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.

Each weekend I post a five-track mixtape (along with my own mini-reflections for each track) that you can download or stream as a soundtrack for the week. Here's a holiday Monday edition for Victoria Day.

Track #1: Stella Ella Ola, "Little Black Rope"

"Little Black Rope" is a shining sprint of punk-driven, garage rock. You can check out the band's free four-track EP, which radiates with buzzing three-minute sunny melodies.

Track #2: RLMDL, "Stargazer"

Keep your ears out for RLMDL, an electronic project whose songs take on a quasi-mystical quality, full of shiny, skyward arrangements and weighted knife-edge synths. Grab "Stargazer" for free here.

Track #3: Actual Water, "She's a Priest"

Actual Water is all about assaulting your ears with scuzzed-up, go-for-broke shots of blissful adrenaline. And it's no different in "She's a Priest", where the band gets a little experimental, mixing doo-wop rhythms with slapdash rambles. Download the track for free here.

Track #4: Appletrack, "Whish"

Listen to Appletrack's Spectrum if you're curious how colours and textures would sound if they were audible. Our favourite track this week is "Whish" - a skittering break-beat track that seems to have evolved from midi disco and videogame soundtracks.

Track #5: Cold Specks, "Winter Solstice"

Cold Specks' highly-anticipated album I Predict a Graceful Expulsion (Arts & Crafts) hits stores this week. Etobicoke's "doom-soul" singer Al Spx's soulful and smoldering vocals soar in the sombre "Winter Solstice", and you can watch the official video for the track here.

If you wish to be a part of The Neighbourhood Mixtape, you can contact Aldrin at aldrin [at] blogto [dotcom]