1300, the Australian-Korean alt-rap phenomenon dedicated to keeping listeners on their toes, today share the surprise release of their Valentine’s Day dedicated mixtape <3[pron. “less than three”], hot off their tech-inspired summer UKG hit ‘Steve Jobs ft. Kwame‘. LISTEN TO <3 HERE.

Presenting the eclectic nature of their influences front and centre, in <3 the dynamic five-piece enhance their hip-hop-come-electronic sound to previously unseen or heard corners of their sound. Multifaceted as ever, throughout their cross-suave pop, hyperpop and RNB with the immediately felt, hyper-quality sheen of their k-pop influences in ATEEZ, Treasure and NewJeans.

They say heartbreak makes the best art, and 1300 offer an animated shoulder to cry on with <3. Produced quickly and spontaneously over Discord, of the mixtape 1300 share “We were all very lonely at the time so we wrote a bunch of love songs. Some of the beats were old instrumentals that Nerdie made a long time ago. On Discord, we made some new instrumentals and sent them to the boys back on Discord. Then they would send back their vocals and we produced them like that.”

The five-track offering traverses a myriad of emotional instincts, from heartbreak to euphoria, playful affection to love in all its varied forms (with friends and family), the strength and support that companion-ship gives to its gut-wrenching dissolution, a poetic reflection of the group’s own relationship with the online, giving listeners their own love-lorn mixtape today.

‘Drunk in Luv’ relays the throws of heartbreak and the vices some turn to to cope, “but the more we drink, the clearer it becomes that we have made a mistake.” ‘LAVA GIRL’ speaks to that dependence, “Sometimes, we all need someone to depend on. That person could even be our very own super hero. In saying that, we should also strive to be their superhero. Even if we are going through a rough patch, we are inseparable. Just like Shark boy and Lava Girl.”

‘brb’ provides a moment of reprieve in <3, as a thanks to those that standby 1300 on their journey – “We work on things that do not physically exist and this can sometimes be daunting for our loved ones. This song is a promise to our loved ones that if they are still waiting for us at the end of the tunnel, we would be right back to give them everything.” Harking to their self appointed “boys from outer space” tag, on <3’s remainder, ‘NASA’ and ‘Super CD’, 1300 speak to the superhuman – albeit adrenaline – power that pure passion and amour give, “the strength to strive and overcome any obstacles waiting for you” or “feeling so high on love, to a point where we are in space, like NASA.”

1300 closed their breakout year with a string of accolades across the release of their Foreign Language mixtape, including but not limited to their recent shortlist in the coveted Australian Music Prize, landing #23 in the NME Best Australian Albums of the Year list, FBi Radio SMAC Award Nominations for Album of the Year and Best Video for ‘Oldboy’, that won the triple j and Rage Australian Music Video of the Year J Award; internationally selected as HiphopLE‘s Group of the Year and Hiphopplaya’s Upcoming Artists for 2022; a feature in Netflix’s viral Heartbreak High reboot and most significantly, selected by the Australian Council for the Arts‘ Contemporary Music Touring Program and soundtrack to Samsung’s Galaxy Flip4 launch campaign, 1300 continue to pave the way for the next generation of the Asian diaspora.

Over the summer, their recent releases ‘Steve Jobs ft. Kwame’ and the SOLLYY produced ‘CARDIO!’ have continued to push 1300 forward as a unique outfit of culture and talent, most notably nationally and abroad in South Korea. Their triple j Like A Version of Psy’s ‘Gangnam Style’ set the music festival circuit ablaze recently across Spilt Milk, Falls Festival, Lost Paradise and more – previously they marked their headline debut at the Sydney Opera House for VIVID. Consistently praised by Complex Australia, VICE, Pedestrian, Junkee, Red Bull Music, triple j, RAGE, MTV, The Music, Music Feeds, and national community radio support heralding their ability to continue to push boundaries musically and pop-culturally, what won’t 1300 do next?