In Our Headphones

dragonchild - "Sera" from the 2023 album dragonchild on FPE Records. dragonchild is the new project from saxophonist DA Mekonnen, who previously led the Boston-based 11-piece Ethiopian music collective Debo Band. As a solo artist, he says he plans to take his exploration of Ethiopian music and explode it "into vivid, three-dimensional space." On today's Song of the Day, he collaborates with Addis Ababa-based electronic artist Ethiopian Records (real name: Endeguena Mulu); he also samples the track "Seqota" by Yezinna Negash, a fellow Addis Ababa-based vocalist.  As he sums up in a press statement, “The record feels and breathes to me like the Ethiopian music I’ve been trying to figure out my whole life.”  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speakers Corner Quartet - "Can We Do This? (feat. Sampha)" a 2023 single on OTIH Records KEXP loves a literal name ("The Morning Show on KEXP," anyone?), and jazz collective Speakers Corner Quartet have just that. The group formed in 2006 as the in-house band at South London landmark Speakers' Corner, a place that hosted open-mic nights where these four musicians would play for hours, improvising hip-hop beats for guest MCs to rap over. “There’s never been a rush as we’re just happy being in a room together," percussionist Kwake Bass told Qobuz. "Playing instruments is just an extension of that and I think that’s what the community is all about, it’s just another part of the conversation.” Now, as a recording collective, they continue to bring that live experience to their albums with an impressive list of guests. They've worked with Novelist, Joey Bada$$, Kae Tempest, Mica Levi, and on today's Song of the Day, fellow South London artist Sampha.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

La Fonda - New Mexico from the 2023 self-released album We Are Infinite. Seattle-based quintet La Fonda recently released their sophomore full-length We Are Infinite, a dream pop-indebted elegy to navigating life in a corporation-led city and the financial and mental health struggles that brings and finding the specks of hope within. Led by Filipino-American sisters Valeria and Veronica Topacio, the two have been grinding to make La Fonda into the band it is now since 2016. Playing every venue while tinkering with their sound has massively paid off, as the new record sees the band at their best. Our Song of the Day is the early single “New Mexico,” an anthemic ode to life on the road and the complicated feelings and relationships formed in the unique scenario of touring. Quick goodbyes to people who felt like family for a moment, scenic vistas that are constantly being replaced, and the feeling of constantly chasing something in the distance but not knowing exactly what it is. The immense beauty and simultaneous sadness of it is captured in the shimmering song. The band had this to say about the inspiration behind “New Mexico”: “This song takes us back to tour 2019. We spent some extra time in New Mexico with the band and our friend, who was hosting us at his home. He died of a drug overdose in the peak of the pandemic and this song is for him. We wrote parts of this song while at his house and unfortunately this was the last time we saw him. So many great memories happened on this tour and especially spending time at his home laughing under a red tiled roof with desert beneath our feet. We will never forget being in New Mexico together and it is a sacred place for us.” Watch the video for “New Mexico,” co-directed by Gemma Cross, Lily Grace, and GiiiRLBAND, and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miya Folick - So Clear from the 2023 album Roach on Nettwerk. Los Angeles-based musician Miya Folick released her sophomore full-length ROACH in late May, an album that unpacks “trying to get to the core of what life really is,” according to Folick. Following her 2018 debut Premonitions and 2022’s 2007 EP, the album is full of rich, shimmery production with help from Gabe Wax (War on Drugs, Fleet Foxes), Mike Malchicoff (King Princess, Bo Burnham) and Max Hershenow (MS MR), heightening her quarter-life crisis to cinematic levels. Our Song of the Day, “So Clear,” is the moment Folick finally sees a way through the wreckage of prior mistakes. “I was desperate like you read in the paper,” she coos. “Screaming in oblivion /I was alone in a lonesome place /'Til I finally said I'm done.” Coupled with sun-drenched production from Hershenow, it’s a classic movie-montage moment with our main character breaking through. Folick says this about the song: “‘So Clear’ is about pulling yourself out of the wreckage you’ve made of your own life again and again, for the thousands of days we live on this earth and realizing life is so much more expansive than the petty concerns we waste precious time on. An epiphany that I have over and over again is that I am very small, but my actions are very meaningful. So I have to choose to live truthfully every day. It’s not easy! The song is very dramatic, and I imagined it as a good karaoke song when we were making it.” Folick will be joining the Head and the Heart and Father John Misty for a North American tour starting in August, with a date in Spokane at the Pavilion at Riverfront on August 6th. Watch the visualizer for “So Clear" and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hallelujah Lilly - "Bunny Rainbow Revolution," a 2023 self-released single DJ Kevin Cole picks another mystery track for this week's Song of the Day: while I can't seem to discern if Hallelujah Lilly is based in Reykjavik, Iceland or Nashville, Tennessee (or Canada?), Kevin was kind enough to share how he discovered her music: I was doing a DJ set at Lucky Records in Reykjavik last year on the Sunday of Iceland Airwaves.  She came on and performed a solo acoustic set after me, and I was taken aback by her songwriting, grounded uplifting optimism, and spirit.  I might not have heard her if it wasn't for this fortunate booking alignment. After her performance, I asked if she had music out and she said she was working on an album and would send it to me.  This is the first song I've received. There's a haunting, lo-fi sparseness to "Bunny Rainbow Revolution" urging you to "set yourself free."  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ooh La La - "Life's Too Fast To Feel" a 2023 self-released single. There's not a lot of information out there yet about brand-new Los Angeles-based duo Ooh La La, but sharp-eyed KEXP listeners might recognize the name Kii Arens from the liner notes of past Live at KEXP compilation albums! The long-time artist/director/graphic designer has previously created album covers for us. Now, relocated from his hometown of Minneapolis to Los Angeles, he and partner Jessy Greene (who has played violin for P!nk, Foo Fighters, and others) have launched this new musical project. The band reports on Facebook that today's Song of the Day will be released this summer as a double single via Killer Kern Records. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CIEL - "Somebody" a 2023 single on Jazz Life With today's Song of the Day, Brighton-based trio Ciel share a sneak peek at their upcoming EP Make It Better, which will be released July 7th via Jazz Life.  “’Somebody’ is a song that came together for most part on the spot in the studio," frontwoman Michelle Hindriks explained in a press release. "It’s about starting to feel a deep urge to socialise, connect with others, party and be more outwards again after a period of needing solitude. Spring time is always a time when this naturally happens to me – getting out of my kind of winter hibernation and feeling that urge to be around people.” The track definitely has a '90s-influenced fuzzed-out jubilance that will have you pogo'ing any leftover winter doldrums right off.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Telehealth - Taliesin Grid a 2023 single on Very Famous. Telehealth is the Seattle-based project of Alexander Attitude (Deep Sea Diver, Brian John Appleby) and Kendra Cox (Lemolo) that make Devo-esque synthscapes targeting capitalism and the absurdities of our modern world. Their debut album Content Oscillator was released in March and specifically delves into Alexander Attitude's transition from musician to architect and back to musician, after discovering his disillusionment with their utopian visions and the aesthetics of sustainability which consequently became a tool for developers to sit comfortably within a political domain that is essentially capitalist and centrist. Our Song of the Day “Taliesin Grid” specifically hones in on this idea. “Straight line, black suit /Just when you see it, start to move /Not made, great men /Stuck in repetition,” Attitude declares in monotone over arpeggiated synths. He continues on, “A name that still survives /Dank Lloyd Wright /Architects they come, yeah /Architects they go /But materials finite.” Content Oscillator features production from Trevor Spencer (Valley Maker, Spirit Award, Deep Sea Diver, Chastity Belt) and mastering by the legendary Ed Brooks. Watch the video for “Taliesin Grid" and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nabihah Iqbal - Dreamer from the 2023 album DREAMER on Ninja Tune. In late April, Nabihah Iqbal dropped her long-awaited sophomore record Dreamer via Ninja Tune. Five years after the release of her debut, Weighing of the Heart, and six since Iqbal’s last EP under her former moniker Throwing Shade, the record is a resplendent re-introduction to the London-born artist, curator, broadcaster and lecturer. Blending elements of early ‘80s electronica, shoegaze, and trance with ruminative lyricism, it’s a record that hits the heart as much as it does the body. The story behind the record starts in agony, as many great records do, with Iqbal’s studio being burglarized in early 2020 and all her work lost, including what was supposed to be her sophomore record. Piling onto the trauma, her grandfather suffered a brain hemorrage leading Iqbal to fly to Pakistan shortly before the pandemic hit and stranding her there as the world shut down. But as all creatives know, what doesn’t kill you, gives you better material for your work. It was there that the first seeds of Dreamer appeared, with just an acoustic guitar and a harmonium. Our Song of the Day is the album’s title track “Dreamer.” One of less trancey songs on the album, the song is a combination of Best Coast breeziness and Cocteau Twinsian dreaminess. The lyricism is pure unadulterated bliss, “Dream of me /And I'II dream of you,” Iqbal coos. “Sun so soft /And sky so blue /This love is happy love.” The song comes with a video shot in 700-year old palace in Old Lahore, Pakistan and directed by Zayan Agha, who said this of the video, “Taking a documentarian's approach to directing the music video, I gave Nabihah the freedom to discover the vibrant chaos of Lahore. I filmed her navigating through the city's mundane cacophony, resulting in a surreal and dreamy visual experience that vividly portrays the city's essence.” Watch the video and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

mui zyu - "Demon 01" from the 2023 album Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century on Father/Daughter Records With her solo project mui zyu, London-based musician Eva Liu (also of Dama Scout) sought to capture the sounds she heard growing up at her family's Chinese restaurant. As she explains to Talkhouse:  My debut record, Rotten Bun for an Eggless Century, is about self-exploration and identity, at times told through a lens inspired by fantasy video-games and Chinese folklore. In the process of pulling together the themes for this collection of songs, I reflected on my own childhood and began to uncover sounds from my memory... Since we worked on this record, I feel even more tuned in to sounds around me all the time. For the most part, this has been a wonderful shift in my consciousness. Abrasive sounds that used to cause me stress are now intriguing — I’ll think about how they are made, what is causing the friction, how the air is moving, and I might even try to find rhythms in the chaos. I have welcomed this newfound relationship with my sonic surroundings and wonder if it’s played a role in my overall wellbeing. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.