All Songs Considered: Charli xcx, Mike D, Boards of Canada

Summary

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NPR Music – All Songs Considered

Episode: Charli xcx, Mike D, Boards of Canada

Date: May 12, 2026
Hosts: Robin Hilton, Lars Gotrich
Notable Guests: Mike D (Beastie Boys, on tape), Jason Martin (Starflyer 59, on tape)

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Overview

This episode of All Songs Considered is a lively, album-deep dive into the best new music and offbeat discoveries hitting the hosts' playlists. Robin Hilton and Lars Gotrich share and debate tracks they've been obsessing over, ranging from Charli xcx’s tongue-in-cheek take on rock, to Mike D’s (Beastie Boys) first solo single, archival sounds from the Elephant 6 scene, up to Boards of Canada’s long-awaited return. Expect warm banter, passionate hot takes, and lots of playful nerding out about music history, genre cross-pollination, and artistic intent.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Charli xcx – "Rock Music"

[01:34 – 07:42]

• Robin opens with the new Charli xcx single "Rock Music," sparking instant anticipation and debate.

• Robin's take: Sees it as a "brilliant take on current times," targeting the selfie generation’s ennui and detachment, with heavily ironic lyrics and self-referential fatigue.

  • "I think it's so appropriate for some of the themes that she's getting into here, which I think this is...very much directed at the selfie generation." – Robin [05:12]

• Lars' perspective: Admires her as a status-quo breaker but feels the sarcasm here is so over-the-top it risks mocking the very genre and its fans.

  • "Her tongue is placed so firmly in cheek that it's popped out the other side." – Lars [04:34]

• Both debate whether the song’s brevity and abrupt ending (about 1:45 long) is a reflection of today’s short attention spans or a throwaway.

  • "I think that she cuts it off at the end there. Like, we can't even be bothered with content that is more than a minute and 45 seconds or whatever the song is." – Robin [06:50]

• Notes on Charli’s flirtation with rock—a scrapped pop-punk album never released—and speculation on whether a true rock LP is on the horizon.

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2. Starflyer 59 – "Disappointed"

[07:49 – 12:30]

• Lars answers Charli’s meta-rock with "real rock music" – a new song from Starflyer 59’s Jason Martin.

  • "That is StarFlyer59, one of my favorite bands of all time...and it's called Disappointed." – Lars [10:17]

• Discussion meanders through Starflyer 59's history as a cult mainstay, with Robin noting their thematic kinship to Charli xcx’s track: both explore modern malaise and exhaustion, but Martin’s is all urgency and honest punk roots—no irony.

  • "There's an urgency in it. And it's unambiguously punk...there's nothing ironic about it." – Robin [11:34]

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3. Mike D (Beastie Boys) – "Switch Up"

[14:04 – 21:33]

• Robin introduces Mike D’s "Switch Up," marking the first-ever solo material from the Beastie Boys universe since Adam Yauch’s passing.

• Both hosts express surprise and delight at Mike D’s direction: an unexpected, big-beat, 90s London electronic vibe—part Prodigy, part Chemical Brothers, with a dose of Massive Attack.

  • "I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting to hear the early 90s London electronic music scene." – Lars [18:33]

• Robin gushes about Mike D’s ability to avoid nostalgia or retreading old ground:

  • "It doesn't sound like a nostalgia trip at all. And it doesn't sound like he's just trying to recreate what he did with the Beastie Boys." – Robin [18:40]

• Conversation about fan excitement and how Mike D’s Spotify presence leapt from zero to tens of thousands (“Zero monthly listens – Mike D” [21:20]), attesting to pent-up demand.

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4. Black Swan Network (Will Cullen Hart) – "The Shell"

[21:33 – 26:49]

• Lars surprises Robin (and listeners) with a deep Elephant 6–era cut: unreleased solo recordings from Will Cullen Hart under his Black Swan Network moniker.

• Emotional response as Robin recognizes the distinctive voice and reminisces about the collective’s prolific, DIY aesthetic. The music is ramshackle, intimate, full of ambient noise and tape hiss—a pending archival release after Hart’s death in 2024.

  • "There is the biggest smile on your face. And that's what I was looking for." – Lars [24:05]
  • "How bedroom. How you could make the most beautiful and strangest music imaginable just in your bedroom with a microphone and a tape recorder and that was it." – Lars [26:14]

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5. Hannah Cohen – "Golden Chain"

[27:46 – 33:43]

• Robin shines a light on his latest discovery: Hannah Cohen (Earth Star Mountain, 2025), describing her new song "Golden Chain" as psych-folk, dreamy and timeless.

  • "If you like wondrous worlds of sound, kind of like what you get with the Black Swan Network...very spare, right out the gate, her voice is super arresting to me." – Robin [31:22]

• Lars notes echoes of Jessica Pratt and Josephine Foster—an effortless, out-of-time quality.

  • "Sounds like she's in no rush, but time seems unstable." – Lars [31:49]

• The lyrics are praised for their emotional dysfunction and longing, with Robin highlighting the song’s sense of existing both past and future.

  • "It's just as easy to imagine this crooning out of an old tube radio in the 1920s, 30s, or 40s, as it is to imagine it drifting in from the future somehow." – Robin [32:04]

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6. Boards of Canada – "Prophecy at 1420 MHz"

[34:19 – 36:05+]

• Lars teases the long-anticipated return of Boards of Canada, previewing the track "Prophecy at 1420 MHz" from their first album in 13 years, Inferno (dropping May 29).

  • "It was just announced that Boards of Canada will release its first album in 13 years...they dropped an intro track and the track right after it called prophecy at 1420 MHz." – Lars [34:19]

• Discussion on the "Wow Signal" (an actual frequency speculated to be used by aliens), its conceptual intrigue, and how BOC’s new music incorporates (rare for them) gothic-sounding guitar and even lyrics about consciousness and higher life forms.

• Robin admits to prior play but is happy to include Boards of Canada again because "it’s so momentous to have them back."

  • "It's so momentous to have them back." – Robin [35:54]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Charli xcx:
  "Her tongue is placed so firmly in cheek that it's popped out the other side." – Lars [04:34]
  "I think you can see the side eye and the eye rolls from space in this song." – Robin [04:58]

• On Mike D's Solo Move:
  "Zero monthly listens. Mike D. Because this is the first thing thing he's ever done." – Robin [21:20]
  "I like hearing his voice in that context. I don't think I'd ever really thought of him as, like, a big beat kind of guy." – Lars [20:20]

• On Black Swan Network:
  "You can hear creaking footsteps and you can hear somebody coughing. But I hear all of that happening in music now. And it's wild to me how not only influential but prescient Will Cullen Hart and all that group of people were." – Lars [26:14]

• On Boards of Canada & the Wow Signal:
  "Apparently there are some physicists who speculated that extraterrestrial life would try to contact us at this specific radio signal." – Lars [34:50]
  "Oh my God, I love that." – Robin [35:03]

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Timestamps & Segment Highlights

• [01:34] Charli xcx "Rock Music" played; discussion on pop, irony, and genre commentary
• [07:49] Starflyer 59 "Disappointed"; indie/punk, legacy acts, punk earnestness vs pop parody
• [14:04] Mike D "Switch Up"; host surprise, genre shifts, music as reinvention after Beastie Boys
• [21:33] Black Swan Network "The Shell"; Elephant 6 collective history, archival value, homemade recordings
• [28:03] Hannah Cohen "Golden Chain"; new psych-folk, timeless sound, lyrical vulnerability
• [34:19] Boards of Canada "Prophecy at 1420 MHz"; anticipation and first impressions on a major comeback, extraterrestrial mythology

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Episode Tone

• Collegial, warm, and nerdily playful.
• Hosts bounce between debate and effusive admiration, with a focus on both the emotional and conceptual layers of the music.
• Frequent asides about music history, trends, and technology (from tape hiss to short attention spans).
• Lots of genuine surprise and delight at one another’s selections.

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Final Thoughts

This All Songs Considered episode is a tight, engaging music talk full of passion for both new and rediscovered sounds. Longtime fans will appreciate the insider banter; curious listeners will come away with a pile of genre-blurring recommendations, plus deeper context about why these songs matter in 2026’s musical landscape.

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Transcript

[Announcer]

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[Robin Hilton]

What are we doing here?

[Lars Gotrich]

I don't know.

[Robin Hilton]

A show, I guess. So this episode of All Songs Considered comes to you from the Impure Music podcast where you will find this show. New episodes of this show every Tuesday. We've got Alt Latino every Wednesday, and of course, new music Friday closes out every week. NPR Music also home to tiny desk editor and curator of all things Loud and soft.

[Lars Gotrich]

I like the dramatic pause and soft and soft.

[Robin Hilton]

Lars Gottrich.

[Lars Gotrich]

Hey, Robin.

[Robin Hilton]

So we nerd out about all kinds of music stuff on this show on All Songs Considered. Sometimes it's a debate about a band or some trend or something like that. Or sometimes it's a conversation like the one we had recently with Beck. And sometimes it's just to play the music that we're loving and to share it with each other. We keep a running list of the best new tracks of the year and we like to update it every other week or so. That's what we're doing on this episode of All Songs Considered. We each brought some stuff. Lars, I am certain that whatever you brought is next level.

[Lars Gotrich]

Oh, okay.

[Robin Hilton]

But I actually want to. You don't sound very convinced, I think.

[Lars Gotrich]

But my expectation just suddenly, like, shot up.

[Robin Hilton]

But if it's cool with you, I thought I would start us off here with a brand new song that we got at the end of last week. The new one from Charli xcx, which you've heard, I'm guessing.

[Mike D]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay.

[Lars Gotrich]

I wondered if you're gonna play this song.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay, well, we'll have a good discussion here about it then. It's called rock Music. I'll just sit it here and we can talk about it when we come back.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

Me and my friends,

[Mike D]

we go out,

[Guest Musician / Artist]

we take pictures and make stuff together. And sometimes we cry. We kiss each other with incestuous vibes. Yeah, we're so inspired basically all the time.

[Announcer]

Yeah.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

We're on to the next. I think the dancer is dead. So now we're making rock

[Mike D]

music.

[Robin Hilton]

Wow.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

I'm really banging my head. I'm really hurting my neck. The nerve damage is real, but it's the only way to feel something hurt yourself. Yeah. Maybe jump off the stage. I hope they catch you today. But if they don't, it's okay. I think the dancer is dead. So now we're making Rol. I'm really banging my head I'm really banging my head. I'm bringing banging my head now we're making love.

[Lars Gotrich]

I forgot that's how it is. That is how it is.

[Robin Hilton]

It just cuts off. I think this song's kind of brilliant, but you clearly have some issues with it. So I want to hear what you think and then I'm going to tell you why you're wrong.

[Lars Gotrich]

Thanks for the record. I actually really do like Charli xcx. I've been following her career basically since, I think, her debut album. Yeah, she's always been good at challenging the status quo of what pop music is, for sure. And I've really appreciated that about her career. During Brat Summer, I got a little. I think, like a lot of people, it kind of wore out.

[Robin Hilton]

Its welcome Charlie fatigue.

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah. So here she is playing with the idea of rock music as a pop singer, as a subverter of pop music.

[Robin Hilton]

Right.

[Lars Gotrich]

And I don't have a problem with that generally. I think the thing that I'm reacting to is that her tongue is placed so firmly in cheek that it's popped out the other side.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, man. I agree. But I mean, I think that's what I like about this.

[Lars Gotrich]

Sure. Well, let's hear what you have to say.

[Robin Hilton]

Well, I don't know. I think it's fair to say that this song is fairly cynical. I mean, it is loaded with sarcasm.

[Lars Gotrich]

Sure.

[Robin Hilton]

I think you can see the side eye and the eye rolls from space in this song. But I think it's so appropriate for some of the themes that she's getting into here, which I think this is. It's very much directed at the selfie generation.

[Lars Gotrich]

Sure.

[Robin Hilton]

You know, the whole vibe is just like she's just so indifferent to everything. We're trying so hard to be cool and to care and we just don't. I think that there's this thing that she. The statement that she's making about our shortened attention spans and our inability to really engage deeply with anything going through the motions of life. Just the fact that she says, wow, I'm really rocking out, you know, my

[Lars Gotrich]

head banging my head.

[Robin Hilton]

I'm really banging my head. My neck kind of hurts. You know, it's just like. I think that it's kind of a brilliant take on very current times.

[Lars Gotrich]

I think you can be detached in rock music in a way that doesn't feel like you are making fun of everybody who listens to it, which is, for me, what she's crossing over into a little bit. So, like, I think about the most Obvious example would be something like the Velvet Underground, okay. Where it's like, Blue Reed is, like, just sarcastic as hell, but he is owning it in a way that

[Robin Hilton]

it's part of it that you would say. The Velvet Underground, for example, you can tell they really love rock as they do that. And in this case, you don't get that. You just think. Because I didn't take it as an assault on rock as much.

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah. I don't know. It feels superficial in a way that, like, I don't think maybe she intends. And I hear you, a song as kind of a response to the selfie generation or whatever. And this is why the song also feels just kind of like an interlude.

[Robin Hilton]

I think that's intentional.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

Sure.

[Robin Hilton]

I think that she cuts it off at the end there. Like, we can't even be bothered with content that is more than a minute and 45 seconds or whatever the song is.

[Lars Gotrich]

I think a lot of people forgot this, but at one point, she was going to put out a rock album, like, well over a decade ago.

[Robin Hilton]

Has it been that long? I mean. Cause she's told Vogue magazine that the dance floor's dead.

[Lars Gotrich]

Right?

[Robin Hilton]

And I mean, she even says that in the song, you know, like, so, I mean, word on an album, we just have the song. But, like, are you finally working on your rock album?

[Lars Gotrich]

It was. I'm trying to remember what era this would have been. But she did an interview with Scott Simon on the Weekend Edition many years ago.

[Robin Hilton]

Very rock and roll.

[Lars Gotrich]

And it's actually very. It's like a good interview. But she mentioned in that interview, it's like, yeah, I recorded and scrapped a whole pop punkish rock record. And it's. Nobody's ever going to hear it.

[Robin Hilton]

So. Charlie xcx, Rock music the song just the one off single for now. Where do you want to go, Lars? What do you got for me?

[Lars Gotrich]

I want to play some rock music.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay, you're going to play real rock music. All right.

[Lars Gotrich]

All right. I'm going to kick it.

[Robin Hilton]

So you don't want to tell me what this is? You just want to hit it and we can.

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah, I just want to hit it.

[Robin Hilton]

Okay.

[Jason Martin (Starflyer 59)]

Do you want to give way? Be the big win? Do you want your human rights? Yeah, I want to see my heaven lights do you want to be the big train? Yeah, I want to be the big train do you want to be a big deal? Yeah, I want to be a big deal. I thought that this was real I thought that this could last Now I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed. I Thought that I was here now no one cares Now I'm disappointed I'm disappointed. And this is just not making any sense. Do you know this is a problem? Yeah, I know this is a problem. Used to want to be a victim yeah, I want to be a big deal. I thought that this was real I thought that this could last I'm disappointed I'm disappointed I thought that I was here I found out no, he was. Now I'm disappointed I'm disappointed. And this is just not making any sense.

[Robin Hilton]

All right, you got me. I mean, that rips. I have no idea what it is.

[Lars Gotrich]

That is StarFlyer59, one of my favorite bands of all time. They've been around for well over 30 years at this point and on Five9. So just this past weekend, May 9th, there's an unofficial holiday among Starfire 59 fans like myself, where, yeah, we just listened to Starfire 59 songs on Five9. So they dropped a new song this past Saturday.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, wow.

[Lars Gotrich]

And it's called Disappointed.

[Robin Hilton]

So that's a band that I have not thought of in a really, really long time. Clocked him a little bit in the 90s, but have they stayed active and been putting out stuff?

[Lars Gotrich]

And, I mean, it's basically the work of one person, Jason Martin, and he just never stopped. He just kept putting out records. And, you know, when you have a favorite band, you kind of stick with them through the thick and thin, basically. And there is, like, a period of time where, yeah, it was a little thin. There's still stuff I liked, but. But in the last five years, Jason Martin's been really on a strong run. This comes from a new ep. It's got some great spring reverb. It's probably the fastest I've ever heard him play. It sounds like a Ramone song a little bit. There's a lot of great clang. And in a typical Jason Martin fashion, it's full of ennui.

[Robin Hilton]

I mean, this is a great companion piece, actually, to the Charli xcx because they're both thematically similar in that. I mean, just the disappointed. This. This song is. It's a little. It's a little deadpan, too, right? You know, and exhausted and just tired of everything. But there's an urgency in it. And it's unambiguously punk, kind of a new wave punk, but, you know, there's nothing ironic about it. He's just going for it.

[Lars Gotrich]

I mean, this is like. This is the whole Jason Martin mo is just kind of like he's one of the most brilliant craftsmen of rock music from my lifetime. But he gives off the air of not caring.

[Robin Hilton]

Right?

[Lars Gotrich]

Which is not true.

[Robin Hilton]

No, I know what you mean.

[Lars Gotrich]

But he's just kind of like, hey, I made some songs.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, bro. So Starflyer59. Yeah, and the song was Disappointed.

[Lars Gotrich]

It's called I'm Disappointed. And it'll be out on the EP called Disappointed. And there'll be a new album at some point, probably later this year.

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[Robin Hilton]

Did you see that Mike D has

[Lars Gotrich]

a new song out from Beastie Boys?

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah.

[Lars Gotrich]

No, I didn't.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, Mike D of the Beastie Boys dropped a solo song last week. On Friday, this is the first solo music of any member of.

[Lars Gotrich]

I was about to say, is that the. I couldn't think.

[Robin Hilton]

No, no.

[Lars Gotrich]

I'm reaching my. Racking my brain a little bit. I was like, has anybody put up a solo stuff?

[Robin Hilton]

No. First solo music of any of the members. First music of from that whole world at all since Adam Yawch died. DMCA died in 2012. Honestly, I was a little skeptical when I heard that Mike D was coming out with a song. Not because I don't think he is an amazing artist. I think he is an amazing artist, but just the idea of anything from the Beastie Boys universe existing outside of the Beastie Boys was kind of hard to get my head around but when I heard this new song, I was all in.

[Lars Gotrich]

Okay.

[Robin Hilton]

It's called Switch Up.

[Mike D]

It's trip bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. Switch up connection Switch up, switch up switch up switch up.

[Robin Hilton]

When my mind,

[Lars Gotrich]

when I focus.

[Mike D]

Get your bad, bad, bad expedition on the phone get your, get your full connection it's not always there need some introspection Then you check my connection Then we're gonna check my connection Switch that boy like oh go to a different section do some self reflection Try to take the pictures I can take the message Somebody teach you something Somebody teach me a lesson I want the first impression around my head Switch up, switch up. Deeper win you tried to risk me it won't convince me can't wait for summer I get all my problems back I need an answer now I need an ASAP I need a switch up we can't control again Time for a switch up.

[Lars Gotrich]

I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting to hear the early 90s London electronic music scene.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, I mean, he's doing, you know, there are a lot of, I think, what I would call maybe familiar touchstones from his time with the Beastie Boys. A lot of genre mashing up going on. It's very loose, it's very DIY sounding. But I think this does so many things. Well, it's not just a nostalgia trip. In fact, I don't even. It doesn't sound like a nostalgia trip at all. And it doesn't sound like he's just trying to recreate what he did with the Beastie Boys, you know, like, especially when I think of some of the early Beastie Boys stuff that I really loved, you know, this is not rap rock. A lot of that stuff that I really loved in the 90s was just. It was borderline goofy, you know, just so playful.

[Lars Gotrich]

Sure. Yeah.

[Jason Martin (Starflyer 59)]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

And you know, them just hamming it up and at the same time just being so cool because the beats were so sick and the flow was so sick.

[Lars Gotrich]

They took their goofiness very seriously.

[Robin Hilton]

Right? Yeah, yeah. I mean, like, if you had told me that this band, Beastie Boys, when they dropped Fight for your right to party, which I did not like that song when it came out in the 80s. I was in high school at the time. Like, if you had told me this band will go on to be one of the most revered and respected hip hop groups, rap groups of all time, and make the kind of that you will talk about decades later, I mean, I never would have believed it, but they did. And I think this is. I mean, this is a great next step for him, I think. Yeah.

[Lars Gotrich]

I'm curious of if he's gonna keep making music in this fame. It is hitting on, like, the Prodigy in the Chemical Brothers. It's moody and, like, a massive attack toward the end there.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, yeah.

[Lars Gotrich]

But I like hearing his voice in that context. I don't think I'd ever really thought of him as, like, a big beat kind of guy. It's also just fun to recontextualize Mike Dee, outside of Beastie Boys, which is. I think what you were talking about earlier was like, I can't even imagine what sounds like outside of this institution. Really?

[Robin Hilton]

For sure. Yeah. I mean, that was the sort of hurdle that I had to get over. And then once my brain made that shift, I was able to hear this. And, yeah, I really love it. And I'm very excited to see where he goes from here. No word on an album, just this one song, but he's been playing some live shows, Just a handful here and there that have been selling out in seconds. So if that tells you anything about whether or not people are ready to hear what Mike D is doing, people are ready for this.

[Lars Gotrich]

That's exciting.

[Robin Hilton]

That's really cool. It really is. So I checked out Spotify. When this song first dropped, I looked up Mike D. Zero monthly listens. Because it was first thing.

[Lars Gotrich]

First thing.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. It has since gone up to tens of thousands of monthly listens, but I thought, that's amazing. Zero monthly listens. Mike D. Because this is the first thing thing he's ever done again. That song was called Switch Up.

[Lars Gotrich]

So this is the song that I really want to play for you, and I'm not going to introduce it again.

[Robin Hilton]

All right, let's do it.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

People of the earth, can you hear me knocking around from your sky? You people of the earth, can you hear the roar? I know when it's loud and clear it won't go away so I say don't lie about the way you feel inside, you know it's just a shout Discovering you and me. Don't lie about the way you feel

[Mike D]

inside,

[Guest Musician / Artist]

you know it's just a shell it's covering you and me.

[Robin Hilton]

Where did you find that? Where did you dig that up?

[Lars Gotrich]

So for folks who don't know, that was wilcolin Hart under the Black Swan Network moniker.

[Robin Hilton]

It's not Olivia Tremor Control.

[Lars Gotrich]

It's not Olivia Trimmer Control. It's not Circulatory System. He had another name that he worked under in the 90s. Called Black Swan Network. It was basically just another name.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, I mean, when I heard his voice, I instantly knew who he was.

[Lars Gotrich]

Oh, there is the biggest smile on your face. And that's what I was looking for.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah, well, I'm happy to oblige because I love Olivia Trimmer. Control him. For people who don't know they're part the of. Part of this sprawling collective of artists and musicians kind of had their biggest run in the 90s to early 2000s. That included Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, Apples and Stereo, countless other bands. But Olivia Tremor Control and then later Circulatory System, they really haven't done anything in a long time. And Will Colonhart has since passed away.

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah, he died in 2024. And I got an email from Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records saying that we have like a new Black Swan Network record.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

Wow.

[Lars Gotrich]

And I said, can I please premiere this song?

[Robin Hilton]

Wow.

[Lars Gotrich]

It's called the Shell. That's the name of the song. These are recordings. Half the record is singles that came out. And the second half, which is what I played the song from, is completely unreleased. And these songs would have been written and recorded between Olivia Trauma Control, the first time they kind of like broke up and right before the formation of Circa Rhetoric System. So this would have been about year 2000.

[Robin Hilton]

I mean, the whole way that they made music that whole. Honestly, just about the entire sprawling Elephant Six collective. It was very ramshackle, DIY on the fly. Everyone in a room together, just like hitting tape, you know, buttons on tape recorders and effects and things like that. And it had such an improvised feel to it. And they were always making music like that. My assumption has been all along that there must be hours and hours and hours and hours of unreleased stuff.

[Lars Gotrich]

I mean, I was told that if they hadn't cut this down, it would have been a box set.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah.

[Lars Gotrich]

So they were like, let's just start with this for now. I hear so much music these days that is being made in a similar way. And maybe it's being done digitally. All this stuff was done on four track tape.

[Robin Hilton]

Right.

[Lars Gotrich]

So you can hear, if you listen closely to the song we just played, you can hear creaking footsteps and you can hear somebody coughing. But I hear all of that happening in music now. And it's wild to me how not only influential but prescient. Will, Colin Hart and all that group of people were. How bedroom. How you could make the most beautiful and strangest music imaginable just in your bedroom with a microphone and a tape recorder and that was it.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. What was it called again? Black Swan Network. But what was the song?

[Lars Gotrich]

The song is called the Shell and it's on an album called the Early Music Volume 1.

[Sponsor Announcer]

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[Lars Gotrich]

on Consider this NPR's afternoon news podcast.

[Robin Hilton]

We cover everything from politics to the economy to the world.

[Lars Gotrich]

But every story starts with a question. At npr, we stand for your right to be curious, to make sense of the biggest story of the day and

[Robin Hilton]

what it means for you. Follow Consider this wherever you get your podcasts. Well, I got one more that I want to play and this is a discovery for me this week, which means you've probably been listening to it for years. I don't know, but it's a singer named Hannah Cohen. Do you know Hannah Cohen?

[Lars Gotrich]

The name rings a bell.

[Robin Hilton]

So she's a singer from New York in the Catskills. She's actually been putting out music for like 15 years or something, and somehow I've managed to miss her work until now. I think she got the most traction for an album that she put out last year. It was called Earth Star Mountain. I know World Cafe was really into that record, but she's back with new music. Just a single that I have had on repeat. It's called Golden Chain. Golden Chain. I'm not even sure what you would call this music. Maybe psych folk or something. I don't know. You can see what you think. But I'll hit it here and then we can talk more about it.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

I wanna madamon to you bend those in anchor girls you do Then the late night liquor and the boo and the endless chasing of your youth Some girls you rather than devastate Than tell the whole truth and I kept quiet as long as I could I said said the words I thought I should the illusion of what I thought we had was good and you threw it all away Come on baby face the hurt made you bad now do the work oh, you're just gonna move across the country like some coward and punish me Cause your pain has nowhere else to go.

[Mike D]

O

[Guest Musician / Artist]

I want to matter more to you than the devastation that you choose I want to matter more to you than those and the bo. I want to matter more to you than those Internet girls. You do, you do, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you, do you do you do. You, do you, do you, do you, do, you do, you do.

[Robin Hilton]

I mean, if you like wondrous worlds of sound, kind of like what you get with the Black Swan network or some of that stuff, there's all this little stuff going on in the background. And at the same time, very spare, Right?

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah.

[Robin Hilton]

But right out the gate, her voice is super arresting to me. And I know you really love Jessica Pratt.

[Lars Gotrich]

That kind of hit. And a little. Maybe, like Josephine Foster, the kind of

[Robin Hilton]

thinking Faye Webster, maybe.

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah. Like, there's, like, a warmth, but there's a warble to the quality of her voice. The way that the song kind of was constructed. I wrote down just now. It sounds like she's in no rush, but time seems unstable.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. There's a lot of dysfunction in this song, actually. The more you dig into the lyrics. She's clearly singing about someone who's very broken, who has a drinking problem, has commitment issues. You know, she sings right at the top. I want to matter more to you than those girls on the Internet. Do you know? More than the booze while you're out there chasing your youth. And I think the thing that's interesting about it, and this is something I think Jessica Pratt does really, really well, which is it's both in and out of time. It's just as easy to imagine this crooning out of an old tube radio in the 1920s, 30s, or 40s, as it is to imagine it drifting in from the future somehow.

[Lars Gotrich]

Sure. I really like that. That was lovely. It's a name that I've heard, Hannah Cohen.

[Robin Hilton]

Hannah Cohen.

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah, it's a name of her, but I don't know that I've ever sat down with it. Well, now I got something I gotta listen to.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. And like I said, she's been putting out stuff for, like, 15 years, so I also. I need to go back and start digging into her past catalog because. And especially that record that came out last year that everyone was loving. And I somehow missed Earth Star Mountain, but I love it. And that whole breakdown at the end, too, where she's just singing, you do, you, you do. Over and over again. That always works on me. Anyway.

[Lars Gotrich]

Kind of like an early doo wop, kind of.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Lars Gotrich]

Kind of like the flamenco's I Only have Eyes for your, where it's very dreamy and maybe a little disturbing.

[Robin Hilton]

Yeah. With those little trippy melotron flutes. Yeah. Love it. So the song again is called Golden Chain, which I like to think that that's a reference to the gold chain that this person she's talking about is wearing.

[Lars Gotrich]

Well, if you're into people with gold chains, I don't know, that might be a you problem.

[Robin Hilton]

I don't know. Or golden chain. Or maybe it's a comment. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe it's a comment on chaining yourself to all of these things that aren't good for you. The gold chain. Yeah. Wow, that's deep, man. This is, like, great music criticism here. Sometimes I feel like we really know what we're doing. That's not true. Hannah Cohen. Hannah Cohen is the singer. Really beautiful stuff. But, Lars, I know you've got one more thing that you want to play.

[Lars Gotrich]

I kind of want to keep it a little strange, a little out of time. Ish. It was just announced that Boards of Canada will release its first album in 13 years very soon. May 29th.

[Robin Hilton]

Right.

[Lars Gotrich]

The album's called Inferno, and they dropped an intro track and the track right after it called prophecy at 1420 MHz. I was curious. I was like, what is 1420 MHz? What does that refer to? Apparently it's called the wow signal.

[Robin Hilton]

I don't know what that is.

[Lars Gotrich]

Neither did I until I looked it up. And apparently there are some physicists who speculated that extraterrestrial life would try to contact us at this specific radio signal.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, my God, I love that.

[Lars Gotrich]

Yeah, right.

[Robin Hilton]

Oh, my God, that's brilliant.

[Lars Gotrich]

These pair of songs kind of introduces some new textures. There's guitar, which is not really an instrument that they put into their music that there's kind of a gothic quality to the guitar playing. And generally their music is instrumental. But this one sort of has lyrics and seems to be talking about a higher life form coming into consciousness.

[Robin Hilton]

I know you don't ever listen to the show, so you wouldn't know that we played the Boards of Canada about a month ago. Well, actually, it hasn't been that long ago. Well, listen to the show they had. But this is the beauty of not knowing what you're gonna play. Because if you had told me you were gonna play the new Boards of Canada, I would say, ah, well, you know, we played them a few, and I don't really care. It's so momentous to have them back.

[Lars Gotrich]

Absolutely.

[Robin Hilton]

You know, I'm more than happy to play this cut on the show as well. So we'll go out on this. Lars, thank you as always. Always a great hang.

[Lars Gotrich]

Thanks, Robin. It's nice to be here.

[Robin Hilton]

And you're listening to All Songs Considered from NPR Music.

[Guest Musician / Artist]

Then nothing else comes to the greater awareness of itself. Divine intellect, I am the true depression of reality Consciousness I am God, the ultimate presence, Spirit, I am the soul inside the cautious constant instruments seek of consciousness power. It is. Time to think of nature, synchronicity, consciousness. Sa.

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