Neighbourhood Mixtape

The Neighbourhood Mixtape: Waking

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 fourth installment is inspired by the sensation of waking up.

Track #1: Sing Leaf, "Generation Ship"

Sing Leaf's "Generation Ship" is a nebula. The song takes you to a place that your senses - not your mind - must map, like the feeling you get when you run empty-minded. The track captures you into its bubble and floats you through its aerial harmony and terminal echoes.

Track #2: Mathemagic, "Sequin"

Mathemagic's "Sequin" laps up on the shore. Sun-bleached chords and wisps of vocals decorate the track with a wash of colour like slow-rising tide. The xylophone ripples the surface of the water as you awake, the song fading like a dream that becomes, as the lyric goes, "out of reach".

Track #3: Caribou, "Kaili (Walls Remix)"

Caribou's "Kaili (Walls Remix)" glows with phosphorescence, submerging you in dizzying loops of bass throbs and fluid synths. Daniel Snaith's vocals slither and hiss, following you like the shadows of jumbled puzzle pieces.

Track #4: Jim Guthrie, "Little Furnace"

Jim Guthrie's "Little Furnace" recalls sleepless nights or waking up at four in the morning. The track emerges in electrostatic and unfolds into sprightly synth-glitches - what the mechanisms of sleep would sound like if you could hear them. You can find Guthrie's new track in the interactive web documentary Out My Window.

Track #5: Austra, "Beat and the Pulse"

Austra's "Beat and the Pulse" is a form of mesmerism. Narcoleptic bass-driven rhythms and Katie Stelmanis's hypnotic vocals anchor the track, a lust that pulses for wakefulness.


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