Ms* Gloom makes synthpop sound quietly eerie on Dumb 4 All

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.

Robyn – Sexistential (Arca’s take)

Once you’ve heard Sexistential – the deliriously sensual title track from Robyn’s forthcoming ninth album – it’s impossible to forget her bars about IVF, one night stands and Adam Driver’s desirable DNA. On her remix, Arca bulks up the track’s dancefloor-ready beat and hypes up the Swedish star (“It’s giving mother of the house”; ​“go bitch!”) like a loyal friend in the Uber ride to the club. Essential material for the DJs who’ve been booked for fashion week. DR

RIP Magic – 5words

London-based band RIP Magic have managed to negotiate genuine success from word of mouth hype. They regularly sell out live shows and their new track, 5words, only their third official release, was produced by LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy – the first time he’s produced for another artists over a decade. Though RIP Magic (whose members include Marco Pini, Felix Bayley-Higgins, Beth Boswell-Knight and Pedro Takahashi) don’t prescribe to the same formula for making it as their peers, they’ve managed to make guitar music sound fun. Case in point with 5words, whose scuzzy, dance-punk sensibility will lend itself to some proper dancing when they play at Ormside Projects on 19^th March. JW

Ms* Gloom – Dumb 4 All

There’s something compellingly creepy about Ms* Gloom’s new single Dumb 4 All. Nothing particularly dark happens in the music video, but as the LA musician boards a ship and is joined by synchronised dancers (who unnerve me out in the same way the costumed characters did in New Order’s True Faith video), the red and white colour scheme and the murky filter makes it all feel like a half-forgotten nightmare. The track itself built with smudged bass bounces, glacial synths, eerie whispers and an ABBA-coded chorus calling for Europa – the smallest of Jupiter’s four Galilean moons. Here’s hoping for more dark dancefloor material on Ms* Gloom’s mixtape, J is for Joon, which drops 27^th February. DR

Coucou Chloe – Venom

Coucou Chloe is no stranger to a touch of darkness. In 2023, the London-via-Paris artists released the snarling album, Fever Dream that filled headphones with warped beats and raspy confident vocals. Her latest single, Venom, stays tapped into her sinister, lo-fi roots with its gauzy, thumping baseline and post-cigarette drag tone. Dark and hissing, I could easily imagine the track opening a Rick Owens show later this season. TL

fakemink – Mr. Chow

Last year, I saw fakemink perform in London’s recently closed club Corsica Studios at Evian Christ’s Trance Party. Maybe that’s what’s sparked his interest in art-damaged trance music. The sorrowful synth stabs of Mr. Chow (which is seemingly named in reference to the Chinese restaurant menu on the cover of his new EP The Boy Who Cried Terrified) make the beat sound like a serotonin-depleted Sandstorm, while mink’s affirmations about his dominance in the UK scene are smothered by the brutal bass. You could call it sad swag rap. DR

xaviersobased – Tony Hawk

xaviersobased is one of this decade’s greatest rap experimentalists. On Tony Hawk – taken from new album Xavier – the 22-year-old New Yorker dribbles his bars about skating, trapping, strip clubs and percs through a haze of fog and an ambient rainforest hiss. Listen a couple of times, and you’ll be hooked. If you’re not, I’m afraid you might have reached that age where the only new rap records you truly enjoy are by Griselda. DR