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Music

Noisey Global Mixtape: April Showers of Sweet New Jams from Around the World

Listen to the best music from around the world, as chosen by our real live editors from around the world.

Noisey is global, and not just in the way that DJ Khaled is global (although, on our best days, we're that, too). No, we're global in the sense that we have editors working hard all over the world to bring you the coolest music, the dopest memes, or, in some cases, just really excellent translations of each other's cool music and dope memes. For instance, if not for Noisey Mexico, we might never have found this guy. And without Noisey Germany we would never know that "420 Songs About Weed" translates to "420 Songs über Weed."

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There's a lot of knowledge from around the world, which is why, once a month, we all get together and make one big playlist for everyone to enjoy. A lot of people have said this is the gesture of international collaboration that inspired the United Nations to become a thing. Who knows if that's true, but one thing that IS true is that this month's version of the Noisey Global Mixtape (with new cover art!) is here, and you can listen to it below, while reading about each country's song choice.

UK: Wolf Alice – "Giant Peach"

Wolf Alice have been dicking around for years deciding if they were a post-grunge band or a folk hardcore band or just a bunch of alcoholics from Camden who didn’t want to get actual jobs. We’ve always liked them at Noisey UK, without expecting the world from them. But then they sent us this track, and it sounds like Pixies and angry Debbie Harry—but also inventive and forward-looking and 17 years old. It's the most exciting thing we’ve heard by a British band in such an insanely long time.

Australia: Brando's Island – "Auto Warfare"

This is an insanely catchy piece of weirdo synth punk that features a good dose of that punkest of instruments, the vibraphone. This relatively new Melbourne band made up of members of Chrome Dome, Castings and the Zingers have a new self released seven-inch and are causing a fuss in Melbourne's vibrant punk scene.

France: Ventre de Biche – "La Vie Est Un Long Fleuve De Merde"

If you want to get a taste of Paris in the spring, make sure you don't leave before you've seen at least one of those angry and hectic one-man-and-a-keyboard bands singing about suburban shitholes, dead babies and awful relationships ending in blood, in a sweaty basement or an old chinese restaurant. Ventre De Biche (Belly of a Doe) is one of them. His new album is called Viens mourir (Come and die), and the stand-out track on it is called "La Vie Est Un Longue Fleuve De Merde" (Life is a river of crap). This is not easy and will probably get you into seasonal depression and a few fistfights. But that's the way we Parisians like our springs: cold, raw and brutal.

Canada: Lais feat. Skizzy Mars – "Distance"

Canada-via-Pakistan-and-the-US sad rap maestro Lais drifts over this squelching beat and enlists New York's Skizzy Mars for a song that floats and will have you singing "say it how you say it make it sound so dope" over and over.

Mexico: Cardiel – "1 Tabla"

Cardiel is a Mexico City-based Venezuelan stoner punk band. The power duo recently premiered the video for "1 Tabla," a cut off debut album Local Solo, on Noisey Mexico, and the psychedelic cut announces their arrival with guitars that whirr like an army of buzzsaws. Local Solo is actually a compilation of their first EPs and a few new tracks, and it's well worth checking out.

Brazil: Infamous Glory – "The Last Spell"

Infamous Glory is a Brazilian death metal band from São Paulo, active since 1999, that plays in an old school style and is influenced by groups such as Benediction, Dismember, and Deicide. Their discography includes a series of splits and EPs and two full-length albums: Deathstrike Revenge (2010) and Bloodfeast (2013). "The Last Spell" will be released as a part of the upcoming EP The Conjuring, on April 3. Its instrumentals, as well as the other songs on the project, were inspired by classic horror movie soundtracks.

Spain: Cadena – "Ciutat Fantasma"

This harsh noise band from Barcelona, Spain just released their first EP. They take hardcore standards and develop them into a more complex sound. Here, the strong and abrasive rhythm section is torn into by guitars that cut like razors.

Germany: Shandy Mandies – "Don't Look Back"

With fuzzy garage rock held down by an organ bouncing through the mix, this Leipzig band has figured out a formula that cuts through hype and stands in its own weird bubble. The band claim on their Facebook that "if you believe that yesterday is as relevant as today and tomorrow and time and space and love and spirituality and wisdom and beauty all rolled together" you have to believe in the Shandy Mandies. With a pitch like that, of course we believe.

Netherlands: Rats On Rafts – "(Machine) 1-6-8"

They've sharpened their postpunk razors for the occasion, filling the record with thunderous guitar parts and steaming drums.

Japan: 本当の高速道路/Hontou no Kousokudouro

With a hundred weird ideas in just over two minutes, we're not even sure how to classify this one. But it's definitely awesome.

Poland: Ptaki – "Ostatni kurs"

This track is from the forthcoming LP Przelot. Ptaki are a Polish producer/DJ duo who explore cinematic sound and Balearic music. It's the perfect soundtrack for a black and white movie about our dreams and aspirations.

Italy: Father Murphy – "All The People Yelling Fire"

This jarring cut of minimal industrial from one of Italy's best dark music minds will terrify you yet leave you grasping for more.

US: Vic Mensa feat. Kanye West – "U Mad"

Chicago's Vic Mensa is one of several artists (along with Paul McCartney and Allan Kindom) to recently get Kanye's seal of approval, and it makes a lot of sense: His recent material has found him deviating from the baked-out soul of his first project INNANETAPE and taking on the sound of dance music via collaborations with Kaytranada and Disclosure. His latest, produced by Chicago's Smoko Ono and Stefan Ponce, is a continuation of that, an answer to the question of what rap might look like in the years ahead as it takes on more of an electronic production palette. It's post-Yeezus rap, and it handles that signifier well.

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