2017: Second Quarter Favorites From Laurel Halo & Ryuichi Sakamoto to Playboi Carti & Chino Amobi

If you haven’t already done so, please stow your carry-on luggage underneath the seat in front of you. (Image: Paolo Čerić)

For each year's first three quarters, we celebrate by sharing a list of our favorite music releases. Unlike our year-end lists, these quarter features are casually compiled, with an aim to spotlight the underdogs and the lesser-heard among the more popular picks. More from this series


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From Laurel Halo & Ryuichi Sakamoto to Playboi Carti & Chino Amobi

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Thu, 2017-06-01

Half of the year is over, and we have done absolutely nothing with our lives. Very pathetic. The good news is that we use our ears to listen to music, so to celebrate, the TMT staff has once again come together to share our favorite releases of the last three months (give or take), compiled in the best format known to humankind.

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For each year's first three quarters, we celebrate by sharing a list of our favorite music releases. Unlike our year-end lists, these quarter features are casually compiled, with an aim to spotlight the underdogs and the lesser-heard among the more popular picks. More from this series


Pan Daijing exposes her mental depths on debut album Lack 惊蛰, out on PAN

Pan Daijing exposes her mental depths on debut album Lack 惊蛰, out on PAN

Exercise is frequently cited as a temporary but reliable mend for what mentally ails you, and even though Pan Daijing has previously commented on her positivity-driven desire to stay active through yoga and boxing, what happens when a sparring blow to the pancreas isn’t quite enough to reach neural stabilization?

Favorite Rap Mixtapes of June 2017 From Starlito & Spider Gang to Adamn Killa & Chief Keef

Adamn Killa (via Instagram)
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Favorite Mixtapes
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From Starlito & Spider Gang to Adamn Killa & Chief Keef

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Thu, 2017-06-01
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With a cascade of releases spewing from the likes of DatPiff, LiveMixtapes, Bandcamp, and SoundCloud, it can be difficult to keep up with the overbearing yet increasingly vital mixtape game. In this column, we aim to immerse ourselves in this hyper-prolific world and share our favorite releases each month. The focus will primarily be on rap mixtapes — loosely defined here as free (or sometimes free-to-stream) digital releases — but we’ll keep things loose enough to branch out if/when we feel it necessary.

White Suns to play Psychic Drift release show in NYC TONIGHT, share west coast dates, premiere exclusive new Cloning track

White Suns to play Psychic Drift release show in NYC TONIGHT, share west coast dates, premiere exclusive new Cloning track
White Suns out, psychic guns out, physical guitars in the fucking garbage.

Here at TMT, we don’t like to mince any words when we’re talking about noise duo White Suns…chiefly because of the way Dana Matthiessen and Kevin Barry’s visceral plunges into the pulsing, pounding depths of our quivering, claustrophobic subconscious minds kinda…make it…um…a little difficult to

Young Thug Beautiful Thugger Girls

[300 Entertainment; 2017]

Rating: 3.5/5

Styles: easy, breezy
Others: Jeffery, Wheezy

Rap has a curious tendency to be consumed by its influences. Twitter would have you believe that Beautiful Thugger Girls is in fact a country album largely because of a single yet prominently placed “yee-haw;” Thug himself announced the release as his “singing album,” an exciting proposition but essentially meaningless as a descriptor (and hence, a perfect press release). From all corners, there’s a persistent and pernicious resistance to any flexibility in what we think of as rap.

Princess Nokia premieres new song “G.O.A.T.” with new music video (I promise I won’t spoil anything!!!)

Princess Nokia premieres new song “G.O.A.T.” with new music video (I promise I won’t spoil anything!!!)
When it's finally summer, and you're all-like "ahhhhhh."

Concept cars, flat bill hats, gliding sub bass lines: it must be summer, and it must be a new Princess Nokia video!

That’s right, pool-partiers: with record temperatures across the country and wildfire warnings lighting up the Doppler radar like a Christmas tree, Princess Nokia still felt the need to turn up the heat by dropping a new music video for a song she’s calling “G.O.A.T.” Something about the swag with which she carries herself in the video tells me the title may stand for “greatest of all time,” but you can judge for yourself after you watch the video below.

Deerhoof announce new album and tour dates, premiere track “I Will Spite Survive" with Democracy Now!

Deerhoof announce new album and tour dates, premiere track "I Will Spite Survive&quot with Democracy Now!
Photo: Shervin Lainez

WOW! GOOD MORNING and Holy Deerhoof, my fellow Deerhoofs! The four Deerhoofs in the very dear-to-us-all band Deerhoof have just given the whole Deerhoof-cognizant world a good wake-up SMACK in the FACE with their deer hooves by announcing that they’ll be releasing a brand new Deerhoof album on September 8 via Joyful Noise! DEEEEEER. HOOOOOOOOF.

Lorde Melodrama

[Republic/Lava; 2017]

Styles: wild and fluorescent
Others: Maggie Nelson, Cat Power, Anne Carson, David Bowie

I heard Melodrama the way Lorde created it. On the subway, in shitty earbuds, by myself. This was unintentional. I swear. No one knew I was in the city. I love keeping a secret. And listening alone while moving among everyone was cosmic. Like having the biggest crush. Like showing up late to the party wearing glitter and black. Like sobbing without grace. I was already singing along and nearly could not resist spinning around and around in the middle of the sidewalk once I got off the Q. I could feel my heart vibrating everywhere inside my body.

Links: Lorde - Republic/Lava

♫♪  Kendrick Lamar - “ELEMENT.”

Kendrick Lamar: Hey hey Tinymixtapes.com!
Mr P: hi. what’s up?
Kendrick Lamar: Got something SUPER IMPORTANT for you.
Mr P: yeah? what is it?
Kendrick Lamar:
()
() |
_ | |
| |.’

billy woods Known Unknowns

[Backwoodz Studioz; 2017]

Styles: johari window, thought experiment
Others: Bill Murray, ELUCID

Every billy woods piece I’ve written begins the same way, with an internal debate over whether it’s OK to start a sentence with a lower-case letter.

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