2016.6: Mid-year Favorites From KZSC to You!

/0 Comments/in /by

When you think of the year 2016, do you think you’ll remember what you were listening to constantly on the way to work, on the way to class, or even on your way home? Yes? No? It’s okay to not know the answer to that, because you’ll most likely remember when you revisit some of the music that has been released last 8 months.

In 2016, we’ve slowly seen the album release date disappear, instead being replaced with the feeling of being left out on something really special due to you not paying enough attention to your never-ending timelines. It’s alright, what really matters anyway is that feeling you get when you experience something you love for the first time. Nonetheless, we’ve seen grand releases by artists ranging from Kanye West to Blood Orange, Kendrick Lamar to G.L.O.S.S., Beyoncé to The Julie Ruin, and plenty more that would be impossible to mention in a singular blog post. There’ll always be something to praise, so here are some of KZSC’s very own disc jockeys letting you know what you might’ve missed in 2016!

Gabriel Lopez (A/K/A null), Production Director

Psychic Mirrors, Nature of Evil (2016, Cosmic Chronic/PPU Records)

Fronted by Cuban-American funkster Mickey de Grand IV, Psychic Mirrors bring the boogie funk sounds of 80’s Miami into the modern moment with their first full length “Nature of Evil”. The album is even accompanied by a VHS-filmed “Miami Vice”-esque noir movie of the same name that the band created while writing the album. At times this album makes you wanna roller skate down the boardwalk on a half-tab of acid and in others soundtrack a long night of club hopping and groovin’. The band dubbed their sound “omnisexual funk” and that alone is all the reason you need to buy a copy from Cosmic Chronic records. 

Nature_of_Evil_3000x3000_Digital

You can check out Psychic Mirrors on Facebook and cop their album Nature of Evil via Cosmic Chronic!

Black Marble, “Iron Lung,” from It’s Immaterial! (2016, Ghostly International)

Black Marble’s first song in four years since has them going back to the drum-machine and reverb soaked bass lines of their first critically-acclaimed EP “Up Against The Door”. Sinister grooves and drowned vocals make this song the perfect soundtrack to my walk home every night. Please listen to this song at full volume while swaying, eyes-closed, under a disco ball.

Check out Iron Lung below, and pre-order their 2012 follow-up, It’s Immaterial! out on September 30th via Ghostly!

Austin Brown (A/K/A/ ddlinkz), Station Librarian

James Blake – The Colour In Anything (2016, Polydor Records)

This album is such a journey from start to finish. Straight up, James Blake is the most deadly producer/singer/song-writer combo in the biz and each track has a part that shines so bright that I can’t bare to look away. Constantly in my rotation and I don’t expect it leaving anytime soon.

R-8483401-1462495654-2485.jpeg

You can follow James Blake on Twitter and either stream or purchase The Colour in Anything via his website!

Mssingno – “Fones,” from Fones EP (2016, XL Recordings)

R&B and grime meshed together in probably the most unique EP I’ve heard all year with Fones being the most addicting jam on it. You need to hear this joint before his unique sound blows up.

Listen to Fones below, and check out Mssingno’s SoundCloud for some more heat!

Chris Jong (A/K/A/ Chris), Folk Music Director

Kaia Kater – Nine Pin (2016, Kingswood Records)

This is the 2nd release from this Canadian singer-songwriter-banjo player of Afro-Caribbean descent. She just graduated from Davis & Elkins College in West Virgina last month. [congratulations Kaia!].  has many attention-getting personal narratives delivered with a powerful voice and sparse instrumentation.

kkh_nine-pin_final-layout_canada2

You can follow Kaia Kater on Twitter and purchase Nine Pin via her website!

Kaia Kater – “Rising Down” from Nine Pin (2016, Kingswood Records)

This is a song that catches your ear to slow things down and listen; inspiration from Black Lives Matter movement.

Listen to “Rising Down” taken from her LP down below!

Shay Stoklos (A/K/A/ Lux), Station Manager

Wye Oak, Tween (2016, Merge Records)

This album includes 8 tracks lost in the making of Wye Oak’s Civilian (2011) and Shriek (2014). I love Jenn Wasner’s voice, and the airiness of this record. I think it’s important that the music has been recycled, repurposed from previous records — more artists need to find beauty in the scraps leftover from their other pieces of art. 

wye-oak-tween-640x640

You can find out more about Wye Oak by visiting their website, or cop their album via Merge Records if you’re down for it.

Angel Olsen, “Shut Up Kiss Me” from the upcoming album, My Woman (2016, Jagjaguwar)

I’m simultaneously ecstatic, because it’s SO angsty and cathartic, and also worried that it’ll be the best song on My Woman. The bridge of this song is like a rebirth. Don’t laugh, just go f***ing listen to it.

Watch/listen to Angel Olsen’s self-directed video for her single down below! My Woman drops September 2nd via Jagjaguwar.

S. Dinay (A/K/A/ Crux), RPM Director

Lemaitre – 1749 (2016, Astralwerks)

The combination of real instruments, especially the sax, and the addition of the featured artists on 1749 is what I really like about the tracks. All the songs are very groovy and all show case different styles but somehow still work together for this fun EP.

Lemaitre-1749-EP

You can check out Lemaitre on SoundCloud and purchase 1749 on iTunes!

TOKiMONSTA, Heart On The Ground (feat. Kiya Lacey), from FOVERE (2016, Young Art Records)

I became really interested in TOKiMONSTA when I found out I would be seeing her at a music festival. Then we received her newest album and I could not play this track enough. The vocals are smooth and catchy thanks to the talented Kiya Lacey!

Check out “Heart on the Ground” down below, and go cop Tokimonsta’s FOVERE on iTunes!

J. Ramirez (A/K/A/ crudo), New Media Director

Abra – Princess EP (2016, Awful Records)

This is one of my favorite releases of 2016 so far because Abra’s sound makes me nostalgic about memories I forgot I had. Doused with 80s vibes, PRINCESS is visceral & assured: moody music to put on while you burn some sage before placing a hex on your ex. 

TRUE-123_Abra_Princess

PRINCESS is out now via True Panther. You can also follow the Darkwave Duchess on Twitter.

BADBADNOTGOOD, Time Moves Slow (feat. Sam Herring), from IV (2016, Innovative Leisure Records)

  • This is one of my personal highlights this year because the collaboration is flawless; big s/o to Sam Herring for making me bawl my eyes out.

Listen to the collaboration made in heaven down below, and cop BBNG’s IV LP via Bandcamp.

 

Be sure to check out our Summer 2016 Program Schedule and catch some airwaves with some of the DJs on this list! We’re live and we’re alive.

“Taking Up Space”: Savages at the Catalyst Club 7/27/16

/0 Comments/in /by

“Did you tell me to shut up!”, howls Jehnny Beth, lead singer of UK post-punk group Savages, during the opening song of their punishingly direct hour and a fifteen minute set last Wednesday night at the Catalyst. “Shut Up”, the opening track off of Savages critically acclaimed debut album, Silence Yourself, exists as a thesis statement for a band that has consistently reclaimed spaces dominated by the masculine since the release of that album in 2013. Taking stage at the Catalyst this past Wednesday the band basked in a white glow of stage lights, appearing spectral almost ethereal letting their music take up every inch of space in the room. No one, in the moderately packed Catalyst Club, could escape the hypnotic grooves of bassist Ayse Hassan. Her punchy bass at times called for a sway or a groove, and at times felt like a kick in the gut screaming “come on, motherfu**er, move”. Matched with the tight concise drumming of Fay Milton and the swirling distortion of Gemma Thompson’s guitar melodies, the quartet sonically broke down the barriers between the crowd and themselves. The slow-churning “Adore”, the lead single off their latest album Adore Life, moved along at a creep, “is it human to adore life?”, like a brief rumination during an argument; a space in which the two combatants question their position. Jehnny Beth’s performance started as a whisper, but by the final refrain of “I adore life”, she had become a room sized specter overlooking the crowd with eyes intent on letting no one out alive. The strobing lights only added to the spectacle of it all, the band flashing between the real and unreal sometimes only existing sonically. In a lot of ways that is what that thesis statement on “Shut Up” meant: taking up space when otherwise told not to, to emote and exist in spaces that only men had ruled (here of course, the post-punk genre, the explosive live show, the seedy rock venue). Their final song, and a conclusion paragraph to the opening thesis, “Fuckers” combined the slow-churn of “Adore” with the frantic explosion of sound in “Shut Up” with the chorus, “don’t let the fuckers get you down”, being screamed like a mantra coming from the lips of a banshee. By the end of the set the audience was pummeled into obedience knowing the truth: this is Savages’ space we just get to visit.

Written by Gabe Lopez

Photography by Brandon Oleksy

Dance with me until I feel all right-A Night with LCD Soundsystem

/0 Comments/in /by

Who can accurately describe a band like LCD Soundsystem? They have been an emotionally riveting band throughout the early 2000’s all the way to 2010 where they released This is Happening, an album that includes fan favorites such as “I Can Change”, “You Wanted a Hit”, “Dance Yrself Clean”, and “Drunk Girls”. Each album has contained musical masterpieces, especially their first debut studio album that was released in 2005, which obtained a Grammy nomination for the best dance album. This included tracks such as “Daft Punk is Playing at My House”, “Losing my Edge”, and “Yeah”. Each album has touched the souls of many different types of “music listeners”, from kids who enjoy the synth piano in combination with electronic beats, to the ones who enjoy rock from the later 90’s and James Murphy’s melodic, rugged voice. The band’s music connects with multiple generations, and that’s what makes their music so special.

My first encounter with LCD Soundsystem came during my Freshman year of high school, where dreams of living in New York City flourished as I listened to James Murphy cry of the trials and tribulations of living in a city like New York, in “New York, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down”. The album Sound of Silver features a number of thought provoking songs such as “Someone Great”, which remains to be my favorite song of LCD Soundsystem, and one that I was fortunate to see performed live last week at Bonnaroo Music Festival.

James Murphy sings, “I wish that we could talk about it. But there, that’s the problem. With someone new I couldn’t start it. Too late, for beginnings. The little things that made me nervous, are gone, in a moment. I miss the way we used to argue, locked, in your basement”. He continued to sing that with an intensely passionate voice, and he almost looked like he was crying during the performance. (That also could have been the heat, which made every lead musician drip of non-stop sweat during the festival).

 

IMG_4511

He continued to sing, “When someone great is gone, when someone great is gone”.

IMG_4528 (1)

James Murphy and his blue tie-dye shirt.

This was one of my favorite bands to see live at Bonnaroo music festival, because not only was the music  incredibly poetic and beautiful, but the amount of intensity and passion that Murphy put into his performance was extremely emotional. When he performed songs such as “Someone Great”, “I Can Change”, and the emotional track such as “All My Friends”, it became a show not just for dancing, but for remembering lost loved ones, lost friendships, and the hardships of growing older. It was as if LCD Soundsystem created a cathartic experience for music lovers and avid concert goers. LCD’s last song was “All My Friends”, a song about friends and how they grow apart with time. The audience sang along with every word, knowing that the lyrics were a sad and grim expression on the limits of time and the separation of friends.

The band’s most recent release was “Christmas Will Break Your Heart” released in December, and fortunately, they are planning a new album release for this year. They will be performing at Lollapalooza in Chicago, and at FYF Fest in L.A. this Summer, as well as many other festivals and venues. They are really amazing live!

 

Sydney Fishman

The Pleasure Routine’s new album, “Sugar Mountain” to be released July 1st

/0 Comments/in /by

The Pleasure Routine_Press Photo

Psychedelic rock is a crowded field these days, and among all the reverb and vintage

keyboards, it can be difficult to find music that extends beyond pastiche. On their new LP, Sugar

Mountain, The Pleasure Routine use the old school tones and equipment to create their own

unique sound. The album’s nine tracks range from languid ballads to energetic rockers, and the

band pulls off both with confidence and originality. At the center of the music is the vocal

interplay of Kevin Sosfrud and Lauren Kopp, whose respective deliveries recall Calvin

Johnson’s drawl and Fiona Apple’s broken soulfulness. The band’s rich guitar and keyboard

textures provide the perfect background for their affecting tales of lost love and inner turmoil.

Not that the album is mournful or mopey. Rather, Sugar Mountain strikes a satisfying balance

between playfulness and sincerity, heartbreak and hope. The production is a bit rough around

the edges, and the vocals sometimes drift towards sloppiness, but as an album, Sugar Mountain

delivers a thoughtful and original take on psychedelic pop.

-Mark Cieslikowski

 

There will be a record release show at San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill on July 1st but if you miss out on that, you can purchase cassettes and download the album that day through The Pleasure Routine’s Bandcamp.

Jazzy and Bluesy News

/0 Comments/in /by

Hello KZSC listeners,

Here are some fun videos to get your week started off on a bluesy note…

Check back tomorrow for some jazz and blues charts.

Keep it bluesy y’all.

WATCH: Kiran Gandhi Keynote at UCRN

/0 Comments/in /by

Hosting the UC Radio Network Conference at the beginning of April was an honor. We were very grateful to have Kiran Gandhi speak at the event. Check out her keynote discussion with IYNV and dj même: