As music releases go this month, the past 4 weeks have felt pretty tame. Perhaps we’re still recovering from the Drake vs Ye album saga from a few months before, but we’re by no means taking a back seat on the CULTED SOUNDS Staff Picks playlist. As always, the team have chosen their top 10 tracks of the month, highlighting one key tune they haven’t been able to stop listening to for the past 30 (or so) days. All together, it brings a concoction of sounds, from the likes of KAYTRANADA and Pharrell Williams, Mac Miller and ScHoolboy Q and A$AP Rocky, who has just dropped his debut mixtape LIVE.LOVE.A$AP on streaming services in celebration of its 10th birthday. Feel old yet? From old 80s funk, to new releases from Maxo Kream and everything in between, scroll to enjoy our favourite tunes of October.

PAVEL

MIDSECTION – KAYTRANADA, PHARRELL WIILLIAMS (2019)
September is always an intense month with all the fashion weeks and projects, then October comes around and everything slows down. The tracks I listened to perfectly reflect that. I took two weeks out of work and had a really chilled month. I spent the time in Cornwall, by the ocean. When I wasn’t surfing, cliff jumping or with friends, I listened to chilled tracks with a good vibe. While scrolling through some old playlists I came across this track I hadn’t heard since 2019. It’s just good chilled vibes you know. I love the vocals and change in rhythm throughout.

SOPHIE

CANDY – CAMEO (1986)
You know that old chestnut, when someone sends you a track to listen to, you say you’ll listen to it later and then never do. Yeah? Well, most of my picks this month have been recommendations that I have grown to love. Turns out people know me better than I thought, who knew. My pick of the month however is an old classic, which I heard at an event a couple of weeks ago, and haven’t been able to get out of my head since. I’m a sucker for a funky 80’s tune, so naturally this has been on repeat, helping me to get out of bed on these cold wintery mornings. So if you do anything today, stick this on your headphones and enjoy the blast from the past. It’s a bit cheesy, but don’t lie to yourself and say you don’t love it.

SAM G

LVL – A$AP ROCKY (2013)
With this week marking the 10 year anniversary of one of the albums that shaped my teens, ‘LIVE. LOVE. A$AP’ by the infamous A$AP Rocky, my love for such a great artist has been rekindled and i’ve had his music on repeat all week. I first got introduced to the rap scene at 15, and LVL was one of the first songs that really caught my attention. Throughout college the track was vigorously played within my friend group and years later, it still remains at the top of my playlist, permanently linked to a great time in my life. Here’s to 10 years Rocky, Always $trive and Prosper.

STELLA

WILD JASMINE – JOY CROOKES (2021)
I’m steadily rising in to the ranks of becoming a Joy Crookes stan – from her early tracks dropped a couple years ago, to her debut album release last week, she consistently produces great tunes. I went to her mini-album launch in Rough Trade, and she opened with this track. It was the perfect choice to get everyone dancing, singing, and is a standout on the album for me. Enjoy!

JACK

FRIENDS – MAC MILLER FT. SCHOOLBOY Q (2021)
In a month where new music releases haven’t particularly excited me, I dove into the deep depths of my music library and plucked out some of my old favourites. Amongst them, I stumbled across a re-released Mac Miller album by the name of Faces. On that album is one of my favourite  Mac Miller tracks called Friends featuring Schoolboy Q. Anyone that follows either Mac or Q knows they had a unique friendship, and we are fortunate to be left with tracks like this after Mac Miller’s untimely death in 2018. I hope you all enjoy my trip down memory lane.

CHRIS

GREENER KNOTS – MAXO KREAM (2021)
Maxo Kream is speaking the truth! Since his latest album ‘Weight of the World’ dropped this month I haven’t been able to stop spinning about half the album. Whilst my highlight from this project is ‘Greener Knots’ it just as easily could have been ‘Streets Alone’ or ‘Local Joker’. Rarely do US MC’s pull out a flow pattern that resonates with my Garage/Grime centric brain but Maxo effortlessly glides in an obscure pocket, blending some spoken-word poetic structure with cruddy wordplay. A true street poet of the highest caliber.

More on CULTED

See also: CULTED SOUNDS: WHAT THE TEAM LISTENED TO IN AUGUST

See also: CULTED SOUNDS: WHAT THE TEAM LISTENED TO IN SEPTEMBER