A schematic experiment with organizing life forms of music; frame a particular sonic structure not by genre or geographic location or even general features of the sound, but by a conceptual orientation. What results is an unfamiliar stretching at the seams of our comfort zones with the music at hand. A bending of our familiar understanding, allowing us to venture into the borderlands of the unknown. What falls into the conceptual categorization may be playful and evocative and ultimately challenging to our conventional expectations of what sorts of music should engage in collective dialogue.
In the spirit of such sonic experiments Sanguine Sunday presents to our listeners a special episode on Electric Soul! We gather inspiration from Little Dragon’s unique brand of cobalt musings in sun drenched, synthesized space folk. Whoo, adjectives! Hemmingway must be rolling in his grave. Fuck it. At halftime, Shelmatic catches up with lead crooner of the outfit, Yukimi Nagano, for a back on forth on Little Dragon’s idiosyncratic influences and nuanced tightness as a prismatic bending band.
Honey Knucks jumps it off with a seamless meandering through the electric soul of D’Angelo to Pretty Lights’ highly original florescent funk and back to the fundamental earth tones with Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition”. Summoned in response, I (Z Note “The Asteroid Surfer”) push the smoked out burgundy wavelength–flipping the bold new rhythms of Sa-Ra into the slick swagger of Fatima and Prince’s b-side brilliance.
This episode is guaranteed to warm the heart and relax the anxious mind. Imbibe in the therapeutic shining, and tell us what you think fits into this Electric Soul liquid pump.
Yours,
Z-Note
Great interview Shelmatic! Your questions were really well worded and got her thinking about stuff she hadn’t before.
While Electric is not my favorite, the crew continues to wow me with their breadth of musical knowledge. That being said, you can’t go wrong w/ Stevie’s “Superstition” and I did like Shuggie’s version of Strawberry Letter 23. I also liked that HK said he played Jill Scott’s “Golden” merely because it makes him feel good. It’s nice to know you don’t always have to have a musically “intellectual” reason to play a song!
Also, I have to agree with Adía, excellent interview by Shelmatic with Yukimi. Good insights lead to good questions which offer the possibility of good answers.
Finally, you guys ought to get a cut of the music revenue you generate for the music you play. I went to iTunes and bought Little Dragon’s album.
Keep it up!