Song of the Day: Coals - Weightless

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Midday Show with Cheryl Waters, is “Weightless”, a self-released song by Coals.

Coals - Weightless (MP3)

Prepare to be knocked speechless. Some songs utterly destroy whatever barriers you've put up against the world, and "Weightless" by Polish band Coals is one of them. This young duo, who might easily draw comparisons to The xx and classic 4AD spangle makers, is one of the great discoveries we found when KEXP was invited to attend the OFF Festival in Katowice, Poland, last month. We were lucky to have caught Coals early, as vocalist and guitarist Katarzyna Kowalczyk and multi-instrumentalist Łukasz Rozmysłowski have been composing and performing together for only just about a year. Both residents of Silesian towns near Katowice, the two connected over the internet find in each other something they lacked on their own music projects. As a result, the rich rich timbre of Kowalczyk's voice (think early early Cat Power or Jesse Sykes) matched with Rozmysłowski's rustic atmospherics make for a tantalizing combination that packs "Weightless" with its emotional punch.

Currently, Coals are working on their full-length debut. As Katarzyna Kowalczyk puts it: "After one year of collaboration, we have realised we are totally different people and our inspirations are constantly changing" but adds that "the combination of two different ideas causes us to create more interesting music". So, the many gorgeous songs you can hear now on Coals' Soundcloud page may be just the first step in kindling the duo's soon to be glowing career. Be on the lookout for more Coals songs soon and stay tuned to the KEXP Blog for video of the live session we recorded with them in Poland in the weeks ahead. For now, listen to another incandescent track by Coals called "Sting":