Wild Ones; woozy, glitched-out electronics from multi-instrumentalist + multi-disciplinary artist Schaus (also out of PDX); catchy, earworm-y pop from South Australia’s MANE (née Paige Court); subtly swooning experimental dancehall from Canadian musician Lou Canon; Swedish indie pop from Malmö newcomers Hater; another earworm from KC’s Hembree; Boston teen sensation (just wrote those words) Clairo Cottrill with Reading producer SG Lewis; and Kalbells, the solo project of Rubblebucket singer and saxophonist Kalmia Traver.

Finally, we’ve got some welcome returns from Los Angeles’ own (by way of Chicago) Sudan Archives; Oxford electronic artist Chad Valley (née Hugo Manuel, frontman of Jonquil); the return of Lund, Sweden’s The Radio Dept.; and Melbourne’s golden boys, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. And, while it’s not a return, we’re featuring a track from Lindsey Jordan’s Snail Mail, out of Baltimore, who’s new to the scene but sounds anything but, with addictive songs and a voice that’s beyond her 19 years—this is one of our favorite tracks amounts many on the band’s debut full-length, Lush.

Enjoy and stay cool.

This month’s mixtape brings you—as usual—a ton of new music that we’ve been enjoying in the studio, by artists new + old.

Welcome returning longtime studio favorites include the Brooklyn band with a funny name, Rubblebucket, who kick things off with the catchy, true-to-form lead single from their coming fifth full-length, Sun Machine, out in August; Swede, Victoria Bergsman, better known as Taken by Trees (and maybe even better known from Peter Bjorn and John’s 2006 hit “Young Folks”), who’s taken a welcome electronic-leaning turn with her new album, Yellow to Blue; French singer, songwriter, and superb dancer Christine and the Queens (AKA Héloïse Letissier), who seems to be shifting to moniker and public persona a bit to the simplified ‘Chris’ (and who has giant billboards in Times Square and down the street from us in Hollywood—bully to you, Chris!); SF electronic duo Cathedrals, who are back with a sultry new single, “Hits Me Like a Landslide”; Los Angeles’ own king of glitch, Mark Redito; and a band we’ve followed for a decade, Minneapolis-based (now) duo Now Now (né Now Now Every Children), who are back with their first new album in six years.

New (to us) artists include Richmond, Virginia’s very own Natalie Prass, who gives us an infectious, fun track from her just-released album The Future and the Past (check out the video below); Nashville-based Sophie Allison and her band/alter ego Soccer Mommy; two cousins from London who comprise Otzeki, a jagged, electronic pop duo; Singaporean singer-songwriter Linying; and a newly formed electronic LA trio we’re excited about, Overjoy.

Then we’ve got some other returning artists whose work we’ve featured in the past, including English electronic musician Sam Breathwick, who writes and performs under the collegiate name Vasser; Swedish songstress Matilda Mård, AKA  Many Voices Speak; NYC-based pop Aussie, Kate Kay Es; and London duo and crafters of addictive dance music, HONNE.

Enjoy! And, as always, if you want to hear past mixes, scroll back through these pages for 3+ years of music or visit and follow us via MixCloud.

Art—fern + adorable quilt of Japanese textiles made for us by good friends.

We both came to really appreciate music in an age still dominated by full-length albums; an age of first cassette tapes, then CDs and then, when we hit college-age, vinyl, in its fledgling re-emergence.

So, yes, we’re rather old, but more to the point, we still often think of consuming music in doses akin to traditional album formats—10-15 songs, all tied together in some sort of theme, even if it’s just in the sense that it shows you a snapshot in time of a particular artist or artists and their work; side A, side B, with strong openers on each side and ending on something with a tone of finality and/or summation.

Whether it’s intentional or hard-wired, we often approach these mixtapes in the same way—this month, we start with one of two brand new and timely songs by one of our favorite bands, Braids, each of which tackles how we interact with each other in this digital age. In their own words:
“For those of u that have ever taken selfies, contorted ur body for selfies, pushed up ur breasts, hid ur breasts, hid ur ass, pushed up ur ass, exaggerated ur bulge, exaggerated ur collarbones, turned up the contrast, softened ur lines, been ghosted, ghosted, used tinder, failed at tinder, fallen down an instagram hole, deleted and downloaded it, deleted and downloaded it, deleted and downloaded it, wandered the drug store for clarity, thought hair dye could ease ur pain, at least for a couple days, and flipped the bird at 1 or all of these things – these songs are 4 u. We hope you can sing with them, scream with them, dance with them, laugh with them and dream of how u want to feel and deserve to feel. Take a moment for urself.”

In a kind of echo to that opener, we end the mix with the return of  Belgian musician, rapper, singer, and songwriter Stormae who gives us his first original material in five years, “Défiler”, about being left behind and having your head stuck in your phone and wondering maybe which is worse. Last month, Stormae’s label Mosaert presented its very first fashion show at Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche in Paris to mark the release of its latest collection, “Capsule no 5“. Dubbed an “enhanced fashion show”, the whole thing combined movement and choreography by dancer and choreographer Marion Motin with an intricate set designed by Mosaert and Le Bon Marché’s creative teams and Stormae’s 9+ minute song setting the sonic backdrop. The video for the song, by Sacha Wiernik and Luc Junior Tam, captures the whole impressive event.

And giving the spine to the mix (or kicking off the ‘second side’, whichever you prefer) is another significant return—that of longtime favorite Lykke Li.  The Swede-turned-Angeleno has teased a new album out June 8th—her first in four years—and, by the sound of this track and another she’s released, fellow fans will not be disappointed.

In-between those three musical pillars we have a dreamy new song from Nashville’s Bantug; the return of Sydney-born, Paris-based songwriter Jack Grace; and some dystopian hip hop from Chicago’s Air Credits (“music from the not too distant future, when the planet’s water supply has all but ceased, the landscape turning to desert, the desert turning to wasteland”), which features Show You Suck, who we featured a couple years back. Then we’ve got a string of AKAs that played SXSW this year—breezy hip hop, also from Chicago, from Knox Fortune (AKA Kevin Rhomberg); something a little jazzier from the always-impressive Cadence Weapon (AKA Toronto’s Roland “Rollie” Pemberton); and a beautiful  soundtrack for dreamily driving through the desert from Slisbee, Texas’ Lomelda (AKA Hannah Read).

We’ve also got the first new work from DJ/producer/mash-up-artist/musician Girl Talk, featuring Brooklyn’s Erick the Architect; a nice pick-me-up from Brooklyn’s Maria Usbeck; more melodic electronic music from France’s Kidswaste featuring DC’s Manila Killa; a bouncy sing-along from Sydney’s Alison Wonderland; a glitchy banger from Stockholm’s Baba Stiltz; and something a little more pop than noise from Meghan Remy’s U.S. Girls.

As always, enjoy.

Below, the aforementioned video/fashion show and the lovely cover art for Braids’ new split single, by photographer Melissa Gamache.

Back in May of 2016, we were lucky enough to catch Peter Bjorn and John at one of our favorite, more intimate Los Angeles venues, the Echo. Opening up for them was an unknown-to-us solo act, Okay Kaya, AKA Norwegian singer-songwriter, Kaya Wilkins. It was one of those great moments when the opening act proves nearly as powerful and enjoyable as the band you originally came to see. Her set was stripped, emotional, and moving…until some drunk douche in the back heckled her for some reason. Well, if life were an 80s movie and she actually gave a fuck (which I highly doubt she does), said douche would get turned away the door at her coming, I presume to be sold-out shows in support of what could be one of the year’s best albums. We’re kicking this mixtape off with one of two singles from coming full-length, Both (we have a video for the other below because we love it so much).

What other sonic gems are we sharing this month? Glad you asked.

As always, Australia’s exploding music scene has bled into this mix, first with the straight-up pop danceability from Sydney’s Nicole Millar. Then we seem to have inadvertently lauded on-high our old home of Brooklyn with a  string of artists who are keeping it legit in the ‘borough of trees’—we’ve got some catchy glitch from solo project A Beacon School and Brooklyn-by-way-of-San-Juan Balun, some excellent, slightly less glitchy female-fronted electronic pop from Half Waif and Mothica; and some solid indie pop from four-piece Plastic Picnic. Then we’re getting back to our current home of Los Angeles with some experimental electronica from French-American artist, Sydney Wayser, better known by her stage name, CLARA-NOVA and taking a trip up to the great white north with Montreal’s Men I Trust, both new favorites in the studio.

Then, don’t shut this down before you give it a try, but we’ve got some witch hop (it’s a thing, I swear) from an artist we kind of inexplicably love, Scranton’s own Wicca Phase Springs Eternal. We’ve also got lovely new singles from the most excellent Londoner Nilüfer Yanya, Gothenburg’s Little Dragon, and one teaming Scottish electronic band CHVRCHES with The National‘s Matt Berninger.

And while we hate to play the comparison game, we’re ending things out with a track from Melbourne’s G Flip that has us wanting to dance around the bedroom like we’ve got old Robyn pumping out of shitty speakers at maximum volume with early aughts pre-caffeine-prohibition Sparks in-hand (our twenties were heady, orange-tinged days with little disposable income) before letting none other than Tracey Thorn drop the mic for us via a new collab with London electronic artist George Fitzgerald that’s co-writen with Oli Bayston, the frontman of one of our favorite bands, Boxed In.

That’s it! Enjoy!

And by way of follow up to the video below, you can donate to Planned Parenthood here.