Kevin Bronson on June 18th, 2016

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Tag-team producers Louis Castle and James Bairian — who do business as The Gifted — have been working with a parade of guest vocalists and songwriters in search of electro-soul bliss. In March, the duo announced they would release in EP and introduced it with a collaboration featuring Leah Hayes, and now they’ve followed with two more songs, including the aching digi-ballad “Locked Down,” which features Mackenzie Thoms, an L.A.-based native of Washington state. (Thoms’ own song “Conviction” was a Hype Machine sensation last year.) The other “new” song is a retooled version of one of The Gifted’s early efforts, “You Should Have Known by Now,” on which Jamie Jackson of Hot As Sun sings. Outside of making fans of alt-R&B swoon, though, the duo’s biggest coup might have come this spring, when Google licensed The Gifted’s electro-funky “Are You Real” for use in their hilarious April Fool’s Day spoof, “Google Cardboard Plastic.” It just doesn’t get any more real.

||| Stream: “Locked Down” and “You Should’ve Known by Now”