Premiere: EKKAH's summer mixtape

EKKAH are a duo who live in London but (from what we gather, at least) are originally from Birmingham. They've been described to us as a "girl duo" – made up of Rebekah Pennington and Rebecca Wilson, for those wanting to understand the etymology of their name – but if you were to catch them live you'd probably notice that there are five people on stage in total and that some of them are dudes.

EKKAH's music is a breezy take on that radio-friendly brand of funk, R&B, and soft rock from the '80s. Their new, five-track summer mixtape is a nice introduction to the duo, full of pop hooks, slow jams, soft guitar plucking, and steel drums. It's very catchy, very breezy, and very, very fun, an escapist vision of LA pop music's heyday as imagined from slightly more drab surroundings. Closing the tape is a cover of Patrice Rushen's Forget-Me-Nots – you've got to admit, it's no Big Willie Style.

Don your shades, rub on some lotion, and download the tape for free over here.