In Our Headphones

Little Dragon & April + Vista - "Rebels," from the 2023 album Slipping Into Color on Ninja Tune

Grammy-nominated quartet Little Dragon are about to head out on tour with Washington D.C. duo April + VISTA, and what better way to kick off the tour than with a collaborative release? The EP, titled Slipping Into Color, is out now via Ninja Tune Records.

“On a recent trip to the US we got to hang with April + VISTA and we couldn’t resist their sound," Little Dragon explain in a press statement. "This EP represents an intense week of diving deep into the musical universe together with them.”

April + VISTA add, “Working with Little Dragon on this EP was nothing short of a dream. It’s an experience we’ll always cherish.”

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The Veldt - "The Everlasting Gobstopper," a 2023 single on 5BC Records.

Flashback to 1989. North Carolina-based identical twins Daniel and Danny Chavis had formed The Veldt just a few years before, inspired by soul, Sun Ra, and shoegaze. They began recording the LP The Everlasting Gobstopper with Cocteau Twins guitarist Robin Guthrie on production, but despite this dream pairing, their label, Capitol Records, shelved the project.

Jump back to 2023, and the album will finally see the light of day, via The Veldt’s own 5BC Records. Guthrie has returned to remaster the LP, and the album features backing vocals from his Cocteau Twins bandmate Liz Fraser. While the full album won't be out until the fall, the group has shared the title track as a teaser.

“As the benchmark of the new sound we had started to develop, The Everlasting Gobstopper was a throwback to our younger days of our family getting together on holidays, when Willy Wonka would be playing, and the certain atmosphere would be filled with a sense of love and security,” Daniel Chavis shared in a press release. “Upon reminiscing about this, my brother Danny came up with a riff and then called it The Everlasting Gobstopper as a lullaby to put his baby daughter to sleep. Thus was born this sound that would develop into what we have right now. This is significant – the birth of the sound that we have come to develop until present, because back then we were quite a different band. Robin pretty much shaved off all the excess and led us toward the sound we have now, so The Everlasting Gobstopper is the cornerstone that Robin helped us to lay for our own unique sound, which we still have to this day.”

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Diego Raposo - "EL UNDERGROUND (feat. mediopicky)" from the 2023 album YO NO ERA ASÍ PERO DE AHORA EN ADELANTE, SÍ on GRAN VAINA

This week's Song of the Day were selected by KEXP DJ Albina Cabrera, co-host of El Sonido, in honor of Aquí y Ahora: Without Borders. Join KEXP September 15th to October 15th as we continue amplifying the music, stories, and presence of Latinx, Latine, and Hispanic communities in the United States and the diaspora in our on-air, in-person, and digital world. More info here.

Dominican multi-instrumentalist/producer Diego Raposo teams up with his frequent collaborator Mediopicky for today's Song of the Day. On his debut album, YO NO ERA ASÍ PERO DE AHORA EN ADELANTE, SÍ, Raposo blends electronica and alternative with dembow (a Dominican musical genre that originated in Jamaican dancehall) and other Afro-Caribbean rhythms.

“We were trying to find something that had its own identity,” he told Rolling Stone. “I loved the idea of making an album that’s electronic at its core, so the idea was to mix these many influences: Electronic sounds, but also the music I listened to as a kid, with early Daft Punk and Radiohead and My Chemical Romance.”

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C.S. Armstrong - "SOUL SURVIVOR (feat. Buddy)" from the 2023 album COME AS YOU ARE on TOP OF THE BOOT RECORDS.

Today's Song off the Day is more than just a song; as C.S. Armstrong writes on social media, "shit really is my life and a proclamation to never stop."

On today's featured track, the Texas-born bluesman teams up with Los Angeles-based rapper Buddy. As Armstrong writes, "I moved to LA in 2015, after living in New York I became more recluse. Wasn’t tryna work with many folks but in my time here I can honestly say @buddy has become one of my fav folks I’ve worked with. Reminds me of a cousin n he always show up for me. You are appreciated man, thank you for your phenomenal contribution to COME AS YOU ARE."

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Deeper - "Tele," from the 2023 album Careful! on Sub Pop Records

On today's Song of the Day, Chicago-based quartet Deeper gets vulnerable. The track can be found on their latest album, Careful!, their third full-length overall and first for Sub Pop Records.

“’Tele’ is a song without its shield,” the band said in a press release. “In past Deeper compositions, we would hide behind jerky guitars and abstract vocals telling a story only we could decipher. With ‘Tele’ we wanted to explore the vulnerability behind our music and give focus to the melody and mood of the song. Replacing guitars with synthesizers and drums with samplers we stumbled upon a new way to approach a Deeper song.”

“We wanted to make a darker track that people could dance to,” they continued. “Since the foundation is built on a sampler beat, it’s the kind of song we could’ve only created with the limitations of the pandemic. The electronic components left more space for the rhythm, so our engineer Dave started playing with a busier bass line for the verses and laid down the hook on the first pass. At the end we wanted the synth parts to constantly overtake one another and hopefully make the listener feel like they’re being swallowed into the song.”

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