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Vegyn - B4 The Computer Crash Mar 30, 2021

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Vegyn - "B4 the Computer Crash," a 2021 single on PLZ Make It Ruins.

Back in 2019, LA-via-London producer Joe Thornalley (better known as Vegyn) was struggling with depression, an episode that influenced his latest EP, Like a Good Old Friend, out now via Plz Make it Ruins. “A friend let me stay at their house and they happened to have a piano,” he told The Face. “I was like ‘cool, OK, I’m just gonna try and figure this thing out.’ My chords are definitely weird, but to me they’re not weird. I’m really just playing with shapes and trying to lean into the emotive quality of the music.”

As the title of the EP would suggest, the new release features several of Thornalley's pals, including Owen Pallett, rapper Jeshi, lap steel guitarist Daniel Aged, London rapper John Glacier, and more. On today's featured track, Vegyn pairs up with multidisciplinary artist and pianist Duval Timothy, who brings his jazzy sensibility to this house-inspired, glitchy, yet somehow still smooth track. Check it out below, via a video by Richard Phillip Smith and Noah Burke.

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Figmore - Rosie Mar 29, 2021

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Figmore - "Rosie," a 2021 single on Fresh Selects.

Figmore combines the talents of Renton-raised producer 10.4 Rog (stream his Midnight in a Perfect World mix here) and JUICEB☮X, a rapper, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Westchester, NY. Now based in Los Angeles, the duo combine psych, R&B, and hip-hop on their debut album Jumbo Street (out now via Fresh Selects).

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Branik - Monster Mar 26, 2021

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Branik - "Monster," a 2020 self-released single.

Seattle singer/songwriter Branik says she "writes songs that sometimes make my friends cry." Today's Song of the Day will have them sobbing.

In a statement to the Daily Listening, she explains, "When I wrote ‘Monster’ I felt like I had, yet again, lost everything I had been working so hard to make wonderful. It had been a year and a half of being left by the people that promised to love me and have my back. That December, I was sitting in tears on my cousin’s bedroom floor playing my aunt’s guitar... This song was me making sense of what I was feeling. It took me about 15 minutes to write. I was in crisis for a while after. I can feel my heart break a little bit every time I sing it... My hope in releasing this song is to give my listeners the same comfort that music has given me in times of grief and sorrow. There is something consoling about hearing lyrics that reflect exactly what I feel. I have one song that quite literally saved my life more than once. It gives me hope. It reminds me that I am not alone. I want my music to do that for other people... ‘Monster’ was me breaking through my coffin to claw out of my grave.”

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The KEXP Podcast Survey Mar 25, 2021

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Do you have feedback on KEXP's podcasts you'd like to share with us? Things you'd like to hear more of, or things that could be improved? We want to hear from you.

The survey closes on April 7, 2021, so don't wait! Take our Podcast Survey today.

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St. Vincent - Pay Your Way In Pain Mar 25, 2021

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St. Vincent - "Pay Your Way In Pain" from the 2021 album Daddy's Home on Loma Vista Recordings.

On her sixth album, Daddy’s Home, St. Vincent (real name: Annie Clark) looks to the past, specifically the ‘70s, to inspire the present.

“There’s something interesting about what the early ‘70s were, and the parallels between then and now – even socially,” Clark told NME. “You had the idealism of the ‘60s come crashing down and the flower child thing had dissipated and made room for a way grittier, more nihilistic, more ‘dirt under the fingernails’ vibe. The economy was crazy, there was a whole [lot] of social unrest and that doesn’t sound too dissimilar from now as we’re watching institutions of power being dismantled and people upset with the status quo. People are trying to navigate what it is to just survive.”

Today's Song of the Day captures that theme of endurance. “I feel like we live in a world where we’re often asked to choose between surviving and dignity. Part of it is like blues for 2021. It’s also about how there’s nothing that I’ve done in my life that didn’t involve some sort of struggle. Some of those struggles are really worthy ones to have and something great can come of them.”

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Ora The Molecule - Creator Mar 24, 2021

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Ora the Molecule - "Creator," a 2021 single on Mute Records.

Oslo, Norway-born artist Nora Schjelderup (otherwise known as Ora The Molecule) releases her debut album Human Safari this summer on July 23rd. Today's Song of the Day is the first single from the release, an ebullient anthem for youth, as reflected in the accompanying music video, directed by Tanmay Chowdhary.

“The song is all about empowerment in the individual,” Schjelderup says in a press release. “You have to love the creator that is inside of the creature. I know there’s a lot of fear among kids. Greta Thunberg is a great example. She’s such a hero for so many young kids. It’s playing into that a little bit. In the video, my little sister, Tindra, is the adult listening to the news. I am a passive adult. She’s training me and doing all of these things to get us ready for the big day of catastrophe.”

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Anushka Chkheidze - Move, move Mar 23, 2021

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Anushka Chkheidze - "Move, Move" from the 2021 album Move 20-21 on CES Records.

With last year's debut LP Halfie, Anushka Chkheidze landed a nomination for IMPALA’s European Independent Album of The Year Award. Less than a year later, the 23-year-old electronic music artist returns with her second full-length, Move 20 – 21, an album she describes as "a mind journey through space and time without any physical activity."

The LP was recorded during lockdown in her hometown of Kharagauli, a village in the Imereti region of western Georgia, and the songs have an inevitable introspection to them. “The album is a reflection of 2020 and 2021 so far, but not because of the situation brought on by COVID-19,” she tells the Calvert Journal. “It has to do with people, home, age. Last year, I realised I need to take better care of others, and of myself.”

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Altin Gün - Maçka Yolları Mar 22, 2021

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Altin Gün - "Maçka Yollari" from the 2021 album Yol on ATO Records.

Amsterdam-based, but globally influenced with Turkish, Indonesian, and Dutch band members, Grammy-nominated band Altin Gün continue to add a psych-touch to traditional Turkish folk songs on their third album, Yol. Today's Song of the Day hails from the Trabzon region near the Black Sea coast, with Altin Gün giving it their usual funk infusion.

Like many recent releases, Yol was created during quarantine. "We couldn’t get together, so we demoed everything from home," vocalist/keyboardist Merve Daşdemir explained to American Songwriter. "We all work on Logic, [so] essentially [this album] sounded a bit electronic. But it wasn’t super intentional. It was more like, pandemic, so we have to do it differently. Which, I really enjoyed. This is the most creative input I put on an Altin Gün album so far, so it’s kind of my personal favorite, in that sense. Because I really like working alone, so this was perfect for me."

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Echo of the Low Light - Afterlife Mar 19, 2021

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Echo of the Low Light - "Afterlife," a 2021 single on Independent.

Echo of the Low Light is more than just a band; it's a collective of Pacific Northwest artists taking an experimental approach to song construction.

At its core is guitarist/vocalist Kerri Holland and bassist Pam Drago. After years in bands, they wanted to push the boundaries. They explain on their Instagram, "We began to explore more digital elements and effects, blending them with the traditional guitar/bass/drums we’d been used to. This opened things up sonically in ways we couldn’t imagine. Then we thought, ‘what would it be like to create with artists we’ve never worked with before?’ This is when the floodgates flew wide open."

Every song features a different line-up of collaborators. On today's Song of the Day, they welcomed guest artists Joy Dunay (The Dirty Slippers, The Way We Were in 1989), Brandon Krebs (All Known Aliases), and John Gibson (Danielli).

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Squid - Narrator (feat. Martha Skye Murphy) Mar 18, 2021

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Squid - "Narrator (feat. Martha Skye Murphy)" from the 2021 album Bright Green Field on Warp.

After a series of stand-alone singles and an EP, Brighton, England-based band Squid have announced their debut album, Bright Green Field, out May 7th via Warp. Today's Song of the Day features guest vocals from Martha Skye Murphy, to help make "the point that the unreliable narrator is, more often than not, a male who wishes to portray women as submissive characters in their story."

The band continue in a press release: "'Narrator' was inspired by the 2019 film A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The song follows a man who is losing the distinction between memory, dream, and reality, and how you can often mold your memories of people to fit a narrative that benefits your ego. After some discussions with Martha she thought it’d be a good idea that she play the part of the woman wanting to break free from the dominating story the male has set."

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