transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:00] What happens when our political party becomes the prism through which we see every other aspect of our identities?

Speaker 2:
[00:06] What we're living through, I think, is really the two parties taking opposite sides on whether we want to keep making this type of social progress or whether we want to go back in time.

Speaker 1:
[00:15] Listen to NPR's Code Switch Podcast in the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 3:
[00:22] A quick note before the show, this podcast contains explicit language. Happy Friday, everyone. I'm Hazel Cills, an editor at MPR Music, filling in for Stephen Thompson this week. Each week on New Music Friday, we speak to a member of the MPR Music Network. And today, April 17th, I'm here with Nastia Voynovskaya from KQED in San Francisco. Nastia, I'm so happy that you're here.

Speaker 4:
[00:50] Hey, Hazel, I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 3:
[00:53] I'm really excited to talk about a ton of great new music out today, but I did want to talk to you a little bit about Coachella. Did you catch any of the Coachella live streams? Do you even care about Coachella? I'm curious.

Speaker 4:
[01:06] Of course. Yeah, so this year, one of my faves, Carol G, was the first Latina headliner, which was very exciting, and she had the super dynamic performance that really paid homage to her Colombian culture, which I loved. But a collaboration I was really thrilled about is Nine Inch Nails & Boys Noize performing as Nine Inch Noize.

Speaker 3:
[01:28] Yeah, I was not watching live streams as it was happening. You know, there's a big time delay on the East Coast, so I can't stay up for everything. But I was getting clips after the weekend had happened, after the performances had happened, and my entire Instagram feed was honestly Nine Inch Noize clips. It was like the algorithm was like, you absolutely need to see this performance. It looked so dark and twisted, and like there were all of these bald dancers like crawling around the stage. It was kind of giving like a Mad Max vibe in the middle of the desert.

Speaker 4:
[02:04] Yeah, so fitting. And then the music just works so well together. I love Nine Inch Nails, obviously giants of industrial music. And then the collaboration with Boys Noize, which is this German electronic producer, just makes it that much harder, propulsive, darker. And they have an album that came out today that I'm so excited to dive into it. And I love how Trent Reznor from Nine Inch Nails continues to reinvent himself. He is one of my favorite soundtrack composers. And I read that this collaboration sprang from when he asked Boys Noize to remix the tracks that he did for the challengers to score.

Speaker 3:
[03:09] All right, let's jump into the first album we're going to chat about in depth today. It's Honey Dijon's new record, and it's titled The Nightlife.

Speaker 4:
[04:07] Honey Dijon is a Chicago-born house and techno producer who came up in New York scene in the 90s, currently based in London. She's been an underground staple forever, but now I would call her your favorite Devo's favorite DJ. She has worked with Lady Gaga and Madonna, and she came into mainstream acclaim with her production on Beyonce's Renaissance album. And this album, The Nightlife, is a beautiful celebration of that feeling of getting lost on the dance floor.

Speaker 3:
[04:37] Yeah, I love Honey Dijon. I'm always excited about what she does. She contributed, as you said, my favorite song on Renaissance, which was Alien Superstar. And what I hear on this album is a real continuation of her collaboration with pop, like you just described. I think what she does best is make house music that I think welcomes listeners into the genre without losing its edge and political power. I think a song like The Nightlife, which features Chloe Bailey, it really bridges the world of pop and house. It feels like a pop song to me with really great house dance music bones.

Speaker 4:
[05:51] This album channels this very swingy, disco-inflected house vibe, which I really think speaks to house music's roots in Chicago's queer black dance music underground in the 80s, which is when Honey Dijon came up as a 13-year-old sneaking into clubs and really absorbing this sound. I love that this album has multiple collaborations with each of the vocalists. There's a club version of that title track with Chloe that goes even harder. And there's also some really nice work with Rochelle Jordan, who marries R&B and house music so beautifully. I really loved the track Private Eye.

Speaker 3:
[07:24] A lot of people do associate Honey Dijon with that kind of like, you know, late 80s, early 90s, kind of like golden age of house. But on this album, you know, I really do hear her range. I feel like her music, you know, is very referential, but I never feel like she's just looking backwards to me. I really love this song on the album called Slight Work, which features the rapper Bree Runway. And it's very like modern. It's a very modern song. It's very metallic. It feels like a song that is made for the ballroom in 2026, not for the ballroom in like 1990.

Speaker 4:
[08:03] Absolutely. And when you say ballroom, I can totally imagine people voguing to this song. This really speaks to underground queer subcultures. And it has so much attitude. It's very addicting.

Speaker 3:
[08:43] Yeah, I feel like Attitude is definitely like a big descriptor for this album. This album just feels so kind of boldly self-confident and like a little salty. Like, you know, Honey Dijon's last album, Black Girl Magic, was full of, you know, so much optimism and love and, you know, clearly as always rooted in her community as like a DJ and an artist. But there were just so many moments on this album, like I hear it on, you know, International, I hear it on Just Friends, where there is just this kind of like, you can't handle this energy that I really appreciated, you know, throughout this album. That was The Nightlife by Honey Dijon. So we were just talking about house music, and now we're going to talk about Disco, which is fun. We're just moving backwards in time. I want to talk about an album that's out today titled Super Bloom and it's from the British artist, Jessie Ware. So this is Jessie Ware's 6th album, and it builds on this genre that she's really been exploring quite deeply now for a few albums now, which is Disco, Disco music. It's really interesting to talk about this album after talking about the Honey Dijon album because Dijon is really interested in moving between dance music's past and present and future. I feel like Jessie on this album is really fully committed to the past and to drawing on Disco music's tradition while still bringing her own flair and flavor to it. But I hear a song like Don't You Know Who I Am, which is just for me giving pure Gloria Gaynor like I will survive energy. I feel like Jessie is just kind of a traditionalist on a song like that.

Speaker 4:
[11:24] Yeah, I was also getting some Candy Sutton, Young Hearts Run Free, that defiant disco diva energy. I love this album. I think for Jessie Ware, disco kind of symbolizes this embrace of pleasure, being in your own body, following your desires in an unabashed way. And that's a huge theme on Super Bloom. The lead single, I could get used to this, the music video pays homage to the Roman goddess Juno, who's the goddess of women, childbirth fertility. So in this album, she really talked about women owning their erotic powers in those very bold way.

Speaker 3:
[12:21] Yeah, it's like, you know, disco gets a bad rap sometimes, but like, you know, for so many of the people who made it in the 70s and 80s, like it was this like euphoric, you know, sexually, you know, freeing genre. And I feel like not enough people focus on that. And I really feel like she is focusing on that, on this album. A song, you know, that really stood out to me is the song Automatic, where, you know, that also to me is like this very kind of like euphoric, like almost, you know, cinematic track. And there's this flute on it that kind of reminds me of the flute and the hustle. Just like these little kind of touchstones that are, you know, pulling me back into the past in a really fun way.

Speaker 4:
[13:29] The album starts out in this kind of romantic register with the title track and automatic. There are these luxurious strings, these layered harmonies, and then it gets very raunchy. So I loved the track, Sauna. It's this very high energy, very early electro sounding track. It kind of reminded me of Sylvester's collaborations with Patrick Cowley in the late 70s. It makes me imagine the soundtrack to A Gay Bath House. And it has this very synth heavy beat, and Jessie Ware's voice is just pure, propulsive energy, just charged with desire.

Speaker 3:
[14:24] Yeah, I'm really glad that you brought out sauna, because that also stood out to me. It does, it just has this kind of sexy, I love that you brought up Sylvester Patrick Cowley, energy to it. And I think that's the kind of song that someone could hear it and so much of disco think it's a little corny or it's kind of gimmicky, but she just brings so much fun and this incredible energy to it that it just makes it kind of irresistible. That was Super Bloom by Jessie Ware. We've got to take a quick break here, but coming up, we have new releases from artist Sofia Isella, Eaves Wilder, and more. I'm Hazel Cills, it's New Music Friday. I'm here with Nastia Voynovskaya from KQED in San Francisco, talking about so many great albums out today. Nastia, what is coming up at KQED that you can tell us about?

Speaker 4:
[15:32] We all know the Bay Area is one of the most expensive places in the country to live, so we're doing this newsroom-wide series called How We Get By. That's all about the compromises and solutions that people make to survive in the Bay Area and the arts team and I are working on some reporting for that, so that's an ongoing project. I'm also very excited to cover the film I Love Boosters, directed by the Oakland filmmaker Boots Riley, and it's this fun, darkly comedic thriller about all-woman shoplifting rings. Lots of big moments happening in the Bay Area.

Speaker 3:
[16:08] I'm so excited to see that Boots Riley movie. It looks crazy.

Speaker 4:
[16:12] No, seriously, same, and it has Kiki Palmer, who's one of my favorites. Coming up in May, on May 9th, we have KQED Fest, which is this big free block party we throw right side of our headquarters in San Francisco. And the lineup hasn't been announced yet, but I am hosting an on-stage conversation with an exciting artist that I think Tiny Desk fans will appreciate.

Speaker 3:
[16:35] Ooh, okay. So, little surprise. The anticipation is killing me. That all sounds amazing.

Speaker 4:
[16:42] Yeah, it'll be announced before too long.

Speaker 3:
[16:44] So the next release that I want to talk about that came out today, it's an intriguing EP from a rising artist. Her name is Sofia Isella, and the EP is titled Something Is a Shell.

Speaker 4:
[17:38] Sofia Isella is a 21-year-old singer-songwriter who is blowing up. She's opened for Taylor Swift. She's touring with Florence and the Machine right now. And what I really appreciate about her is she's getting this mainstream acclaim for making very abrasive music with a very strong point of view that's not meant to be liked by everybody. Sofia Isella is this beautiful, tall, model-esque woman, she performs covered in literal dirt, and she makes her voice intentionally low and creepy. And in Something is a Shell, she really interrogates how Christianity can be used to justify patriarchal violence.

Speaker 3:
[18:21] Yeah, she is a very unusual kind of pop star to me. It's kind of crazy to think that she opened for Taylor Swift, because her music is so different. And yeah, I agree with you that her music is very dark and explicitly feminist. Like it has this kind of like, almost like 90s riot girl style ethos. I mean, there's the song on the EP titled Above the Neck, which I feel like is kind of a standout track. It has this kind of like slam poetry style singing, which I feel like might turn a lot of listeners off. But it is about, you know, the objectification women face from a very young age. And I just don't really hear pop music that sounds like this a lot.

Speaker 5:
[19:37] Nothing to miss. It must be so relieving for you to hear this.

Speaker 4:
[19:41] Above the Neck sent chills down my spine, especially because it's from the perspective of this very young singer. And it's all about how older men objectify youth. And I couldn't, listening to it, I couldn't separate it from this Epstein-Files era that we're in, where millennial and Gen Z women are having a reckoning with how people that are accused of engaging in human trafficking and sexual abuse have shaped so much of culture and our public life.

Speaker 3:
[20:11] Yeah, it's dark material. And it's clearly material that is speaking to a generation of young women. I think every time I've seen one of her songs posted online or on Instagram or YouTube, there's always women in the comments who are saying, I've never heard something like this. I really relate to the music. It's very theatrical as well. It has this sense of rolling around in the muck of the world and her going to these places that I feel like so many artists are afraid to go. A song like Out in the Garden, it almost has this horror movie bent to it. She sings like something isn't right, isn't human about me. She has such a way of grounding the music in very human personal experiences, but also taking it to these otherworldly places as well as a songwriter.

Speaker 4:
[21:24] Out in the Garden is hands down my favorite track. She kind of leaves that spoken word style that she does and really sings with this very full-throated voice. And they're these dark reverb, laden drums, this really epic guitar riff. And it just builds so much tension. And what I love about Sofia Isella's songwriting is she writes from the point of view of different characters. So here she's talking to a woman who is praying and she's religious. And on one hand, she is kind of criticizing how this woman is using her faith to justify abuses of other women. On the other hand, she's kind of envious that she has such a strong belief in something that's giving her hope. And then she's singing from the point of view of this devil character that's almost like a woman that's been condemned by the church and demonized.

Speaker 3:
[23:01] So that was Something is a Shell by Sofia Isella. So our next album is by an artist that was, you know, new to me. It's an artist named Eaves Wilder, and her album is titled Little Miss Sunshine. So, Eaves is a singer-songwriter from North London, first broke out in 2020 when she was a teenager, when she released the song, Won't You Be Happy? This is her debut album, and it is just so fun. We're taking a real pivot from Sofia Isella. It is like a sugar rush of an album, and it's sugary and it's sweet, but there's so much bite to a lot of this music. There's a song on here titled, Just Say No, which I thought was a real banger, and it's a song about calling out a guy who thinks that the thing that makes her attractive is when she just goes with the flow and is a chill girl and doesn't say no. I think the way that she volleys between upbeat cool girl energy, but then if you listen really closely to the song, she's raising some significant complaints, just makes the music really charming.

Speaker 4:
[25:40] I really enjoyed this album. You said Sugar Rush. I was imagining a mosh pit, but everyone's throwing glitter.

Speaker 2:
[25:47] Yeah.

Speaker 3:
[25:48] Sounds fun.

Speaker 4:
[25:50] Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, there are these big shoegazy guitar riffs, a lot of Riot Grrl and 90s grunge influence, but then Eve sings with this sort of ethereal, almost elfin voice, and the songwriting is just so catchy. And I think this album really smartly tackles a lot of different themes about coming of age as a young woman, and this time of the internet attention economy, and just wanting to cut through the noise and connect with yourself and connect with something greater. And that theme really comes through on the track, Everybody Talks. The lyrics are quite simple. She kind of just repeats that refrain, but the energy really builds from these wispy vocals to this huge crescendo. And it's all about just trying to listen to yourself amid all the noise from people's feedback online.

Speaker 3:
[27:13] That is such a great song about kind of having anxiety, and having all these voices screaming in your head when you're on stage. She sings, I am running off pure fear and adrenaline, which I feel like really explains the energy of a song like that. And I read an interview with her in Rolling Stone where she talked about how there was a moment where before making this album, she was really feeling not into making music, she wanted to quit, she was having writer's block. And then she kind of realized that she could just make music that sounds like the way that she wanted to without worrying about being a big hit with Mass Appeal. I feel like she was trying to like game the system and like make a hit. And I think she really settled into her style of songwriting on this album because there's so much freedom in a lot of this music. I hear someone who has kind of cracked open their life in a way and is, it just wants to explore and have fun. And, you know, there's a song on here called The Great Plains where I really hear that the most where, you know, she sings about like wanting to be a cowboy and like leaving it all behind. And I hear, you know, an artist who is like really open to all possibilities.

Speaker 4:
[28:47] What I love about these tracks is that although they do explore some petty concepts, you really feel them in your body. This is definitely something you can crank up in your car. This is music I would love to see live at a show. The instrumentation is just so huge and so atmospheric. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker 3:
[29:07] That was Little Miss Sunshine by the artist, Eaves Wilder. We have to take another quick break here, but when we return, we'll talk about more great new music out today. Our next album is a new release from the artist, Yaya Bey, and it is titled Fidelity.

Speaker 4:
[30:16] Yaya Bey is a Queens, New York-raised singer-songwriter who emerged during the pandemic, and she really unsightfully talks about themes of grief, which is a theme that continues on this album. She has this rich, warm, gorgeous voice, jazzy instrumentation that feels really alive. And the album grapples with personal grief around the loss of her father, also grief around the idea of home, the loss of Black cultural spaces, and also the sort of loss of innocence that comes with knowing that the sense of progress that maybe millennials grew up with in the 90s and 2000s hasn't necessarily come to bear.

Speaker 3:
[30:58] Yeah, she has such a great way of weaving these bigger political ideas and social narratives with music that I think really speaks to what she is going through. And I hear so much strength on this album, even if it is an album that is, as you say, formed, you know, by grief. Like, there's a song on this album called Slot Machines, you know, where she sings, you know, you know, there's a brand new me, but your eyes still see what your arms can't reach. And I think that there are so many moments on this album where she's really kind of, you know, renegotiating her relationship with other people and sort of taking issue with like other people's, like lack of imagination is sort of what I heard on a lot of tracks on this album and she just has a way of singing that's so laid back and confident and direct that's really captivating.

Speaker 4:
[32:23] Yeah, I think that theme of grief is a backdrop, but across the tracks, you can really feel that what's getting her through is this undying spiritual belief in love. And that came across so nicely on the track, Great Migration. It kind of reminded me of Young, Gifted, and Black by Nina Simone. It's just this homage to the beauty and ingenuity of her community. And it has this kind of drum and bass influence be this really gorgeous trumpet. And her voice is so encouraging. And she sings this refrain, Do It From the Heart, which I really loved.

Speaker 3:
[33:31] There's so many little moments on this album. Just, you know, her songwriting and like her turns a phrase that really, you know, stuck with me. You know, there's a moment on a song on here. The song is titled As the Ocean, where she sings about, you know, her back hurting and her heart aching and her bra being too tight. And it's just like those moments of real, grounded, you know, realism that she brings to this music that I think connects all those dots between, you know, grief as a backdrop, as you say, love. And it just feels like very like centered music. Like this is an artist who has been, you know, working through these themes for so long. And her pen is just, is, is just incredible. So that was Fidelity by Yaya Bey. So we couldn't get to every single album out today, so we are going to do a lightning round with some of my colleagues across NPR Music. But first, I wanna shout out a release that's come out today. It is the album titled Carve by the artist Kathryn Mohr. She is an experimental musician, and she recorded this album in a tiny little house in the Mojave Desert. And I really feel like this album captures this kind of feeling of like isolation and solitude of, you know, being out in the middle of nowhere. It just has this incredibly tough, raw spirit. She's a guitarist, and the way that she plays guitar is so unusual and kind of grungy and out there. I just think it's an album that's really, really worth checking out. Carve by the artist Kathryn Mohr. Nastia, what do you have to recommend today?

Speaker 4:
[36:07] A standout for me is The Art of Acceptance by Jamaican reggae artist, Prodigy. So this is contemporary reggae, fused with R&B and neo-soul kind of vibes. And it has some great features from Steven and Damian Marley, Jamaican dancehall stars, Massica and Shencia. And it's music you can dance to, very smooth vibes, spiritual lyrics and some romance as well. That was Proto J's The Art of Acceptance.

Speaker 3:
[36:52] Very nice. Noah Caldwell, what do you want to shout out today?

Speaker 5:
[36:56] Hazel. So I've got something dancey and upbeat from the electronic group PPJ. There's this French Brazilian group that started during the pandemic, actually as a lockdown project. They've had a bunch of EPs since then, a bunch of singles, and their latest EP is out today. It's called Joker. It's this super fun mashup of techno, pop, baile funk, Brazilian rhythms. It's always super lyrical with vocals from their lead singer Paola, who's originally from the north of Brazil, lived in Rio for a long time. She calls their music a, quote, permanent carnival, which I think is kind of spot on. It's bright, energetic, propulsive. They were a trio. This is actually their first project as a duo, just two of them. But there's a lot of continuity here. It doesn't feel like it's a big break from their previous sound. It feels like they're building on this theme. They've got Brazilian dance rhythms like Sato, they've got big club bangers and also some kind of lower key, like mid-afternoon sit by the pool tracks. So that's Joker from PPJ.

Speaker 3:
[38:10] I love PPJ, I'm so glad that you brought that. Tom Huizenga, what do you have for us?

Speaker 6:
[38:15] Hey, you know, I'm really excited about a new album of symphonies by Arvo Pärt. He's the beloved Estonian composer who counts Bjork and, well, let's see, Keanu Reeves and Michael Stipe as his fans. All four of Arvo Pärt's symphonies are on this album by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ava Ollekainen. And I think it's kind of a good way to understand how Pärt's sound evolved over the years as these symphonies, they ranged from 1963 until 2008 from his kind of, what you might want to call his early kind of atonal style to his really timeless, spacious sound that he developed in the mid seventies. And it's really kind of flooded with the spirit of like old Slavonic church music and especially Gregorian chant, angelic you might say. So it's a part of Arvo Pärt Symphony No. 4 with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and conductor Ava Ollikainen.

Speaker 3:
[39:34] I need more angelic music in my life, honestly.

Speaker 6:
[39:37] We all do, right?

Speaker 3:
[39:39] Rodney Carmichael, what do you have?

Speaker 7:
[39:42] Hey, Hazel. So Adrian Younge has a new self-titled instrumental album out, and you might be familiar with Younge's Jazz Is Dead label and series that he has with Ali Shahid Mohammed, where he has almost this archival approach to fusing old soul and jazz into the sonic language of hip-hop. And this album is really no exception. The best way to describe it is Blacksploitation meets Spaghetti Western. I mean, it's cinematic, it's soulful, it's psychedelic with an orchestra that I think would probably make Isaac Hayes blush. But I didn't realize how thick the bass and drums were on this joint till I played it in my car. So, I'm in the family SUV after dropping the kids off at school this morning. And the strings are swelling and the horns are blaring. But then the bass kicks in and I swear I became like the protagonist in my own Blacksploitation City, also Adrian Younge back with a new album that is self-titled and deceptively young in spirit.

Speaker 3:
[41:20] Man, I'm so sold. Thank you guys so much for bringing all that music.

Speaker 7:
[41:24] Appreciate it.

Speaker 5:
[41:25] Thank you, Hazel. Thanks, Hazel.

Speaker 3:
[41:27] So that is our show for this week. Thank you, Nastia Voynovskaya, for taking time out of your week at KQED in San Francisco to come talk to me about so much great music out today.

Speaker 4:
[41:36] It was such a pleasure. Thanks for having me back.

Speaker 3:
[41:39] If you enjoyed this week's show, we always appreciate a positive review on Apple or Spotify or whatever app you're listening to right now. This episode was produced by Noah Caldwell and Elle Mannion edited by Otis Hart. Our production assistant is Dora Levite. The executive producer of MPER. Music is Suraya Mohamed. Stephen Thompson will be back next week to discuss new music with Lou Mulvaney-Stanik from Vermont Public. Until then, take a moment to be well and treat yourself to lots of great music.