Song of the Day: Coldair - Pretty Mind

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 Morning Show with John Richards, is “Pretty Mind” by Coldair from his 2015 album, The Provider, on Twelves Records.

Coldair - Pretty Mind (MP3)

There aren't many artists coming out of Warsaw who show up on American radars, but after releasing two critically acclaimed albums abroad, Tobiasz Bilinski, better known as Coldair, signed a distribution deal with local label Sub Pop. This past winter, they released to the States The Provider, Coldair's sharpest album yet, a smart, cleverly crafted LP that poses two distinct genres against each other in a beautiful counterplay as melodically rich instrumentation and songwriting clash with digitally crisp synths and drum machines. It's rare to find trombone balanced atop mechanically cold 808s, but Bilinski's meticulously prepared pieces serve as the perfect canvases for his oft-heartbreaking lyrics, all sung in melancholy harmonies so pretty they mask the bleakness of their content.

"Pretty Mind" demonstrates what happens when you let a classically trained musician run wild with a computer. The mournful grand piano begs for a symphonic string section and a lush horn section but is instead given a booming hip-hop kick, a stabbing vocal sample that issues like clockwork, and a solid wall of distortion that emanates from something distantly guitar-like. The chorus, set underneath the mantra "I won't stop right now", brings us a plunking live bass that disappears as quickly as it arrived only to be replaced with glitched out, bit-crushed computer drums. This collage of acoustic and digital, confusingly blurring the lines between "real" and "fake," reinforces the ambiguous sadness of the record which comes from depressed but uninformative vocals, the agent of gloom never being fully revealed.

It's been two years since Coldair graced the Seattle area, so he may be out here again soon in support of the new album, especially with Sub Pop's support. Until dates are announced, keep checking his website and Facebook page for more music, and lend an ear to "Denounce", the second single from The Provider here: