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The Guardian 60

(Domino)
Dev Hynes’ new mixtape contains a flood of musical influences – from shoegaze to dancehall and found sound – and is only occasionally self-indulgent

There was a time when a mixtape was clearly defined in opposition to an actual album. It was a free, low-key, interstitial release that enabled the artist in question – usually from the fields of hip-hop and R&B – to work without worrying unduly about the troublesome business of sample clearance. But that definition went out of the window some time ago. These days, entire careers, including that of Chance the Rapper, are founded on releasing only mixtapes. Drake’s mixtape If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, meanwhile, seemed indistinguishable from the rest of his oeuvre: like his official album releases, it contained 23,476 tracks, had a running time of five days, spawned hit singles, was sold rather than given away as a download and was released on both CD and vinyl.

Related: Dev Hynes: ‘Puff Daddy somehow got my number… it was pretty strange’