Welcome to SPIN’s Singles Mix! SPIN staffers have rounded up their favorite, must-hear tracks for your personal playlists. Collecting the finest from Southern stargazers, turned-down Norwegian producers, and more, these are the songs you need to know right now.
Hannah Diamond, “Hi” (PC Music)
PC Music’s Hannah Diamond is just looking for connection, but even though she’s part of a crew of net-pop pranksters, she’s still not cool with the idea that it could come via Wi-Fi. Her new single “Hi” is as self-reflexive (and reflective) as the several neon-bathed singles she’s released to date, but it’s singularly concerned with love in the modern era. She’s cheerily bemoaning the fact that her chances at relationships come only when she’s “alone in [her] bedroom / on the Internet,” and she’s able to transform the sort of trans-cyberspace yearning into something physical and earnest despite its digitalist constructions. She expresses what we all know: No one ever experienced paradise by a MacBook light. — COLIN JOYCE
j viewz feat. Milosh, “Don’t Pull Away” (Self-Released)
Through beautifully shot videos, Brooklyn-based producer Jonathan Dagan (also known as j.viewz) gives his fans an immersive, intimate songwriting experience via his award-winning Kickstarter, The DNA Project — an attempt to document the step-by-step process of producing an album. For his fifth song, Dagan collaborates with vocalist Milosh of Rhye and Lo-Fang to create “Don’t Pull Away.” Using vintage drum machines and synths collected by Gotye, Dagan lets Milosh’s astral, lofty vocals skim over smooth synths reminiscent of Chet Faker, adorned by delicate metallic clicks and crackles. —MEILYN HUQ
Kenton Slash Demon “Syko (Round’s Slow Response Mix)” (Future Classic)
It’s hard to find a lovelier slice of distorted house than Copenhagen duo Kenton Slash Demon’s “Syko” — until producer (and their friend and fellow Dane) Round turned the turnt knob way, way down with his appropriately named Slow Response Mix. There’s not much info out there about Round, a.k.a. Torsten Lindsø Andersen — except that he counts Balearic dark knight John Talabot as a supporter — but his remix of “Syko” speaks for itself: The original’s chopped-up, pitched-down vocals don’t surface from his dark lake of murmuring blips and echoes until late, letting all the attention go to his gently pooling, propulsive rhythms. — HARLEY BROWN
Lontalius x CutMyLips, “Mooncatch” (Partisan)
“Sometimes I feel like my own friends are keeping things from me,” moans New Zealand’s Eddie Johnston, a.k.a. moody electro-R&B crooner Lontalius. That might be true, but for now he’s got a steadfast partner in producer CutMyLips, who, with smooth clicks and claps, warbling samples, and gloomy piano, shapes an equally uneasy soundscape to accompany Johnston’s hand-wringing “oooo“s and “yeeeah“s. — RACHEL BRODSKY
Mano Le Tough, “I See Myself In You” (Permanent Vacation)
Mano Le Tough (born Niall Mannion) practices his minimally melodic craft with a steady pulse. “I See Myself In You,” the six-minute centerpiece of his sophomore LP, Trails, hits the ground hard — much like Berlin-based Irish DJ and producer must have done on his lakeside runs while writing the album in Switzerland. Each kick-drum thump is swathed in an icy halo, as ominously murmuring synthesizers descend like an early nightfall. Rather than build to a climax, the track keeps up a momentum that sticks even longer, a chill that just won’t go away. — H.B.
Mark McGuire, “Sons of the Serpent” (Dead Oceans)
As gorgeous as Mark McGuire’s electrical-storm nu-gaze majesty has been for years now, he’s never flirted with pop structure quite as tantalizingly as he does with “Songs of the Serpent,” the latest advance track from the upcoming Beyond Belief. Running a scant 4:40 — practically Descendents-length by McGuire standards — “Serpent” smothers its cotton candy vocal melody with waves of treble and distant noodling, like a foggy and confusingly conflated memory of late-’80s rock. Turns out My Bloody Valentine could’ve used some hair-metal shredding and power-ballad choruses after all. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER
Mount Moriah, “Cardinal Cross” (Merge)
On the astrology-inspired “Cardinal Cross,” alt-country trio Mount Moriah hope to find, as their press release reveals, “one of the most difficult astrological alignments to achieve.” Taken from their forthcoming LP, How to Dance (out in February 2016), the North Carolina-based trio layers gravelly guitars over full-figured drums, while vocalist Heather McEntire asks the tough questions: “Are you the woman you wanted to be?” — NATHAN DILLER
Seth Bogart feat. Kathleen Hanna, “Eating Makeup”
The 46-year-old Hanna has long since disbanded Le Tigre for the Julie Ruin, but the stilted drum-machine oompah and homemade goofing of her post-Bikini Kill trio’s classic debut is resurrected here in full. Bogart’s inextricable hook won’t leave your head for weeks either. — DAN WEISS
Stove, “Lowt-Ide Fins” (Exploding in Sound)
Ex-Ovlov frontman Steve Hartlett’s new moniker is already a household name — literally. Playing under the new name Stove, Hartlett has unveiled an ennui-ridden third single from his forthcoming debut, Is Stupider, out on November 20. According to Hartlett, the mid-tempo “Lowt-Ide Fins” is about “someone who promised me fins instead of limbs, but when we got to the beach, they just chopped my limbs off and left me in the sand with nothing but a pair of flippers.” That’s some graphic imagery for a sonically jumble track, but its message is universal: Everybody feels like a flailing torso sometimes. — R.B.
