Camp Saint Helene - Farfisa Song

Musician, producer, sound engineer, and all-around creative force Erik Blood is known for a lot of things - one-half of Knife Knights alongside Ishmael Butler, his recent funkified sensual project Pink Lotion with Rachel Ferguson, Black Constellation all-star contributor, and a solo artist in his own right. Something you may have missed was his 2011 foray into music soundtracking which saw the multi-hyphenate write an album’s worth of original music for the Brazilian film Center of Gravity. Without having even seen the movie, the haunting soundtrack Blood created tells a powerful story on its own, full of tender longing and heartwrenching aching. The description of the film describes it as dealing with, “universal questions about love and our expectations toward the beloved, the thin line that simultaneously divides and unites one another.” Our Song of the Day, “Or Am I Wrong?” expresses that extremely thin line as our narrator questions their ex’s ability to move on while they’re still so hopelessly entrenched in the memory of their shared past. Backed by a spaghetti-western-esque beat that pairs perfectly with our narrator’s cinema-sized reimagining of past love, the song was made for the widescreen. With lyrics like “That place we were /Can we ever go back /This fear of me being phased out /Or instantly replaced is just so strong,” it’s easy to imagine a montage of loving moments past or rain pouring down a protagonists head as they stare at their ex-love’s window. For the full lowdown on Erik Blood, listen KEXP’s episode on him for our Fresh Off the Spaceship podcast which delves into the boundless world of the Black Constellation. Below, watch Erik Blood's KEXP in-studio performance from 2016.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

17 Jun 20223min

In April, Chaz Bear dropped the seventh studio album from his constantly evolving project Toro y Moi titled Mahal. One of his jammier records, Mahal veers heavily towards psych-funk and features a hefty list of contributors including Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Neilson, Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo, visual artist and musician Sofie Royer, and jazz duo the Mattson 2. Our Song of the Day is the breezy track and early single “The Loop.” Led by a funky bassline and a meandering guitar, the song slowly ambles while Bear mellowly muses on the trappings of modern life in the digital age where it’s imperative to stay up to date. “East Coast friends fill me in, I know you get the early scoop,” Bear croons. “Online trends that border cringe start to feel overused." The video for the song follows Bear and his friends over the course of a pretty incredible day in San Francisco where the squad skateboards, rolls through the streets in go-carts and jeepneys, and has one heck of a meal at FOB Kitchen in Oakland. Watch the video below and catch Toro y Moi on Saturday, July 23rd at Capitol Hill Block Party.Support the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

16 Jun 20224min

Poppy Ajudha - MOTHERS SISTERS GIRLFRIENDS - from the 2022 self-released album THE POWER IN US On her debut album The Power In Us, Poppy Ajudha displays just that: a fearless force-of-nature, with songs about feminism, colonialism, gender politics, mental health, and other social issues on her mind. Today's Song of the Day, in particular, is a call to action for women's rights. "Women don’t have to be just what they are taught to be," she emphasizes, via a press release. "There is so much more to us than Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Girlfriends and our relation to men. I want men to engage more heavily in feminism and really see how their defiance against it only holds both women and men back. There are so many boxes we put ourselves in; I want us all to break out of them." The South London-born artist adds, "Every song on this album touches on these issues because they are all I think about everyday, all I see around me in my friends and my family. I hope it flips a switch in your mind, like it did for mine.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

15 Jun 20223min

Sampa the Great - Lane (feat. Denzel Curry) - a 2022 single on Loma Vista. Today's Song of the Day finds Zambian-born, Botswana-raised artist Sampa The Great taking up some well-deserved space, alongside guest vocalist and fellow rapper Denzel Curry. “We’re not going to stay in one lane, we’re going to create multiple ones,” she said in a press statement. “My truest self encourages me to explore different lanes, and go beyond what I think I know of myself.” She adds that the song is “about expressing the full range of who you are without being boxed by anyone else’s definitions of you. Connecting to your younger self means connecting to your truest self, and that truest self is not confined by any labels and any boxes. ‘Lane’ is about breaking those boxes, and staying true to yourself.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

14 Jun 20222min

Alabaster DePlume - I'm Good at Not Crying - from the 2022 album GOLD on International Anthem. Quirkiness is in the cards with a nom de plume like Alabaster DePlume. The London-based poet/songwriter (real name: Gus Fairbairn) has just released his cheekily-titled sophomore album, Gold, a 2xLP collection, captured chaotically. During the 2020 recording sessions, DePlume invited a different set of musicians each day to record the same songs at the same speed. Two rules were in place: one, that musicians wouldn’t be given enough time to rehearse, and two, that they wouldn’t listen back to the music they recorded. “They didn’t have enough preparation to be able to hide behind this piece of material or skill,” he said via his Bandcamp. “They had to look up and respond to each other, and that’s what we've recorded.” DePlume then took the recordings, slicing them together seamlessly. “The method is part of the mission. It wasn’t like school. We had mayhem. We were having fun. That’s the story and the process – and I want to live that way,” he adds. Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

13 Jun 20223min

Hollis - Burn Burn - a 2022 single on AntiFragile Music. After years as a supporting artist for artists like Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and bands like The Flavr Blue, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Hollis (full name: Hollis Wong-Wear) is front and center on her solo album debut Subliminal, out now via Anti Fragile. "It’s an opportunity for me to sonically chart the spectrum of feelings," she shared in a press release, "from existential angst and the tension of our historical moment, to meditative reflection, to uninhibited joy, that was evoked during the pandemic and into today. I’m so happy to offer this album to the world in hopes that it can provide a space of healing and resonance the way that writing the songs did for me.” Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

10 Jun 20223min

Zola Jesus - The Fall - from the 2022 album Arkhon on Sacred Bones. Zola Jesus returns with her sixth full-length later this month titled Arkhon. The artist, whose real name is Nika Roza Danilova, explains that the title translates to "power" or "ruler" in ancient Greek. "Arkons are a Gnostic idea of power wielded through a flawed god," Danilova elaborated via a press release. "They taint and tarnish humanity, keeping them corrupted instead of letting them find their harmonious selves. I do feel like we are living in an arkhonic time; these negative influences are weighing extremely heavy on all of us. We're in a time of arkhons. There's power in naming that." Today's Song of the Day taps into that power. "I wrote ‘The Fall’ for myself," she said. "It was an exercise in using music as a tool for the sake of my own inner catharsis. I had a lot of turmoil and complicated emotions that I couldn’t process in any other way. I suppose some feelings require you to write a pop song in order to fully understand them. For that reason, this song is very precious to me." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

9 Jun 20224min

The Heavy Heavy - Miles and Miles - from the 2022 album Life and Life Only on ATO. Brighton, UK-based duo The Heavy Heavy channel the sun-drenched sound of the '60s with today's Song of the Day. “‘Miles and Miles’ is about driving across the country, trying to get from place to place — free and easy but with real energy and motion," band member Georgie Fuller said in a press release. "It was inspired by the landscapes of Easy Rider and Vanishing Point and this fantasy of racing down the highway. It’s fuel for the listeners’ imagination — whatever that may be. For the music video we wanted to create that feeling, and we were inspired by clips of the Stones and the Beatles on roadsides in the ’60s. It’s sun-soaked and fast-paced, and we wanted it to feel like a dream." Read the full post on KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

8 Jun 20224min