AMF Music | June '25

"I've been here the whole time" 🌱

Happy Summer, friends šŸ‘‹šŸ¾

If you’ve also been suffering through the first heat waves of the season, I hope you’re keeping cool when you can and staying hydrated. Last summer, when Slic dropped Unbearable Heat right as summer was fading to fall, I was pumped for summer 2025 to hit because I knew exactly what I’d be promoting šŸ˜‚šŸ„µ I’ve already listened to that twice this month, both times after saying ā€œthis shit is unbearableā€ - great SEO, Slic.

Of course, there’s always newer music, and I’ve been in a good collecting flow. There’s a new w33kly below, and I’m also happy to share a new playlist from Mapate. The past few months have seen some good synergy across the AMF network - designers getting in touch with artists, venture people contributing to songwriting sessions, and lots of overdue intros being made. If you’re a creator or someone in need of a creative team, remember that’s a big part of the mission here at AMF. It’s not hard to find good collaborators; it’s about looking in the right places and sometimes just getting lucky.

Also - I’ve made an Apple Music option for those who prefer it…it’s my apology for missing last month. Despite my sarcasm about usually sticking to Spotify myself, I do respect that folks may prefer it for any number of reasons. So here is w333ks - you don’t need to be impressed by the numbers theme, it’s just nice to have one šŸ˜…

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w33kly #28

Click image to listen to w33kly on Spotify

New w33kly is in - listen, follow, share! šŸŽ§

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Featured Playlist:

This year, Mapate has dropped off a couple of album recommendations for us, but this time he’s started up a playlist inspired by the sounds that many of us came up on. New Quiet Storm was born out of casual songwriting conversations - figuring out what special sauce MkGee has tapped into, hearing Sade’s name popping up in arguments about Jay-Z, what is the spirit that Myles Smith and Lauvey have channeled from previous generations. In 2025, it’s not uncommon to hear the familiar intro to a song that brings back deep nostalgia, just to hear hi-hats and a gnarly 808 crash the party. It’s a ā€œremixā€ by 7 trap rappers named Lil [Somebody] who were born 30 years after that song came out, and they messed it up.

Fortunately, that isn’t the only narrative happening right now, and we also have bands like The Internet who have been holding down good indie R&B and hip hop for over a decade now, and Rema, who’s brought a youthful energy and sincerity to his genre-fusions for a few years now. This playlist will stand to be a perpetual calm before the storm, and a unique documentation of a new type of quiet storm.

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Featured Mix:

This one is for the heads - rarely do I search a mix by name knowing what I want to hear, but that’s what I did this time…once again inspired by the heat radiating through all my clothes and devices. Every summer since…wow, 2017 when Calvin Harris released Funk Wav Bounces Vol.1, I’ve ended up with a group of people who randomly remembered that album and said they needed to hear a song from it. I was recently driving with someone who played folk music for the first hour of a 2-hour drive, and on the way back a third person who joined us suggested we listen to this album. One week into June and the quota was met.

As I’ve been trying to actively search for mixes more often, the instinct hit me to find a good mix of this project. Surprisingly, there weren’t as many just lying around as I thought there would be. Then I stopped being surprised because of course Sony UK couldn’t let that happen. Or maybe DJs and fans alike just love and respect this project for what it was the first time around. But this mix - that blends in Brent Faiyaz, Dua Lipa, Childish Gambino, and other crossover pop stars with the original tracks - has under 1,000 views in 3 full years. That’s more criminal than the piracy.

Jokes aside, this mission to discover more music and share it was intended to lead me to gems like this, and I’m very happy I took the dive. I will certainly be spinning this one a few more times this summer, and I hope it scratches that same itch for one of you. 🌊

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Happy 4th of July to all who celebrate, and I’ll talk to you guys next month šŸ‘€āœŒšŸ¾

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