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SPIN Singles Mix

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

Welcome to SPIN‘s Singles Mix! SPIN staffers have rounded up their favorite, must-hear tracks for your personal playlists. Collecting the finest from an Old Line State R&B duo, Florida indie-pop sweetlings, slowcore staples, and more, these are the songs you need to know right now.

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

Abhi//Dijon, “Jon B” (Self-Released)
The two Maryland-based singer/producers that make up R&B duo abhi//dijon claim the Neptunes and Timbaland as their foremost influences, but their take on the genre is a little more spectral. See new single “jon b” for their haunting luminosity, keyboard lines that shimmer like plasma and vocals from Dijon Duenas that sound like they could’ve come straight from the grave. Hey, we haven’t heard from Frank Ocean in a bit, maybe these dudes could be hanging out with his ghost. — COLIN JOYCE

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

Bob Moses, “Too Much Is Never Enough” (Domino)
Brooklyn-via-Vancouver duo Bob Moses practice a deeply hypnotic fusion of Chris Isaak-like whispery vocals, tribal drums, and distant guitars that trail off into the distance like the mists of their hometown. On “Too Much Is Never Enough,” an immersive listen off of their forthcoming debut Days Gone By, faded polyrhythms and limpid piano motifs leave a feeling of cleanliness post-listening, like skin after exiting a pool. — HARLEY BROWN

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

Hazel English, “It’s Not Real” (Self-Released)
Wide-eyed college kids everywhere dream of the breezy NorCal summer conjured by Hazel English’s “It’s Not Real”: a fantasy at once lofty, melancholic, hopeful, and nostalgic. The sparkling opening chords have this sort of transporting power, as do the airy vocals and the simple, pulsing beat. When the chorus hits, the whole idyllic scene becomes a swirling teenage dream. “It’s Not Real” is that June driving with the top down, that July lying supine in the grass, that August of tearful goodbyes. — ANDREW STONE

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

Low, “What Part of Me” (Sub Pop)
As fizzy and fuzzy as you would ever hope the slowcore progenitors to be, a shimmying groove with typically sweet vocal harmonies somehow out-syruped by crackling guitar-and-bass interplay. “What part of me don’t you know?” Well, can’t say we’ve been too familiar with this side, but we’re getting used to it. — ANDREW UNTERBERGER

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

SALES, “big sis” (Self-Released)
Tallahassee, FL duo Sales make rough-hewn indie-pop songs that feel like the surreal collages that make up their artwork. Cut a drum machine out of a dance track, copy a vocal that drones as if lifted from a Beach House track, paste an electric guitar line that shimmers with the best Greenwood bros. efforts. Newest single “big sis” again follows that pattern, ripping shapes and colors from all across the indie-pop spectrum into a wonderfully tender assemblage. — C.J.

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

Scuba, “Glacial” (Life and Death)
Following what might be the darkest album of his career, Claustrophobia, techno maestro Paul Rose has unleashed a seven-minute monster of pumping pistons and whiplashing murmurs. Appropriately for its titular descriptor, “Glacial” sustains momentum more than building it, until subtly shifting into a deep bass clip as it grinds slowly and steadily ahead to the bitter end. — H.B.

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

Shelf Life, “Sinking Just Right” (Lefse)
Philadelphia-based songwriter Scotty Leitch has spent a bit of time drumming for local wunderkind Alex G, and his own work as Shelf Life tends to mine the same casually affecting territory. “Sinking Just Right” is a similarly warped take on slowcore structures, just a few chords and a distant moan, and a lyric about being alone and retreating into yourself. Feels just right. — C.J.

SPIN Singles Mix: Low, Bob Moses, TRAAMS, and More

TRAAMS, “Succulent Thunder Anthem” (FatCat)
British post-punk youths TRAAMS are playing the offensive with “Anthem,” their first single since their 2013 debut, Grin. “You’re not my friend/ You’re all so strange,” cries leader Stu Hopkins over an angular guitar frenzy and front-and-center bass. The sung-spoken warning is equally trepidatious: “Please don’t slip and break your neck/ You know there’s ice on the road.” Handle this trio with care. — RACHEL BRODSKY