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Tonight on our funk & rock foray we open with a follow-up to our Ukraine special yesterday, then give all the new tunes a spin just out over the past week for the full two hours, as the giants and minnows of modern soul and rock swim in harmony on air.
"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.
Mar 10, 2022
The Drop with Danno
Alina Bzezhinska & The Hip Harp Collective – Soul Vibrations
Freedust – Heat
Basil Kirchin – Silicon Chip
Allen Stone feat Swatkins & Eric Krasno – More to Learn
Rawayana – Laberinto (Bosq remix)
Channel Tres – over and over
Sun Ra Arkestra & Salah Rageb – Egypt Strut
BADBADNOTGOOD – Open Channels
Monster Rally – Phthalo Blue
Jordan Rakei – Defection
Floating Points – Vocoder
I.
It is 20 hours past midnight and we are definitely feeling spring’s warmth really starting to crack a smile. It is our Sampled & AMPED Thursday tonight as we crack all the new tunes in the funk punk soul rock rubrics, as we do weekly, with this fourth stanza in the week’s chaos scribbled by the sunshine as March 10, 2022. This is Danno as always making sure the levels are juuust so from studio 2 GFN HQ right in the heart of downtown Gwangju, how do you do? As mentioned our funk & soul Sampled first hour kicks off right about meow, and of course the drum maestro Dan Lloyd joins us after we hit the 21st hour for our AMPED rock weekly showcase, and lots of new tunes just out in both hours from the likes of BADBADNOTGOOD, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, and a host of other lumiries of the game. That being duly noted, we start tonight where we went last night with some funk & soul out of Ukraine, and we do implore you to donate to the Red Cross, United Nations, and/or any number of other recognized charities to help the refugee situation in Eastern Europe. The link to three of them is in our show description from last night as well, so do your bit. THIS is The Drop.
Alina Bzhezhinska & The Hip Harp Collective – Soul Vibrations
Back on The Drop and our Sampled funk & soul first half is now on the air like…for real, not for fake. Danno here in studio 2 GFN HQ and always ready to get into our weekly funk punk soul rock showcase. Welcome to all of you listening in and thank you so much for getting with the program this evening.
That was renowned Ukrainian musician Alina Bzhezhinska and her famed Hip Harp Collective with a cut called Soul Vibrations to open the show. And that was our TIGHT (or) feature to begin things tonight where we left off last night, in Ukraine.
Of course, Ukraine continues to come under attack by Russian forces, causing a massive humanitarian crisis in Eastern Europe with close to 2 million refugees from the violence fleeing the country. For those who want to contribute, we have great links to the World Food Programme, Red Cross, and others in the show description from last night, so do check and give what you can if you haven’t already.
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
So, let’s continue with our Sampled funk & soul first half this evening, and we’ll get it fired up properly with two new joints and something older to sammich in there. Up next we have Freedust to be followed by Basil Kirchin and we’ll finish with the latest from the can’t miss Allen Stone. THIS is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul first hour.
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Back on The Drop we once again get to the knowledge between the magic. Danno here, trying to keep it unreal in our funk & soul first hour, and Gwangju’s rock guru and guy with the sticks and the studio up in the mighty mountain Dan Lloyd joins in for our AMPED feature at the top of the hour. As to that first triad of tunes, let’s get to the liner notes...
Freedust – Heat (…the band is the Barcelona-based outfit helmed by Italian producer Daniele Carmosino. This is the title track to their EP just out last week and available everywhere now. Kind of a hey-ya throwback with the dnb style drums and vintage soul right there, good tune.)
Basil Kirchin – Silicon Chip (…this is a tune recorded back in 1979 in Hull City, but never released until it finally was given a remaster and proper release in 2016. Kirchin was a famed drummer from the UK who worked on various experimental and film-based concepts, which is why he was in Hull at the time.)
Allen Stone & Swatkins – More to Learn feat Eric Krasno (…famed Washington state soul singer Allen Stone and longtime collaborator/keyboardist Swatkins released this new tune just last week, an upbeat anthem about embracing our differences due to appear on Swatkins’ forthcoming album. The single also features an assist on guitar by Eric Krasno, who co-wrote the song along with Swatkins, Stone, and Jans Ingber.)
So, that’s just about it for quarter one of tonight’s game of audio mirrors, but we gotta dance before it’s truly over. Up next we have the new Bosq remix of Rawayana called Laberinto, and then a true rarity from Channel Tres that is actually good for on air purposes called over and over. I always love this guy’s work but it’s always laced with mega profanity so hard to throw on the decks here at GFN usually, great producer though. This is The Drop.
Rawayana – Laberinto (Bosq remix)
Channel Tres – over and over
II
The Drop continues down the Sampled funk & soul path this evening with a couple of long player jazz joints to begin the 2nd quarter of the gig tonight. Something old & something new from our selections right there, both feeling right at home out in the Sahara or something, so let’s break it all down but not off...
Sun Ra Arkestra & Salah Rageb – Egypt Strut (…this cut is the older in our desert-themed concoction right there, this tune appearing on the 1999 album Sun Ra Arkestra Meets Salah Ragab in Egypt. Salah Ragab, who also features with his Cairo Jazz Band on this record, was a luminary of the jazz game in Egypt for many decades, and this is just a perfect pairing on every level.)
BADBADNOTGOOD – Open Channels (…the contemporary in the mix, the latest from the Toronto avante funk band. This tune was only available previously on physical vinyl copies of their 2021 Talk Memory LP, now available everywhere.)
#9870, @gfnthedrop, pod.
So, we took up a lot of time with those tunes, so we only got two more cuts to play in the next block due to time constraints, but very excited to play both of these. Up next we have the latest from our main man Ted Feighan aka Monster Rally, and then Jordan Rakei’s latest will finish the bifurcated block. This is The Drop on your Sampled funk & soul Thursday.
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Back on The Drop for very last joints of our first 57 this evening. Danno here, studio 2, GFN HQ as always as ever, and we just got two more very new cuts to taste test right there. Dan Lloyd joins us shortly to go over the new rock for this week in our AMPED extravaganza from 9 to 10, but let’s get to the info on those tunes before we contemplate that madness…
Monster Rally – Phthalo Blue (…definitely not sure what this color of blue looks like nor am I totally sure how to pronounce it (sp.). Monster Rally is out with his latest LP in May or June this year, although in our discussions he’s not totally sure. The album is called Botanica Dream, and we have another trip to Adventure Island with Ted to enjoy on this here show in the leadup, we’ll keep you posted.)
Jordan Rakei – Defection (…not a lot of information on this tune although we’d hazard to guess this was left on the cutting room floor to the artist’s latest LP from last year. Do check that in full, it’s fantastic and is titled What We Call Life.)
Okay, so we are gonna switch gears in a massive way right now with the latest from Sam Shephard aka Floating Points. His latest joint is called Vocoder, and is the parting shot before he hits the road for the festival circuit all over the world, so do check local listings on that if you wanna see him live. THIS is The Drop and that’s the half.
Floating Points – Vocoder
III & IV AMPED
Belle and Sebastian – Unnecessary Drama
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Poster Child
Pixies – Human Crime
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – The Dripping Tap
Cold Years – 32
The Bruce Lee Band – Did You Find the Money Farm?
Glacier Veins - Embers
Greg Puciato – Lowered ft. Reba Meyers
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Tidal River
Calexico – Harness the Wind
Belle and Sebastian – Unnecessary Drama
Belle and Sebastian have announced their return with A Bit of Previous, their first studio album in seven years. It arrives May 6th via Matador and includes the new single “Unnecessary Drama.”
Originally planned to be tracked in Los Angeles, A Bit of Previous was instead produced and recorded by the seven-piece in their hometown of Glasgow due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes additional contributions from Brian McNeill, Matt Wiggins, Kevin Burleigh, and Shawn Everett.
“We did it together, us and the city. This record was the first ‘full’ LP recording for B&S in Glasgow since Fold Your Hands Child [in] 1999,” frontman Stuart Murdoch wrote in the liner notes. “We clocked in every morning, we played our songs, we wrote together, we tried new things, we took the proverbial lump of clay, and we threw it every day.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Poster Child
Red Hot Chili Peppers are set to return on April 1st with their new album, Unlimited Love. As a preview, the band has shared the breezy second single called “Poster Child.”
Taking a page from Billy Joel’s classic “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Poster Child” sees Antony Kiedis rattle off the names of a number of musicians, actors, politicians, and other figures who shaped the last century. “A funky piece, the Sandinista, me and minor Mona Lisa/ Judas Priest has whipped the beast, the mother love was named Theresa,” sings Kiedis in one verse.
Unlimited Love is produced by Rick Rubin and marks the first Chili Peppers album featuring guitarist John Frusciante since 2006. The California rockers first previewed the album by releasing the lead single, “Black Summer.”
Pixies – Human Crime
It looks like a new Pixies era is among us. Today, the alternative legends have shared the new song “Human Crime,” which you can listen to below.
Written by Black Francis himself, “Human Crime” was produced and mixed by frequent Ghost collaborator Tom Dalgety in Los Angeles in the fall of last year. A reminiscent tune, the track remembers a bygone relationship while also pleading for human kindness. “Went by your place,” Francis sings. “There was nobody there/ At the cocktail lounge/ Someone else was in your chair.”
“Human Crime” arrives with a music video directed by Pixies bassist Paz Lenchantin that was filmed at the San Pedro abandoned bunkers and Santa Monica’s Gold Diggers Bar in Los Angeles. “The storyline is loosely based on an ‘inside joke’ between Charles and I about going on tour,” Lenchantin explained in a statement. “How we go through a door from our reality state into the altered state of becoming and being a Pixie.”
“Human Crime” follows the 2020 single “Hear Me Out,” while Pixies’ last full-length was 2019’s Beneath the Eyrie.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – The Dripping Tap
As has been said many times before, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are coming out with a new album. The Australian rockers are gearing up to share Omnium Gatherum, their first double LP and — if we have our math right here — their 20th album overall. As a preview, King Gizzard have shared the whopping 18-minute single “The Dripping Tap.”
After releasing three albums during lockdown that were written and recorded entirely remotely, Omnium Gatherum marks some of the first music K.G. were able to record in the same space post-pandemic. The result is some of the most ambitious music they’ve ever put to tape: “We decided, this is like our classic sprawling ‘double album,'” frontman Stu Mackenzie said in a statement. “Our White Album, where anything goes.”
“The Dripping Tap” exemplifies that renewed sense of inspiration King Gizzard felt upon returning to the studio. Blending fuzzy garage rock with anthemic guitar lines, the epic track boasts a foreboding message: “Don’t get drowned,” Mackenzie sings, though the song’s wall of sound threatens to pull you under anyway.
King Gizzard have not yet shared the Omnium Gatherum tracklist or release date, but stay tuned for when they do.
Cold Years – 32
Cold Years have launched their upcoming album Goodbye To Misery with a brilliantly epic new single, 32.
The record as a whole is due out on April 22 via Inside Job / MNRK, with the Aberdeen trio sharing opener 32 in advance to give fans a taste of what's to come. "This is our ‘fuck this, let’s just get out of here’ track and the track that best channels the message of the album," explains Ross Gordon. "It’s about overcoming hardship and growing as a person – facing all of your fears and insecurities – and realising that you’re never alone in that. It’s over-the-top; it’s punk rock on steroids and we can’t wait to play it live.”
Of Goodbye To Misery, the frontman adds: “This record is us saying you can break away from those things that are bringing you down. It’s about standing up for yourself and not letting anybody tell you what you should or shouldn’t be doing. It’s a defiant statement.”
The Bruce Lee Band – Did You Find the Money Farm?
Bruce Lee Band, the ska project from Mike Park and Jeff Rosenstock, return today with their first new single of the year. “Did You Find the Money Farm?,” their collaboration with Fishbone’s Angelo Moore, arrives with a comical accompanying music video. It will appear on the group’s upcoming LP One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, out sometime this summer.
“Did You Find the Money Farm?” is a scathing diss of those who profit most from late-stage capitalism. “You pattern your life after powerful people, follow the path through the door,” vocalist Mike Park sings, his snide critiques backed by the band’s menacing drums and horns. “One step inside and you’ll never look back, you ride on the backs of the poor.”
But despite its somber message, the DIY-style video for “Did You Find the Money Farm?” feels playfully tongue-in-cheek, relying heavily on green screens and campy post-production editing. Park and Moore are the stars, dancing among backdrops of cold hard cash. Listen to “Did You Find the Money Farm?” below.
“Did You Find the Money Farm?” follows Bruce Lee Band’s 2021 EP, New Divisions in the Heartland.
Glacier Veins – Embers
Glacier Veins have shared the third single off their anticipated sophomore album Lunar Reflection (due 3/11 via Equal Vision), and this one finds them toning down their usual dream punk sound in favor of jangly, acoustic guitar-infused, '90s-style alt-rock. They're great at this kind of thing too.
Greg Puciato – Lowered ft. Reba Meyers
Greg Puciato has announced details of his next solo album, Mirrorcell.
The follow-up to 2020's Child Soldier: Creator Of God, Greg will be releasing album number two via Federal Prisoner on June 17, with new single Lowered out now (and featuring Code Orange's Reba Meyers!).
“When Reba came to the studio we had like… zero vocals for that song," Greg recalls. "I had been a little unusually stuck with that one lyrically and as far as vocal phrasings and melodies.
"Reba and I had such an explosion of musical and personal chemistry right away, and we ended up writing and recording all of the vocals in about six hours. It was one of the purest collaborations I’ve ever done, in terms of feeling just really natural and explosive. She really blew me away overall. The combined energy was instant. That song turned into something really special because of that energy.”
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever – Tidal River
Early in February, we got the good news that Aussie rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever planned to release a new studio album, Endless Rooms, in May. They shared “The Way It Shatters” at the time, and today they’ve released a follow-up single and video for “Tidal River,” directed by Nick Mckk.
Here’s what Tom Russo has to say about “Tidal River”:
“Tidal River” is a little snapshot of living in a place at a time when it feels like there is no one at the wheel. If there were a complacency Olympics, Australia would win gold by a mile. In the “lucky country,” the luckiest ones jealously guard their fortune, as if it will disappear if they share it around. There is so much potential to do better, but it sometimes seems like progress is two steps forward, two steps back. Tidal River is located in what Europeans named Wilsons Promontory, where the river meets the ocean. It has great significance for the Gunai/Kurnai and Boonwurrung peoples, who call it Yiruk and Wamoon respectively. No matter the struggles and politics that go on, the river keeps churning into the sea.
Calexico – Harness the Wind
Come April, Calexico will release their new studio LP El Mirador. We’ve heard the album’s title track, and now the band has shared “Harness The Wind,” which — surprise! — features Calexico reuniting with longtime collaborator Sam Beam of Iron & Wine.
“When we recorded ‘Harness the Wind’ it felt like we tapped into a spark of bright light and positivity,” Calexico’s Joey Burns said in a statement. “Everything fell together quickly and naturally. With the shiny electric guitar weaving in and out of John and Sergio’s propelling drums and bass, the song always had a vibe that stood out from the other songs. We sent the tracks to Sam Beam to add his vocals on the chorus which made the tune float even more. It’s a song about hope and sharing compassion to fellow travelers and dreamers who are trying to find their way.”