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We go back to front with Roy Ayers to start the show, then it's on to our Sampled & AMPED Thursday night proper with tons of new music in both the funk & rock categories for the 1st and 2nd halves on the eve of a very busy New Music Friday drop!
"The Drop with Danno" on GFN 광주영어방송 98.7FM in Gwangju & 93.7FM in Yeosu, Korea. An eclectic radio curation of all things musical spanning the spectrum every week. Broadcasting 8-10pm KST nightly.
Sept 22, 2022
The Drop with Danno
Roy Ayers – Running Away
Kyoto Jazz Massive feat Roy Ayers – Get Up (DJ Kawasaki 45 edit)
Brandi & The Alexanders – Where You Belong
Object Heavy – Righteous Walk
Devon Gilfillian feat Janice – Sugar Queen
Arjuna Oakes & Serebii – Flavour
Calibro feat Joan As Police Woman – The Ballad of Sacco & Vanzetti
Surprise Chef – Iconoclasts
Kutiman feat Dekel – Always Be Alone
The Harlem Gospel Travelers feat Aaron Frazer – Help Me To Understand
Rudy De Anda – Cariño
Miles Davis – Katia (Full Studio Session)
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight as a pristine sunny fall day is now in the past and trouble is afoot as it is our first Thursday of the new season, and that means it’s time to get funky for the first hour with our usual rock trash magic for hour 2 with Dan Lloyd, breaking the seal as September 22, 2022. It’s our first Sampled & AMPED weekly edish for tonight’s programmatics, and we have lots to get through for the full two hours tonight on a busy week of music releases. Danno here doing my thing, and of course salutations to all of you back with the listening whether that’s now or later on with the streamy stuff. Fresh cuts to let into the air for our funky first half this evening, with Devon Gilfillian, Arjuna Oakes, Joan As Police Woman, Kutiman amongst others to taste test. Gwangju’s man on the beat Dan Lloyd is back for hour two in order to educate on the good the bad & the ugly in the world of rock for this week as well in hour 2, so a busy docket gets going with the new season here. So one artist we forgot to mention is Roy Ayers who has a new remix out, but we’ll go back in the memory to start things to showcase what we can of an immaculate timeline. THIS is The Drop.
Roy Ayers – The Memory
The opening chapter of Season 8’s Sampled & AMPED funk punk soul rock adventurism begins here in the first quarter tonight. What’s up Drop Tops (KOR), Danno here making the waves wobble & throb from studio 2 GFN HQ in downtown Gwangju, and thanks so much for joining us. Dan Lloyd busts it up with our AMPED rock feature coming up in parts 3 & 4.
No history per se for this date to highlight, just one of our absolute heroes. That was Roy Ayers with The Memory to start the show tonight. This tune appeared on the iconic 1976 album called Vibrations done under the Ubiquity umbrella. Ayers has never been a chart-topping artist or anything, but his unique smoky voice and use of (you guessed it) the vibraphone on his tunes has made his sound both influential and iconic, with several new generations having rediscovered his works since this release.
He has also remained incredibly active, a taste of which we’ll check out for our next song to start letting the new vibes into the air for this week’s funk & soul sesh.
Long live, Roy Ayers. Legend.
Just a quick reminder…#9870 (50/100)…stream
Now let’s get into some stuff that just popped on my radar from the Kyoto Jazz Massive featuring Roy Ayers on the vibes to start the newness for this week, and then we have a pair of tunes from Brandi & The Alexanders along with Object Heavy, all of which we shall let you know about after they run about. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
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Back at it on The Drop for tonight’s Sampled funk & soul first hour maiden voyage for season 8. What is the deal this evening, Drop Tops (Korean)? Danno here on the mic in GFN HQ studio 2, and our first triad of freshness just went into space and back which we’ll recap shortly. Dan Lloyd runs down the rock for our AMPED feature in hour 2 later on so stay tuned for that as well, but let’s get to the liner notes…
Kyoto Jazz Massive feat Roy Ayers – Get Up (DJ Kawasaki 45 edit) (…this was something I thought was maybe just a remix of some old stuff, but oh no. Kyoto Jazz Massive, who started getting attention two decades ago with their work on Jazzanova’s label, just released their first album in 19 years, and this is part of a new pair of remixes from DJ Kawasaki of a song that appeared on the album, titled Message from a New Dawn, available everywhere now if you wanna dig deeper.)
Brandi & The Alexanders – Where You Belong (…this is a tune premiered August 31 that is part of the band’s album that dropped earlier this month called Reflection. The band itself is out of NYC and was formed in 2014, inspired by bluesy southern soul and harder 70’s era funk, with this song having been originally debuted on a live album from a few years ago.)
Object Heavy – Righteous Walk (…this is a band I had to get a tad familiar with, as I’d never heard anything from them. Object Heavy is a band from Arcata, in northern California originally, describing themselves as NorCal’s most heavy-hitting soul sensation. This tune is part of the Love & Gravity LP, with the release date still to be announced.)
Quick …#9870, social media.
Moving towards the first break tonight, we’ll slow it up a bit with a pair of tunes from big time Thursday night favorites here on the show. Up next is Devon Gilfillian along with Janice on a tune called Brown Sugar Queen, a dedication to black & brown women everywhere. Janice is an on-the-rise Grammy-nominated vocalist out of Sweden who you most definitely need to keep an eye on as well. After that our two favorite Kiwis are back with a new single. Arjuna Oakes & Serebii just dropped a tune called Flavour, a teaser single to the duo’s upcoming Final Days LP which is due out October 14. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday night.
Devon Gilfillian feat Janice – Brown Sugar Queen
Arjuna Oakes & Serebii – Flavour
II.
The Drop has started the slow burn in quarter 2 this evening. Danno here doing our usual funky thing on Thursday nights, and we just really let slowmobius use his power right there, so let’s get to the molasses label...
Calibro feat Joan As Police Woman – The Ballad of Sacco & Vanzetti (…one of our favorites outta NYC is back as Joan Wasser has teamed up with Calibro on this tune. This is part of a two volume project dedicated to Ennio Morricone called Scacco el Maestro, out now. Sacco & Vanzetti, by the way, were a pair of Italian immigrant anarchists controversially convicted of murder & put to death in 1927. Very interesting history if you’d like to dig a bit.)
Surprise Chef – Iconoclasts (…another album that’s coming Oct 14 is this Melbourne band’s Education & Recreation, which will be Surprise Chef’s debut on Big Crown Records in New York.)
Now moving along, or at least prior to doing that…once again, (socials, text, on demand).
Next block we have a few more favorite of this program out with new & recent biz. Kutiman leads off next and then we got tunes from The Harlem Gospel Travelers and Rudy De Anda to let things fly for a while. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
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The Drop continues and we’re approaching the closing hour here on the air before we jump to our AMPED feature in hour 2 with Dan Lloyd, so let’s get descriptive on that last triad of tunes ...
Kutiman feat Dekel – Always Be Alone (…for those unfamiliar, Kutiman is an incredibly diverse musician who hails from Israel, working with musicians all over the Middle East and beyond. Very good artist to follow, it’s always something unexpected and the volume of singles is a very steady stream.)
The Harlem Gospel Travelers feat Aaron Frazer – Help Me To Understand (…another brilliant bit of music from Colemine Records, who honestly just can’t miss nowadays. This song is part of the Look Up LP, which just dropped Friday, and this tune in particular is a great blend of doo-wop & gospel written by Eli Paperboy Reed.)
Rudy De Anda - Carino (…we’ve seen new stuff coming from this artist all year as far as singles, but September 7 saw the release of a new extended live version of Carino recorded for Audiotree. This tune initially came out on the Tender Epoch LP, a great album from 2020.)
Moving along to halftime, we have been dabbling with favorites all night, so why not finish with the original favorite in our book Miles Davis, who’s out with a full studio version of Katia, just released on the Miles Davis – That’s What Happened 1982 – 1985 The Bootleg Series Vol 7, which admittedly came out a couple months ago but this long-player was kind hard to fit in with the rest of the show, so get ready for a longer ride here. This is The Drop and it’s time to jump.
Miles Davis – Katia (Full Studio Session)
III & IV AMPED
Smashing Pumpkins – Beguiled
Editors – Vibe
The Beths – Head in the Clouds
Sports Team – Dig
Thrice – Open Your Eyes and Dream
Bloods – Radical
Meat Wave – 10k
The Garden – OC93
White Lung – Date Night
Gogol Bordello – Blueprint (Fugazi cover)
Placebo – Shout (Tears for Fears cover)
Smashing Pumpkins – Beguiled
Get ready for a ton of new music from Smashing Pumpkins. The Billy Corgan-led outfit has announced a new 33-song rock opera called ATUM, which is billed as the sequel to 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness and 2000’s Machina/Machine of God.
ATUM (pronounced “autumn”) will be unveiled over the course of three acts released 11 weeks apart. Act 1 will arrive on November 15th, with Act 2 following on January 31st and Act 3 coming on April 21st. A box set containing all three acts plus 10 additional bonus tracks will also be released on April 21st.
As a preview, the Pumpkins have shared the song “Beguiled,” alongside a music video.
In tandem with the album’s release, Corgan has announced a new podcast series called Thirty-Three with William Patrick Corgan. The podcast will dive into the Pumpkins’ history as well as feature a preview of an unreleased song from ATUM. The first two episodes are now available.
Beginning in October, Smashing Pumpkins will hit the road with Jane’s Addiction for the “Spirits on Fire Tour,” a 32-date co-headlining outing that runs into the middle of November.
Editors – Vibe
This week, UK rockers Editors are set to release EBM, their first full-length project with Benjamin John Power, aka Blanck Mass. The band has already shared a smattering of singles, including “Heart Attack,” “Karma Climb,” and “Kiss.” Now, Editors are back with an ominous-sounding party anthem, appropriately titled “Vibe.”
Layering clattering percussion over strobing synths and shouts of “Hey!,” “Vibe” has frontman Tom Smith singing with urgency about an “immortal” someone with “razor eyes, mouthing ditties, staring far away.” Smith adds in a statement that “Vibe” “takes up where [2019 single] ‘Frankenstein’ left off, and is a hymn celebrating the night, and all that thrives in the dark.”
The Beths – Head in the Clouds
3rd album Expert in a Dying Field was released last week to critical acclaim. Pitchfork gave it an 8.0 (which is like a 10 for a rock record) and said:
On Expert in a Dying Field, the Auckland four-piece are back to full power after 2020’s understated Jump Rope Gazers, though they’ve recalibrated, too. Their 2018 debut Future Me Hates Me was giddy and bristling, of a piece with punk-spirited peers such as Hop Along; Expert is richer and less hurried, brimming with smart power-pop that brings to mind the casual virtuosity of ’90s Aimee Mann and the bonhomie and euphoria of Superchunk and Fountains of Wayne. Like the very best of their kind, Stokes, guitarist Jonathan Pearce, bassist Benjamin Sinclair, and drummer Tristan Deck make music that has a sugar-rush immediacy and a craftsman-like attention to detail that invites close listening.
Sports Team – Dig
2nd album Gulp! Is finally out this week, after two lengthy delays. From the early reviews, it seems like it may not have been worth the wait. Gigwise was particularly scathing, giving it a 3/10 and titling the review “What if a band based their entire career off the Inbetweeners soundtrack?”
“Sports Team, and by extension Gulp!, do not know what they want to be, so just settle for the bare minimum and go along with the confidence that it’s enough to fill an album (and career). So if you want an album that is just pure entertainment, something that you can stick in your ears and kill 33 minutes of your life off, you’ll have a distinctly adequate time with Gulp!.”
Thrice – Open Your Eyes and Dream
California rock band THRICE released a new single, "Open Your Eyes And Dream", on September 20 via Epitaph.
THRICE singer Dustin Kensrue states about the track: "It's so very easy to believe that big systemic issues can't change because we've lived with them our whole lives. But if you look back and zoom out a bit, it's easy to see that this feeling of permeance and inevitability is just an illusion. Most things seem impossible until they happen. This song is about opening our eyes to that reality, and being willing to dream something better into existence."
The new single comes in after the September 2021 release of THRICE's latest album, "Horizons/East". The LP conveys a palpable sense of danger, determination, and possibility and exemplifies art as a work of recognition — the human task of perceiving oneself amid details, disasters, and blessings as a relentlessly relational phenomenon among others. In this, "Horizons/East" is the rare rock album on which interrelatedness is a theme, painting an adventurous and lush landscape mixed by Scott Evans that the band produced and recorded at their own New Grass Studio.
Bloods – Radical
This Friday Sydney punk trio Bloods will release their anticipated full-length album Together, Baby! via Share It Music. Today the band is pleased to present the official video for “Radical” the final pre-release single lifted from the upcoming album.
The video is a visual exploration of Romina Pistolas and thereby other Latin migrants in Australia going through similar experiences and feelings as her. Pistolas is Chilean and migrated to Australia eight years ago in search of safety and financial security. Like Bloods’ frontwoman Marihuzka Cornelius, her immigration is the result of political exile from their South American homeland. Pistolas is a proud stripper and a symbol of an empowered independent woman charting her own course.
Following a day in Pistolas’ life, “Radical” video explores what it’s like to be a Chilean migrant living in Melbourne by subtly and poetically presenting the complexity of empowerment and safety while staying true to one’s past and roots. Pistolas, also a writer, has a book due out this year in which she discusses her struggle reconciling her cultural identity and navigating taboos while growing up in Australia and advocating for safety and de-stigmatizing the sex work industry.
Meat Wave – 10k
In October, the Chicago band Meat Wave are releasing their latest album, Malign Hex. They’ve shared three tracks from it over these past few months — “Honest Living,” “Ridiculous Car,” and “What Would You Like Me To Do” — and today they’re back with a fourth, the chugging and pumped-up. “’10K’ is about being alive for 10,000 days, which is around your 28th birthday,” the band’s Chris Sutter said in a statement. “Feels like a long time, but is it? You feel like you know so much about life and navigating through it, but do you? Nah, not really. The title of the record directly relates to ’10K.'”
The Garden – OC93
5th album Horseshit on Route 66 came out earlier this month, and I’ve been strangely addicted to it’s mix of DIY-sounding hardcore, indie and electronic. It’s a really fun 25 minute listen that’s full of interesting musical ideas and is the band’s strongest collection of songs to date.
White Lung – Date Night
Vancouver punks White Lung have been very quiet for the past five years, but now they're back... for one last record. Their fifth and final album is called Premonition and due December 2 via Domino (pre-order). The album reunites the trio with producer Jesse Gander, who worked on their early records (including 2014's Deep Fantasy, which topped our list of the best punk albums of the 2010s), and it's the band's first album since singer Mish Barber-Way became a mother of two, and themes of motherhood and pregnancy inform the album, as you can hear on lead singles "Date Night" and "Tomorrow."
"I felt like that part of my life was expiring, so I was projecting those angry and scared feelings out onto the city of L.A. because it’s safe and comfortable to live in your anger instead of being self-reflective," Mish says of "Date Night." She also says "Tomorrow" is "the song I wrote when I found out I was pregnant. There was a very serious understanding that life would be different forever and I was relieved to welcome that change."
Gogol Bordello – Blueprint (Fugazi cover)
Gogol Bordello’s 8th album Solidaritine came out last week and is another solid addition to the band’s folk/punk/world music discography. Among the songs on the record is this excellent cover of Fugazi’s classic Blueprint, which the band really makes their own.
Placebo – Shout (Tears for Fears cover)
On the flip side of the coin, Placebo add very little to their version of Shout, to the extent where releasing it seems pointless. Placebo have made a name for themselves over the years with interesting takes on a number of famous rock tunes (Running Up That Hill, Where Is My Mind, Bigmouth Strikes Again), but aside from the modern industrial-rock production, this version is inferior to the original in every way.