A week on from dropping his new 38min mixtape Hi This Is Flume, the world-beating Aussie producer has backed it up with his first proper single since 2016, a new track titled 'Friends'.

'Friends' has some of the metallic, industrial sounds of Skin but evolves Flume's futuristic beats with a fresh collaborator, 25yo rapper Reo Cragun. "A friend of mine, here in the States" Harley Streten, aka Flume, told Ben & Liam on triple j Breakfast for the song's world premiere. "I think he’s going to be one to watch this year.”

'Burnt that bridge, yes you did/Don't wanna be friends/I don't wanna be friends', sings Reo on the track, backed by Flume's flittering voice manipulations and synth-warped beats. Listen in below.

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Flume linked up with Reo in Los Angeles following the MC's 2017 mixtape Growing Pains and last year's Craig EP. The two quickly bonded and found their chemistry in the studio. "He was really fast at writing..." Harley said.

"For about two weeks we just did sessions all the time and wrote so much music, started all these ideas and then started finishing them off. We've actually done a bunch of tracks together but this one, we're just really happy with how it turned out."

Following 'Friends' and the mixtape, the 2019 Flume gameplan is to "just continually put out music... I’m actually doing a session with Tove Lo right now," Harley revealed, calling from his L.A. studio.

"There’s a lot of stuff on the way, I’m just keeping busy, writing lots of music... I feel like I had a big break and I don’t want to do that again, I want to be more consistent and put more music out."

So, now he's back in the swing of things after his Hottest 100, ARIAs, and Grammys dominating second album Skin, what about some more Australian shows? "I’d love to tell you but I’ll get in a lot of trouble." Sounds like something's happening.

Hear Harley talk further about 'Friends', and the "terrible music" he keeps hidden on his hard drive, in the chat below.

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