We never intended this blog to focus so much on Toronto artists but there is so much greatness coming out of the city that we can’t ignore it. The Airplane Boys are the latest local group that has caught our ear. Their song Beau Monde is produced by DJA of Mad Decent fame and it rolls real hard. DJA knows how to milk a sample for all it’s worth.

Download the song below, check out the video after the jump, and if you’re attending Coachella, don’t miss their performance tomorrow.

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DOWNLOAD: The Airplane Boys – Beau Monde

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Los Angeles based Ghost Loft recently sent us his song Blow and we immediately fell for its warm and romantic sound. From the beats to the vocals, everything about this is lush and drips with sluggish summertime vibes. Rinse & repeat.

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DOWNLOAD: Ghost Loft – Blow

Here are the superbly entertaining visuals to one of our favourite tracks from Take Care. The video provides a high energy, comedic contrast to his recent video with Rihanna. The HYFR clip features a synagogue, Birdman, Lil Wayne, DJ Khaled, new OVO sweatshirts and the consumption of Manischewitz wine.

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It’s been a little since we made a proper music post, but it hasn’t been for a lack of good songs. Below is a small playlist of songs that we’ve been vibing to over the past couple weeks and will set you up for a weekend of sonic goodness.

Let’s start with the newest song, this Star Slinger song featuring Lil B and Stunnaman. It’s fitting to start with the man that had so much influence on the genre melding rap/R&B/electronic/soul sound that is so du jour.

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DOWNLOAD: Star Slinger – Bad Bitches (Feat. Stunnaman & Lil B)

Sweater Beats is Antonio Cuna from New York. He categorized his song “Anxious” as ‘future lovestep’ which we can infer is a combination of the future bass sound and the original softer side of dubstep. Whatever you call it, it’s getting many repeated plays with the longer sunnier days ahead.

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DOWNLOAD: Sweater Beats – Anxious

Our hometown hero Deebs premiered a brand new track on XLR8R recently. He is working on an EP for one of our favorite labels, Pelican Fly, and he’s shared “You (In My World)” as a preview of that release.

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DOWNLOAD: Deebs – You (In My World)

We can’t believe more people aren’t talking about Ambalance’s EP Cokewave. Ambalance is Toronto natives XI and Skeleton Bones’ downtempo collaboration that is self described as “heroin house”. Hello Nobody is our favorite track from the EP that they are offering up for a “name your price” deal on their bandcamp.

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DOWNLOAD: AMBALANCE – Hello Nobody

Bassheads have been going nuts for this latest tune from Mister Tweeks, another Pelican Fly artist to keep an eye on.

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DOWNLOAD: Mister Tweeks – Addiction (Original Mix)

Young Empires’ recently performed White Doves on CBC’s The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos. They did a great job playing one of our favourite singles from their EP Wake All My Youth. The video includes the performance, a quick bio of the band and a post-set interview.

Also, check out our collaboration with the band, The Young Empires Collection. All t-shirts and sweatshirts ship with a CD copy of Wake All My Youth.

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If you’ve been keeping up with our Twitter feed you probably already know that we will be helping to host Diamond Atlas’ first concert/event series Fortune featuring performances by Southern Shores, Foxes in Fiction, and Teen Daze.

Fortune is a sound and visual showcase with a mission to create an incredible night of live music, visual art, and bring out a whole new group of show goers, music lovers and weirdos alike. The first Fortune showcase will take place on May 3rd, 2012, at The Garrison here in Toronto. We’re really proud to be a part of bringing forth amazing talent to our city and being able to work with Diamond Atlas.

In anticipation to the event we will be posting exclusive material on the blog, the first of which is this deep listening mixtape put together by Warren Hildebrand of Foxes in Fiction. It has become THE mixtape we go to when were looking to get some work done or just zone out and reconnect with the world around us. A truly beautiful landscape of transportive sonic wavelengths. Below is what Warren had to say about his motivations behind the work.

“This mixtape is a collection of some of my favourite instrumental and ambient music that I’ve come across in the past few years. I usually reserve a lot of this stuff for periods when I’m feeling especially stressed and strung out. As I’m sure is the case with a lot of people who enjoy this kind of music, I always find that binging on ambient music helps me to relax and retreat into my own mind and process whatever thoughts that I have endlessly rattling around in my head. I also tried to sequence all these songs in way that would work best for the kind of music that it is and the kind of energy each song has as to not be completely boring. I hope you enjoy these recordings as much as I do and attach your own memories and meaning to each of them.”

- Foxes in Fiction

Tracklist and an explanation about the philosophy of deep listening are after the jump.

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DOWNLOAD: Foxes in Fiction – A Deep Listening Mixtape for Handsome Clothing

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Count us in on the Julian Cruz bandwagon. The Toronto based artist is the latest to step out from The Weeknd’s XO Crew and drop a full new mixtape yesterday. Although he may share similar sensibilities to The Weeknd’s sound, Julian is able to put his own mark on this release. Some of our early favorite songs are below but its worth getting the whole Black Heart mixtape.

Sounds like we have our soundtrack for the continually warming months ahead.

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DOWNLOAD: Julian – JOY

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DOWNLOAD: Julian – Dry Blunt

Rustie, one of the most original and exciting producers making music right now, just dropped a new remix of SebastiAn’s “Love In Motion” featuring vocals from Mayer Hawthorne. Play this tonight to get you in the mood before you go out to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day.

C’est bon.

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DOWNLOAD: SebastiAn (ft. Mayer Hawthorne) – Love In Motion (Rustie Remix)

Hot Chip have just released a new song entitled Flutes that is off their highly anticipated 5th studio album. On first listen it sounds like Hot Chip have deftly melded their strengths into one very dancefloor friendly song. Emotional vocals, quirky sounds, pop melodies, clean production, and soaring synths all come together to achieve a rare harmony. Now we’re really looking forward to the new album.

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DOWNLOAD: Hot Chip – Flutes

We’ve been really into piano driven music recently at Handsome HQ. The soothing sounds of delicately tickled ivories are simply undeniable to us right now. Dutch duo Änimal deliver the goods with their aptly named Serenity. The sparse intro is intriguing, but what really sealed the deal for us are the casino inspired blips & bleeps that hit around the 3:30 mark.

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DOWNLOAD: Änimal – Serenity