MOOD PARK

Last of the summer vibes: Bestival. 

We’ve been gone for a minute but we’re back now. Passports stamped, wristbands off - summer 2015 was a definite wave.  

Insuring your ankles are on fleek

100% cotton

Drop number 3: Born n Bred Festival, Taz’s bday & yung Harvey’s jungle baby shower. 

Who is Ramriddlz?

21 year old from Mississauga, Toronto. 

Why do I give a shit?

Because he dropped this banger in May:

He also has the all important Drake co - sign. Which is in the form of a cover by Drake himself you can listen to it in shit quality here.

He dropped his EP yesterday, Its a solid summer vibe. Easiest way I can describe his sound: a singing, gyalist, Yung Lean. The EP is about chasing fanny which is a consistent theme throughout and emphasised by track ‘Sweetersound.’ 

My hunch is this will have a lot of resonance in the UK due the cultural similarities between Toronto & London. You can clock the slang is similar if not the same. Peep the skit at the end of ‘She Say’.

Another London connection is the beat in “Splenda” being an edit of Mssingno - XE2.

If its hot up in the Six, it’s live in Five and it’s definitely a Sweeter Summer.

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We’ve been messing with Abra since her EP BLQ Velvet dropped in January - and since that project had the rare quality of  being both something we fucked with instantly and one of those ‘grow on you’ ones we were keen for the follow up.

With Rose, Abras’ self produced sequel, the Atlanta artist has a unique sound - You cant really tell where Abra is from in the US which is a good thing. It’s not that basic female vocal over a pop, or a bait R&B song either. Its got a distinct 80′s discoish vibe to it concerning the production, the vocals are nice and laid back and it comes across as a solid body of work.

The themes are dark and the beats reflect that, It’s definitely a fresh sound dealing with issues like: when you are feeling someone and they aren’t feeling you back this embodied by the second track ‘feel’. Title track Roses xo is also standout cut if you are feeling lazy and just wanna check out the sound.

But the whole thing is a wave.

Directed by Grant Singer

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Second edition features plenty of bday vibes, A$AP x Boiler Room Riot Rave and some other throwaway shit. All analogue 35mm snaps taken by me. 

For me this is the summer 15 album for sure. Really representing that new UK sound and culture. Coming off the back of the success he had with ‘All under one roof raving’ i was real receptive to that vibe and this album really follows it up. You get those really colloquial samples that you could definitely pick up just walking around London. Even if you don’t like instrumental type albums you can’t deny this album, its too wavy not to listen too. The features are minimal a couple songs with the female band member of the xx Romy and one with the male vocalist Oliver Sim. The curve ball thrown in, is in the form of ‘Good Times’ which features Popcaan and Young Thug which is definitely the summer tune of the year. 

Follow the Mood Park Soundcloud for regular music updates.

Pre-Drake Belly was arguably Torontos’ biggest rapper. He never really broke through to mainstream audiences at that time, but since Octobers Very Own put on for the city his predecessor has kept it coming with the consistent quality he established way back. Here we see him with the ever popular Travi$ Scott marking a definate attempt to crack the mainstream.

Colour filters + wavy chicks = dope visuals

Tory Lanez is making all the right moves at the moment, just coming off the back of a feature with Snakeships (Dimelo) which banged for sure. We see him link up with LA producer Shlohmo for “Acting like” Shlohmo recently just releasing his own album Dark Red...which was pretty dark. But most of his commercial  successes comes from this formula...that fresh RnB singer combined with his dark production which I think updates a super commercial sounding genre.  He originated this sound in his past collabs with Jeremih.