Nettspend sharpens his edge on who tf is u

There’s loads of music out there, and sometimes it’s hard to keep up.

Rather than letting the algorithm dictate your music taste, you can listen to Rated by THE FACE – a playlist that’s lovingly curated and updated by our (human) editorial team every week.

The Twins – Holding On ft. Rada

If you attended our recent LFW party or if you read my weekly newsletter, you’ll know that THE FACE rates The Twins. The Ilford band’s Bollywood electronic sound fuses fizzy electroclash with South Asian styles and samples, and Holding On – released via the promising Asian Paper collective – is possibly their best track to date. With help from London singer and fellow fakemink collaborator Rada, The Twins have delivered an EDM anthem to soundtrack scenes of heartache and dialated pupils at star-lit raves. Although The Twins are part of the UK underground, it sounds like they’ve got ambitions bigger than the stages of South London’s industrial estate venues. DR

Nettspend – who tf is u

These days, Nettspend has two types of fans: young underground rap obsessives, and fashion week attendees who think the 18-year-old looks cool (and maybe there’s a thin section in the middle of that Venn diagram). New album early life crisis is going to be a challenging listen for the newgens who’ve just discovered Nett from Demna’s Gucci show, because across 21 tracks, Nett pushes the jerk and rage subgenres to their sonic extremes. On who tf is u, he sprays the beat like a rap Jackson Pollock, and you can just about decipher bars about zodiac love and catfishing among all the hostile yelps, brutal bass bombs and panic alarm synths. If the DJ dropped this at a bougie fashion week party, some attendees would probably think they need to evacuate the building. DR

Slawn – !LEEJEJ ft Jeleel!

Slawn’s always had one foot in music. The artist and professional shit-stirrer has previously created work with 21 Savage, Central Cee and Skepta, and for his latest stunt, he set up a recording studio inside London’s Saatchi Yates gallery and invited the likes of Blackhaine, Len and road rap legends Tiny Boost and Youngs Teflon to record verses in the presence of chins-stroking spectators. The tracks have been released as Slawn’s album This is Not an Artist, and this highlight track sees Jeleel! – who’s made a convincing pivot from frontflipping rage rap beefcake to Afrobeats heartthrob – sing lustfully over an echoed metal heavy guitar sample. Very artful indeed. DR

GENA (Liv.e & Karriem Riggins) – Theybetterbegladihavetherapy

Liv.e, the excellent Dallas musician who’s earned a reputation for making esoteric, lo-fi jazz/​soul, has united with Detroit legend and J Dilla collaborator Karriem Riggins as GENA for an entire album, The Pleasure is Yours. This link-up came about serendipitously: Riggins was working on his own project and asked Liv.e to feature on it. After sending some beats and bars back and forth, the collaboration proved so fruitful that he parked the original album to make one with Liv.e instead. This has paid dividends: Theybetterbegladihavetherapy, one of its standout tracks, is a beautifully textured, funky tune with faint traces of The Velvet Underground’s Sunday Morning. Liv.e’s smoky voice on this one will help you get out of bed on a grey day. JW

waterbaby – Srs Ice

There’s a sense of vulnerability and paranoia at play on Srs Ice – the final song on waterbaby’s new album Memory Be a Blade. ​“Spooky people vicious minds/They’re deceitful and devour,” The Stockholm artist sings with melancholy along to lush pianos. Between layers of indecision, desire and the frustration of remembering a situation differently to someone else, Srs Ice is a simple song that packs plenty of punch. JW