A mixtape we create for you to celebrate the end of 2013, so many things happened this year and how the time flies so fast mixing the bad and the good, the worst and the best. We’ve crossed continents to celebrate the festivity of musics and culture, therefore we want to share with our reader how we felt and how we’re looking forward to improve with our reader for the upcoming year! Cheers x

Track listing:

1.  Mgmt – Alien Days
2.  Spiritualized – Ladies & Gentleman We Are Floating In Space
3.  The Shoes – Time To Dance
4.  Born Ruffians – Ocean’s Deep
5.  Poolside – Harvest Moon
6.  Dan Croll – In/out
7.  Pillar Point – Diamond Mine
8.  Swim Deep – She Changes The Weather
9.  Bayou – Varsity Jacket
10. Paradise Animals – Coastal lines
11. The Holidays – Broken Bones
12. Jon Hopkins feat Purity Ring – Breathe This Air

By the time when we hit 2013, we start hunting down amazing new bands. We’ve been thinking to put Swim Deep as one of the featured artists for our weekly feature, The Next Big Thing. However, for some reason, the plan got to be delayed and then we decided to replace Swim Deep with some other names. Since they’ll release their debut album in July, guess it’s the best time to put Swim Deep in!

Swim Deep are an indie-rock band from Birmingham who were formed in 2011. The Birmingham boys are Austin Williams, Tom ‘Higgy’ Higgins, Zachary Robinson and Cavan McCarthy. The story of Swim Deep is started by Austin and Tom who worked at the same place, and one of the founding members is Wolfgang Harte, who was positioned as a bass player decided to left the band and then replaced by Cavan.

In 2012, Swim Deep signed with Chess Club and released their debut single, ‘King City’. And in the end of 2012, the band went to Brussels to work with Charlie       Hugall for their debut album, ‘Where the Heaven Are We’. Charlie Hugall is a British producer who has worked with Florence Welch, the Maccabees, Kaiser Chiefs, and many more. ” He’s one of us, he gets it. I swear to God he was in Beastie Boys in a past life or something.” said Austin regarding the experience working with Charlie. Swim Deep have performed along with Spector, Mystery Jets, the Klaxons, and Two Door Cinema Club. You might find Swim Deep closely sound like most of the great indie rock bands, but believe it or not, the band grew up with musics like Lionel Richie and LL Cool J. Yes, you heard that.

Swim Deep are promising to give a bunch of surprises in their debut album, which Austin confirmed that we can get their debut’s vibe by listening to the latest song, ‘She Changes the Weather’. Swim Deep step in the year as the ones to watch, NME also put them on their ‘Best New Bands in 2013’ list. Just like how they describe the music, Swim Deep are more ‘Roll’ than ‘Rock’

Yup. It’s the time of the year again. Summer is finally here, and the cheery-yet-laidback holiday feel is back creeping on us. True to the tradition, we’ve picked out 13 summer anthems that fit the criteria to be the soundtracks of the most anticipated holiday of the season. Whether you’re sunbathing in the beach or just simply sipping on your lemonade at home, these tunes will make everything feel much more fun and jolly.

1. Trains – Wampire

With its lazy and breezy tune, Trains quickly puts you in a true summer mood. Its retro-funk feel will compel you to just relax, to lie down on the warm sand of the beach, and put your shades on as you bask in the heavenly sunlight.

2. 3am Spiritual – Smith Westerns

Craving for a peek of the new Smith Westerns album, Soft Will? This track might give you an idea or two of what the band have to offer. 3am Spiritual has some kind of a John Lennon-inspired melancholy goodness to it, completed with a touch of emotional guitar solo that will make you feel like you’re being thrown into a time machine and get sent back to the 1960s—which, is a cool decade, by the way. This is the song you’d want to be on play as you surf the waves of the Indian Ocean, or when you’re speeding down the highway that leads to your summer destination.

3. Alive – Empire of the Sun

The chorus of this song sounds pretty self-explanatory; “Loving every minute ‘cause you make me feel so alive,” sings Luke Steele. It’s a dancing ecstasy that sends tingles to every fiber of your body, making it hard for you to not break into a move. The shimmery synths make listening to the whole track feels like a trip to Neptune in the middle of summer; escaping from the hot, unforgivable heat, to the chilly and freezing planet. It’s been said many times that the mind is a powerful thing, and Alive will probably help you tone down the high temperature and cope with the heat wave that is to come during the season.

4. White Noise – Disclosure (feat Aluna George)

The sharp staccato synth melody, combined with the sugary sweet, almost-childlike voice of Aluna Francis (of Aluna George), is definitely the recipe for this catchy and dancy track. There’s probably nothing cooler than to have this song playing in a hip beach party you’re attending.

5. Demon Dance – Surfer Blood

Demon Dance is the second single off the new Surfer Blood album, Phytons. Judging from the sound of this song, it seems that Surfer Blood have managed to maintain their signature indie-meets-grunge roots. It’s packed with gritty pop vocals and hooky, Weezer-ish guitar, but the light melody makes the song a perfect company as you do your summer activities–maybe even get you to sing (or shout) along to a few lines from it.

6. Diane Young – Vampire Weekend

Aside from the funky bass and clattering drums, the surf guitar from Rostam Batmanglij also makes this somewhat abstract song something immensely fun to listen to. If this doesn’t immediately put you in a summery, groovy party mood, we’re not sure what would.

7. She Changes the Weather – Swim Deep

Mighty guitar squalls? Check. Frontman Austin Williams cooing like a Romeo? Check. This could be the soundtrack for your beautiful summer love.

8. Guns – CHVRCHES

Hauled as the band’s “best track to date” by many, Gun has an electro-pop sound and simple bass. It doesn’t sound too flashy or boisterous, which makes it a perfect summer festival sing-along.

9. The National – Sea of Love

Sea of Love (from which the band’s new album—“Trouble Will Find Me”– had taken its title from) is a tender, vigorous rock song that charms its way to your heart at the first listen. It could also be the perfect song for a slow, humid day.

10. Jessica – Major Lazer (feat Ezra Koenig)

It’s a low-paced ska-tinged jam that triggers a modicum of head nodding. The first thing that crosses your mind once you hear the intro would be an image of  an exotic tropical island with white sand and palm trees on the sides. Add Ezra Koenig’s vocal, and you’ve got yourself an engrossing song to hum to as you take a walk to the beach.

11. No Shelter – Blouse

No Shelter feels like a valley girl-acid trip, coated in some post-punk feel and a flavor of west coast America. The Portland band surely succeeded to deliver all the hazy goodness in this song.

12. Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke (feat T.I. and Pharrell)

When you ignore its racy content, the track is a bubbly bit of disco-shuffling R&B, with the (almost) right balance of smooth and soulful.

13. Get Lucky – Daft Punk

Okay. Some of you are probably shaking your head right now, saying that this one should be on the top of the list. The rest would probably argue that the hype has murdered this song for you that you can’t even listen to it anymore. But still, you can’t deny that the song sounds so, so good. Get Lucky is a formidable old-school disco jam. It’s intoxicating with the combination of minor chords and regular disco-type “up” beats throughout the song. A number of critics have even called it a track that represents “all that’s right in electronic music.” All in all, it’s a fun song that fits the happy mood of summer, a tune that easily gets one to sway their way to the dance floor.

 (Shafira Desliara/Photo: Karpe Diem)

“No! We’re like Birmingham’s biggest buzz band but we just want to represent London,” said Ellie Rowsell, the frontwoman of Wolf Alice, to NME. We’ll put that as a starter just in case you guys will put them along with Birmingham’s bands like Peace or Swim Deep. Wolf Alice might be your average indie band, but they are starting to be the ones to watch. The band consist of Ellie Rowsell, Joel Amey, Joff Oddie, and Theo Ellis, were formed in 2010. Wolf Alice’s early root was basically a country slash folk-infused psych rock but later when the rhythm section joined, they turned into rock-pop with some fiery and loud tunes in it.

At the beginning, Wolf Alice was Ellie Roswell’s solo project. The story is simple, Ellie and Joff were planning to create a MySpace’s page, then later completed by the additions of Joel Amey and Theo Ellis. If you listen to their ‘Leaving You’, you’ll recognize them as a solo affair, but the song gradually shows a sound of a fully-formed band. The name of the band was picked from an Angela Carter’s novel.

In 2012, they released their first self-titled EP and a single, ‘Leaving You’. Wolf Alice’s Leaving You has earned an airplay on BBC Radio, the band also have spotted by NME to their Radar’s list and featured as one of the most exciting new bands in 2013. In the same year, Wolf Alice did some touring with Peace. The band are not bringing some heavy material music (that contains of random idealist thoughts) but they bring this sweetness, light, full of friendship stuffs, especially in their song ‘Bros’. Ellie Roswell described their music as “It was teen self-indulgence in a way, if that makes sense. When you’re 16 and you hate your parents, boys don’t fancy you and your friends didn’t invite you to their sleepover. You think you’re going through something no one understands so you write a song about it and it makes you feel better. Also I just wanted to be Avril Lavigne…obviously.”

Wolf Alice might be known for their sweety friendship songs, but you can get yourself to listen to ‘Fluffy’, which was released in February 2013. Fluffy is more to a pop-rock loud song that will snab people’s ears with the repetitive loud part, “Set Free! Set Free!”, on its chorus. Wolf Alice are just a pure work of the London four-piece that will suit your life’s soundtrack. You may ask more about Wolf Alice’s songs, just wait for them as Ellie confirmed the band have bunch of songs that they would like to show to a wide listener, but they are only available for the live shows. So, we can only say “keep calm and listen to Wolf Alice”.