Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder share 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 Chitra, Galore, Gordi, and more.
Chitra - You Can See It When It's Dark (self-released)
The debut full-length album from Melbourne-based singer, songwriter, and guitarist Chitra (aka Chitra Ridwan) is a bold, magnetic, sweeping set of widescreen rock with a strong pop sensibility. — AR
Galore - Dirt (Speakeasy Studios SF)
The second album from this San Francisco four-piece band is a sharp set of spiky indie pop, charming jangle-pop, bouncy garage-pop, and catchy post-punk with a scrappy, energetic, eclectic DIY pulse. — AR
Gordi - Like Plasticine (Mushroom Music)
The third album from Melbourne-based singer, songwriter and producer Gordi (aka Sophie Payten) is an expansive set of melodic, sophisticated, expressive indie pop with an electro-acoustic undercurrent that confidently jumps around dynamic leftfield art-pop, soaring dance-pop jams, nostalgic guitar-led anthems, and tender piano-led ballads. — AR
Hibou - It Seems To Me (Spirit Goth)
The fourth Hibou album from Seattle-bred, France-based musician Peter Michel is another strong, shimmering set of dreamy indie pop propelled by his hazy vocals, serene melodies, gorgeous guitar hooks, and spritely New Wave-inspired rhythms. — AR
Mechatok - Wide Awake (Young)
The debut solo album from Berlin-based electronic producer Mechatok (aka Emir Timur Tokdemir) is a thrilling set of futuristic club-pop that filters his sleek beats, cutting-edge sound design, and exceptionally clean (complimentary) production through an innovative pop lens. While Mechatok’s addictive rhythms stand out on their own, a bunch of international friends – Drain Gang members Bladee and Ecco2k, Tokyo-based rapper Tohji, Japanese girl group f5ve, Honduran pop artist Isabella Lovestory – contribute guest vocals to make Wide Awake a delightfully expansive journey. — AR
No Joy - Bugland (Hand Drawn Dracula)
The fifth No Joy album from this project spearheaded by Montreal-based artist Jasamine White-Gluz finds her steering her enveloping, expansive, immersive shoegaze sound into maximalist, glitchy, noise-pop terrain, a direction co-navigated by the adventurous electronic musicianFire-Toolz (aka Angel Marcloid) who co-produced all of Bugland and contributes their distinctive guest vocals on epic closing tune “Jelly Meadow Bright.” The chemistry between these two boundary-pushing artists yields a collection of songs that are massive and dense, restless yet precise. — AR
Osees - ABOMINATION REVEALED AT LAST (Deathgod)
The latest missive from this prolific and unstoppable LA-via-SF outfit led by John Dwyer is another adrenalish rush of relentless, wiry, delightfully unhinged garage/psych/punk/rock that’s a “pummeling, maniacal, and propulsive attack on the senses.” — AR
Westside Cowboy - This Better Be Something Great (Heist of Hit)
The debut EP from this quickly rising Manchester, UK-based four-piece band is a stellar set of dynamic, urgent, impassioned indie rock that’s emphatic, earnest, energetic, and refreshing. Produced by Lewis Whiting of English Teacher, the EP kicks off a busy back-half of the year for the young band as they’ll be playing UK festivals throughout August, opening up for Blondshell’s UK tour in September, and opening up for Black Country, New Road during their EU tour throughout October. — AR
Ada Lea - when i paint my masterpiece (Saddle Creek)
The third album from Montreal artist Ada Lea (aka Alexandra Levy) is a nice set of warm, intimate, painterly folk-pop with a welcoming autumnal touch. — AR
Chatham Rise - Trillium (Infinite Spin)
The third full-length album from this Minneapolis band is a solid set of dreamy, widescreen, reverb-drenched alternative rock that touches upon a bunch of 1980s and 1990s reference points – shoegaze, space rock, psychedelia, post-punk, New Wave, Madchester – to create a nostalgic, epic, immersive journey. Drop Nineteens’ Paula Kelley contributes vocals to standout early single “Angus Says.” — AR
DAYTIMERS - DAYTIMERS Presents: Alterations (Sony)
Founded in 2020, DAYTIMERS is a South Asian music collective that draws inspiration from the iconic daytime parties of the 1980s and 1990s where young British Asians carved out their space in underground dance culture. Building upon the momentum and success of their parties, Alterations is the collective’s debut album that puts a spotlight on their colorful, kinetic, old-meets-new dancefloor sound. For the release, artists from DAYTIMERS’ worldwide family were given “unprecedented access to classic samples from the Sony Music India catalogue for the first time with each reimagining an iconic South Asian soundtrack and celebrating the evolution of South Asian artistry and its integral role in shaping club culture.” The result is an often thrilling set of innovative, transportive, hard-hitting club rhythms that serves as a proper foundational introduction to DAYTIMERS’ sound, mission, and vision. — AR
Midnight Rodeo - Chaos Era (FatCat)
The debut album from this Nottingham, UK five-piece band is an impressive set of '60s-tinted technicolor psych-pop with touches of twang and surf that gives their nostalgic, kaleidoscopic, catchy sound a distinctive slant. — AR
Raekwon - The Emperor’s New Clothes (Mass Appeal)
Thirty years since dropping his classic solo debut album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx…, legendary NYC rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Raekwon (aka Raekwon the Chef aka Lex Diamonds) serves up his eighth solo album of gritty, soulful hip-hop. While The Emperor’s New Clothes doesn’t capture the highs of his early catalog, Raekwon’s distinctive flow, hard-hitting bars, and charismatic presence remains sharp after all these years. Nas, Ghostface Killah, Method Man, Benny the Butcher, Conway the Machine, Westside Gunn, Inspectah Deck, Floetry’s Marsha Ambrosius, and more make guest appearances. — AR
Ryan Davis & The Roadhouse Band - New Threats From the Soul (Sophomore Lounge)
Ryan Davis is a Louisville, KY-raised, Jeffersonville, IN-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist, former frontman of Midwestern “punked-up country gunk” band State Champion, and founder of Sophomore Lounge Records. His second album backed by The Roadhouse Band is a breakthrough set of sprawling, sweeping, freewheeling Americana distinguished by Ryan’s nuanced storytelling, distinctive delivery, and sharp songwriting alongside the band’s lush, grandiose, shape-shifting backdrops. Ryan’s lyricism – which has been praised by Bill Callahan and the late, great David Berman – is clever, transportive, and imaginative, and his vivid narration pairs beautifully with The Roadhouse Band’s accomplished musicianship, unpredictable instrumentation, and confounding surprises – the acoustic jungle breaks of “Monte Carlo / No Limits” (!!!) – that makes it easy to get swept up in these epic songs. — AR
Sai Galaxy - All Day Cool EP (Soundway)
The third EP from this project led by Australian multi-instrumentalist Simon Durrington is another sweet set of colorful global grooves that blend disco, Afrobeat, West African funk, house, and more in colorful fashion. The EP gets standout guest assists from Nigerian disco singer Oby Onyioha and Afro-Funk luminaries Steve Black and Rob. — AR
The Thing - The Thing (Onion)
For their third full-length album, NYC four-piece band The Thing deliver a self-titled affair and it’s a solid set of classic garage rock with an intermittent psychedelic streak that finds strong inspiration from seminal icons such as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and The Kinks. — AR
Welcome Strawberry - desperate flower (Cherub Dream)
The second album from this Oakland band is a solid blend of shoegaze, noise-pop, dream-pop, psych-pop, and gritty rock. It’s a super fuzzy and kaleidoscopic affair that’s able to interject some spacey ambient-tinted moments (“nursery loop,” “simplesyrup”) amidst its consistent run of gauzy, woozy, hook-filled songs. — AR
Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder share brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. See what we added this week, from DEBBY FRIDAY, Big Freedia, Blush, and more.
Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder share brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. See what we added this week, from Indigo De Souza, Tyler, The Creator, Bleary Eyed, and more.
Each week, Music Director Chris Sanley and Associate Music Director Alex Ruder share brief insights on new and upcoming releases for KEXP's rotation. See what we added this week, from Alex G, Coral Grief, Acapulco Lips, and more.
