Les Amazones d'Afrique - “Flaws” from the 2024 album Musow Danse on Real World Records On today's Song of the Day, all-female African supergroup Les Amazones d’Afrique — which translates to "The Amazons of Africa" — celebrate the so-called imperfections that make each of us unique. “The song has a simple message,” Malian singer Mamani Keïta explained in a press release. “The perfect person does not exist. We all have our flaws and imperfections which we carry with us through life. But there is b...
Mar 21, 2024•3 min•Ep 4713•Transcript available on Metacast Nusantara Beat - “Kota Bandung” a 2023 single on Bongo Joe Amsterdam-based sextet Nusantara Beat is comprised of members of EUT, Altın Gün, Jungle By Night, POM, and Surf Aid-Kit. Together, they celebrate Indonesian classics, like on today's Song of the Day, which is a cover of a traditional '70s single. Their interpretation of "Kota Bandung" brings a modern vibe to its garage-surf-rock style, with psychedelic guitars and Megan De Klerk's alluring vocals. Read the full story at KEXP.org Support ...
Mar 20, 2024•4 min•Ep 4712•Transcript available on Metacast Francis of Delirium - “Blue Tuesday” from the 2024 album Lighthouse on Dalliance Records Francis Of Delirium — a project of Luxembourg-based artist Jana Bahrich — is set to release their debut LP, Lighthouse , on March 22nd via Dalliance Recordings. “For this album, hope is the prevailing feeling I’m left with after making it and listening to it,” Bahrich said in a press statement. “The idea is that there is this light guiding you out into a space where you can be more open and accepting of love...
Mar 19, 2024•3 min•Ep 4711•Transcript available on Metacast Four Tet - “Loved” from the 2024 album Three on Text Records Long-running electronic artist Four Tet — real name: Kieran Hebden — returns with his twelfth studio album, titled Three, which came out last Friday via his own label, Text Records. Four Tet's previous LP was 2020's Parallel . Last year, he teamed up with Skrillex and Fred Again for a sold-out five-hour show at Madison Square Garden. Read the full story at KEXP.org Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listen...
Mar 18, 2024•4 min•Ep 4710•Transcript available on Metacast Clinton Fearon - "LOL" from the 2024 album Survival Vibration on Kool Yu Foot / Boogie Brown Productions Seattle's own reggae legend Clinton Fearon returns with his 14th full-length solo album on April 5th, titled Survival Vibration . He declares today's Song of the Day as "one of my very favorites on the album," adding, "I love the simple ways of how it reminds us to take care of ourselves. For over 30 years I’ve been telling my friends and fans to do what they love and love what they do. Final...
Mar 15, 2024•4 min•Ep 4709•Transcript available on Metacast Summer Pearl - "feel right" from the 2023 album outmysystem on Kitto Records London-based artist Summer Pearl taps into her Jamaican/Grenadian heritage on her debut mixtape, outmysystem , which was released late last year. Infusing reggae and dub influences into her neo-soul sound, her latest release features a guest appearance from reggae royalty Liam Bailey and production by the prolific broken beat pioneer, Kaidi Tatham. "This project is a collection of songs, some of which I wrote almost eig...
Mar 14, 2024•2 min•Ep 4708•Transcript available on Metacast GC OConnor - "Love on High" a 2023 single on Low Key Source Australian artist GC OConnor makes a powerful introduction with her debut single "Love On High," capturing a jazzy alt-R&B sound that she describes as "stoner-soul." The single was produced by Sydney/Gadigal-based duo The Goods. In a press release, OConnor shares, “This track speaks to all the years of chasing the dance floor ‘love at first sight’ feeling. The brief elation of fleeting entanglements. And the lows of not actually car...
Mar 13, 2024•4 min•Ep 4707•Transcript available on Metacast Quantic - "Run (feat. Andreya Triana)" from the 2023 album Dancing While Falling on Play it Again Sam For the past twenty years, DJ/producer/multi-instrumentalist Will Holland has crafted a unique blend of dance music under the name Quantic , mixing in funk, soul, bossa nova, cumbia, jazz, and more. The British-born New York-based artist calls his latest LP — titled Dancing While Falling — his most "grown up release to date." Citing disco influences like Bohannon and Larry Levan, Holland explain...
Mar 12, 2024•4 min•Ep 4706•Transcript available on Metacast Samory I - "Outside (feat. Lila Iké)" from the 2023 album Strength on Overstand Entertainment / Easy Star Records Kingston, Jamaica-based artist Samory-Tour Frazer — who records as Samory I — celebrates his progeny on his debut solo album, Strength . "It represents the struggles I’ve overcome, both mentally and physically," the roots reggae vocalist says in a press release, "and is also a representation of my son, who is my driving force behind this album." (His baby boy is featured with his pro...
Mar 11, 2024•4 min•Ep 4705•Transcript available on Metacast PAPISA - "Dores no Varal" from the 2024 album Amor Delírio on Costa Futuro PAPISA is Rita Oliva, a musician, singer, songwriter, and producer based in São Paulo, Brazil. She released her first EP in 2016 and has graced some of Brazil's main stages, as well as the SXSW festival in Austin, TX, where she´ll be back this 2024 edition of the El Sonido showcase. The release of the single "Melhor Assim" in 2023 and "Dores no Varal" in early 2024 heralds the arrival of her next album. She now collaborat...
Mar 08, 2024•4 min•Ep 4704•Transcript available on Metacast Mexican Institute of Sound - "Bolero" from the 2024 album Algo-Ritmo : Mexican Institute of Sound Hits 2004-20 2 4 on Soy Sauce Mexican Institute of Sound (MIS) commemorated its 20-year journey with the release of "Algo + Ritmo 2004-2024" on February 2nd. Featuring 23 handpicked tracks, including two new collaborations with Ceci Bastida and Foudeqush + Esteman, this album encapsulates Camilo Lara's eclectic musical career. Blending mariachi soul, sonideros' spirit, and bold electronic beats, Lar...
Mar 07, 2024•4 min•Ep 4703•Transcript available on Metacast Jarina de Marco - "Boca Chica" from the 2023 album Caribbean All-Inclusive Luxury on 3rd Culture Kid. This week’s Songs of the Day spotlight artists who DJ Albina Cabrera will visit during El Sonido on the Road , a 10-day journey visiting Santo Domingo; Dominican Republic, as part of the invitation to the Isle of Light music festival; followed by our annual showcase featuring six Latin American bands at SXSW in Austin, Texas; and finally, arriving in Mexico City for the 2024 edition of the Ibero...
Mar 06, 2024•4 min•Ep 4702•Transcript available on Metacast Pink Pablo - "falco" from the 2023 self-released road 2 neverland EP This week’s Songs of the Day spotlight artists who DJ Albina Cabrera will visit during El Sonido on the Road , a 10-day journey visiting Santo Domingo; Dominican Republic, as part of the invitation to the Isle of Light music festival; followed by our annual showcase featuring six Latin American bands at SXSW in Austin, Texas; and finally, arriving in Mexico City for the 2024 edition of the Ibero-American music festival, Vive La...
Mar 05, 2024•3 min•Ep 4701•Transcript available on Metacast Caribe Acido - "La Carrera de Los Perros" from the 2024 self-released Ciudad Nueva EP This week’s Songs of the Day spotlight artists who DJ Albina Cabrera will visit during El Sonido on the Road , a 10-day journey visiting Santo Domingo; Dominican Republic, as part of the invitation to the Isle of Light music festival; followed by our annual showcase featuring six Latin American bands at SXSW in Austin, Texas; and finally, arriving in Mexico City for the 2024 edition of the Ibero-American music ...
Mar 04, 2024•3 min•Ep 4700•Transcript available on Metacast Chrome Corps - "Body Attestation," a 2024 single on Eskimo Recordings Seattle's own Chrome Corps brings an industrial edge to their dystopic EBM sound, especially on today's Song of the Day, which can be found on the Eskimo Recordings compilation Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX - Secret Cuts . The comp is a companion to last year's collection, Curses’ Next Wave Acid Punx DEUX, also curated by Berlin-based DJ Luca Venezia, AKA Curses . As Curses states in a press release, "Curating Next Wave Acid Punx D...
Mar 01, 2024•5 min•Ep 4699•Transcript available on Metacast Sugartin - "Breakdown" from the 2024 album Breakdown on exlove records Synthpop duo Sugartin spin a dreamy web on today's Song of the Day, the title track off their latest three-song EP, released via exlove records. Formed in Stuttgart, Germany by songwriters Iris and Daniel in 2022, the pair take inspiration from their Krautrock forefathers while infusing modern-day electronic influences. Read the full story at KEXP.org Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener f...
Feb 29, 2024•2 min•Ep 4698•Transcript available on Metacast Sol y Santi - "Have You Heard," from the 2024 album Sol y Santi on Casa/Teca A project of producer Santiago Salazar and vocalist/lyricist Soltera, Sol y Santi released their self-titled LP last month via Casa/Teca. "We started making this album right before the pandemic hit," Soltera states on Instagram . "Santi sent me a hundred songs that he had been archiving for years and I began to write lyrics for them. After completion we sat with the album for a while and it wasn’t until recently that we...
Feb 28, 2024•5 min•Ep 4697•Transcript available on Metacast Ortrotasce - "Seeing Red," a 2023 self-released single Ortrotasce (pronounced: or-tro-task) is the moniker for minimalist-synth artist Nic Hamersly, who has been crafting his unique brand of dramatic darkwave for over a decade. As he told the Orlando Weekly last year, as a teenager, he fell in love with experimental punk label 31G Records and its founder's band, The Locust, before moving on to bands like Coil and Throbbing Gristle. "I was more so into the harsher realm of electronic music," he t...
Feb 27, 2024•4 min•Ep 4696•Transcript available on Metacast The KVB - "Labyrinths," a 2024 single on Invada Records UK Manchester coldwave duo The KVB share the lead single off their forthcoming full-length, Tremors , to be released April 5th via Invada Records. Band members Nicholas Wood and Kat Day describe today's Song of the Day as "the most aggressive track on the album and a nod to some of our early releases." They add, "Lyrically, it was inspired by the collection of short stories by Jorge Luis Borges and its references to historical subjectivity;...
Feb 26, 2024•3 min•Ep 4695•Transcript available on Metacast Day Soul Exquisite - "Mosaic" from the 2024 album Sanguine & Cardamom on La fem Records Seattle-based, QTBIPOC-led sextet Day Soul Exquisite released their debut EP last month via La fem Records, an indie label founded by the band's vocalist/guitarist Francesca Eluhu. Today's Song of the Day is, indeed, a work of art, pieced together by Josh Pehrson's gentle percussion, Lillian Minke Tahar's hypnotic keyboard riff, and Seboulisa's soulful vocals, just to name a few of the elements that compr...
Feb 23, 2024•5 min•Ep 4694•Transcript available on Metacast Salt Cathedral - "Terminal Woes" from the 2024 self-released album Before It’s Gone With today's Song of the Day, New York-based Colombian duo Salt Cathedral share a sneak peek at their forthcoming full-length Before It’s Gone , to be self-released on March 22nd. In a press statement, the band share: “”Terminal Woes” are the woes that will bring us (humanity) to our demise – in this song, climate change. How do I bring a child into a world that is getting, by all predictions, physically worse? H...
Feb 22, 2024•3 min•Ep 4693•Transcript available on Metacast Seven Davis Jr - "Soul Music" from the 2024 album Stranger Than Fiction on Secret Angels Singer/songwriter Samuel Lonnelee Davis — known to us as Seven Davis Jr. — dug into the vault for today's Song of the Day. The track was originally recorded back in 2016 around the time of his LP Universes . As he explains on Bandcamp, "It was supposed to go on the next album but did not match the tracklist. It was released on an underground EP but never officially. Detroit's Kyle Hall began playing this tra...
Feb 21, 2024•9 min•Ep 4692•Transcript available on Metacast Art Feynman - "Chasing My Life" from the 2023 album Be Good The Crazy Boys on Western Vinyl Long-time KEXP fave Luke Temple has been recording under the alias Art Feynman for a few albums now; his press release says, as a way to "explore surprising sonic landscapes without the burdens of identity." And now, on his third LP under the pseudonym, Be Good The Crazy Boys , he's joined by a full band, and the release was recorded live in the studio. "Sonically, I was inspired by records that were reco...
Feb 20, 2024•4 min•Ep 4691•Transcript available on Metacast Butcher Brown - "Down With the King" a 2024 single on Concord Jazz For today's Song of the Day, Virginia-based jazz/hip-hop collective Butcher Brown brings their take on the 1993 Run DMC classic “Down With the King.” The track was created in collaboration with the ACC Network, ESPN’s 24/7 national network dedicated to Atlantic Coast Conference sports, and the song can be heard in promotional spots that kicked off last month. “Virginia music is one-of-a-kind, and always has been, just like the AC...
Feb 19, 2024•4 min•Ep 4690•Transcript available on Metacast Lesser Angels - "Burn it Away," a 2024 self-released single Lesser Angels is a goth/darkwave project out of Eugene, OR, that brings dreamy musical vibes from a trans-feminine perspective. Today's Song of the Day examines the duality of life, as they explain on Bandcamp: "'Burn It Away' is a song meant to evoke the meditative concept of fire as a type of rebirth and the cycle of positive and negative experiences in life. A beautiful day can't last forever or it wouldn't be beautiful, just like ho...
Feb 16, 2024•5 min•Ep 4689•Transcript available on Metacast TISIPHONE - "The Sound of His Voice," a 2024 single on Icy Cold Records French coldwave trio Tisiphone returned this month with their sophomore LP Riot Puppets . Band members Léo and Suzanne met as music students at the Conservatoire de Lyon, with Clara later meeting Léo in the drumming program. In an interview with Threshold Magazine , Clara explains, "We love rock, jazz, classical, but is true that we wanted to make this band around this coldwave thing, post-punk. It was also an aesthetic styl...
Feb 15, 2024•4 min•Ep 4688•Transcript available on Metacast Zanias - "Earthborn" from the 2024 album Ecdysis on Metropolis Records Today's featured track comes from a KEXP Song of the Day veteran , the Berlin-based project Zanias , led by Australian-born multidisciplinary artist Alison Lewis. "Earthborn" is the first single off her forthcoming full-length Ecdysis , out this Friday, February 16th. The album was created around the same time as 2023's LP Chrysalis , but Lewis points out on Instagram that these tracks have a "far more alien quality to them."...
Feb 14, 2024•4 min•Ep 4687•Transcript available on Metacast Glaring - "Burn the Snow" from the 2024 self-released EP DR666 Over the past few years. Germany-based coldwave artist Anna Nin has been recording her melancholy medleys under the name Glaring . Her latest EP — the self-released DR666 — reflects the cold winter month of January in which it was released: chilly synths, glacial pacing, and a vapor-breath vocal delivery. Read the full story at KEXP.org Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donate See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Feb 13, 2024•4 min•Ep 4686•Transcript available on Metacast Anja Huwe - "Rabenschwarz" a 2024 single on Sacred Bones As the frontwoman for German post-punk band Xmal Deutschland, vocalist Anja Huwe was at the forefront of the 4AD avant-garde art-rock scene in the 1980s. When the band broke up in 1989, Huwe left music to pursue her visual art career. But now, nearly 30 years later, Huwe re-emerges with her debut solo album, Codes , scheduled for release on March 8th via Sacred Bones Records. Huwe's long-time friend Mona Mur managed to coax her back into t...
Feb 12, 2024•3 min•Ep 4685•Transcript available on Metacast Polyrhythmics - "Clydesdale" from the 2023 self-released album Filter System Now on their 13th year as a band, Seattle's own psych-funk septet Polyrhythmics released their latest LP last fall titled Filter System . “When I listen to this music I feel comforted and excited at the same time,” saxophonist Art Brown said of the album in a press statement. “I really feel like we've created some beautiful musical spaces that can transport you. And in that way I think it can provide a source of inspira...
Feb 09, 2024•4 min•Ep 4684•Transcript available on Metacast 
