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A quick note before the show. This podcast contains explicit language.
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Stephen Thompson
Happy Friday, everyone, from NPR Music. It's New Music Friday.
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NPR Sponsor Announcer
Alex.
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Stephen Thompson
I'm Stephen Thompson here with Alex Newman of KMHD in Portland, Oregon. Welcome to the show, Alex.
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Alex Newman
Steven, thank you so much for having me. It's a real blast to be here.
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Stephen Thompson
It is a pleasure to have you. So the music you are hearing up front is from the new album by A$AP Rocky. It's called Don't Be Dumb. A$AP Rocky having a huge cultural moment right now. Not only does he have this new album dropping, he is in two movies that are central to awards season, highest to lowest, and if I had Legs, I'd kick you. This dude's everywhere.
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Alex Newman
He really is. And I love the album title. I couldn't imagine a better album title, especially in this day and age that we live in. And yeah, he's very ubiquitous. He was really great, I thought, and if I had legs, I'd kick you. It's cool to see where he's going with the music. You know, the two singles have sort of very divergent ethos and points of view, but both sound exciting. It's, you know, he's not letting the fame and fortune slow down his creativity.
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Stephen Thompson
We're talking about the two singles that were released prior to the record. We were not given access to advanced copies of the full album. Just looking at those two singles, though, it's really hard to even tell when you know what all the, like, common threads are that run through this record because they're so different.
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Alex Newman
It seems to be very high energy, though. That's the two commonality I sort of feel from both those tracks. It's always interesting when you see, like somebody who might be considered a rap artist or a hip hop artist sort of veer into different genres like punk or emo or however you might describe it. But I was a little nervous as it started. I was like, here we go. But I thought it was done very depthly. And I think that he's really showing like a pretty broad range, at least in these two songs. It'll be interesting to see what the rest of the record entails and holds.
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Stephen Thompson
Nice. Well, let's kick off the show for real with something very different from A$AP Rocky, no matter what sound he's exploring. Juliana Barwick and Mary Lattimore are back with a new album together. It's called Tragic Magic. So for those who aren't familiar, Mary Latimore plays the harp. Juliana Barwick crafts these kind of dense, atmospheric vocal and synth pieces. Working together, you get a marriage of those two sensibilities. And for this particular project, the two of them were given access to the instrument collection at the Musee de la Musique in Paris. Mary Lattimore picked, like, kind of three old harps, you know, made between, like the 1720s and the 1870s. Juliana Barwick picked some analog synths that were used, you know, kind of in some seminal recordings. And together, you know, they make this beautiful, swooping ambient music.
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Alex Newman
I really was blown away by this album. I feel like this whole record is just not in a rush. I feel like they are just occupying so much space and patience with every composition. It feels very insular, but sort of blasting outward, which is like a really tricky balance to hold. And I really feel like the whole album is sort of pushing towards this, like, really strong synth release on the track Stardust.
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Stephen Thompson
Oh, Stardust.
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Alex Newman
And I was just like, you know, once the synths kick in, you're like, okay, you know, this is going somewhere interesting. And then you start to hear, like, the drum, whatever it is, some sort of drum machine or a pulsating synthesizer, whatever it is. And it just feels like the patience that the album requires is to totally paid off in that moment.
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Stephen Thompson
When I heard Stardust, I immediately thought, thought, wow, this sounds like a. Like it's taken from the Blade Runner soundtrack. You know, it's kind of futuristic, but it's retro at the same time. And of course, elsewhere on this record, they cover a song from the Blade Runner soundtrack, Rachel's Song. So, you know, that vibe kind of runs throughout. But you also have tracks like, you know, the very first song is called Perpetual Adoration. And as the song kind of unfolds, you get, you know, Mary Lattimore's beautiful, you know, harp, and then, you know, Barwick kind of comes in with her vocals and the synths, and around the four minute mark of the song, they just go, full Enya. Yeah, together. And I am so here for it. First of all, it made me want to listen to a new Enya record. I want a new Enya record.
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Alex Newman
It might happen. Now that they've heard all this speculation from you, I can't wait to see it live. I know that they're going to be hitting the road soon and I just can't really. I'm excited to see how it does manifest itself live and how these sensibilities translate in a room full of people, because, again, it has this sort of insular, like the two of them are having this very intimate conversation, but it also has this very outward propulsion that I think will work really, really well live.
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Stephen Thompson
Oh, yeah. I'd love to see this live. Alex, I have to tell you, in my notes, I typed the words. I swear to you, I typed the words. Mary Latimore plucks harp strings and heartstrings. And reading this on my own notes makes me want to walk into the sea. What is wrong with me, man?
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Alex Newman
You know? You know, it's okay sometimes to have a little bit of SAP in your stew, so to speak.
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Stephen Thompson
I feel like I'm poring over my medical records and, like, tweeting out the most embarrassing thing I find. All right, that is Juliana Barwick and Mary Lattimore. Their new album is called Tragic Magic. Next up, a group called the Shaladas with a new album. It's called you'd Picture.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
Nothing familiar to me.
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Stephen Thompson
So the story behind the Shaladahs is a big part of the appeal of this record. The Shaladas are a family band. The leader of the band is kind of the patriarch of the family is a guy named Bill Shalda. He's in his late 70s. And the three other members of the Shaladas are his sons, Paul, Will, and Carmine. They put out a record in 2018 called Love in the Wind. They're back with a new one, and it is just a sweet throwback to classic doo wop and soul. Performed with a bunch of kind of Daptone adjacent players from groups like the Dap Kings and like Charles Bradley's band.
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Alex Newman
Yeah. And Tommy Brennick from the Budos Band, also a big player sort of in the history of that whole scene. It's on his label, diamond west, which put out Hushe recently. And it's has that sound that you would expect. It's like a classic sound, sort of updated for the modern era. And the song do youo Remember When I Feel like is so quintessential doo wop. It sparkles when it starts. And the way that they harmonize together, it really transports you to some sort of mystic street corner. And this picturing like a family doing the singing adds to the magic of it.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
Do you remember when we first met? Every day in exploration and we were free and our thoughts would flow without limitation.
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Stephen Thompson
You can almost see sepia toned photographs of this family as you listen to this music. This is music that is trafficking in memory. Right. They're singing music that evokes the doo wop era, but it's also evoking like, you know, images in your mind of these four, you know, kind of with the boys growing up on Staten island, you know, performing doo wop songs on their front stoop. You know, the stories that this family tells about their connection to this music are really heartfelt and sweet. And you get songs like, you know, in My Dreams, you know, where you're just really leaning into dreamy falsettos. Right.
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Alex Newman
And there isn't any mention of sort of the modern world in it as well. Sometimes in, you know, music in this day and age, those, you know, there'll be a lyric about a cell phone or a lyric about, you know, an email or something awkward like that. And this. This is sort of the lyrics and the approach to it is errorless. You know, it could. The bones of. It could have been back in the 50s or 60s. And to your point about how it is trading in this sort of memory industry, you know, there's like a song like your picture that leans again into that real classic doo wop sound and has, you know, what's interesting is a lot of those old doo wop songs were very technologically aware, you know, like call Me up or, you know, and then like, here's your picture. You know, these things that were so modern but seem so quaint now.
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Stephen Thompson
It was.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
Our memory time had erased until I saw your picture.
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Stephen Thompson
Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, when you look at the history of Daptone Records and the kind of music that is celebrated, you know, by this label, and as you said, this is not on Daptone, but a lot of the Daptone players are associated with these songs. You get a sense of, like, attempting to, you know, right historic wrongs. You know, this musician was coming up in the 60s and 70s and didn't get the shine they deserve. So we're going to bring them back now. This group feels like that kind of project, but it could. It could just as easily have been a lost treasure from some dusty archive where, you know, we found this completely unreleased time capsule item, you know, from 70 years ago. And here it is preserved intact. It's just newly recorded. That is the Shaladas. Their new album is called you'd Picture. Got more records we're going to get to. But first, let's take a quick break.
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- [14:09]
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From Alan Bennett and Nicholas Hittner comes the Coral, called one of the most genuinely heartwarming films of the year by Awards Watch Collider, raves Ralph Fiennes gives an amazing performance, divided by war, united by music. The Guardian calls it a heartbeat of wit and poignancy, now playing only in theaters.
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Stephen Thompson
From NPR Music, it's NEW MUSIC Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Alex Newman of KMHD in Portland, Oregon. Alex, tell me what's going on at the station.
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Alex Newman
Well, for those who don't know, KMHD is a jazz station, but not your typical jazz station. Our tagline, our programming philosophy is jazz without boundaries. And that means if you tune in, you are going to maybe hear some funk, you might hear some afrobeat, you might hear some reggae, you might hear some hip hop. Really try to show the connective tissue from jazz to all these different genres of music that have been influenced by jazz or grown from jazz. And hopefully in doing that, we also highlight the sort of communication that's been happening between these genres throughout all these years. We really also try to focus on modern music, trying to show that jazz is a living, breathing art form. We also take a pretty deep dive into some stuff that you won't find on streaming. You won't find digitally. A lot of the details. DJs play records on the station. And we are really lucky. In Portland, we have more record stores per capita than any other city in America. So we have all these great outlets to find different music to share with our audience. And we also try to highlight these different record stores. We do once a month. Yeah, once a month we highlight a local store. We do a little video about the owner and the neighborhood that the shop is in. We also get a box of records from that shop to play throughout that month, sort of showing what like kind of music you will find there. So it's a good resource. If you're ever coming out to Portland and want to go record shopping, bring a lot of cash and you can utilize, you can utilize our website. We actually have a map of all the record stores in Portland up on kmhd.org and my show in particular. I'm on the air Monday through Friday 11 to 1. And every day at noon I play something brand new. I call it the Newness at Noon and really focus on new releases in that, in that hour of sound.
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Stephen Thompson
Beautiful. That sounds fantastic. Well, new releases are why you and I are here right now. Let's kick off our next segment with Yassin. Yassin's new album is called Stand on My Shoulders.
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Alex Newman
So Yahtzee is a continually evolving collaboration that's guided by multi disciplinary artists, incredible visual artists, as well as musical artist Nicholas Galin. And he has been collaborating with a group of musicians on several different projects including Silver Jackson, Indian Agent, and those include, but are not limited to Tunia, Zach D was, and a personal favorite of mine, O.C. notes, Portugal. The man has also appeared on both Yahtzee records and on this one there's also collaborations with Michelle and Dega Cello and Pink Sifu. And it's a really interesting evolution from their previous record that was called Indian Yard. Both records feature a lot of collaborations and I feel like there's just a real component impression of like how to utilize the collaborator on this record. Where on the previous it sort of felt like, okay, now it's this guest turn and now it's that guest turn. Whereas now it seems like there's almost this like shape shifting between the voices and the sensibilities and it, it just like works really, really well for me.
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Stephen Thompson
Yeah, there are so many sensibilities woven into this sound and that really makes this record feel extremely expansive. I mean, the story behind this guy and this music is so interesting. You know, he was born into the Sitka tribe of Alaska. You know, he was in a serious boat accident, broke his back and ribs. And that kind of helped feed this artistic awakening. You know, he's toured and performed with Portugal, the Man, Samantha Crane, other artists, you know, and so like even like picking out a track to, to signify what this artist sounds like is really tricky because there's so much variation throughout. You know, a song like Twilight, you know, it's Kind of gauzy, washed out synth pop. But the song, you know, over the course of its runtime it's blooming into these kind of increasingly frenetic places. It's growing busier and busier and then you have like pink Sifu comes in and like rap has entered the chat, right? And, and you know, and I just think that sense of anything goes, I think is really, really interesting. But at the same time it hangs together. It's not wildly all over the map. There's just a lot of variation within.
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NPR Content Warning Announcer
It.
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Alex Newman
Always can never come back. I get the impression that there isn't too much concern about what kind of music this is. While they're making it. They kind of seem to throw whatever elements are handy into each song, like kind of trying to make like a delicious dinner with just whatever's in the pantry. My 8 year old daughter Paloma has become sort of aware of genres, for better or for worse. And we were just, and we were driving in the car and listening to this and she said, what kind of music is this? And I, and my reaction was like, I think yes, you know, that's your genre right there.
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Stephen Thompson
What kind of music is this? But at the same time, you know, there are familiar signposts along the way. You take a track like Taste on My Lips, that's, and that's, you know, certainly one of the standouts. It's one that features Portugal the man and Michelle and cello, you know, they pop up throughout that song and you get this kind of wild, funky, danceable freak out that is, that is very, very approachable, very accessible and identifiable as like funk slash disco slash indie pop slash, you know, et cetera, et cetera.
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Alex Newman
We're going to need more slashes.
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Stephen Thompson
We're going to need more slashes.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
You could be my guy.
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Alex Newman
I really feel like this song that sort of breathes out what they're trying to do so exquisitely is actually the first, first song. Once it came on I was like, okay, I'm ready, you know, I'm ready for, for whatever they, they have. And it's called Urshinrot, which is these mythical creatures that are almost, I, I, I read on the Internet it's almost like an Alaskan leprechaun, you know. So who, who are very mindful of the land, sort of. If you mistreat the land, they will sort of find you and lead you astray.
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Stephen Thompson
Avenging angel.
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Alex Newman
Yeah, but it's just a beautiful song that has like a real drive to it that I really dig.
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Stephen Thompson
That is Yahtzeen their new album is called Stand on My Shoulders. Next up, the band Shaking Hand has a new self titled album. As implied by the words self titled, it is called Shaking Hands.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
Bury me I'm not an. I was in it for the pole Sneaking out the bottle before they filled it up again and lacking to the core scrambling around for whatever I find Chemicals, bits of ammunition I knew sometimes I do somet.
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Alex Newman
Shaking Hand, a trio of musicians from Manchester. George Hunter is on the guitar and vocals, Frederick Hunter on the drums and Ellis Hotchkiss on the bass and backing vocals. This record is somehow so aware of like post rock and 90s alternative rock.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
Yeah.
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Alex Newman
But even in that awareness, they're sort of out here creating their own expression, which is always really interesting to me. When musicians are able to have such clear influences but sort of sound like their own band, it's such a fulfilling thing to enjoy. I had no idea about this band at all before listening to it and I immediately was all in. I was like, oh my gosh, this is like slint with vocals or like Fugazi with Ian Brown. Like I. Sonic. Sonic. Really?
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Stephen Thompson
Pavement.
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Alex Newman
Pavement. Yeah. I feel like there's a moment in italics where I feel like it turns into some like. And I mean this in the most endearing way, almost like a competent Pavement song. Like it just.
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Stephen Thompson
It just like a Pavement song that is trying.
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Alex Newman
Right. Or like a Pavement song that didn't like smoke weed out of a pop can. You know, My wife is probably tired of me talking about this record because I was. I was like, who are these? I just assumed that they were like aging rockers, you know, trying to relive some glory days. But it was so amazing to like see their press photos. Like, oh my gosh. I don't think their parents were alive when this music was popular.
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Stephen Thompson
Yeah, I mean, I definitely had that experience of like reading up on them and looking at their picture and stuff and just being like, did this band like listen to my college radio station in 1993 and they're babies. And I think what you get, you know, first of all, you're getting kind of interpolations of these influences, but you're also getting them with this kind of youthful, try anything energy. And I think that combination is very, very effective. You take a song like in for a Pound, you know, which sounds so much like just a distillation of so much 90s indie rock and a certain vein of kind of jagged post rock influenced 90s guitar bands. But there's an energy to it. It gets bigger and chunkier and more jagged and sharp. And there's almost like a meanness to the sound that comes through as this song is progressing. And so I appreciate you know, not only just like kind of bringing back these influences that were really big in my life, you know, in the 90s, but, you know, finding ways to make them sound fresh and kind of reaching new audiences.
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Alex Newman
I love the disco hi hats, sort of like post punk, like 23 skidoo, certain ratio kind of energy that is in that song in for a Pound. I was really blown away. They have a sound, you know, they have a sensibility which I think is just challenging in general for young musicians. But they found something.
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NPR Content Warning Announcer
Yeah.
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Stephen Thompson
And it feels like they're building off this great sturdy foundation of kick ass weapons grade 90s 80s guitars. You take the song up the antelope, it's it's up the ante, parentheses, lope. So up the antelope and like, man, those guitars just crush. That is Shaking Hand. Their new album is called Shaking Hand. We've got one more record we're going to talk about in depth as well as a lightning round of some of the other best records out today, January 16th. But first, let's take a quick break.
- [29:19]
NPR Content Warning Announcer
This message comes from BetterHelp President Fernando Madera shares BetterHelp's commitment to expanding access to therapy.
- [29:26]
Alex Newman
Our State of Stigma report helped us understand that believing in mental health is easy, but asking for help is not. Now with the report on our hands, we can work to make mental health care more accessible.
- [29:43]
NPR Content Warning Announcer
To get matched with a therapist, visit betterhelp.com NPR for 10% off your first month.
- [29:50]
NPR Sponsor Announcer
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Stephen Thompson
From NPR Music, it's New Music Friday. I'm Stephen Thompson here with Alex Newman of KMHD in Portland, Oregon. Before we get to our lightning round, we want to talk about one more record. It's just gorgeous. It is a collaborative record by Tyler Ramsey and Carl Brammell. It is called Celestun.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
I could live inside a teepee. I could die in penthouse 35. You could lose me on the freeway I would still make it back alive as long as we can sail away as long as we can sail away There'll be wind in the canyon Moon on the rise as long as we can sail away.
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Stephen Thompson
So Tyler Ramsey is. He's from North Carolina. He's a guitarist and songwriter in the band Band of Horses. Carl Bramhol is from Louisville, Kentucky. He's a guitarist in My Morning Jacket. They met in 2012 when those two bands were touring together. And they've made this record as kind of a long distance collaboration where they were kind of sending tracks back and forth. These beautiful songs, many of them instrumental, performed on acoustic guitars, but with voices that pop up at opportune moments. I don't know, you just get this kind of gorgeous, easygoing vibe throughout this record.
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Alex Newman
It's like a big wet kiss to John Fahey, you know, it is really easy. I was really surprised to hear that some of the recordings were done distant.
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Stephen Thompson
Yeah, it doesn't feel like it at all, at all.
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Alex Newman
It seems like they're, you know, staring at each other in like a old wood cabin somewhere, just trading licks. But it's interesting how long it took from sort of having this mutual admiration to actually getting together. It sounded like they did a whole tour before they even recorded. So there's a real familiarity with each other's styles and each other's sensibilities and it really, really translates in the record.
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Stephen Thompson
Yeah, and you know, many of these songs, as I said, are instrumentals, but, boy, I just think anytime they incorporate vocals, it's even better. And I think that's really rare with a lot of instrumental guitar music. You have a collaboration between 2Guit who are not known for their vocals, but I think the vocals just add this kind of lived in quality to these recordings. There's a track I just love called Flying Things.
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Alex Newman
There you go, Stephen. There you go.
- [33:20]
Stephen Thompson
That is a Tyler Ramsey song, you know, because they, you know, they kind of take turns with the songwriting. He wrote it for his daughter. It's about kind of imagination and dreams. They bring in the Secret Sisters to provide extra vocals and it is so beautiful. That's one my partner kind of called from the next Room. Like, what is this? Send it to me now Darling, it's.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
All right We've traveled through the darkest clouds to reach the other side now we're all here together and there are wings for us to ride.
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Alex Newman
I was surprised that it was an original song. It just felt so lived in and it felt so familiar and had this real sweetness to it that I'm like, is this a children's song I never came across or is this some like old folk song that I've never heard? It's really, really pretty and easy.
- [34:20]
Stephen Thompson
Yeah, it's easy. And I think that's one of the highest compliments you can pay to a piece of new music, right? If it feels like it's a, it's sort of plucked out of the universe where it's been living for 80 years, but it's new, that's really a remarkable feat to pull off. That's probably my favorite song on this record. But there is a ton of great stuff. There's a song called Nevermind spelled like the kind of punctuated and spelled however you want to put it, like the Nirvana record. It's a bramble song about taking breaks from social media, about giving yourself permission to unplug from the world in order to, in order to recharge your battery. And let me tell you something, I don't know when he wrote that song, but he could have written that song this past weekend for how timely it feels.
- [35:20]
Alex Newman
That song has that easy as well. It feels very lived in. The songs don't feel rushed or hurried. They feel very worn in, in all the best ways.
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Stephen Thompson
Yeah, it's a beautiful, beautiful record that is called Celestun from Tyler Ramsey and Carl Bramol. Now, Alex, we could not get to every great record out today, January 16th, so we are going to do a lightning round of some of our other favorite albums out today. Why don't you kick us off?
- [35:53]
Alex Newman
Let's start with Craig Taborn, great piano player Tomika Reed, an excellent cellist and Chet Smith, a very, very great drummer, percussionist. They have teamed up for a trio record on ECM called Dream Archives. It is a beautiful melding of these acoustic masters and they find a really intricate and spellbinding level of interaction. The recording has that pristine fidelity of an ECM record and Craig just drops in some nice electronics throughout it. But it really is interesting how I feel. It culminates in a cover of the Jerry Allen tune When Kabuya Dances. It sits very organically in the midst of this trio's explorations. That's Craig Taborn, Tameka Reed and Chet Smith from their album that's out today, Dream Archives.
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Stephen Thompson
Courtney Marie Andrews has been an NPR Music staple for about a decade now. Her songs mix folk, Americana, soul and gospel, always held together by a timeless voice that sings about shared humanity, grief and hard won love. She wrote her new record while experiencing major upheaval in her life and she digs deep in her reflections. It's gorgeous. Probably the most sonically inventive album of her career so far. Courtney Marie Andrews's new record record is titled Valentine.
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Music Artist or Guest Performer
Falls apart.
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Alex Newman
Next up up is a Brazilian artist living out in Paris. The name is Diego Strauss. The name of the album is Dance Parese. It is a beautiful and healthy slice of disco heaven that acknowledges kind of the underground bliss of disco pioneer like Patrick Adams and also the sublime sheen of somebody like Nile Rogers. That is Diego Strauss from Dan Parace El Today.
- [38:33]
Stephen Thompson
The music of the singer songwriter called Aksis can be hard to describe. It's sort of mysterious, dreamy electro pop, but with aquatic themes and lots of songs about fish, which is to say like Creatures of the Sea and not the band from Vermont. So imagine catchy, low key bedroom pop, but the bedroom in question is a dark and distant seabed. If that sounds intriguing, it is. Oxus's new album is called Oxus 8.
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Alex Newman
Can you show me? And finally, I want to highlight Nate Smith. Probably your favorite drummer's favorite drummer has played with everybody from Britney Howard to the fearless flyers in the vulp universe. He put out an album last year called Live Action. The Deluxe edition is coming out today. And sometimes the deluxe edition can be a little lackluster, but all the tracks that are included on it really sort of broaden the palette of the album, including a great collaboration with Melanie Charles. But the one that really hooked me is the song Hop, Skip Jump featuring saxophonist Braxton Cook.
- [40:05]
Stephen Thompson
That is our show for this week. Thank you, Alex Newman, for taking time out of your week at KMHD in Portland.
- [40:11]
Alex Newman
Oh my gosh, Stephen, thank you so much for hanging out and talking music.
- [40:14]
Stephen Thompson
It has been a pleasure. Before I go, I want to mention that our 2026 Tiny Desk Contest is now accepting entries. To submit, unsigned artists just need to record themselves performing one original song behind a desk. Upload that video to YouTube and enter at npr.org tiny desk contest. The winner will play their very own Tiny Desk concert and go on tour with NPR Music. 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 edited by Otis Hart. The executive producer of NPR Music is Soraya Muhammad. We'll be back next week to discuss new music with Jesse Scott of WMOT in Nashville. Until then, take a moment to be well, take a weekend off of social media and treat yourself to lots of great music.
- [41:30]
NPR Sponsor Announcer
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- [42:05]
NPR Content Warning Announcer
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