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GDRN - Vorið Dec 09, 2020

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GDRN - "Vorið" from the 2020 album GDRN on Les Freres Stefson.

When GDRN (real name: Guðrún Ýr Eyfjörð Jóhannesdóttir) played KEXP Iceland Airwaves broadcast last year, she had just swept the Iceland Music Awards with her debut Hvað Ef, scoring best female artist, best pop song, best pop album, and music video of the year. With her follow-up full-length, released earlier this year, Jóhannesdóttir experiments with a new approach. As she told KEXP's Dusty Henry last year:

The next album is a bit more... It has more live instruments in it and more of me singing with more power. Just the lyrical ideas – they're all in Icelandic, I'm sorry for your English speaking listeners – but they are just fully formed ideas, I would say. They have this uptempo feel and a little bit more jazz, live instruments and everything.

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Molchat Doma - Discoteque / Дискотека Dec 08, 2020

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Molchat Doma - "Discoteque" from the 2020 album Monument on Sacred Bones.

Belarusian trio Molchat Doma (a phrase that translates to “Houses Are Silent”) formed in 2017, crafting darkwave synth-pop from their hometown of Minsk. Their just-released third full-length Monument was written and recorded in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with today's featured track "Discotheque", they invite the listener to imagine the now-forbidden dance floor. In a press release, they describe the song as “a light dance composition, which was created in order to make the listener move to the beat of the music. A kind of answer to 'Just Can’t Get Enough' by Depeche Mode…Ideal for both mood elevation and unbridled fun.”

The accompanying music video, directed by Alexey Terehoff, was filmed at the Memorial Museum-Studio of Z. Azgur, and while the clip finds the band performing to statues of Lenin and Stalin, Terehoff aimed to focus on the aesthetic. “This is the city that embalmed and revived all the idols from the era of the Soviet dictatorship,” he declared. “There are no politics in the video, only the STYLE, a mixture of pure, concentrated neo-totalitarian aesthetics and acidic post-punk.”

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Young Jesus - Faith Dec 07, 2020

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Young Jesus - "Faith" from the 2020 album Welcome to Conceptual Beach on Saddle Creek.

Earlier this year, Los Angeles-based quartet Young Jesus released their fifth full-length Welcome to Conceptual Beach; turns out, it's a sandy shore frontman John Rossiter has visited for years, originally as a physical zine in 2016. He told Uproxx.com:

It became a kind of diary, where I could become a character — as it turns out, is really helpful for sorting out your own health and psychology and soul, to be able to separate yourself out a little bit into different figures. It would really help me sort through my feelings, anger, guilt, sadness, shame, unworthiness, creativity, joy. At that point in time, I was living really deeply in my own mind, and that’s a really isolating place to be. So it helped me dive into the heart of that. This record, I hope, is my life opening up a little bit, and leaving my mind, joining a community, and being more in my body.

As an album, Welcome to Conceptual Beach finds the band expanding on their emo roots, adding jazzy elements to their post-rock sound, while Rossiter explores a new vulnerability. He confides to music blog Grandma Sophia's Cookies:

This is the first record where I’m not just saying how good I want to be, or what I want the world to be, or if only people did this it would be great, or look at all these people who are fucking up, or look at how much I’ve fucked up, but it’s more this is what’s happening and there’s so much work to be done. But there’s also so much that’s being done, and a lot of it is beautiful. A lot of what’s within me and what’s within my friends and loved ones is beautiful. It’s the first time — I’m emotional right now — that I believe it. I don’t know if I really believed it before. I didn’t really listen to our music and its lyrics, and especially their delivery, until a year ago. When I listened, I was like, Oh my god, I’m screaming the whole time, I’m so angry. This is the first album where I’m emerging from that and being like, Okay, I could do better myself. I want to hear these lessons that are on the album and keep living them. I hope some people get some of that from it. I hope they see how much I love other people.

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SassyBlack - Therapy Dec 04, 2020

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SassyBlack - "Therapy" from the 2020 self-released EP Stuck.

Throughout her career, Seattle's own SassyBlack has tackled the topic of mental health, from her 2019 song “Depression” and the accompanying short film released early in 2020. On her latest EP Stuck, and today's featured track, in particular, she continues the conversation around self care, encouraging listeners to reach out when they're feeling "nothing at all," repeating the lyric "lay it on me" in a soothing rhythm.

In conjunction with KEXP’s Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization, and in a perfect complement to today's Song of the Day, SassyBlack chose the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective, a "collective of advocates, yoga teachers, artists, therapists, lawyers, religious leaders, teachers, psychologists and activists committed to the emotional/mental health and healing of Black communities."

Learn more about the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective here.

Donations are accepted here.

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Nailah Hunter - Black Valhalla Dec 03, 2020

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Nailah Hunter - "Black Valhalla," a 2020 self-released single.

With "Black Valhalla", Los Angeles-based composer/harpist Nailah Hunter imagines a place where Black people "are safe and exalted." In this interview with KEXP's Dusty Henry, Hunter explains:

I mean, again, Valhalla being the place where the Nordic gods live and the people... Actually just kidding, they don't live there, but it's a place where warriors go. I have always loved that idea. And I love Vikings and all of that stuff. But I realized how Black people are left out of that narrative. So obviously, the name of the song had to be 'Black Valhalla.' But I think the idea initially was like to speak to the fallen, the slain black people. But then at the same time, not wanting to martyr them in that way where it's like, 'Oh, they're fallen soldiers.' It's like, no, that was someone's son that's now dead. That was someone's daughter who's now dead.

So I'm not trying to glorify it in that way, but just thinking of an official place where their sacrifice, what happened to them is actually recognized for what it is. And just a 'safe and glorious hall' – we all deserve that, Black people deserve that. We've been through a lot. So that's where that was coming from. And yeah, just this idea that it's not quite safe here on this plane for black people. Maybe somewhere else is safe. It's a global thing, but maybe it's different on another plane.

In conjunction with KEXP’s Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Hunter chose the Loveland Foundation, an organization that provides therapy for young Black girls and women. (Proceeds from today's featured track are being donated to the Foundation.) In her KEXP interview, she explains:

I was just searching for the right organization and that came up and I was like, "Yes, this is exactly it." Because black girls need to talk about what's going on. It is so difficult to be a black woman in this world. And you need to be able to talk about that with someone else. And I just know for me, like when I found my African-American therapist, I was literally changed. I had been to therapists before who were white and it just didn't work because they didn't understand... they couldn't understand certain aspects. So I'm just thankful for any organization that is connecting black girls to therapists. So that's why I chose them.

Learn more about the Loveland Foundation here.

Donations are accepted here.

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Kassa Overall - Darkness in Mind Dec 02, 2020

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Kassa Overall - “Darkness In My Mind” from I THINK I’M GOOD on Brownswood Recordings.

Originally hailing from Seattle and now based out of New York, Kassa Overall has used his inimitable blend of jazz, hip-hop, and experimental leanings to explore heady and existential topics. With his latest record, I THINK I’M GOOD, he’s at his most personal and revealing. On the record he explores his own experiences with mental illness, having experienced manic episodes and subsequent hospitalizations in his youth.

“Mental instability or hyper-sensitivity was something that felt too taboo to talk about," Kassa Overall says in the record’s Bandcamp description. "I want to show the world that mentally sensitive people are the innovators of our society, and hopefully set a new standard that includes a healthy way of life and embracing our unique perspective on reality.”

He addresses these themes directly on the LP’s standout track, “”Darkness In My Mind.” Joined by jazz pianist Sullivan Fortner, the two create an atmosphere that veers into the gothic with elegant-yet-nightmarish piano keys cascading against Overall’s mournful, vocoder-effected vocals. The song veers drastically between moments of beauty and bliss to skittering, hectic rhythms and electronic fever dreams. The musical tension is an apt complement to Overall’s musings over his troubles, recreating that troubling and inescapable dream that can come in our most difficult mental moments.

In conjunction with KEXP’s upcoming Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Overall has chosen the Jazz Foundation of America’s Musicians Emergency Fund. The foundations outlined goal is to create a program that protects artists and “turns despair into hope.” They do this by ensuring blues, jazz, and roots artists are given the housing assistance they need, the care they need to stay healthy, and financially security to keep their basic needs met.

Learn more about the Jazz Foundation of America here.

Donations are accepted here.

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Orion Sun - mama's baby Dec 01, 2020

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Orion Sun - “mama’s baby,” a 2020 self-released single.

Philadelphia-based songwriter Orion Sun’s latest single, “mama’s baby,” was written after experiencing police brutality during a protest earlier this year in late May. Thrown into the ground multiple times and her arm twisted, she left with not just physical injuries but emotional pain from the trauma she lived.

As she details in the description on her Bandcamp page, it took her some time to recover and process what happened to her. Some healing finally came as she turned to music. Less than a week after the event, she recorded and released “mama’s baby” with proceeds going to Breonna Taylor’s GoFundMe page. She explains the writing process below:

“i've been in pain physically and emotionally but upon completing this song a wave of peace came over me. it was the first time my anxiety subsided in a long while and i thought if this did that for me then it might for other people. i want to share this song with you today in hopes that you can find some peace during this time. even when people can look at the world burning and feel nothing because the fire hasn't touched their skin, there are people feeling deeply and fighting in their own important way for the change that is inevitable. keep your head up and breathe and know that evil will never prevail long enough to be forever.”

The hum of turntable needle wavers above Sun’s plaintive keyboard and the steady roll of her voice. Echoes and reverb come in and out of the mix, but Sun stays constant and hardly ever raises her voice or deviates from the soothing melody. “I’ve seen it all, it don’t affect me,” she repeats on the song before ending with, “I mean we all pass on, at least respect me.” While there is a mournful sorrow ruminating in the track, that sense of peace resonates throughout like a slow exhale.

In conjunction with KEXP’s upcoming Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Sun has chosen the Loveland Foundation. Loveland Foundation supports healing and mental health services for communities of color, with a particular focus on Black women and girls, including giving financial assistance for therapy, offering fellowships, residency programs, and more.

Learn more about Loveland Foundation here.

Donations are accepted here.

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Sampa the Great - Time's Up (Remix) feat. Junglepussy Nov 30, 2020

Show notes

Sampa The Great - “Time’s Up (Remix) feat. Junglepussy,” a 2020 single on Ninja Tune.

While music can be healing, oftentimes the industry is quite the opposite. As Sampa The Great (aka Sampa Tembo) addresses on “Time’s Up,” it can be even more perilous for Black artists working against systemic racism within the industry.

“‘Time’s Up’ is a track that was made to reflect a conversation between two young Black artists about the Australian music industry,” Tembo said in a statement upon the song’s release in 2019. “With the current atmosphere it’s an important time to address systemic racism within the music industry, especially as it slowly rebuilds.

She continues, “Allyship should never be performative and as we continue past blackout day, all music orgs/labels should be put to task in bringing forward their initiatives for real change within their industry.”

A year after the song’s release, Tembo is continuing to open up the conversation and giving the song new life with a remix competition, encouraging Black women and non-binary artists to hop on the track and share their own experiences. She set things off with this remix featuring New York rapper Junglepussy, who calls out bluntly that there are people “making money off our pain, it must be the protocol.” It’s the ideal complement to Tembo’s original verse, speaking her truth on how female rappers are often grouped together and rising above expectations and outdated norms.

In conjunction with KEXP’s upcoming Music Heals: Mental Health, we’re asking Song of the Day artists to spotlight a different organization. Tembo has chosen Pola Psychology. Tembo and Pola Psychology have partnered together with the goal of ensuring African youth have access to safe, appropriate, and responsive mental health care.

“At a time when it is needed the most, this is not just about raising the much needed funds, but also about letting my friends and the wider African and black community know that this service exists,” Tembo says on the organizations website. Their current goal is to raise $20,000 to pay for a year of therapy for 16 African youth.

Learn more about Pola Psychology here.

Donations are accepted here.

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Stas THEE Boss - Rotary Style Nov 27, 2020

Show notes

Stas THEE Boss - “Rotary Style” from the 2020 EP Sang Stasia! on LucidHaus.

Sang Stasia!, one of two outstanding EPs from the former Seattle resident and host of KEXP’s Street Sounds, was crafted from beats made for other singers but for some reason never recorded. The Black Constellation representative weaves her trademark multisyllabic rhymes over a cosmic sample looped to psychedelic effect, calling out corporate shills for churning out weak music for profit. The way Stas builds her rhyming sounds over the loopy harmonies of the beat is truly hypnotic.

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Seth Bogart - Men on the Verge of Nothing Nov 26, 2020

Show notes

Seth Bogart - “Men on the Verge of Nothing” from Men on the Verge of Nothing on Wacky Wacko Records.

Inspired in equal measure by Pedro Almodóvar and Poly Styrene, the artist formerly known as Hunx spins the former’s classic 1988 dark comedy (titled Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown) into a treatise on the uselessness of male privilege. The album’s title track zeroes in on this concept through the vehicle of lighthearted new wave while Bogart takes Mr. Know-It-Alls to task as they fail upwards.

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