The Neighbourhood Mixtape: Against the Tide

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 seventh installment, inspired by the dark clouds that loom and mornings that seem like night, is sleeping in.

Track #1: Make Your Exit, "Through the Winter (Bartel Remix)"

Our collection awakens this week with Bartel's remix of Make Your Exit's low-key electronic track "Through the Winter". The song twitches at the start - like a record player's needle - until synths push the covers back and xylophones and scratchy vocals put you in a dance coma.

Track #2: Eiyn Sof, "Take By Storm"

Eiyn Sof's "Take By Storm" is an example of electronic sounds intersecting with organic rhythms. Melissa Boraski's voice loops like a breathing thread - "inhale, exhale" and fragmented whispers - that suspends you between sleeping and waking.

Track #3: Bravestation, "Colour Us With Youth"

Bravestation's "Colour Us With Youth" builds like a boundless dream. But for all the plinking guitar chords and delicate percussions, the repetition of lyrics - "Enjoy your youth" - reiterate what matters most.

Track #4: Little Girls, "Nights Out"

Little Girls' "Nights Out" is drifting bedroom ambience with morphing synths, drum machine beats and unrecognizable lyrics that seem to permeate through your pillowcase and seeps into your dreams.

Track #5: Heartbeat Hotel, "Fins of a Shark"

Heartbeat Hotel's "Fins of a Shark" is swift and euphoric. The dream-beat track makes you feel as if you're caught in the undertow as melodic synth lines and dispersing rhythms wash out and capture you back under the covers.