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Friday, Feb 3 2023, 5AM
Happy Birthday to Dennis Edwards!
Originally released on their 1970 album "Psychedelic Shack", The Temptations' embrace of psychedelia. www.temptationsofficial.com
The fourth track on 1973's 'The Dark Side of the Moon' was released as a single in the U.S. The lyrics deal with the passage of time – time can slip by, but many people do not realize it until it is too late. Waters got the idea when he realized he was no longer preparing for anything in life, but was right in the middle of it. It is noted for its long introductory passage of clocks chiming and alarms ringing, recorded as a quadrophonic test by Alan Parsons, not specifically for the album.
"I've been focused on who I am in my music, but now I'm exploring where I am. I'm asking: how did I get here?"
NEW MUSIC!! This is the journeying question that underpins UK producer/composer Alfa Mist's forthcoming fifth album, 'Variables' - due out April 21!
alfamist.bandcamp.com
Producer and DJ Jason W. Chung performs as Nosaj Thing. He has produced tracks for Kendrick Lamar, Chance the Rapper, Kid Cudi, and Juliana Barwick.
nosajthing.com
2002 EP 'Daylight' from Portland OR-based hip hop artist Aesop Rock. The title song "Daylight" also had been included as a single on his third studio album, 2001's 'Labor Days'. aesoprock.com
NEW MUSIC!! Toronto's Haviah Mighty continues to carve out spaces that defy gendered expectations for women in hip hop. Mighty recently released 2019 Polaris Prize-winning album, 13th Floor, making history as the first hip hop artist and first Black woman to receive the award.
“This song reflects on the many phases of denial that I experienced going through a recent breakup. My self-worth was shattered, I convinced myself that things weren’t as bad as they seemed, and that it wasn’t my fault. ‘Room Service’ was written from a place of bargaining. I was fully aware that this person had already let me go… but it wasn’t official. Because of that, I had this glimmer of hope. My love and attachment to this person was bigger than the realities of what was happening to us.”
Check out a live in-studio with Miss Ashley from last June!
youtu.be
haviahmighty.bandcamp.com
SZA's new album, 'SOS' her second full length, released in December. Check out the behind-the-scenes video about the making of the album:
youtu.be
SZA will be performing March 16 at Climate Pledge Arena. More tour dates, music and info:
www.szasos.com
"I started writing 'Better Days' on a snowy night in my hotel room in Manhattan. I couldn't sleep because I was still filled with adrenaline from walking and performing at @UllaJohnson fashion show a few days prior, all while romanticizing just being able to take a bite out of The Big Apple under such beautiful circumstances. A TV show from the 70s called Columbo was on mute in the background and a beautiful human I admired dearly just told me she was proud of me. In that moment I started laughing and said to myself ‘Music has really taken you places, I’m so glad I started, it’s worth it.’ I thought about all the times I felt discouraged, delusional for having the audacity to move across the country with no concrete plan in the name of Chasing a Dream. I thought about the times where I was in my own head; nervous to even put myself out in the world as an artist, back when it was just a few words jotted in a moleskin, mumbles on a voice note, or writing a self declaration and having your family sign it as witnesses lol. If you overthink, are hard on yourself sometimes and have to remind yourself to be present, I feel you baby, you’re just like me.”
Latest single from Hawaii-born, Oklahoma-raised rapper and singer PawPaw Rod!
pawpawrod.bandcamp.com
Birthday love going out to Seattle's own Adra Boo!!!
Here she is on vocals with Amos Miller and a host of other Seattle artists: producer Jake One, the futuristic sounds of Jahon Mikal, vocal performances with Hanna Benn, and live instrumentation by Evan Flory-Barnes and more!
amosmiller.bandcamp.com
London rapper’s third album is a powerful set of introspective hip hop, produced by Kwes.
NME writes: "Known for mellow, jazzy UK hip-hop beats and clever, introspective rhymes about family, friendship, and grief, Carner is an honest, unflashy storyteller... Laced with melancholic reflection, 'Hugo' was written in lockdown, when global protests against structural racism impacted Carner dramatically." bit.ly
loylecarnerband.bandcamp.com
loylecarner.com
When Dwight “Count Bass D” Farrell was preparing to put together 'Dwight Spitz', his third full-length album, he purchased an AKAI S-300 and an MPC-2000 sampler. The Ohio-native/then Tennessee-resident worked extensively with MF DOOM, who he’d known since the early ’90s, to hone his production skills. Eventually, the self-described “Fender Rhodes Scholar” gained some level of mastery over the equipment and created music that had a creative mix of sample-based material and live instrumentation.: albumism.com
Quasimoto is a side project of Oxnard, California's Madlib, and features his animated alter-ego Lord Quas -- whose pitch-altered voice interacts with Madlib's own.
Garrett Saracho is a fourth generation Los Angeleno of San Carlos Apache and Mexican descent, with a recording output that spans genres, labels, and decades. Perhaps best known for the mysterious 1973 LP "En Medio" on Impulse!, he has recorded numerous other projects that blend pop, electronic, r&b, and indigenous music traditions.
garrettsaracho.bandcamp.com
Remembering Houston native Johnny "Guitar" Watson on his birthday! The blues guitarist and singer. Watson, died in 1996 while on tour in Japan. Collapsing mid-guitar solo, his last words were "ain't that a bitch".
NEW MUSIC!!!!
Like the earlier incarnations of the project, 'Shades 3' is a sample-heavy remix project that exemplifies Kassa’s irreverent, gonzo approach to the jazz tradition he is steeped in. The project is, in characteristic fashion, suffused with intimate histories and hidden witticisms.
kassaoverall.bandcamp.com
www.kassaoverall.com
NEW MUSIC!!!! 'Shades 3' reflects Kassa’s recent embrace of the drum machine, surfacing a far more danceable sound than the previous 'Shades' efforts.
kassaoverall.bandcamp.com
www.kassaoverall.com
'God Is Love' is a late 2022 release from Seattle producer Noah Coinflip.
"GIL is an exploration of themes related to finding a transformative higher power through compassion and community.
GIL is also an exploration of the mystery behind the higher power.
GIL is also a prayer of surrender."
noahcoinflip.bandcamp.com
From Spain, MC Sharif with producer Gordo del Funk.
guspirarecords.bandcamp.com
The third full-length release from Thes One and Double K - L.A. duo People Under the Stairs - which they claim in the liner notes is "an album that is made up of old records and personal experiences".
New Music! Protoje's sixth studio album 'Third Time's the Charm' dropped back in September!
protojereggae.bandcamp.com www.protoje.com
Protoje was Live on KEXP back in 2016! - check out that session!
youtu.be
Blackalicious claimed a major role leading the progressive hip-hop movement in the late '90s, and continued their unique sound into the 2000s with their 2002 second full-length release 'Blazing Arrow'. Questlove had a hand in production on the album. 'Blazing Arrow' became one of the highly regarded hip-hop releases of the year, boasting an impressive contributor list including Jurassic 5 and Dilated Peoples.
Originally high school friends, Sacramento rapper Gift of Gab and DJ/producer Chief Xcel formed Blackalicious in 1992. The due was noted for Gift of Gab’s often “tongue-twisting”, multisyllabic, complex rhymes and Chief Xcel’s “classic” beats. Read more about Gift of Gab's long, wonderful career here: bit.ly
www.facebook.com
blackalicious.com
"They call Elvis the King; but the sure-enough King was Johnny 'Guitar' Watson."
- Etta James.
Though Blues great Johnny "Guitar" Watson recorded throughout the 1950s and 60s, he found commercial success in the 1970s with his funk influenced tracks. Here are 10 things you may not know about this great musician who was born on this day in 1935: www.americanbluesscene.com
Debut full-length from Bobbie Lovesong aka Madelyn Strutz, who produced, performed, recorded, and mixed the album herself in Taos, New Mexico. In 2020, Lovesong went to Taos to live communally with a small group of musicians as the lockdown stretched on for months. Retreating into an unfinished Earthship, Bobbie passed the days writing and recording music, with nothing more than a laptop microphone and a few instruments.
bobbielovesong.bandcamp.com
New music from Jessica Smyth -- Irish singer and rapper, partially raised in Spain, and based in London -- and member of the NINE8 collective. NME wrote:
"A transformative trip to Los Angeles is often a rite of passage for young musicians. For Jessica Smyth, the Irish-born, London-based artist better known as Biig Piig, her move to LA in 2020 was the inspiration behind her debut mixtape ‘Bubblegum’. But instead of being influenced by the Cali sunshine or Hollywood, it’s the conflicting emotions of relocating to a new city that are embedded in this stellar project, one which Smyth has previously likened to a musical time capsule." Read more: tinyurl.com
www.biig-piig.com
Featuring vocals by American blues singer Lightnin' Hopkins. 'St Germain' is the eponymous fourth studio album by French house producer Ludovic Navarre, under his main pseudonym St Germain.
Video:
youtu.be
www.stgermain-music.com
NEW MUSC!! From Seattle's own Black Tones (and KEXP's own Eva Walker!) The ballad is based on a true story of an 89-year-old man shooting and killing his wife, Eva shared:
"Even more unfortunate is that the protagonist in this story was someone very near and dear to my heart. I’ve known him since I was a child, he was one of my grandparents’ dearest friends, he attended their funerals. I didn’t know how to react to the news when I initially heard it, so I wrote this song after I hung up the phone.”
Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready helped with arrangements on the track. He said:
“Eva and The Black Tones dig deep into the blues on ‘Blue Matrimony.’ I was honored to be asked to help with the arrangement. Eva has a really cool style with the guitar—she’s very honest and soulful.”
www.theblacktones.com