Episode 16
Episode 16 serves a mixed menu of eclectic treasures from electronic, jazz, funk, experimental, rock, folk and R&B moods and grooves.
Highlights from this week’s episode:
Stella Donnelly’s “Lungs” is sung from the perspective of a child who sees through the dodgy landlord putting profit over people like her working-class parents and shrugging off the threat of asbestos. It’s stark and lovely, straight-backed with confrontational pride in its clipped disco beat, pounded piano, and wasp-sting guitar (photo)
Across brand new sublime album “Heartmind”, Cass McCombs is at his most confident and intentional, constantly returning to the imagery of music and the casualties of a life devoted to making and sharing art. “Belong to Heaven” is a gift of hushed vocals, nonlinear lyrics, and stately, winding melodies.
With “in february”, the Istanbul-born, Glasgow-based Isik Kural creates his own delightful take on laptop folk, combining field recordings, nylon-string guitar, synthesizers, and hushed singing, to sweetly psychedelic effect. Each sound feels as pristinely arranged as figurines in a dollhouse. The chattering birdsong in the backdrop of “paperhat feels intentionally selected so as not to disturb the peacefulness of the larger picture.
Alabaster DePlume is a lot of things — a saxophonist, a poet, an arranger, a social node in London’s jazz scene — but above all, he’s a person who wants you to treat yourself with more kindness, gentleness, and self-respect. On “GOLD”, his second album for International Anthem, he applies self-love like an exfoliant, scraping off the old skin of cynicism and exposing the clean and vulnerable surface below.
Playing other tracks by Anadol, Hurray for the Riff Raff, Kyoto Jazz Sextet, Bonobo, Da Chick, Komorebi, and more…
Tracklist (Track - Artist // Album)
All tracks from 2022
Forget the Past - Komorebi // Forget the Past electronic psychedelic
New Day - Da Chick // New Day jazzfunk soul-jazz
All That You Want - Ibibio Sound Machine // Electricity pop r&b
Devoted to You - Carlton Jumel Smith, Cold Diamond & Mink // Devoted to You soul funk
Mrs Calamari - Alabaster Deplume // GOLD jazz
Paperhat - Isik Kural // In february experimental
Felicita Lale - Anadol // Felicita experimental psychefolk
Holiday - Confidence Man // TILT electronic
Rosewood - Bonobo // Fragments electronic jazz
Hold On - Axel Boman // LUZ electronic
Belong to Heaven - Cass McCombs // Heartmind folk country
Lungs - Stella Donnelly // Flood alternative rock
Kno Me - Jerry Paper // Free Time electronic experimental
Rhododendron - Hurray for the Riff Raff // Life on Earth alternative rock
Watarase - Kyoto Jazz Sextet, Takeo Moriyama // Succession jazz crossover
