This week’s mixtape brings genre-defying cuts from Mark Ronson and Wild Beasts, in addition to a boatload of fresh new faces (Winter Gloves, Strange Talk, Oh Land) that are about to make some waves in your ocean of noise. As per usual, Right Click + Save As your next ten after the jump and prepare to add to your list of favorite summer jams.
1. Winter Gloves – “Plastic Slides” This Montreal quartet packs a seasonally appropriate grab bag of catchy vocal hooks and ripcord guitar licks that fill your head with the giddiest sensation of euphoria. Considering it’s already been remixed by fellow Canadiennes Teen Daze, we guarantee it will blow your mind.
2. Strange Talk – “Climbing Walls” Like a star-crossed marriage of Phoenix and Passion Pit, these four Aussies know the shortcut to your heart and topped their spacey, Thomas Mars-esque vocals with sun-drenched synths accordingly. It sounds like something homegrown from the giant passion pits down under.
3. Mark Ronson – “Lose It (In the End) (ft. Ghostface Killah)” Considering the rapport he struck up with Ghostface in 2003’s “Ooh Wee,” the Wu Tang rapper’s guest spot on Ronson’s upcoming Record Collection comes as no surprise. As usual, Ghostface kills it with pop culture-referencing rhymes like “I ain’t havin’ that/You just tryin’ to get rich like Miramax”, creating a striking complement to Ronson’s golden pipes and choppy electronics.
4. PVT – “Window” This ambitious trio scale some ambling alps with considerable ease, while reigning supreme over the mischievously elegiac keyboards and mountainous drums.PVT’s full-length, Church With No Name, a marvel of calculated math-y post-rock, dropped earlier this week.
5. Love Lake – “Curses” Minneapolis’s Anders Carlson is a one-man army with a knack for festive summery pop ditties that are short, sweet, and entirely befitting of his nomadic lifestyle. “Curses” is beautiful in both its simplicity and its resonance.
6. Dustin Wong – “Talking Walking Cloud” Baltimore’s Dustin Wong, who you may know from the recently dissolved Ponytail, has a bold plan for his debut solo album Infinite Love for listeners to choose their own adventure. The infectious, distortion-laden “Talking Walking Cloud” is our first taste of that journey.
7. Oh Land – “Sun of a Gun” 24-year old Nanna Øland Fabricius has a way with words that is both endearing and thoroughly satisfying. The Danish setting sun serves as the backdrop for a dream-pop dramedy that inevitably culminates in beautiful oblivion by the third act.
8. Röyksopp – “This Space” Here’s a nice late-summer addition, courtesy of the pivotal Norwegian electronic duo, Röyksopp. They shuttle between planets and dodge comets in a constantly gyrating space vehicle. It is the Scandinavian twist on Ratatat that we never expected we would love this much.
9. Bravestation – “Colour Us With Youth” If Foals moved to Canada and joined Wolf Parade, they might sound something like Bravestation, boasting flawless vocal harmonies and genre-bending melodies. The chord change about halfway through is simultaneously jarring and brilliant, and its execution grows more impressive with each consecutive listen.
10. Wild Beasts – “We Still Got the Taste Dancin’ On Our Tongues” It should come as no surprise this indie-rock quartet has been nominated alongside acts like Corinne Bailey Rae, The xx, and Foals for the UK’s highly coveted Mercury Prize. Fueled (and driven) by Hayden Thorpe’s gloriously angelic falsetto, Wild Beasts are a formidable force to be reckoned with.
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