It’s Friday, which means that we’re feeling somewhat fragile, having slept no more after Sleep No More, and also that it’s time for our regular roundup of new music to get your hands on this week. This week’s headline attraction is Le1f’s entire new mixtape for free download, which should be more than enough to get you clicking through post haste — but if not, there’s also a hip hop mixtape from, um, Paul Banks, along with a bunch of weird ambient atmospherics, Elite Gymnastics remixing How to Dress Well, neo-rave and neo-soul and various other neo- action for good measure. Get downloading… after the jump.
Le1f — Fly Zone Download the new Le1f mixtape. Wut? You’re still here? Go!
Paul Banks — Everybody On My Dick Like They Supposed to Be And while we’re on the mixtape front, here’s Paul Banks of Interpol moonlighting as a hip hop DJ. Astonishingly, the results aren’t terrible, notwithstanding the, um, rather uninviting title. See for yourself here.
How to Dress Well — “& It Was U” (Elite Gymnastics remix) In which Elite Gymnastic mastermind (and Mr. Grimes) James Brooks takes a knife to How to Dress Well’s understated Total Loss highlight, upping the tempo and reinventing the track as a sort of latter-day neo-soul pop stomper. Get it via the How to Dress Well Soundcloud.
Sad Souls — “Form in the Fog Beside” Ah, yes — some reverb-y atmospheric goodness to wind down the week, courtesy of Ann Arbor producer Chihei Hatakeyama, aka Sad Souls. If you’re enjoying the new Grouper, this will be right up your proverbial alley. Get it via Foxy Digitalis, who sadly bid us farewell this week.
Colin Stetson — “High Above a Grey Green Sea” On a similarly atmospheric but rather more ominous note, this track is built around a whole heap of distortion and a very creepy vocal sample. We like it a great deal, although it’d be kinda terrifying in a dark room after one too many spliffs. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Anyway, get it right here.
TEEN — “Ambient” Despite the title, this isn’t really ambient per se — it’s a slow-burning, compelling piece of instrumental guitar music that fits somewhere between drone and pysch. In any case, whatever you want to call it, it’s pretty great, and we suggest you grab it via Self-Titled ASAP.
Little Daylight — “Overdose” As you may have gathered, we like to deal with Friday morning/afternoon/early evening hangovers with rather downbeat tunes, but if you’re inclined to brush away the proverbial cobwebs with some bracing pop tunes, you could do worse than adding this to your playlist by clicking right here.
Betawave X — “Dignity of Labor” Squelchified sci-fi disco with a Marxist song title and a melody that sounds like it could soundtrack a children’s program in a parallel galaxy populated by psychedelic pixies? We never, ever get sick of the weirdness that’s constantly to be found on 20 Jazz Funk Greats.
Coma — “Hoooooray” Cologne duo Coma are a new signing to German techno überlabel Kompakt, and their music is a little more… fruity than the sort of austere minimalism with which one generally associates their new imprint. This track veers close to Lindstrømian space disco territory, which is entirely OK with us — you can get it via RCRD LBL.
ADR — “Slush Fund” And while we’re on fruity, here’s a trippy neo-rave track from Aaron Ross, better known as one half of Gatekeeper. This is a lot more playful than that duo’s work — it’s based around a skittish beat and a flute sample that’s straight out of Deep Forest, and probably goes down a treat at 285 Kent at about 4am. Get it here.