Each week, Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. These reviews help our DJs decide on what they want to play. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Little Simz, José González, Sleigh Bells, and more.
Adia Victoria – A Southern Gothic (Canvasback/Atlantic)
This Spartanburg, SC-bred, Nashville-based artist’s third album is a powerful blend of blues, folk-rock and other styles, with an often-dark, atmospheric sound combining guitars, keyboards, strings, banjo and more with her haunting, breathy vocals and lyrics revolving around the lives and resilience of Southern black folks. Special guests include Margo Price, Jason Isbell and The National’s Matt Berninger.
José González – Local Valley (Mute)
The fourth album (and first in six years) from this Swedish artist of Argentine heritage is a well-crafted set of understated, rhythm-driven folk-pop, combining intricate finger-picked acoustic guitar containing occasional echoes of desert blues, rumba and other styles with hypnotic melodies, ambient bird sounds and hushed, layered vocals featuring Gonzalez singing in English, Swedish and Spanish for the first time, along with lyrics reflecting love, hope and community during troubled times.
Sleigh Bells – Texis (Mom+Pop)
This Brooklyn duo’s fifth album (and first in five years) is a potent set of hook-filled noise-pop with a dynamic sound combining crunchy guitars, bright synths, distorted drum machines and energetic rhythms with motivational lyrics and sparkling pop melodies.
Talaya. – Existential Soul (self-released)
This Seattle artist’s debut album is a well-crafted set of moody R&B inflected at times with jazz, funk, hip hop, folk and other styles, combining an atmospheric sound with her soulful vocals and lyrics blending the political and the personal.
The Gift of Gab – Finding Inspiration Somehow (Nature Sounds)
This Bay Area rapper (and one-half of the duo Blackalicious) passed away in June at the age of 50. His fourth and final solo album is a potent set of hip hop combining a warm, often funk and soul-steeped sound with his dexterous flow and hard-hitting lyrics alternating between boisterous battle raps and politically charged rhymes aimed at gentrification, poverty and racism.
Bad Bad Hats – Walkman (Don Giovanni)
This Minneapolis trio’s third album is a well-crafted set of hook-filled indie-rock with a warm, ‘90s-influenced sound featuring jangly guitars, bright keyboards and buoyant harmonies.
Jordan Rakei – What We Call Life (Ninja Tune)
This New Zealand-born, Australian-raised and London-based artist’s fourth album is a potent set of expansive R&B combining a variety of electronic and acoustic instrumentation with his soulful vocals and lyrics of self-discovery.
Ashley Shadow – Only the End (felte)
This Vancouver, BC artist’s second album is a solid set of moody, country-tinged folk-rock combining fuzzy guitars, atmospheric keyboards and occasional mandolin and pedal steel with her quavering vocals and lyrics of struggle and resilience.
Mild High Club – Going Going Gone (Stones Throw)
The fourth Mild High Club album from LA artist Alexander Brettin is a spacy, at times disorienting blend of psych-pop, jazz, prog-rock, bossa nova and other styles, combining a shape-shifting sound with politically charged lyrics and dreamy melodies.
anaiis – this is no longer a dream (dream sequence)
This French Senegalese artist’s second album is an evocative set of atmospheric R&B combining a moody sound with her slightly raspy vocals and introspective lyrics of emotional turmoil and resilience.
Adeline – Adi Oasis EP (Unity)
The latest EP from this French Caribbean artist (and former lead vocalist for Brooklyn band Escort) is a solid seven-song set of occasionally jazz-tinged R&B and funk combining pillowy keyboards and mostly laid-back rhythms with her velvety vocals and buoyant melodies.
Nala Sinephro – Space 1.8 (Warp)
This London-based, Caribbean-Belgian harpist’s debut album is an often-mesmerizing blend of ambient, spiritual jazz, electronic, folk and other styles, combining spacy modular synths, celestial harp, gentle guitar, emotive sax and delicate piano into dreamy swirls of sound.
Machinedrum – Psyconia EP (Ninja Tune)
The latest release from this LA-based producer (aka Travis Stewart) is a six-song EP blending drum ‘n’ bass, hip hop, techno, broken beat and more, combining propulsive soundscapes with a variety of guest vocalists including Angelica Bess, Deniro Farrar, Chrome Sparks and Jorge Elebrecht.
Metronomy – Posse EP Volume 1 (Because Music)
This British band’s latest EP features collaborations with a variety of guest vocalists on songs ranging from propulsive hip hop and brooding indie-rock to atmospheric synth-pop and hypnotic, folk-tinged pop.
Each week, Music Director Don Yates shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Little Simz, Low, Bomba Estéreo, and more.
Each week, Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJ Alex) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Deafheaven, Cleo Sol, Topaz Jones, and more.
Each week, Music Director Don Yates (joined this week by DJ Gabriel Teodros) shares brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. See what we added this week below (and on our Charts page), including new releases from Jungle, Ty Segall, Liars, and more.
