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MEPHISTOPHELES

Crywolf, widow [OBLIVIØN pt 1] (2019)

Genre: indie-electronic, indietronica, goth and industrial-inspired Feel: clean goth industrial clang, sluggish, cinematic

When to Listen

you just finished a long day working and you need to take the edge off but first you need to stare at a wall

it's really late at night and you should be winding down but you're busy feeling sorry for yourself

your mind's eye wants to visualize some badass contemporary dance

the weather is garbage and you're inside but feeling violent about it

you want a little overdrama

Why I Deem this Track Toasty

It's so angsty.

It's literally about crashing to earth, and with its weight, the song makes you feel it. LOOK AT THIS.

So it begins The hollow Breathe in my lips Legato Clip no more wings Kill the sparrow Call it the straight And narrow In sight of land Convinced the stars were falling down I saw you silent, releasing the rope from your hand You're falling again You're falling again You fall Underneath I'm sleeping (I'm not sleeping anymore)

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Welcome Back to My Channel/The Utopians

0171, Welcome Back to My Channel (2022)

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Flash Warning: here's a non-flashy link

1000 Words

0717, 1000 Words (2019)

Genre: electropop Feel: droning, full, refreshing, brain-scratchy

When to Listen

you're at the airport and you need something to keep your brain still so you don't vibrate out of your body

you just finished listening to it so you need to listen to it again

you're in the mood to say "the melody is only one note; how bold" like some kind of connoisseur

you're in the middle of writer's block

you're laying in the sun

Why I Deem This Track Toasty

The boldness. The loopability. The way I was their top .01% listener in 2019.

0171's debut track was wild. It's so very electropop and so very innovative.

When I first heard this track I was baffled by its simplicity. One note. No breaths. No punctuation. Just 1,000 words (literally) in a gentle mono-syllabic lilt, and a comfy mix of synths and real instruments.

The lyrics also had me zeroed in. They're indelible memories. Just little fragments of phrases and images that come together in a kaleidoscope of waking life.

Or maybe it's Apple's predictive text.

It's really good and these guys have 17k listeners on Spotify right now. Absurd.

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Kama

Sema Sole, Kama (2021)

Genre: post trap, rap, hip hop Feel: weighty, lo-fi, peaceful, one of the sexiest voices on earth (omg)

When to Listen

Repetitive tasks: folding, dishes, cooking

If you don't speak Kinyarawandan, doesn't even need to be a repetitive task because your ears won't pick up and process the words

You need a little boom

You're lying at like the beach or like on a pool floatie

You're in the mood to go down a Rwandan music industry rabbit hole on the internet

Why I Deem This Track Toasty

The Artist

Sema Sole is from Rwanda, and he raps exclusively in Kinyarwanda, which is one of its national languages, even though he's a native English speaker

Why?

Because he likes how his voice sounds in it.

And I agree. It's got a unique sound and Sole chews the words just right.

Read the full interview below.

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Everyone Knows

Astronaut, Kintsugi (2023)

Genre: Indie Pop Feel: Full, twinkly, only uses real instruments (and soundscapes like thunder and a tape deck)

When to Listen

It's festival season but you're still on the hype-up

You're on a fire escape in Brooklyn with someone you met relatively recently, and you feel both wistful and hopeful

When you're just about to get over that one person that fucked you over but you're not exactly there yet

You're wearing flannel when it's way too hot out for that, you little hipster, you

You're reading or writing a coffeeshop AU

Why I Deem This Track Toasty

The Album's Whole Fucking Vibe and NO ONE IS LISTENING TO IT

This Danish band is an indie-pop dream. You can almost see them in a semi-dusty practice room somewhere with a million XLR cables and various splurge-worthy synths, pedals, and a session of Logic open to record the music magic.*

*i looked at their insta just now and I was so fucking right i'm so good

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Astronaut (@astronautband)

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thumbnails for a Disco Elysium animatic! this will probably take me a while since i wanna study their art style

music: Help Me by AWAY ft koda

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VIDEO FLASH WARNING

Help Me

AWAY • Koda, self:antiself (2022)

Genre: 90s electronica + rock, noise, grunge, it's Closer by NIN. Feel: heavy, sexy, scratchy and boomy

When to Listen

You’re doing anal

You're in the mood for the 90s but you wish it was cooler.

You're doing butt stuff.

It's raining really hard outside and you're leaning into it.

You're in an adderall-induced flow state zone and you want something to fill the room.

You want to convince your friends you know about 90s rock. You know you do, but they don't.

Why I Deem This Track Toasty

The Story

This track is hot.

AWAY's soundscapes and Koda's vocals uncannily recall 90s rock and grunge and bring the entire decade into the 21st century with insane, filty industrial edm vibes.

There are literally dozens of references to 90s rock and grunge, from the sounds of industrial and noise to NIN's motif and vocal style to Nirvana's chord progressions. Listen for yourself and I bet you'll find a lot in there.

Released as a single in 2021, this track is the second track of AWAY's EP, self:antiself (2022).

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i can't help but question, maybe this isn't helping putting off the end 'cause in the end, it always does in the end it always does i don't know what's right anymore i don't wanna fight anymore sitting in the back seat, driving with my sunshine baby well, i've gone a little crazy surely someone's gonna save me now

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One for sorrow, two for Joni Jones

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You're taking your time to reappear

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Sugar Pill

The Japanese House, Clean (2015)

Genre: electropop & synthpopFeel:haunting, full, satisfying, boomy, synthy, brain-scratchy and brain-smoothy

When to Listen

When you've got a sick speaker system and surround sound, like in a car

When you're in the shower

When you've got Spotify up on the TV when you have company

When you're warming up on the treadmill, because this motherfucker gets big

Why I Deem This Track Toasty

The Artist's Story (and the music video)

Amber Bain was 20 years old when she made this track.

Her story is also really rad — she grew up in the UK with a musician father and recorded in his studio all through her childhood. So when she met Matt Healy of The 1975, he offered to produce her first record. (That's why you may have seen her on The 1975's tours as an opener.)

She started out completely anonymously, causing a lot of folks to speculate about her gender. Some people even thought she was Matt Healy of The 1975.

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Forests

Duologue, Never Get Lost (2014)

Genre: Indie/Alt Feel: Full, head-boppy, a little shiny on top, relaxing, chord-crunching with like a lot of suspensions, like a big indie/alt hug

When to Listen

This is the definition of a song for the car

Great for when you've got people over or you have the aux

When you really want a full ass sound envelope

You want a sad song that doesn't sound sad

You want Gregory Alan Isokov but with more music theory and momentum

Why I Deem This Track Toasty

The Sounds

This song isn't just catchy — it's gorgeous.

We've got the guitar, we've got the strings (violin?) and we've got a march-like beat that undoubtedly sounded dank live.

It appears the band hasn't been active since around 2014, and that's because, while on tour in the US, one of the band's members discovered he had a virulent form of cancer, and needed a bone marrow transport.

He's been recovering ever since.

The band member, Toby L, now works to encourage 18-30 year olds to donate blood marrow.

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Last pint from that last night

I don't know if that was real

And I swear I'm superstitious

'Bout her sex appeal

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body cast by Dua Saleh

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Dua Saleh photographed by Erik Carter for Gay Times, profiled by Zoya Raza-Sheikh