KEXP DJ Greta Rose on Australian producer and DJ HAAi

Freekind. - "Visualize" from the 2023 album Since Always and Forever on Butter92 Croatian duo Freekind. combines the talents of pianist and vocalist Sara Ester Gredelj and drummer Nina Korošak-Serčič. On their debut LP, Since Always And Forever, they craft a soulful sound with nods to pop, hip-hop, and jazz. Today's Song of the Day, in particular, brings a peaceful groove they say is meant to inspire. As they write on their website, "We were at a period in our lives where we had the possibility to take time for ourselves and formed a nice routine where we got up, meditated, did yoga and spent the rest of our day with a sense of ease. Eventually our schedule started filling, the media was full with news of restriction, fearful threats, the people being polarised and anxious and that sense of ease started fading. So all that naturally brought to a thought – I just wanna live my life in peace. In a stress-inducing fast paced world filled with a lot of music, art and series with dystopian-like depictions of the world we wanted to create our vision of life. A peaceful one. In order for it to ever come to fruition we need to – Visualize." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

29 Dec 20232min

Bulgarian Cartrader - "Golden Rope" from the 2022 self-released album Motor Songs. Berlin-based musician Daniel Stoyanov pays tribute to both his birthplace and his love of cars with his musical project, Bulgarian Cartrader.  "My name sounds Eastern European, and to be precise I was born in Sofia, Bulgaria, and came to Germany when I was 4. I grew up in Germany, but stayed connected to Bulgaria, kept the language, and mingled a lot with friends and family," he explained to Exberliner.com. As for the second part of the name, he adds, "If you look at me, you would never think cartrader, but it’s inside of me." (His debut album is even titled Motor Songs.) Today's Song of the Day is a warm, laid-back groove, that he describes as "not a song that runs behind to grab your attention. It just stays there, it’s slick and mellow. I have energetic songs, and sometimes I need those, but I know that when I hit the mellow strings on the guitar, these songs are more powerful." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

28 Dec 20233min

Pearly Drops - "I Cry While You Sleep (Dream, Ivory version)" from the 2023 EP Haunted Expansion Pack on Cascine Helsinki-based duo Pearly Drops pull '80s influences through their prismatic synthpop sound. Their latest EP — titled Haunted Expansion Pack — features special remixes of tracks off their sophomore LP, A Little Disaster, which came out earlier this year.  Today's Song of the Day is a remix of "I Cry While You Sleep," reinvented by Dream, Ivory, a production team of siblings Louie and Christian Baello. Pearly Drops explain to Glam Cult, the track had very different beginnings.  "This song has actually had a quite long journey. It was originally written for a completely different artist and it was probably even before our debut album. But a few years later we realised that it could actually be our own little ballad and we just had to request it back, hah. It was our attempt to make something warm, wood-y and modern with instruments from the '60s and the '80s. That’s been our favourite palette for some time now." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

27 Dec 20233min

Berry Galazka - Leash from the 2023 Leash EP on Climax Records & Sweat Entertainment Each artist we're featuring this week is a Music Moves Europe Awards nominee. The MME Awards are the EU-funded prize for emerging artists. There are 15 nominees for these prestigious awards and the winners will be announced Thursday, January 18 at the ESNS festival in Groningen, NL. Listeners/viewers can vote for their favorite artist for the MME Public Choice Award here. Born in Poland, raised in Florida, and now living in London — Berry Galazka brings a wealth of worldly influences to her music, from My Chemical Romance to polka to Denzel Curry. She reflects her Polish heritage in her clothing, wearing a babushka scarf and the country's flag colors of red and white.  On Facebook, she shares that today's Song of the Day is "largely inspired by my family’s virtue of questioning everything." She also notes to Polyester Zine that the new EP is inspired by the Salvador Dali painting Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening. "I still find so many different meanings within this painting,” she told The Line of Best Fit. "It always stuck with me how he visualized the sensation of being ripped out of a dream as the subconscious mind protects Gala from the bee sting." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

26 Dec 20232min

Ana Lua Caiano - "Mão na Mão" from the 2023 self-released album Se Dançar É Só Depois Portuguese multi-disciplinary artist Ana Lua Caiano studied classical music for eight years, and then studied jazz for four years at the prestigious Escola De Jazz Luiz Villas-Boas, the oldest jazz club in Europe. In 2017, she joined the acoustic ensemble Os Vertigem, but when the pandemic hit and she couldn't play music with others anymore, she decided to embark on a solo endeavor.  Caiano combines traditional Portuguese music with modern electronic sounds, using a synthesizer and a loop station in her live performances. Her second EP, Se Dan​ç​ar É Só Depois, was released earlier this year.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

25 Dec 20233min

Panthervision - "Wish You Were Here (Baby it's Christmas)" a 2023 single on Fetish Pop This week, we are continuing a long-held tradition of featuring Christmas-themed Songs of the Day, selected by Brian Foss, one of the hosts of KEXP’s punk show Sonic Reducer. He will be hosting his 20th annual Punk Rock Xmess on Saturday, December 23rd from 9 PM to midnight PT, and then tune in on Monday, December 25th from 7 AM - 4 PM PT, for No Standards Christmas. You won't hear a single "holiday standard," but instead get a mix of soul, rock, blues, hip-hop, and more! Portland power-pop quartet Panthervision first formed in 2019, but its members have been active in the local music scene for fifteen years, playing in bands like Beyond Veronica, Spiral Electric, and Spy Device. Their concept with the new project was "The Muffs meets Sweet, but The Yardbirds are in there somewhere, and some pre-'Walk Like An Egyptian' Bangles … and most of all, their own style and enthusiasm." It's a goal they achieve on their debut album, Now In 3​-​D, released back in January 2023, and on today's Song of the Day, a rollicking holiday track.  Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

22 Dec 20232min

Problem Patterns - "Christmas Number One" a 2020 self-released single This week, we are continuing a long-held tradition of featuring Christmas-themed Songs of the Day, selected by Brian Foss, one of the hosts of KEXP’s punk show Sonic Reducer. He will be hosting his 20th annual Punk Rock Xmess on Saturday, December 23rd from 9 PM to midnight PT, and then tune in on Monday, December 25th from 7 AM - 4 PM PT, for No Standards Christmas. You won't hear a single "holiday standard," but instead get a mix of soul, rock, blues, hip-hop, and more! Problem Patterns — self-described as Belfast's pre-eminent DIY feminist queerpunk quartet — released their highly-anticipated debut album back in October, titled Blouse Club. But today's Song of the Day takes us back to 2020, when they released this single during a tumultuous season. As they wrote at the time: This year, many of us will be spending Christmas alone for the first time ever, and for a few of us, that is the norm. The holiday season can be an incredibly isolating time in general. We wrote this song in an effort to try and look on the bright side of an otherwise tough situation. For the video, we wanted to collaborate and connect with a few friendly faces. We may not be able to be together right now, but stay hopeful.  Whatever your plans are, we hope that you are safe and sound.Sending love to anyone who needs it.Merry Christmas,Bev, Beth, Ciara and Alanah xxxx Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

21 Dec 20233min

Ricardo Autobahn - "Christmas Isn't Halloween," a 2020 single on Banoffee Sound Today's Song of the Day isn't Ricardo Autobahn's first Christmas hit, not by a long shot. Under his birth name of John Matthews, he had a smash single with his band Cuban Boys in 1999, with the track "Cognoscenti vs. Intelligentsia" reaching #4 on the UK charts on Christmas week, and topping the infamous John Peel's Festive Fifty that year.  You may also recognize Autobahn's talents in the projects Barndance Boys and Spray, or in his collaborations with Daz Sampson as Rikki & Daz.  Today's featured track takes us back to his 2020 Banoffee Sound Singles Club release. Stay tuned for new music from Autobahn in January, including, what he calls, "assorted variations including the hyper hyper Helen Love remix." Read the full story at KEXP.orgSupport the show: https://www.kexp.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

20 Dec 20233min