Head Box

In honour of the start of the British summer, and in recognition of the fact that it will probably be about 48 hours long, we at Headbox have decided to throw together a summer playlist, with your help. These are the tunes that remind us of BBQs, water fights and sunburn.

If you’ve got anything to add, just shout out with a link and your reasons why it’s your summer tune and we’ll add them all to the post until we’ve got the comprehensive Headbox summer playlist!

First up is Quitter’s Raga by an artist I think is going to break out this summer and make a bit of a splash. He’s called Gold Panda and he’s from Peckham. This song’s a couple of years old now but hasn’t lost any of its appeal.

Second up is Up and Down by Oxford based producer Chad Valley. This guy’s multi-talented, and splits his time between Chad Valley and his older project, Jonquil. Both are doing the festival circuit this summer and I’m already imagining lounging on some far-flung field with a hog roast and a ridiculous pair of sunglasses as this plays.

This one’s by another Oxford band who made waves last year with the release of their first album, Beachcomber’s Windowsill. Stornoway’s lead singer is an ornithologist and the rest of the band comprises a varied ensemble of South African pirates & Russian translators. I remember seeing these guys for the first time in a dingy Oxford basement and feeling like summer was right there amongst the damp and the smell of sewage.

Washed Out is the stage name of Ernest Greene, who cites hip-hop as a major influence on his otherwise very chillwave tunes. He’s only been making music for a couple of years, but to me his stuff sounds like the first BBQ of the year. Awesome.

And finally (from us at least!), Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. The man who dances like a Russian and has two dancers in dinosaur onesies who accompany him everywhere. We saw him live at SXSW this year and he was definitely the music highlight. Dance like no-one’s watching.

This one’s from Masaya & Reina over Twitter. Got a lot of love for this as a summer tune. In their words: “funky, chilled, fresh: perfect for summer”

This one’s from Aimee-Louise on Twitter. Another pretty non-mainstream tune, but very big. Woke me up a treat this morning.

And something a little more chilled to tickle your eardrums from Greg Thomas. In his words: “jj – From Africa to Malaga. Is the title not Summery enough?!”

So that’s it, for now at least. We’d love to hear from you – what are your tunes for long, chilled summer afternoons or the short warm nights? Get us here or on Twitter and let us know.

Tags: chad valley, headbox, music, playlist, stornoway, summer, totally enormous extinct dinosaurs, washed out