In Our Headphones

Mogwai - "Ritchie Sacramento" from the 2021 album As the Love Continues on Temporary Residence Ltd. Today's Song of the Day gets its title from someone's mispronunciation of the name Ryuchi Sakamoto, famed Japanese composer. Scottish post-rock band Mogwai transformed the flub into a tribute for David Berman, the musician behind the Silver Jews who passed away in 2019.  “I was inspired by a story that Bob Nastanovich put online on the anniversary of the death of Dave Berman from Silver Jews,” frontman Stuart Braithwaite told NME. “When they were students, Dave threw a shovel at a sports car. That’s the first line of the song: ‘Rise crystal spear’. Obviously Dave was an amazing poet, songwriter and musician. I took the lead from there. I wouldn’t pretend to be able to write songs as good as him, but he’s definitely a huge inspiration.” Braithwaite continued: “It’s been a hard few years. There are a lot of people that we played with and were friends with that just aren’t around now. This songs is about those people, imagined conversations… and Dave Berman throwing a shovel at a sports car!” Mogwai’s tenth album, As the Love Continues, will be out February 19th via Temporary Residence Ltd./Rock Action.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Barbarossa - "Iris2Iris" from the 2021 album Love Here Listen on Memphis Industries. Barbarossa – aka UK-based musician/producer James Mathé – returns this March with his sixth album, Love Here Listen. Today's Song of the Day gives a first listen to the forthcoming full-length.  In a statement, Mathé explains the track: "I was thinking about how I have moments of clarity more and more as I get older of what is really meaningful in my life and how I can best use my time in this life. The moments are often short-lived though, so I look at ways of accessing this mental state more. My kids bring me into this state and nature too. I jump in icy water now I live by the sea and it brings me into fight or flight, it brings what’s important to the forefront of my mind. The song is about spending more of your life with your eyes open, confronting everything that you are dealt with."  As he did with his 2018 album Lier, Mathé again teamed up with fellow producer Ghost Culture (Daniel Avery, Kelly Lee Owens), using vintage synths to craft their dreamy electronica sound. "It was probably the most stress-free record to date and so much fun just messing around with synth arps," Ghost Culture told The Line of Best Fit. "It’s easy with James as we really understand each other and I trust him totally. He lives five minutes’ walk along the seafront from me. We even jumped in the sea a couple of times after lunch." Love Here Listen will be out March 5th via Memphis Industries. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

El Michels Affair - "Murkit Gem" from the 2021 album Yeti Season on Big Crown Records. Multi-instrumentalist, writer, and producer Leon Michels has a long history in the Brooklyn music scene, with too many credits to list, but a few include being a touring member of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings and The Black Keys, a co-founder of the The Menahan Street Band, a co-producer on Aloe Blacc’s album Good Things, and he was even a credited writer on Adele’s blockbuster album, 19. With his current project El Michels Affair, he brings his decades of experience together for a unique instrumental soul sound. His upcoming album, Yeti Season, combines R&B and jazz with Turkish and Persian psych-funk. Today's featured track features guest vocals from artist Piya Malik. "When Piya started singing in Hindi, she had a different voice, a different tone," Michels said in a press release. "I knew we had to do something together." Yeti Season is out on Big Crown Records on March 18th. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Nation of Language - "Deliver Me From Wondering Why," a 2021 self-released single. Brooklyn synth-pop duo Nation Of Language sent us swooning with last year's debut full-length, titled Introduction, Presence. Earlier this month, they returned with the new single "Deliver Me From Wondering Why," another new wave-inspired track that sounds straight from a '80s film soundtrack. The band layer video game-esque sounds against the programmed beats, adding soaring out-of-this-world effects. In a press statement, frontman/songwriter Ian Devaney shared more about the song: “Deliver Me From Wondering Why” is a bit of an exploration, rooted in a desire for something repetitious and a bit spacey — something that would make you really want to zone out or go for a long drive on the highway. (Ideally not at the same time.) We worked on it with Nick Millhiser (Holy Ghost!) and it was just a really fun exercise in letting the track carry us wherever it was going to go. The backbone of the steady synth arpeggios and rhythms just leads endlessly forward and lets the mind wander around it. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Toni Banx - "Chanel No. 5" from the 2020 album I Like It Here on Fifth House Media. And you know I get down on myself / I ain’t better that nobody else / But I’m better than what I done been through / Too late to say that I miss you Seattle's Fifth House is both a media outlet, and a duo (as featured in KEXP's October 2020 edition of In Our Headphones). Half of that duo — the richly-voiced Toni Banx — has emerged with the solo EP I Like It Here. Today's Song of the Day is a soulful ode to the loss of a relationship, and the stories, and scents, left behind.  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ciscero - "Beautiful Mind (feat. Oddisee)," a 2021 single on We Are Not The Same. They don't give a fuck about us / They're not feeling what we say / “They don’t give no fuck about us / 'cause we come from 'round the way”  On "Beautiful Mind," two emcees from Prince George's County, Maryland team up to reflect on where they're from and how they rise above. The soulful, sun-drenched single features production by Tee-WaTT, Latrell James, J.Robb, with guest violinist April George adding a melancholy touch.   The accompanying music video, directed by Adam Hahn, juxtaposes images of Ciscero and his crew with shots of children playing in the street. Watch now on KEXP.org. Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

KAMAUU - "MANGO (feat. Adeline)," a 2021 single on Atlantic Records. Born in D.C. and raised in Maryland, the parents of Kamau Mbonisi Kwame Agyeman sought to introduce him and his brother to African music, history, and culture at a young age. Now based in Brooklyn, rapper/artist KAMAUU incorporates those lessons into his genre-defying music. (His brother also grew up to pursue music, recording under the name Nkō Khélí.) On one of his most recent singles, "MANGO," he teams up with vocalist Adeline (who is also half of the production duo Nightshade). In an interview with Ladygunn, he explains the inspiration behind the song: “MANGO” was inspired by the realization that in relationships, many of us think we want what’s best for our partners, though we often, more accurately, want to be with our partners in the way that feels the best or most right to us. I found this to be dangerous for many reasons. One being that how things feel can be deceptive. When you have a fever, you feel cold even though your body may very well be a human torch (hot). It’s also dangerous because most of us have trouble figuring out what best for ourselves. To know what’s best for another, to me, especially in situations where I/we can be massively emotionally biased, seems unlikely.  This led me to build more relationships with people who thoroughly studied themselves. If I can trust that someone has really studied and worked on and with themselves, I can trust they have a good grasp on what’s best for them. If what’s best is someone else, who am I to block a blessing.  Now I’m not saying go and cheat, but what I am saying is that, it’s better to be fully transparent about what we want from our partners, and what we can and cannot, and/or will and will not offer. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mumu Fresh - "A Healing," a 2021 self-released single. Maimouna Youssef (aka Mumu Fresh) is a GRAMMY-Nominated singer, songwriter, and activist, who mines her rich heritage for inspiration. She grew up singing gospel and jazz in an African-American Muslim household in Baltimore, and learned traditional songs from her Choctaw and Muscogee grandparents. Lately, she has been collaborating with "everyone from Salaam Remi to Tobe Nwigwe" as DJ Gabriel Teodros reports, and today's featured track is "her first solo single in a minute." Teodros adds, "She did this amazing NPR Tiny Desk concert a few years ago here. Hopefully we'll have a KEXP Live at Home with her soon!"  Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I Self Devine - "The Disruptor Suite," a 2021 single on Improvised Weaponry. Born Chaka Mkali in Minneapolis, I Self Devine has been called "one of the most influential voices in Minnesota hip hop" by alt-weekly City Pages. In addition to being a talented musician and MC, he is also a "community organizer, racial justice trainer, graffiti artist, muralist, program coordinator and director of organizing and community building at Hope Community Center in Minneapolis," as detailed in his artist bio. (Learn more about I Self Devine in this Sound & Vision interview by Gabriel Teodros.) Today's Song of the Day is a six-part song, produced and engineered by Medium Zach. On his SoundCloud page, he explains: "The Disruptor Suite" is one of many creative reflections from democracy TBD, a series of scenario planning working groups designed to help the Democracy Fund keep pace with the rapid and unpredictable changes to social, political, and economic systems. Democracy Fund wanted to start thinking through how the current pandemic, racial unrest, and election concerns might spark a cycle of disruption and reorganization. Which aspects of our democratic system might prove more resilient, and which might be fundamentally altered. This working group consisting of architects, professors, journalist, organizers, urban planners, strategists, futurists, artists, policy directors, and researchers were led by Democracy Fund, Dot Connector studio, and 8 bridges workshop in two facilitated discussion sessions. The first session was around events that could trigger systems level disruptions. Participants picked a disruptor to think and imagine across the STEEP+C sectors which is looking at the possible intended/ unintended negative and positive impacts of a disruptor from a Societal, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political, and Creative lens.  In the second session there was reflection on the potential impact of a given disruptive event using the Democracy Funds Healthy Democracy Framework. The disruptor chosen for this song was defunding the police state. The soundscape created by Medium Zach is a suite consisting of six parts capturing all of the elements of the STEEP+C sectors. This song was done in the spirit of Gang Starr’s “I’m the Man”, and “Speak Ya Clout” . Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Erik Blood - "Rent is Due (feat. Gary V)," a 2020 self-released single. Currently based in Los Angeles, but forever a local artist in KEXP's heart, Erik Blood teams up with Anti- Records recording artist Gary V for today's Song of the Day. (Born Garett van der Spek in Durban, South Africa, Gary V is also a former Seattleite residing in the City of Angels.) Using an original instrumental track that Blood created for The Stranger's SPLIFF film festival trailer, Gary V implores the listener to "Take time / Slow down." Via Twitter, Blood confirmed that "all of the money from the purchase of 'Rent is Due' will be going to our mutual friend [Garek Druss]," who was diagnosed with stage IV adenocarcinoma located in his esophagus and stomach. Blood adds, "Rent can wait." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.