DOWNLOAD: The imagineNATIVE 2015 Mixtape, Featuring GlitClit, Madeskimo, and Akkil

RPM is pleased to present the 2015 imagineNATIVE mixtape, as part of the festival's 16th annual celebration of Indigenous creativity.

The imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival is the world's largest showcase of film, music, and media arts by Indigenous artists.

Boasting an incredible diversity in contemporary forms of Indigenous creative expression, the festival celebrates the thriving artistry among Indigenous Peoples. Running October 14-18 in Toronto, we are pleased to partner with imagineNATIVE to support the festival's commitment to Indigenous music.

On Saturday, October 17, imagineNATIVE will present a live music performance night "The Beat DJ POW! WOW!" — featuring electronic sets from GlitClit, Madeskimo, and Akkil.

To get you hyped for the show, we've assembled a fresh, new mixtape featuring all three of the artists performing at the show.

Inuk electronic artist madeskimo, a.k.a. Geronimo Inutiq, uses live instruments, digital and analogue synths, and a deft hand at remixing and processing samples to blend traditional Inuit, Aboriginal, modern electronic and urban music into experimental new hybrids.

GlitClit is the DJ project of acclaimed Colombian singer and electronic artist Lido Pimienta, who experiments with Indigenous sonics, beats, live looping, and hypnotic vocals. Known as “Colombian darling” and “SoundSister”, Pimienta has been bumping up Afro-Indigenous chanting and rhythms with brass, experimental noise, walls of sound and her beautiful voice, creating a hyper-coloured hybrid sound that can’t be boxed into lazy genre tags.

Rounding out the night, we will be joined by Akkil - who fuses traditional Sámi joik and Sámi classics with the synth-sounds from the 1980s, to celebrate and honour Sámi musical traditions while infusing them with new dancefloor rhythms.

Hosted by Rachelle White Wind, "The Beat" will also feature breakdancing performances by Jay Robi, Siez Swift & Krystal Riverz, with a special performance by Rhythm Natives.

In addition to live performances, and music-themed screenings, this year's festival will also feature some new experiments with Virtual Reality Portals, where audiences get to experience immersive "Oculus VR" demos featuring music from A Tribe Called Red and Tanya Tagaq.

Don't miss this incredible celebration of Indigenous creativity and community. And join us on Saturday for an epic NDN throwdown on the dancefloor.

"The Beat DJ POW! WOW!" will be held Saturday, October 17th at Revival in Toronto.

DOWNLOAD: The imagineNATIVE 2015 Mixtape

DOWNLOAD: Mob Bounce's 'Mob Medicine', A Powerful Debut Album of Indigenous Hip-Hop

Rising Indigenous hip-hop duo Mob Bounce drop their hotly-anticipated new album, Mob Medicine.

Gitxsan MC The Northwest Kid and Cree/Métis MC Heebz the Earthchild have been locked in the studio working on their "grassroots labour of love" for a minute now, but the hype has been building for their debut album to drop.

Well, the wait is over. Mob Medicine is here.

A self-produced effort featuring the two MCs trading conscious bars over decidedly abstract hip-hop beats, Mob Bounce combines west coastal naturalistic imagery and acoustic poetry with more rugged spiritual anthems dedicated to uplifiting the Indigenous community.

From the spoken word melodics of "Land of Giant Dragonflies" to hypnotic healing joints like "New Sage" and the half-sung, eerily melancholic "Starseed", the duo pushes out beyond the limits of masculinist rap bravado and into more intimate and interior territory.

Mid-album cuts like "Walk With Our Sisters", a crackling rhythmic dedication to missing and murdered Indigenous women, and the early single, "Oral Tradition", find Mob Bounce bringing their commitment to culture, family, and community to the forefront, but it's in the album's closing tracks, like the sublime "Sacred Space" featuring Drezus, that their music really finds its spirited groove, infusing the Mob's open-hearted aesthetics with hip-hop's urgency and prophetic poetics.

Don't sleep. This is just the first step on their journey. Get a dose of that good Mob Medicine and like they tell it, #burnsageeveryday.

Stream the album in full below or head to mobbouncemusic.com and grab the free download.

Mob Bounce - Mob Medicine Track List:

1. Cree Dance Clearwater Revival 2. Redfist 3. Culture 4. Animal Spirit Interlude Poem 5. Animal Spirit 6. Land of Giant Dragonflies by Wysper Light 7. Welcome to the Struggle 8. Baldhead with Braids 9. New Sage 10. Starseed Interlude Poem 11. Starseed 12. Redboy 13. Walk With Our Sisters 14. Oral Tradition 15. Brush That Rain 16. Our People Were Sleeping But Now We’re Awake 17. Stay With Me 18. All My Relations 19. Sacred Space (Keep it Real) Ft. Drezus 20. Grandpa’s Journey Song

Stream Mob Bounce's "Mob Medicine"

STREAM: David Morin's Soulful Debut Album 'Every Colour' is Beautiful Music for the People

David Morin is being called "the next big thing in music". Listen to Every Colour and you'll see why.

If you grew up in the era of the Soulquarians, Dilla, D'Angelo, Badu and the whole neo-soul movement—well, damn, whenever you were born—you know how those deep, souled out, hip-hop vibes make you feel.

Those jonz in your bones, everybody loves the sunshine, brown sugar, guess I'll see you next lifetime vibes. You know, those soulful feels. The everything is right in the world and despite all the pain and struggle and endless things to worry about you know you need to just kick back and vibe out kind of feels.

That goodness. That realness. Vibes.

That's what Métis artist David Morin's Every Colour has. It's music that moves you with both the rawness of its streetcorner cypher origins and the polish of its professionalism—soulful gems crafted in some hidden Vancouver version of Electric Ladyland, magic made in the quiet hours of long, languid west coast nights.

Morin's take on soul music is studied without sounding derivative. Over the album's 12 tracks, Every Colour effortlessly flows out your speakers with its expertly crafted, on point vocal performances, and produced-to-perfection sheen. But don't get it twisted: the high gloss acoustics are just a bit of honey added to the mix that soak into the depth of Morin's deft musicality and subtle lyrical jabs at systems that aren't working for the people.

Who else is crooning, as Morin does on "You and Me"—"so sadistic / on a mission /  to control the way you think / in a system / where all they do is take/ it's just a classic case / of a fascist state / lying to your face"—over a rolling bassline, Isaac Hayes'd strings, and a breezy, George Benson-esque guitar lick?

Morin makes systemic critique sound like sweet seduction.

Deeply indebted to Voodoo-era aesthetics, Every Colour overflows with D'Angelo-inspired, winding grooves, horns, strings, tasteful guitar stabs, and head-knocking hip-hop beats, that expand and contract in constant interplay with Morin's melodic, layered vocals.

Enlisting acclaimed producer Joby Baker on the boards and with Bombay Records at his back, Morin is already getting love from established hip-hop media outlets: a recent feature in The Source dubbed him "The Next Big Thing in Music" and, just this week, Okayplayer showed him love with a video premiere of his latest single, "Come Home".

Known both for his legendary street performances and live performance skills, Morin is more than just a singer—his multi-instrumental talents as a beatboxer, loop pedalist, beatmaker, and varied vocalist have set him on a rising trajectory to infiltrate mass musical consciousness. We challenge you not to get down.

David Morin is the truth. And his gospel is soulful goodness.

Every Colour is available everywhere on iTunes. Stream the album in full below, and catch him on tour or at a street corner near you.

STREAM: David Morin's Every Colour

WATCH: David Morin's "Come Home"

DOWNLOAD: Destiny's 'Honeysuckle', A Feminist Disco Soul Album for the Ages

Destiny drops, Honeysuckle, a hypnotic follow up to her acclaimed debut, Metallic Butterfly.

Blooming with an easy confidence, positivity, and Smart Girl Club feminist swagger, Destiny's Honeysuckle is a taste of all things good in this world.

After catching a couple of sun-soaked previews in the form of the 80s-tinged "Orange Blossom" and the disco-funk of "Soul Train", Honeysuckle finds Taino artist Destiny Fraqueri, aka the former Princess Nokia, luxuriating in her uniquely soulful blend of throwback optimism and hip-hop eclecticism.

Over the album's 12 tracks, Destiny alternately sings, croons, raps, and spins out stories of love and songs of uplift in a time of beautiful struggle.

But it's in the album's latter half that Destiny really comes into her element.

From the downtempo, trip-hop grooves of "Mermaid Girl" and "Cherry Cola", to the acoustic folk of "Wide Brim Hat" and the bluesy pairing of "God Inside of Me" with the righteous, poetic liberation of spoken word album closer, "Brown Girl Blues", Destiny is proof positive that remaining positive in the face of oppression is not just a political necessity—it's a revolutionary act of celebration.

"We can't succumb to the darkness", she says. Time to lean into the light.

STREAM: Destiny's Honeysuckle or download it below.

DOWNLOAD: Destiny's Honeysuckle

HONEYSUCKLE http://t.co/HQ5ioAxxkKpic.twitter.com/oMcBwUFTUw

— DESTINYFRASQUERI (@princess_nokia) September 21, 2015

Destiny Fall Tour Dates 2015:

09.20 - MoMA PS1 - New York City 09.26 - VIA Music Fest - Pittsburgh, PA 10.11 - Webster Music Hall - New York City 10.30 - Wesleyan University - Connecticut 10.31 - The Barbery - Philadelphia, PA 11.12 - Cooper Union Hall - New York City 11.13 - Chop Suey - Seattle, WA

DOWNLOAD: Angel Haze's New Mixtape, "Back to the Woods", is Next Level Amazing

No more waiting. The new Angel Haze project, Back to the Woods, is here.

Get it for free. Until midnight. Right now.

This "accidental masterpiece" is already blowing our minds. Angel Haze is elevating their game to a stratospheric level.

Following a string of increasingly dope releases, from Reservation and Classick to Haze's killer debut studio album, Dirty Gold, in 2013, Back to the Woods arrives at a time of tremendous emotional upheaval in their life, but one that inspired incredible development in haze's personal growth and creative expression.

In an interview with Billboard, Haze talks about what they're hoping listeners will take away from the project:

I listen to this record and I hear an exponential amount of growth. Not just as a person, but as an artist. I don't really know what people will take away from it, because I think interpretation is up to everybody. I just hope in some way, shape or form, they understand that I am who I am. I am just trying to feel my way through life. I'm not trying to take a form. I'm not trying to change any minds. I'm just expressing myself, and if you feel it, you feel it. If you don't, then they motherf—king don't, and that's just it.

Back to the Woods is a bombastic assault that rolls out over 11 tracks of Tk Kayembe-produced firepower. Rugged, raw, badass, and overflowing with strength and purpose—Angel Haze is taking rap out of this world and into the beyond.

Check the Back to the Woods album release party September 14th at Baby's Alright in Brooklyn, New York. The album is  available worldwide on iTunes, Spotify, and other music retailers.

DOWNLOAD: Angel Haze - Back to the Woods

ANGEL HAZE - BACK TO THE WOODS - TRACKLIST

Tracklist for #BACKTOTHEWOODS @AngelHaze pic.twitter.com/UWRwqDx6Dz

— UniversalMusicCanada (@universalmusicC) September 14, 2015

STREAM: Fawn Wood's Stunning New Album Honouring the Female Spirit, Kikawiynaw

Plains Cree/Salish singer Fawn Wood's new album is almost too good for words. 

But, beautiful, powerful, moving, and raw but pulsing with strength are a few we can start with.

Titled Kikāwiynaw meaning "our mother," Wood's latest collection honours the female spirit. Her clear, warm, and expressive voice is an open door—guiding you into her round dance, hand game, and traditional songs. Once inside, you're greeted with layered, ethereal harmonies and occasional gentle instrumentation that gently wrap you in their warmth.

Wood's music invites you to connect with your spirit as she travels through themes of longing, loss, remembrance, family, celebration, and gratitude.

It's an invitation your ears and heart can't refuse.

STREAM: Fawn Wood's new album, Kikāwiynaw, below:

PREMIERE: Stream Wolf Saga's "Auburn Nights" and Dive Into Synthpop Heaven

Wolf Saga's Auburn Nights, is the instant classic synthpop album you need in your life.

If you've been sleeping on Wolf Saga, now's the time to get acquainted.

Storming onto the scene with a slew of killer remixes, covers, and 80s-inspired interpretations of everyone from Foster the People and The Strokes, to Lorde and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Wolf Saga is elevating his game with every release.

Toronto-based Johnny Saga is the fast-rising Anishinaabe singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist behind the project, and he's been rocking a consistently deadly hybrid electronic style that effortlessly blends synth-pop melodic sensibilities with indie rock cred and buttery, analogue elements. Check his recent set of Sessions X videos for a taste.

After dropping dope sets of covers and remixes over the past two years, Wolf Saga released My Time, his debut EP of original music, in 2014. He's been racking up accolades along the way: his epic SoundCloud stream has been clocking record numbers (his collab cover of The Strokes' "You Only Live Once" is currently sitting at +614,000 plays and was one of the HypeMachine Zeitgeist's 50 most-blogged songs of 2014), and his Vine-tastic video for "Our Time" is pushing 500k views on YouTube.

Wolf Saga's blowing up the internet and it's easy to hear why.

The title track from his latest Auburn Nights EP immediately brings to mind not only everyone's favourite whistled hook from the mid-oughts (a song that, yes, is another one he's covered), but also Johnny's own penchant for polished production, lush pop grooves, and immediately infectious electronics.

"All In", featured here in both its original form and a New Division remix, is a perfect pop composition straight out of swirling synthesized worlds of early MGMT, while "Walls" is a head-nodding, breezy blend of catchy guitar lines and Johnny's captivating vocal hooks—that pay special homage to the life of his grandmother and the teachings she passed down to him.

Auburn Nights goes deep on some neon summer, 80s-iridescent vibes—it's a perfect sunny accompaniment to the final wave of summer heat that we can all feel shimmering by. Johnny says the new EP is all about "following your dream, finding real love, and gender equality".

We like where he's headed. And it's going to be big. Time to run with the Wolf.

PREMIERE: Stream Wolf Saga's "Auburn Nights"

Catch Wolf Saga live in Los Angeles on September 14th for the Auburn Nights EP release party.

PREMIERE: YK The Mayor - "Fall"

Winnipeg rapper YK The Mayor returns with his new single, "Fall".

After dropping the hype single, "In My Dreams", back in June, Winnipeg hip-hop artist YK The Mayor (fka Young Kidd), is back with his latest.

The CTL Records artist keeps things live and direct on "Fall", calling out the haters and doubters who've questioned YK's ability to reclaim his position in the hip-hop limelight after his recent hiatus doing time—and on how, since he's been away, he didn't know what Snapchat was.

Enlisting the talents of Anishinaabe Boogey the Beat on production, the atmospheric, melodic trap beat provides a vibed-out complement to YK's shout outs to his fam and collaborators. After dropping a sneak peak of the track on Instagram this week, leading up to the single's release, Boogey declares "Fall" to be YK the Mayor's "official return"—but, more than that, the track is an ode to their hometown of #WonderfulWinnipeg and a bold declaration that they're aiming "to take back the city that is rightfully theirs".

Get with it.

STREAM: YK The Mayor - "Fall"

PREMIERE: Download Logan Staats' Bluesy New Single, "Pretty Little Liars"

We're pleased to premiere the latest single from Mohawk breakout artist Logan Staats, "Pretty Little Liars".

After wowing us with a handful of stripped down, acoustic, live performances for 6 Arrows Media, singer-songwriter Logan Staats has been on a steady climb into the Indigenous music spotlight.

Following recent performances at the Aboriginal Pavilion and Planet IndigenUS (alongside Buffy Sainte-Marie and Derek Miller no less!) in Toronto, and with an upcoming showcase at Aboriginal Music Week in Winnipeg, the Six Nations singer is just getting warmed up.

With the release of his debut solo album, Goodbye Goldia, a soulful journey into passion, pain, and healing heartbreak, Staats' rugged and raw voice—coupled with his innate sense of compelling melodic lines and phrasing—guides you down into the depths, only to wring your heart out, song by song.

We're pleased to premiere "Pretty Little Liars", the latest single from the album, a bluesy ballad with a hook that gets right in your soul and stays there, working its magic on you.

Catch Logan Staats live in Winnipeg on August 19th as part of the "AMW at Lunch" series for Aboriginal Music Week.

DOWNLOAD: Logan Staats - "Pretty Little Liars"

Goodbye Goldia is available now on iTunes. For more, visit loganstaats.com

Angel Haze Destroys Everyone in the Rap Game on "Babe Ruthless"

Shapeshifter and ever-hype emcee Angel Haze is taking no prisoners on her new track, "Babe Ruthless".

Ruthless is the word here. Raw, rugged, renegade rap monster Angel Haze annihilates all competition on the track—transforming into her Machiavellian alter ego and proceeding to kick some of the illest successions of syllables she's ever released.

If this is any indication of where her forthcoming Back to the Woods mixtape (due September 14th) is headed, the rest of the hip-hop world is right to be protecting their necks.

The Tsalagi MC is out for more than just revenge. She wants it all.

You've been warned.

STREAM: Angel Haze - "Babe Ruthless"

DOWNLOAD: The Aboriginal Music Week Mixtape by Boogey the Beat

RPM and Aboriginal Music Week are joining forces for an epic closing night party this year. Check our exclusive AMW Mixtape to get a taste of what's to come. 

We enlisted the talent of rising Anishinaabe hip-hop producer and DJ Boogey the Beat to compile sounds from this year's AMW artists and it's the perfect soundtrack for #MixtapeMonday.

Bringing together hip-hop and R&B tracks from all of our closing night party performers including—Hellnback, Mariame, T-Rhyme, and Tall Paul—as well as the eclectic electronics of Exquisite Ghost, the rap stylings of Mic Jordan, a guest appearance by Lightning Cloud, and some of Boogey's own killer productions, this is a party rocking, beat-based excursion into the contemporary sounds of #IndigenousExcellence.

Let's go!

And don't forget to join us for the Aboriginal Music Week Closing Night Concert on Saturday, August 22nd at The Good Will in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Tickets and info here.

DOWNLOAD THE AMW MIXTAPE:

TRACK LISTING

1. Boogey The Beat - The Beginning
2. Exquisite Ghost - Bringing Dawn
3. Exquisite Ghost - Hands To The Sky
4. Hellnback - B.T.B.B. Ft. Lightning Cloud
5. Hellnback - Spaceship
6. Mariame - Electric
7. Mariame - Native Ft. Supaman
8. Boogey The Beat - Sidestep
9. Boogey The Beat - Uja (Tanya Tagaq Remix)
10. Mic Jordan - It Feels Good
11. Mic Jordan - Miigwetch (Thank You)
12. T-Rhyme - Apollo Red
13. T-Rhyme - Tha Truth
14. Tall Paul - I Don't Need Glove
15. Tall Paul - Orange Juice In My Cereal

Boogey The Beat is the principal producer behind the CTL Records releases along with the introductory music for CBC's "New Fire with Lisa Charleyboy." His DJing chops have landed him on stages for the Indspire Awards and Stage 49 at the Gathering of Nations. He's set to take the stage at Aboriginal Music Week's Closing Night Party presented by RPM.FM on Saturday, August 22, 2015. Closing Night Party presented by RPM.FM Tall Paul, Mariame, HellnbacK, T-Rhyme*, Boogey The Beat Saturday, August 22, 2015 9PM - 2AM The Good Will, 625 Portage Avenue Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Tix $10 | 18+ I.D. Req'd aboriginalmusicweek.ca | #IndigenousExcellence

A photo posted by abmusicweek (@abmusicweek) on Jul 11, 2015 at 6:29pm PDT

Samantha Crain's New Album, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, is the One We've Been Waiting For

With her fourth album, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, Samantha Crain has hit her stride.

Five years ago in the original RPM offices in Vancouver's Chinatown, a few weeks before the site launched, Ostwelve said to the team "do you know of Samantha Crain?" We stopped to watch the video for Santa Fe and all fell fast for her rich, almost husky croon, her sweet, inviting, folk style. We've all been fans ever since.

As a fan, while I've adored her vocal and musical style since that day, I felt as a songwriter she hadn't yet grown into her own - not something unexpected from a young artist. With her newest release, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, and now with years of touring and performing and living this life, Crain has grown up and into her voice as a writer and recording artist. The result is not only her best album yet, but one of the best albums this year. I'm excited we can finally say so - RPM was lucky to get an advance listen of the record and we've been bursting to share our praise for it.

“I don’t write protest songs in the traditional sense,” Crain told The Guardian recently, “but I’m always listening to the voices of people around me. These stories are told from the perspective of the underdog, the 99% of us that are working people. They might not be literal protest songs, but the lives of the people within these songs speak at the same volume if you listen.”

Indeed, the songs showcase nimble, poetic lyrics that tell stories of bitter circumstances, the downtrodden, and broken hearts, with a knowing intimacy that comes from the pen of an adept listener. These stories are wrapped in folk and country stylings (with an occasional synth keeping the indie cred alive and well) and despite the sombre or sad stories, they are lifted by striking imagery and elegant musicality.

Samantha Crain serenades The Dakota Tavern, Toronto, Ontario

Crain is an artist who is seemingly always on tour. Earlier this year she did a number of dates opening for Buffy Ste. Marie, she has headlined her own countless shows, and played major festivals - she is at home in front of large crowds. It was a rare treat that her current CD release tour included a stop in Toronto at the legendary but small Dakota Tavern where Crain charmed the lucky, grateful few there.

There may not be another chance to be up close for a solo performance - Under Branch & Thorn & Tree has the makings of a turning point. Catch her live show soon and get the album even sooner. If you haven't fallen for her yet, you will now: this is the album and moody, sweet summer soundtrack you've been waiting for.

Stream the Full Album, Under Branch & Thorn & Tree, below:

The album is also available on Spotify: