Need to chill? Moby's got you covered with this four hour mix titled Long Ambients 1: Calm. Sleep. He explains, "it's really quiet: no drums, no vocals, just very slow calm pretty chords and sounds and things for sleeping and yoga and etc." Hey, if it works for a busy dude like Moby...! Download i…
KEXP premiered an album stream of the latest from Portland band Radiation City last week, and it's now in stores. KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes their latest, "features a more synth-driven sound for their eclectic dream-pop, combining bright synths and glittering guitars with funk-inflected rh…
A favorite on KEXP's Latin show, El Sonido, Chancha Via Circuito is an Argentinian DJ/producer best-known as a high-quality pusher of cumbia digital, an old-meets-new style characterized by deep, hypnotic rhythms, exotic, shuffling percussion, and modern explorations of traditional folkloric Latin…
Don't let the name fool you. Pickathon isn't just about banjos and guitars... well, not just, anyway. Among a roster of today's best purveyors of old timey sounds, you'll find many KEXP favorites of hip hop, soul, R&B, garage and indie rock, dazzling audiences of all ages each year on the sunli…
As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
Don't let the arsenal of electronics fool you -- UK artist Jon Hopkins brings an unexpected warmth to IDM through his inventive sampling of organic sound: hands clapping, hitting things, even using his own voice to build a seductive percussion. It's no wonder his fourth album Immunity, released las…
With their brand-new EP Fade Away, California band Best Coast prove they're not doing any such thing. The seven-song release just came out this past week, but we were lucky to have the band in the KEXP studios back in August for a sneak-peek at these new summery-sounding songs. You can't help smil…
As record companies continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated At…
As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
As major labels continue to exist behind the times, artists and labels with little capital and lesser reputations are producing some of the most innovative, interesting, and inspiring music. Whether it’s creating a new niche in digital technology or looking to once obsolete formats, Agitated Atmosp…
L.A. artist Ariel Pink returns this week with an album "dedicated to '60s-era LA cult songwriter Bobby Jameson, a promising artist whose career fizzled out early in a haze of management and label troubles, drug abuse and depression." KEXP Music Director Don Yates notes the release is "a bit of a th…
The 2018 event continues tonight, Friday, February 16th, with our second round of semi-finalists: Micaiah Sawyer, NËSTRÄ, Sam Foster, and Step Dads. Here's some info on what to expect:
While it's true that Jófríður Ákadóttir is one of the more prolific Icelandic musicians of recent memory - her projects have included Pascal Pinon, Samaris, GANGLY, and now her solo venture, JFDR - but to focus on the quantity of her output doesn't do its quality justice. Ákadóttir&apos…
They'd previously ripped up Kex Hostel as part of the Iceland Airwaves broadcast, so it should be no surprise that the Reykjavik trio Moji & The Midnight Sons torch the KEXP Live Room in Seattle with the same potent soulful hand grenade of a sound. On the heels of their debut album, What…
Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best and Seattle's Bread & Butter like to keep it free and easy with big, crunchy chords and juicy power pop hooks. The quartet are no joke though - the crashes and choruses on their debut album are plenty effective and sound best turned up loud. Pa…
"With the challenges in our lives, sometimes you have to go in order to truly blossom." That's the theme behind Industrial Revelation's "No Way Out But In", but it could really apply to the musically adventurous Seattle jazz outfit's entire ethos. Their energetic, unpredictable…
Montreal-formed band Wolf Parade, now mostly based in Vancouver, make up for 13 years of not performing live on KEXP with an extra-long set in our new studio, covering their entire 2016 EP plus two classics harking back to their very first recording. Co-songwriters Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner, d…
With a laid-back, poetic cadence and a bevy of hazy hip-hop beats, Seattle's DoNormaal – the stage name of Christianne Karefa-Johnson and a play on a Dutch phrase that means "stop acting weird" - creates music that has a futuristic quality to its adventurous sound. Recorded during a spec…
Seven years without a new album. Nearly biannual membership shuffles. Repeated reports of studio sessions without any release. For a minute, Modest Mouse looked like they might have been heading down the lucrative but artistically fruitless legacy act path that a few of their contemporaries are sta…
It seemed like just yesterday that Icelandic singer/songwriter Ásgeir was in Seattle and sitting on a park bench next to Kurt Cobain's house on Lake Washington. Just over a year ago, he was performing from his glorious debut, Dýrð í dauðaþögn, and revealed that he had been working with U.S. born, I…
