Song of the Day: Doldrums - HOTFOOT

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards is “HOTFOOT” by Doldrums from the 2015 album The Air Conditioned Nightmare on Sub Pop.

Doldrums - HOTFOOT (MP3)

Under the moniker Doldrums, Montreal-based musician Airick Woodhead commandeers a wide variety of electronic music sources into his disruptive, unpredictable compositions. A member of the same Montreal warehouse scene as Grimes, Majical Cloudz, and Blue Hawaii, Woodhead took a punk approach to constructing his songs, finding samples from all corners of noise and arranging them into deftly potent structures on his 2013 debut Lesser Evil. Inspired by Henry Miller's American consumerism-criticizing work of the same name, Woodhead recorded his sophomore effort across the course of two years, resulting in April's The Air Conditioned Nightmare. Woodhead has said that The Air Conditioned Nightmare is built around conflict, and it's plenty evident in "HOTFOOT", which contains four minutes of fervent, magnetic chaos. A mix of equally as punishing electronic and organic percussion leads the charge in Woodhead's loud-quiet-loud dynamics, scattering appropriately unhinged lyrics ("I'm sleeping in in the age of unrest", "my best friends will see me drown") in between the song's bursts. It's a tall order to capture whatever the hell America is in song, but Woodhead (a Canadian, no less) crystallizes it in chaos on "HOTFOOT" by embracing its uniquely bewildering and magnetic penchant for catastrophe.

Woodhead doesn't have any shows announced for 2015, but keep an eye on his Facebook and Tumblr in case he announces shows or new music. Below, watch the Emily Kai Bock-directed video for the 2012 track "She Is The Wave (feat. Guy Dallas)".