Discover Hidden Gems: Spring Vibes
Hey there! You're reading the first edition of the weekly music team newsletter that is published on our new website, welcome! For a quick introduction, the primary purpose of this newsletter is to introduce unknown and under-appreciated artists and tracks to the station. If you're a DJ, consider playing some of these on your show! All of this week's picks are confirmed FCC safe.
This week, I asked team to bring music that reminds them of 🐝🌷spring🍃🦢. Each of these picks embodies a different aspect of the season, and each take very unique musical approaches to illustrate it. Find out which one resonates with you!
In addition to the typical rating out of 10, we also rated how spring-like we thought each of these picks are through a 🐿️ based rating system (groundhogs, for Groundhog Day ofc):
No groundhog: no hint of springness.
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️: definitive spring soundtrack. You got the whole gang emerging from their burrow.
Enjoy!
Nan Sira Madi - Ballaké Sissoko
Sissoko played the Kora for the Ensemble Instrumental National du Mali as early as 13 years old in 1981. This spellbinding recording was performed on COLORS in 2021, and it creates a vision of spring that is intricate and vivid, unlike any oversimplified tropes. At one moment, Sissoko’s strums remind you of droplets of spring shower, at another, unfolding riffs paints a hill of blooming daffodils. Listening to this track is like laying on soft moss, hearing the birds chirp and watching a small centipede up close crawling over a cobble. No one part of this world is any less spring-like than another.
Notes -
- Genre: Kora Performance
- FCC safe
Rating: 8.5
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️
honeydew blues - 800 Cherries
800 Cherries is a Tokyo-based Shibuya-kei duo, and romantico released in 1998 is the work they’re most known for. The spring of honeydew blues is damp and infinitely relatable for the Marylanders. Through the drizzly soundscape, we hear hums and shimmering pedal effects that sound like chirping birds, reminding us of water's power to bring life. It’s an overcast spring afternoon, and you’re a child with endless time to waste watching the rain out the window.
Notes -
- Genre: Shibuya-kei, Dream Pop
- FCC safe
Rating: 8.5
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️
Feel Like Makin’ Love - Roberta Flack
Roberta Flack is a soul singer who made waves in the 70s. Here, Flack presents spring as the season of life, love, and copulation. Listening to this song is like walking through a dimly lit park with your date, noticing that it’s been the first warm night for months.
Notes -
- Genre: Smooth Soul
- FCC safe
Rating: 8
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️
Waveland - Noam Pikelny
The banjo on the hands of Noam Pikelny sounds almost like a harp, and his unique and technical tremolo-heavy playing style makes the song almost feel “math folk”. Listening to this song is like watching a fish swim down a flowing creek.
Notes -
- Genre: Progressive Bluegrass
- FCC safe
Rating: 8
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️
🐟🐟🐟🐟🐟
Shy of a Nurse - Dari Bay
Zack James, the artist behind Dari Bay, is part of the Vermont indie scene with the music team favorite Greg Freeman. They share a subdued lo-fi sound, but Dari Bay is far more youthful and hopeful. The energy of this song straddles between strolling around Lake Artemesia during a Spring sunset and road tripping through the dog days of summer.
Notes -
- Genre: Indie Rock, Greg-core
- FCC safe
Rating: 7.5
🐿️🐿️🐿️
☀️☀️☀️
Air Guitar - Sobs
Sobs’ an indie pop band based out of Singapore. Air Guitar feels like it would play in a last-day-of-school before summer montage from a coming-of-age Netflix series set in the 90s. Sobs reminds us of the poppier tunes of beabadoobee.
Notes -
- Genre: Power Pop
- FCC safe
Rating: 7.5
🐿️🐿️🐿️
When The Springtime Comes Again - John Fahey
John Fahey’s likely one of the most important figures in contemporary American folk music, known for founding the genre of American Primitivism, characterized by neoclassical compositions and country blues picking technique. On a first listen, When The Springtime Comes Again keeps you on your toes, always make you think it will end, only to actually continue growing and progressing. The track tells a narrative on the changing of seasons, beginning in the cold and desolate winter and transitions into blossoming spring as the world transforms and life returns once more.
Notes -
- Genre: Folk, American Primitivism
- FCC safe
Rating:7.5
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️
Black Hole Love - Strange Joy
Strange Joy is a new hardcore band based in Texas, and Black Hole Love is an excellent track showcasing their creative sound. Depending on your personal opinion on spring, this could be your anthem for hating that it’s spring or mad that spring couldn’t come fast enough. Either way, Strange Joy manages to create the sense of spring purely through their choices in chords, overcoming the un-springlike loudness and aggression associated with the genre.
Notes -
- Genre: Melodic Hardcore
- FCC safe
Rating: 7.5
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️
picnic - i9bonsai
Most known for the viral masterpiece funee monkee gif, i9bonsai’s a digicore/hyperpop artist based in Japan. Like the song title and cover, this song is like picnicing on astroturfs, a synthetic simulacra of spring. The noises are said to be reminiscent of abujin and yameii.
Notes -
- Genre: Hyperpop, Digicore
- FCC safe
Rating: 7.5
🐿️🐿️🐿️🐿️
Malti - Dan Zanes
It’s the last day of kindergarten, let’s dance before we head into summer and play at the beach!
Dan Zanes is an italian artist who has won a grammy for best children’s music. Malti is pure childlike happiness, carefree and simple music that doesn’t need depth. While children can enjoy it, adults can hardly find anything to hate about it either.
Notes -
- Genre: Children’s Music
- FCC safe
Rating: 6.5
🐿️🐿️
☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️
Endless Parade - Portraits of Tracy
Couren Bowman, recording under the alias Portraits of Tracy, is a Louisiana based singer and producer. This song is the soundtrack to unrequited teen love, watching your crush arriving to prom with someone else. Bowman’s nasally style vocals could be hit or miss with listeners, but his production is ethereal and graceful.
Notes -
- Genre: Pop
- FCC safe
Rating: 6
🐿️🐿️🐿️