It’s Friday, which means that we’re hungover as hell from our very own Silent Drape Runners’ Lil B party last night, and also that it’s time for our regular roundup of new music to get your hands on this week. Happily, the music industry is back in full swing after the holiday season, so much so that we’re back on the downloading kick from this week onwards. This week stuff you can get for free includes an Outkast reunion, sort of, along with new tracks from Lost Animal, Pissed Jeans and Junip, a bunch of antipodean indie pop, Blood Orange covering Kindness, and three entire albums (a new one from rising NYC rapper MaG, a rarities comp from Four Tet, and a new EP from Raekwon.) Get hold of all this action after the jump.
Frank Ocean and Outkast — “Pink Matter” (remix) It’s not an Outkast reunion, but it’s the next best thing: Andre 3000 and Big Boi performing on the same track! As a bonus, there’s also Frank Ocean signing a strange lyric about aliens and babies and cotton candy. And you can download it for free via Self-Titled Mag.
Lost Animal — “Lose the Baby” This is arguably the best song off an album we’ve been raving about for the best part of a year now, a drum machine-driven and quietly menacing slow-burner that unfolds over the course of nearly six minutes. Download it via Stereogum.
Pissed Jeans — “Cathouse” and “Bathroom Laughter” A two-song sampler for the new Pissed Jeans record, which is out on February 12 via Sub Pop. If you’ve ever heard the band before, then you probably already know what these tracks are gonna sound like, and frankly they’re giving our poor little hungover selves a stonking headache. Download both songs here.
Junip — “Line of Fire” We looked at side projects yesterday, and here’s another one, albeit not electronic — it’s a new song from José Gonzalez’s trio Junip, which is basically Gonzalez avec full band. It’s quite pretty, and you can download it via The Quietus.
Blood Orange — “Cyan” Dev Hynes has come a long way since his rabble-rousing days in Test Icicles, eh? We really liked last year’s Coastal Grooves, his first record under the Blood Orange name, and this cover of Kindness’s “Cyan” covers similar ground — it’s a pleasantly airy late-night jam, and it’s available via Self-Titled.
The Ruby Suns — “In Real Life” We’re always happy to hear new material from New Zealand indie veterans The Ruby Suns, and this is the first taste of their new album Christopher, an exuberant piece of synth-driven indie pop with everything but the studio’s sink thrown into the mix. Also, does anyone want to tell us where that horn sample comes from? It’s on the tip of our tongue, and it’s driving us crazy. Download the track via Stereogum.
Tom Morgan — “One True Love” Also on the antipodean indie pop front, ’90s veterans like your correspondent may remember Tom Morgan from his collaborations with Evan Dando and from his own bands Smudge and Sneeze. (Anyone interested in Morgan and his work may also want to check out this upcoming documentary about Sydney label Half a Cow, which was home to a who’s who of whimsical indie bands back in the day and is still around these days.) Anyway, download this track via Ad Hoc.
Four Tet — 0181 An entire album’s worth of Four Tet rarities? Yes, please. You can go and grab the record right here.
MaG — Freedom And also on the download-an-entire-album front, this self-released record from NYC rapper MaG is well worth a listen if you’re into cerebral hip-hop — his rapid-fire lyrics are constantly intelligent and involving, and the whole record has a pleasantly old-school vibe. You can get it as a free download via MaG’s Bandcamp.
Raekwon — Lost Jewlry We may never hear another Wu-Tang album, but at least the Clan’s members are as prolific as ever — this is billed as an EP, but it’s basically an entire album, and you can get it for nowt via Complex.