The Neighbourhood Mixtape

The Neighbourhood Mixtape: Like Diamonds in the Sun

The Neighbourhood Mixtape is a collection of newly-released songs by Toronto musicians. The mixtape is meant to celebrate Toronto's music culture and provide a forum to listen to and discover new local music.

Every Sunday, I post a five-track mixtape that you can download or stream as a soundtrack for the week. The theme for our third installment, inspired by recollections and childhood, is free play.

Track #1: Tokyo Police Club, "Top Five!"

Tokyo Police Club's "Top Five!" is the perfect track to start this week's mixtape. Taken from their recent performance on Daytrotter, the new song is a playground with its mix of garage riffs, wailing vocals and skip-rope drum beats.

Track #2: Volcano Playground, "Anywhere"

Volcano Playground's "Anywhere" uses a collage of bubble gum synths, overdriven bass, and fragmented instrumentals. The track combines seesaw duet with polyphonic sounds, forming easy-to-get-lost-in dreamscape-rock.

Track #3: The Wilderness of Manitoba, "Hardship Acres"

The Wilderness of Manitoba's "Hardship Acres" plays like a carousel with one vocalist after another jumping on. Light drums and dim banjo picks accompany the song's melodious incantation, asking you to hop on as the song spins.

Track #4: Dinosaur Bones, "Ice Hotels"

Dinosaur Bones' "Ice Hotels" begins with echoing whistles like old classroom windows with wind draughts. The light percussions of shakers recall childhood obsessions with trains, where sweeping chords move the song along its moody melody. The song glides from the small sparks of Ben Fox's quiet vocals and ignites through a curtain of loud drums and riffs. The track rattles with the refrain of the mysteriously romantic lyric, "love got lost in that ice hotel".

Track #5: Young Empires, "White Doves"

Young Empires' "White Doves" gallops like a kid sensing freedom during final recess. The dance-floor beat is a sugar rush, a bliss beacon that guides you home. The track's majestic rhythms and hooks recollect the invincibility and swagger we felt as kids.


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