mixtape maestro (2.0)

It’s pretty pointless to try to do anything when a Washed Out tune is playing in the background, because as soon as its beautifully murky chillwave construction seeps its way into the ears, one’s attention will surely be held hostage and forced into doing nothing but mentally illustrating all kinds of fantastical images to support the act’s dreamy output.

“You and I”, Washed Out’s newly unleashed collaboration with Chairlift vocalist Caroline Polachek (and the fourth installment in Adult Swim/ Kia’s 8 Singles 8 Weeks series), is no exception, conjuring mind pics of snowy mountains and white horses running in slow motion (at least in our heads) to the tune of it’s distant vocal moans and subdued bedroom-pop throb.

DL: “You and I” (alt)

Longing to dust off those old rollerskates but don’t have a proper (new-ish) jam to take a whirl around the block with?

Then look no further than Chilean-born DJ/ producer Matias Aguayo‘s “Rollerskate”, a hypnotizing DIY delight amazingly built on nothing but intricately layered, mouth-noise-based orchestrations (think Bobby McFerrin gone all disco hipster) that lay out a nicely blissed out bop of a groove to bring out all those old roller rink tricks you used to wow the people with back in the day.

Yeah, your doofus ass will probably take more than a couple embarrassing tumbles, resulting in you angrily muttering to yourself something along the lines of “I should have just let that dream of re-living the highs of my youth go”, but if it’s any consolation, when you’re hobbling back home with your skates in hand, at least your bruised ego can be comforted with the echoes of this track’s uber-catchy “Roller roller roller skate skate roller roller” refrain giddily bouncing around the insides of your brain.

From Aguayo’s latest release, Ay Ay Ay, on Kompakt.

DL: “Rollerskate” (alt)

London rapper/ producer Wiley, aka the “Godfather of Grime”, rescues one of the greatest “one-hit wonder” gems of the 1990′s from the spiderweb-draped corners of our memory on his excellent new single “Never Be Your Woman”, a hook-recycling of White Town’s memorable 1997 DIY-pop smash “Your Woman” that finds him unapologetically shrugging-off the idea of monogamy to a sinister tropical-house soundtrack and the somber chorus moans of up-and-coming UK songstress Emeli Sande.

His feverish flow acting like skipped stones across the minimalist beat’s addicting combination of brief synth flashes and a cavernous, carnival-esque rumble, Wiley giddily boasts of his cheating ways, the promise of meeting fresh fish (and the chance to be the blinged-out center of attention) sounding like a far more attractive excursion to him for the night than spending a quiet, romantic evening at home with his main boo. And if it just so happens he gets caught, he could truly care less how his lady reacts, matter-of-factly punctuating his last verse with the oh-so-cruelly-”whatever” line: “My house/ I pay the mortgage”.

You ain’t right, Mr. Wiley (though moreso for not holding this undeniable low-key banger back for a far more fitting summertime release).

Peep the original (and our personal favorite) version below, followed by the official “Never Be Your Woman” video (presented in Shy FX Remix form).

Single (featuring remixes from Herve, Solo, Agent X and N-Type) drops February 21st.

“Never Be Your Woman (Original Version)”:

“Never Be Your Woman (Shy FX Remix)”:

DL: “Never Be Your Woman (Shy FX Remix)” (alt)

Summer may be months away in reality, but it definitely doesn’t seem that way when the feel-good buoyancy of First Rate People‘s “Girls’ Night” is spilling through your speakers.

Here, the Ontario-based seven-piece piece together a fetching swirl of indie rock, R&B and bedroom-pop style stamps, the song’s encircling male and female leads at times feeling like two different songs being mashed together in perfect harmony.

We’re not particularly clear what the two singers are going on about (something about sending postcards and crashing an all-female outing), but honestly we could care less, because what is fully understood, is that by the time this two-and-a-half minute tune has faded out on a sunny high of chirpy guitars and that crunchy, hip hop-esque drum track, we’re immediately hit with the uncontrollable need to hit “replay” so that we could be immersed in it’s catchy goodness all over again.

Expect a full-length debut from FRP sometime later this year.

DL: “Girls’ Night” (alt)

Washed Out (aka Ernest Greene) gets a nice assist from fellow South Carolinian bedroom-pop artiste Toro Y Moi (aka Chaz Bundick) on this remix to his Life of Leisure slow jam “Feel It All Around”, which finds Toro grounding the track with a pleasantly smoothed out R&B-funk vibe and transforming it from an ethereal romancer to a get-her-in-the-mood seducer (at least one that should temporarily do while you search for that go-to Sade mixtape you’ve unfortunately misplaced around the house somewhere).

DL: “Feel It All Around (Toro Y Moi Remix)” (alt)

South Carolina’s Ernest Green sure picked a fitting moniker for his musical persona in Washed Out, being that his stuff sounds like someone dubbed the tunes off the radio onto a cassette tape which then spent a few weeks lying at the bottom of the ocean. But beneath all that damn lo-fi (or as his MySpace so geniusly calls “no-fi”) haze, Green proves to be a masterful bedroom pop-crafter, conjuring up some of the most dreamiest John Hughes-ian (R.I.P.) synth-pop we’ve heard this year.

’80′s prom night ballad “Feel It All Around” seems to float in mid-air under the dense fog of blurried vocals and an entrancing sloth of a White boy soul groove while the equally misty “Belong” slams boulder-sized drums atop a restless tropical bounce as a multi-layered chorus emotes a string of indecipherable lyrics that sound like they’re being bellowed from the mountaintops above.

Perfect background music for one of those lonely Sunday afternoon chill-out moments or to dress up the numbing lull of a long road trip, Washed Out’s creations (hear more here) may bring about this undying need to clean the guck out of your ears when listening to them, but somehow that only adds to their calming charm.

WO’s limited-edition debut High Times arrives this September via Mirror Universe in cassette (!!) form and through Mexican Summer on vinyl.

DL: “Feel It All Around” (alt)

DL: “Belong” (alt)

Originally conceived for Fleetwood Mac’s Tusk, the much-fussed-over 1979 follow-up to their Grammy Award-winning classic Rumours, “Walk A Thin Line” was one of nine cuts band member Lindsey Buckingham penned for the double-LP, and boy what a creation it was (and remains).

That steadily-paced folk rock base, Buckingham’s pinched falsetto peaks, the way those choir-like harmonies hauntingly garnish his vocal, the dreamy guitar bits…it’s just a beautifully executed record all around, one that could easily soundtrack an entire, wine-accompanied evening on repeat without complaint from anyone.

Last week, Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox released a cover of the track under his solo moniker Atlas Sound, and, unsurprisingly, it lit up the blogosphere in no time.

Snatch up his bedroom-y hazed (and equally moving) rendition below.

Atlas Sound’s sophomore album, Logos, drops this October.

DL: “Walk A Thin Line (Fleetwood Mac Cover)” (alt)