Soundcheck

It took Aoife O’Donovan a decade to record her debut as a solo artist, the 2013 album Fossils. But it’s not like she was sitting around twiddling her thumbs prior to that. She was busy playing with the high energy bluegrass band Crooked Still, or collaborating with Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, and other stars of the strings. O’Donovan’s gorgeous 2016 record In the Magic Hour ties together elements of pop, folk, and bluegrass in a cohesive, emotive package. She plays songs in-studio (from the Archives, 2016) BONUS: You can also watch an archive of Aoife performing solo in our studio here.  

Natalia Lafourcade had writer's block. Her 2009 album Hu Hu Hu had been a critical and commercial triumph, nominated for Grammy awards and hailed as one of the best records of the decade by tastemakers in the Latin music world. How to move forward? She returned to her roots to find inspiration, mining her home country of Mexico for fresh ideas and deep connections, and responding to Latin American songwriters like Simón Díaz and Caetano Veloso. In fact, she called the 2015 record Hasta la Raíz -- "Down to the Roots." The result? Grammy Awards and heaps more critical praise, not to mention, beautiful music. Natalia Lafourcade plays a special acoustic session in-studio, (from the Archives, 2016.)

"Warm and melodic" aren't exactly words the members of Publicist UK are used to hearing. Each of them has worked in some heavy, aggressive bands on the metal and hardcore scenes. But together, in this new underground supergroup, they have created urgent and moody music that revels in melody and massive, insistent choruses. And if it's not all warm and fuzzy, it is at least supportive: Publicist UK's debut album is called Forgive Yourself.  The band began as a long-distance experiment by underground rock all-stars Dave Witte (Municipal Waste, ex-Burnt by the Sun, Discordance Axis, Melt-Banana), Zachary Lipez (ex-Freshkills), Brett Bamberger (Revocation, ex-East of the Wall), and David Obuchowski (Goes Cube, Distant Correspondent). The group started recording in their homes in Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado then landed a record deal with Relapse Records, recording the full-length in New Hampshire. Hear the band perform a few of their new songs live in our studio. Setlist "Levitate the Pentagon" "Slow Dancing To This Bitter Earth" "Away" 

Singer-songwriter Laura Stevenson documents the turbulent and heavy stuff of life with warmth and fierce intensity. The multi-instrumentalist offers an album, “written as a sort of purge and a prayer,” of dynamic contrasts, clasping hands with blistering rage and working out how to deal with fear and pain. Laura Stevenson plays tunes remotely with her band from her self-titled 2021 record. Set list: “State,” “Don’t Think About Me,” “Sky Blue, Bad News” Watch "State":

The jazz drummer Jaimeo Brown formed his trio Transcendence back in 2013 – their first album, also called Transcendence, was built around samples of old southern singing married to an inventive mix of blues, jazz, and distant echoes of hip hop. Jaimeo Brown’s Transcendence released Work Songs in 2016, which takes more sampled sounds from America’s past and uses them as the template for a new series of songs. Actually, the samples extend well beyond the States this time, but the song “For Mama Lucy” has a clearly American sound: it’s built around a 1959 recording of an inmate at the Parchman Farm Prison in Mississippi, surrounded by some classic blues guitar from trio member Chris Sholar (Grammy-winning producer of Kanye West, Jay Z, and many others). It's a creative re-appropriation of a complicated cultural back-catalog, and the group stops performed in-studio for a taste of its insightful historical remixing. (From the Archives, 2016.)

Forró In The Dark's music is meant to be played under the cover of night. The band is named after forró, a type of Northeastern Brazil dance music. The New York based Brazilian ex-pats give traditional music an update with jazz, rock, psychedelia, folk and charismatic and attentive rhythms. Since their formation in 2002 (beginning as a birthday entertainment for lead singer, Mauro Refosco), Forró In The Dark has worked with musicians like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Thom Yorke's Atoms For Peace and David Byrne among others. Their cross-cultural sound takes on new elements on their 2015 album, Forro Zinho: Forro in the Dark Plays Zorn, where the group takes on American avant-garde sax player/composer John Zorn's works with a Brazilian twist. They perform in-studio. Setlist: "Forro Zinho" "Novato" "Life is only real then when I am" For more pictures from the session visit our Tumblr. 

Olivia Chaney is part of the latest wave of British folk music, although her definition of “folk” is as likely to include Baroque music, Norwegian jazz, and original songs as it is old murder ballads or sea shanties. Chaney plays an assortment of instruments, including guitar and piano, and has a strikingly pure vocal tone. Her debut full-length, The Longest River, is on Nonesuch Records, and while performing a brief set at a Nonesuch 50th anniversary event in 2014, she so impressed her label-mate Robert Plant that he asked her to open for him during his 2015 run of shows at BAM. Olivia Chaney performs three of her own songs, in-studio, in this session from the archives. 

In Appalachia, a "holler" is a colloquialism for a valley or "hollow." So not only is the band name Quiet Hollers a fun oxymoron, it's also a sly shout-out to the band's roots in Kentucky. The group says it makes "weird, sad music for weirdos like you." But they named one of the standout songs from their 2015 self-titled record "Aviator Shades," which might just mean they're going for something cool and even sexy. They share their tunes in live setting, in-studio.

Guatemalan-born, Mexico City-based cellist, singer, producer, and songwriter Mabe Fratti creates music using electronics, voice, and cello, and the sounds of nature. Fratti has a mighty array of effects, turning the cello into sound source capable of drone, full feedback squeals, percussive plucky samples, and talks about how she is "addicted to improvisation." Her latest soundscapey, outer-worldly album is called Será Que Ahora Podremos Entendernos? (Will We be Able to Understand Each Other Now?) and deeply considers the structure and arranging of words and sounds. Mabe Fratti and her trio, sometimes with amps to 11, play remotely from Mexico City. Set list: “Nadie Sabe,” “Hacia el Vacio,” and “Inicio Vinculo Final”  Watch "Nadie Sabe": 

The Brooklyn-based orchestral collective known as The Knights began as an informal gathering of friends to play late night chamber music. Founded by brothers Colin and Eric Jacobsen, the Knights have grown into a variable ensemble that brings the element of surprise back into orchestral concerts. Sometimes that’s in the way they present the music, and sometimes it’s in the music itself, like their collaboration with composer Andy Akiho. Andy’s main instrument in the steel pan, something usually associated with calypso music and almost nothing else. Members of the Knights present a new recording of an Akiho septet, and they’ll also play live in-studio. (From the Archives, 2017.)

Pulling from soul and funk, psychedelic rock and punk, New Orleans brass bands and "Gypsy-reggaeton," Mucca Pazza's repertoire is can be a bit proggy (Yes, Weather Report, Rush) and perhaps hard to march to. Chicago’s “interdisciplinary instrumental music and performance ensemble” – or circus-spectacle alt marching band joins us in-studio. (From the Archives, 2015.) 

British quartet Sons of Kemet blends jazz, Afrofuturism, electronic music, hip hop and Caribbean rhythms in their music and is composed of sax/clarinet player and composer Shabaka Hutchings, tuba player Theon Cross, and two drummers - Tom Skinner and Eddie Hick. Their latest album Black to the Future comes packed with urgent social commentary, and Sons of Kemet artfully brings the fiery hot dance-jazz party to bear. They offer these remote performances from London. Set list: "Hustle," "Pick Up Your Burning Cross," "For the Culture"

Swedish psychedelic rock outfit Dungen plays instrumentals from their recent score to the silent film The Adventures of Prince Achmed, and other tunes. (From the Archives, 2017.) 

The English outfit called Public Service Broadcasting builds its records around archival and documentary sounds, then layering in live drums, guitar, banjo, bass flugelhorn, and electronics. Their 2015 album The Race For Space was full of voices from the Apollo moon missions; and their 2017 album, Every Valley, is built around documentary sounds of the mining communities of southern Wales – the boom and its subsequent collapse. Public Service Broadcasting performs live in our studio with a dance-able, yet intentional history lesson, or two. (From the Archives, 2017.)  

On the face of it, Red Baraat is a dhol-driven big band full of brass instruments and drums (both the dhol and drumset keep the groove going), rooted in Bhangra music (Punjabi dance music), who bring a party with them wherever they go. On their l2018 record, Sound the People, they combine the sounds of South Asian diaspora, along with jazz, hip-hop, psychedelia, and a bit of Caribbean music, to draw attention to issues of migration, colonialism, and our current political climate. The record blends instruments, cultures, and offers an aural tribute to "the way diversity makes, and has always made, America great.” With songs that make a joyfully and defiantly disruptive ruckus for dancing, the band Red Baraat plays in-studio (Archives, 2018).  Watch the full session here:  Watch the individual songs below: