In Our Headphones

Adwaith - "ETO," a 2022 single on Libertino Records. This week's Song of the Day were selected by KEXP DJ Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time, in honor of International Women's Month. Re-listen to our kick-off day of programming, and explore articles and live sessions from some of our favorite female artists here.  Post-punk trio Adwaith have announced their sophomore full-length Bato Mato will be out July 1st via Libertino Records, their eagerly-awaited follow-up to their Welsh Music Prize-winning 2019 debut Melyn. The album's first single (and today's Song of the Day) was written the day after performing at the UU.Sound festival in the city of Ulan-Ude, Siberia in 2020. “We really wanted to write a heartfelt song about being infatuated with someone," the band said in a press release. "This isn't something we normally write about and we wanted to approach this song differently to our other ones. We felt inspired to write a big pop song." In fact, the entire album is colored by that impactful trip. Vocalist Hollie Singer shared in a press release, "Our journey through the Siberian and Mongolian wilderness influenced the writing and sound of the album to be as open and big as the limitless sky around us there." Bassist Gwenllian Anthony added, "It was a life changing trip that really inspired us to write this album. The barren landscape and brutalist architecture really seeped into these songs and the use of world instruments was heavily inspired by this journey." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

LOTTA - "Léonard" from the 2021 Seafarer EP on Deadred Records. This week's Song of the Day were selected by KEXP DJ Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time, in honor of International Women's Month. Re-listen to our kick-off day of programming, and explore articles and live sessions from some of our favorite female artists here.  On her debut EP, Seafarer, Slovakian singer/songwriter LOTTA (real name: Dagmar Mišíková) presents four songs inspired by the seasons, with today's Song of the Day capturing the fading days of autumn. The release is a collaboration with producer/multi-instrumentalist STROON (real name: Dalibor Kocián), who says via a press release, "Some moments of cooperation were so inspiring and informative for me that I approach my work even more experimentally... I feel a personality about it. It's not structured pop, it's stories.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Clarissa Connelly - "Holler" from the 2020 self-released album The Voyager. This week's Song of the Day were selected by KEXP DJ Kevin Cole, host of Drive Time, in honor of International Women's Month. Re-listen to our kick-off day of programming, and explore articles and live sessions from some of our favorite female artists here.  Combining the technology of her Korg M1 synthesizer with inspiration from ancient lands, Copenhagen-based artist Clarissa Connelly crafts beautiful baroque pop songs, highlighting her diaphanous melodies with lyrics that sow the seeds of Celtic folklore. In fact, the album was released simultaneously with an app named Vandringen that spotlights these foregone Danish locations, not viewable on Google Maps.  "Many of the places are forgotten to some extent, at least when I was there back in 2018," Connelly told The Wire last year. "Since the pandemic, people’s interests have turned back to what’s around them in a really beautiful way. But I’ve always been interested in how the landscape was formed, either by humans or by the ice age pushing the soil back and forth creating mountains, or ice holes that become a lake two ice ages later. Imagining that timespan gives me a huge feeling of wanting to create. I’m fascinated by old buildings in cities – like a church, looking at the stones and wondering who built it – but they’re only maybe a thousand years old. Looking at these more ancient sites, the burial mounds and Viking fortresses, that’s even further back into history. I just get awestruck and want to sing or write about it." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

BRoc - "Black Rainbow (feat. Porter Ray)," a 2022 self-released single. Brian Ovalles, AKA BRoc, is a Seattle-based producer and DJ who’s worked extensively with Central District Seattle MC Porter Ray. He is a part of the label/collective called Intratecque, family to the Black Constellation. Read the full post on KEXP.org Take a journey through the Black Constellation on KEXP's new podcast, Fresh off the Spaceship (coming March 18)Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sevdaliza - "High Alone," a 2022 single on Twisted Elegance. It's been two years since her stunning sophomore release Shabrang, but Dutch-Iranian artist Sevdaliza re-emerges on the new EP, Raving Dahlia. On today's Song of the Day, she continues to explore the gothic electronic sound of those earlier releases, adding cinematic elements like the spoken-word piece against an ethereal harp background.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fly Anakin - "Ghost (feat. Nickelus F)" from the 2022 album Frank on Lex Records Ltd. Described by Madlib as "one of the illest MCs," anticipation has been high for the debut full-length from Richmond, VA-based rapper/producer Fly Anakin. On March 11th, that release will drop, titled Frank, via Lex Records. He notes the album draws inspiration from the "classic R&B and Soul" his dad played for him when he was a child.  Today's Song of the Day features guest vocals from his "hero and mentor", as well as a fellow Richmond resident, Nickelus F, a seven-time "Freestyle Friday" champion on BET's weekly hip-hop show 106 & Park. Together, with Grammy-nominated producer Like (of Pac Div), they deliver a somber track befitting of the title "Ghost."  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

High Pulp - "All Roads Lead to Los Angeles" from the 2022 album Pursuit of Ends on ANTI-. With today's Song of the Day, Seattle's experimental jazz septet High Pulp share a sneak preview of their forthcoming full-length Pursuit Of Ends, which will be released April 15th via ANTI- Records. The album draws inspiration from "bebop, punk rock, shoegaze, hip-hop, and electronic music," and came together in spite of the pandemic. “Having to start working remotely actually allowed us to try things that I don’t think we ever would have otherwise,” keyboard player Rob Homan says in a press release. “The process enabled us to walk the line between our more freewheeling, improvisatory jazz instincts and our more highly composed, electronic impulses, and what we ended up with was a really satisfying balance between the individual and the collective.” “We’re a bunch of outsiders who refused to be kept out,” adds drummer Bobby Granfelt. “We’ve never had an academic approach to jazz as most of us grew up playing in DIY bands, so it was the rawness and the energy and the absolute freedom of the music that called to us in the first place.” Check out the video at the link below (directed by Sara Jade Alfaro and starring Zaahira Joseph), and revisit the band's 2020 in-studio performance, filmed before the global shut-down. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blue Lab Beats - "Motherland Journey (feat. Killbeatz & Fela Kuti)" from the 2022 album Motherland Journey on Blue Note / Blue Adventure. London-based duo Blue Lab Beats released their Blue Note Records debut last week with Motherland Journey, an album they described as "extremely special album to us."  “This album took us two-and-a-half years to finish, our longest process to make an album, but it was so worth it," they explain in a press release. "On this album you’ll hear many fusions of genres and inspirations that we gathered throughout that time frame and especially to work on so many of the songs during the first lockdown it was a test in itself. We had to figure out so many different ways to achieve what we exactly wanted sonically and having Blue Note to help us achieve that was an absolute blessing. Many of the vocal features and instrumentalists on this album are great friends of ours and it’s just so amazing to have family on this album.” Today's Song of the Day spotlights one of those amazing finds: the vocals of the late Afrobeat-pioneer Fela Kuti, taken from his song “Everything Scatter.”  “When we got confirmation to have Fela Kuti‘s vocals from his publishers in Nigeria we were honestly blown away that he could really feature on our tracks," they continue. "An absolute dream come true. When we got [collaborators] Poppy [Daniels] and Kaidi [Akinnibi] to play the horn line then we definitely got the song we wanted.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

F!RES - "The Lonely Sea" from the 2021 self-released album High Tide. Ballard-based band F!RES pay tribute to the late Shawn Smith on today's Song of the Day. The local legend had lent his distinctive vocals to bands like Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhed, and The Twilight Singers, as well as his solo material. And he also appears on the new F!RES full-length High Tide. "High Tide really is a love letter to Seattle and to the memory of our friend @shawnsmithsinger," the band wrote on their Instagram account. "Shawn was so giving of his talent and we were honored that he wanted to join us in the studio on some of the tracks." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cloud Cult - "One Way Out of a Hole," a 2022 single on Earthology Records. After a six-year hiatus, Cloud Cult return with the album Metamorphosis, to be released March 4th via their own Earthology Records. Like all albums from this orchestral-folk-rock group, nature plays a big role in the LP. Founding member/frontman Craig Minowa wrote and recorded the new album in the remote woods of Wisconsin, tracking the album from an old Amish cabin he converted to a recording studio. The sounds from outdoors can be heard throughout the songs on Metamorphosis. Cloud Cult return to Seattle on Saturday, August 27th at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. Check out the video for today's Song of the Day at the link below, and enjoy a Throwback Thursday to the band's 2014 KEXP in-studio session.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.