Tracks we love right now, in no particular order.
Each week, The FADER staff rounds up the songs we can’t get enough of. Here they are, in no particular order. Listen on our Spotify and Apple Music playlists, or hear them all below.
Frost Children, “Sister”
Indie sleaze that could make you cry? Frost Children breaks through some kind of barrier on their excellent new album, Sister. —Steffanee Wang
XLR, “See These”
This track from the Seoul-based electronic producer Mount XLR’s debut EP Phase i features the guttural vocals of London’s Tommy Barlow. Directly addressing someone whose absence has left him feeling creatively stuck, Barlow booms lines like “I don’t see these days without you” in a way that feels desolate and unsettling. It’s a thoroughly arresting delivery from a potentially fruitful musical pairing. —David Renshaw
Silver Gore, “25 Metres”
Have you ever hit a wall with music and found that nothing really hits the way it used to? Silver Gore’s excellent new EP, Dogs In Heaven, has a song about that. “I haven’t listened to a song since 2021,” Ava Gore sings over a space-age synth track that flits between Laurel Canyon and another dimension entirely. It’s enough to shake even the most jaded music fan back into the habit. —DR
Thundercat, “Children Of The Baked Potato” (feat. Remi Wolf)
The Baked Potato is Los Angeles’s oldest jazz club and the inspiration behind Thundercat’s madcap new collaboration with Remi Wolf. Together, the pair honor an institution that offers over 20 twists on the classic potato with a procession of zany fretboard runs and frantic percussive energy. That many carbs might leave you a little sleepy but “Children Of The Baked Potato” will have you amped for sure. —DR
KP SKYWALKA, “Industry”
D.C. rapper KP Skywalka’s latest heater “Industry” pairs a slow-rolling R&B instrumental with a casually unspooling DMV flow. Here, a flex about rap-game domination (“I’m bippin the opps and dawgin’ the industry”) launches into a cold-blooded, two-and-a-half-minute declaration of war on anyone who makes the mistake of considering him a friend (“Shoot at my cousin, he not the kin to me / I’m still putting this fi on the enemies”). —Raphael Helfand
Makaya McCraven, “Los Gatos”
Drum deity Makaya McCraven announced four new EPs and dropped a song from each. “Los Gatos” is the best of the bunch — a hypnotic loop on which McCraven creates a Dilla-esque pocket in real time and vibraphonist Justin “Justefan” Thomas chooses to use his instrument percussively, dragging his mallets across the pipes instead of striking the bars. Bassist Benjamin J. Shepherd and guitar god Jeff Parker are also incredibly locked in, completing the Slum Village-tinged tableau with inextricable, interwoven licks. —RH
duendita, “big one”
duendita has been prolific of late, dropping an EP, an album, and some raw loosies in the space of a year. Her latest, “big one,” is an ode to healthy hedonism, delivered over a smooth trop-house beat. “I surrender,” duendita sings in a melody that sounds eerily like the hook from this early OPN track, although a source tells me it’s not. Either way, it rules. — RH
Jawnino, “LivFlare (broadway market)”
Jawnino is one of London’s most exciting rappers, and Tony Seltzer and Laron are two of New York’s best producers. A collaboration between the three could never be bad. “LivFlare (broadway market”) is a near-perfect minute and 43 seconds of music, pairing some of the coldest bars of the year with one of the hardest beats. “I got little gears in the back of my head / Bendin’,” Jawnino raps. “I don’t care about trendin’ / I sent her a text, said I wish she was here.” —RH
Helado Negro, “More”
PHASOR, Roberto Carlos Lange’s excellent 2024 project as Helado Negro, saw him take his long-running musical alias into whimsical pop territory with inspiring results. That journey continues on “More,” the first single from the upcoming The Last Sound On Earth EP and his first release for Big Dada. Synths refract and undulate while percussion shuffles like ice cubes in a cold drink held on the dancefloor. Lange sinks into this backdrop, blurring into a blissful echo. —Jordan Darville