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Octavian Takes Off With 'SPACEMAN' Mixtape

Octavian is taking off. Nearly a year after the woozy and infectious unpredictability of "Party Here" perked ears and raised his profile, the U.K. artist has shared his latest mixtape SPACEMAN, out now via Black Butter.

The 14-track mixtape, his official followup to 2017's Essie World, doesn't feature "Party Here," "Hands" or his recent collaboration with Mura Masa, "Move Me." But it does play hopscotch with trance, alternative R&B and hip-hop, and boasts plenty of flute-fluttering production, most of which was composed by Octavian himself and producer Elevated. It's also got short, stream-of-conscious musings from Octavian as well as fellow U.K. artists Krimbo, A2, Suspect and Swift.

"My risk? Naw, I'll beat you in the race / And you be takin' my place. Revenge, revenge)" Octavian raps on "Revenge," delivering the lines with a combative, raucous energy that would be right at home as an opener for a Travis Scott tour. "I just be myself, watch no other man / My jewels jingle like do the running man / Tunnel vision on these rubber bands," he preens on "This Is My World."

Whether singing, spitting to chatting on record, there's something intriguing about Octavian — that genre-hopping, sonic je ne sais quoi that has yet to reach its limits.

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Sidney Madden is a reporter and editor for NPR Music. As someone who always gravitated towards the artforms of music, prose and dance to communicate, Madden entered the world of music journalism as a means to authentically marry her passions and platform marginalized voices who do the same.