In Our Headphones

ĠENN - "A Reprise (That Girl)" a 2023 single on Liminal Collective On today's Song of the Day, Anglo-Maltese quartet ĠENN team up with guest vocalist John Newton (of fellow four-letters-all-caps duo JOHN) for this stylistically sinister slice of post-punk.  On their Bandcamp page, vocalist Leona Farrugia speaks to the track's themes: “Naturally I’ve always felt like there’s a pressure to compare myself, be that through the lens of present technologies or within the creative industry. It’s something that can be very debilitating, especially to young people in a patriarchal society.” Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

MAN ON MAN - "Showgirls" from the 2023 album Provincetown on Polyvinyl. “As we lean into what Man on Man is and will be, two things immediately come up. Energy and community. ’Showgirls’ is all that.” — Roddy Bottum, Man on Man As co-founder Roddy Bottum puts it, today's Song of the Day embodies the fun-loving duo's ethos. The track is a sneak peek at their sophomore LP Provincetown, out June 16th via Polyvinyl Records and named for the town in Massachusetts where Bottum and his partner/bandmate Joey Holman shared their first home. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Caroline Polachek - "Fly To You (feat. Grimes and Dido)" from the 2023 album Desire, I Want to Turn Into You on Perpetual Novice. New music from Caroline Polachek is exciting enough, but when it features collaborations with both Grimes and Dido, it's a mind-blower. In an interview with Vulture, Polachek says he wrote part of the song in Grimes' bedroom at 6 AM — "Just the two of us, in this very sweet session," she details. As for Dido, Polachek wrote her a fan letter, asking for her involvement. “Her way of blending a quite natural, almost folk approach to pop singing with a very contemporary electronic production was very influential for me,” Polachek told Vulture. Following a FaceTime call days later (“I screamed and screen-grabbed it,” she admits), she traveled to Dido's home in Los Angeles where the two finished the track together. Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Puerta Negra - Caida al Mal from the 2023 album Playa Sola on SYNTHICIDE. Portland-based Puerta Negra have been an immense amount of buzz for only just releasing their debut EP in 2022. They make 80’s-infused EBM that’s somehow both slick and grimy, making for the perfect edge. Berlin label Detriti dropped their debut Costa Humano and their upcoming follow-up Playa Sola is being released through Brooklyn-based darkwave label/monthly dance party hosts SYNTHICIDE. “Caida al Mal” is the lead single off Playa Sola and opens the four-track EP with swelling synths, hard-hitting electronic beats, and scathing growls from Maria Aguirre and Mark Arciaga. Of the song, the band had this to say: “In every revolution there are winners and there are losers. What is a dystopia for one may be a utopia for another. The lights can blind you but they can also lead the way.” Get a taste of Puerta Negra’s charismatic shows and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kurs Valüt - Kurs Valüt from the 2021 album Kurs Valüt on No Emb Blanc. Kurs Valüt is an electronic duo formed in 2017 by Eugene Gordeev in Dnipro to popularize the Minimal Wave in Ukraine. “The very appearance of Kurs Valüt is partly caused by the underdevelopment of the dark underground in Ukraine,” the duo explained in an interview with Post-Punk in 2021. “The moment of the absence of the subculture itself, thematic festivals, events for Gothic or Post Punk music fans…this is the result of a long disconnect of Ukraine from cultural processes in Europe and the World.” Our Song of the Day is the title track and opener of their sophomore self-titled record, released in 2021. It’s a throbbing club track that sees Gordeev monotonously reciting Ukrainian lyrics that this writer has yet to decipher but are compelling nonetheless. Of the album Kurs Valüt, the band had this to say on Bandcamp: “The second album, Kurs Valüt is the result of a long work that summarizes difficult stage of life experience inspired by solitude, austerity and extreme mental states. In comparison to the debut album Veselo (2018) it is more melodic and metaphoric. Lyrics can be interpreted differently. Usage of a tube summing mixer during the studio processes adds a warm, non-commercial textured color to the sound of this release.” Get a taste of Kurs Valüt’s live shows with this live recording of “Kurs Valüt” and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Prospexx - "Punya Siapa" from the 2021 album A Quiet World on Symphony of Distruction. On today's Song of the Day, Singaporean synth-pop duo PROSPEXX take us back to the '80s with their darkwave dance tracks. In an interview with Unite Asia, vocalist Vanessa explains that she and her bandmate Hafiz have always been into synthwave. "Both of us are super into 80s music, and the dystopian-esque vibe from the pandemic just happened to give us that huge push to actually do something about it," she explains of the band's inception. "It really isn’t like anything we do with any of our other bands and projects, plus the lockdowns made it hard for us to get together with any of our other friends anyway. So I guess it was borne out of both a love for the '80s and the absolute necessity to continue creating in a time of bleakness.” While most of the group's songs are song by Vanessa, today's track features guest vocals by Azril, singing in Bahasa, a form of Malay spoken in Malaysia, Singapore, and Brunei.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

RATPAJAMA - "Violence" from the 2023 album The Drunken Lost Tapes on Deepland Records With the release of her latest EP The Drunken Lost Tapes, Ratpajama — the solo darkwave project of Kyara Jereissati (aka Kyro Coma) — seeks to embrace imperfection. (Although today's Song of the Day is a goth-tinged piece of perfection to these ears, with a driving industrial beat that will take you to the Batcave, punctuated by Coma's solemn, beautifully detached vocals.) "Because of my unhealthy perfectionism I couldn't, for a long time, find them good enough to release," she shares on her Bandcamp page. "However, I realized what I had forgotten about what was most important to me in this project: having fun. Now, after a long time, I finally looked at these tracks with a different perspective and I feel extremely fulfilled for being able to share them with you guys." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Zanias - "Burial" from the 2023 album Chrysalis on Fleisch Records. Chrysalis, the third album from Zanias (aka Alison Lewis), finds the ethereal darkwave artist undergoing a metamorphosis. The songs on this release were written and recorded between her current home of Berlin and her original home of Australia during a period of self-protection, as Lewis processed feelings of burnout, trauma, and, on today's Song of the Day, grief.  "That one is about burying someone you love," she revealed to Loverboy Magazine. "The period right after, when you have to build a new world without that person in it. I had flown back to Australia to be there when someone I loved died and people were angry at me for cancelling tour dates, even though I had told them a family member was ill. I wanted privacy but because of that they were questioning if I was lying. I couldn’t believe the insensitivity, and it was just really hard to feel like I had disappointed everyone over something that was already so heartbreaking and scary. So yes, ‘Burial’ is a heavy one. It’s also the first song I wrote after I decided to quit music, hence 'I can’t seem to do this anymore' and 'I’m not even sorry I disappeared.' I thought I was finished." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Of The Heavy Sun - Cosmic Television a 2023 self-released single. Of The Heavy Sun are a psych rock trio from Seattle that has been churning out brooding psychedelic opuses since 2015, with the release of their debut self-titled full-length. They’re due to release their latest record Cosmic Television on June 2nd, after two years of production and “constant setbacks,” according to the band. Our Song of the Day is the album’s title track, a forceful nearly five-and-a-half-minute song that exemplifies the best of what the band has to offer: fiery guitars, humming basslines, and soaring vocals. The anxieties of modern life with the thesis being “Everyone is blinded by watching TV.” Frontman Samuel Emerick proclaims, “Finally awake /I can’t escape /Isearch these desert plains /It’s been two weeks since I was high and I can’t find a place to lay my head.” “Cosmic Television” was produced by Jesse Field mixed by Matt Bayles and mastered by Adam Cichoki. Of The Heavy Sun is playing the Sunset Tavern on Saturday, June 10th with Tuff Talk, Torch, and Prismia. Get an idea of their searing live performances with a live video recorded at the High Dive and read the full post at KEXP.org.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Acid Arab & Wael Alkak - Ya Mahla from the 2023 album ٣ (Trois) on Crammed Discs. French-Algerian collective Acid Arab recently released their appropriately titled third record ٣ (Trois) (٣ is the symbol for the figure three in Arabic and “trois” means "three" in French) in February via Crammed Discs. The collective, composed of Guido Minisky, Hervé Carvalho, Pierrot Casanova, Nicolas Borne and Kenzi Bourras, is known for their fusion of electronic and North African and Middle Eastern sounds and their latest record sees them bring in a bevy of guest vocalists from North Africa, Syria, and Turkey to add depth to their already-addictive club sounds. Our Song of the Day, “Ya Mahla,” features Syrian singer Wael Alkak, an accomplished musician and founder of the Neshama Popular Arts Association who has spent the past decade making a name for himself as an artist speaking out about the revolution while merging synthesizers and machines with bouzouk, traditional chaâbi rhythms, and popular songs from the Levant. It’s a dark and churning techno track that spends nearly seven minutes hammering away. Perhaps perfect for the inky recesses of a nightclub but when translating the lyrics, it’s an anthem for freedom, reading: “What a beautiful word, ‘Freedom’ / I salute the Arab people / What a beautiful word, ‘Freedom’ / I salute the Arab revolutionaries.” Watch the visualizer for “Ya Mahla" and read the full post at KEXP.org,Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.