NPR Music - The Contenders, Vol. 5: The songs we can't stop playing this week

Episode Date: February 25, 2025

We update our running list of the year's best songs with the cinematic pop of Oklou, Icelandic composer Anna Thorvaldsdottir, the experimental hip-hop group clipping. and more.Featured artists and songs:1. Oklou: "family and friends," from 'choke enough'2. Anna Thorvaldsdottir: "Part V" and "Part VIII," from 'UBIQUE'3. clipping.: "Keep Pushing," from 'Dead Channel Sky'4. Sandbox Percussion: "Don't Look Down," from 'Cerrone: Don't Look Down'5. Lucrecia Dalt: "cosa rara (feat. David Sylvian)" (single)6. Anouar Brahem: "The Eternal Olive Tree," from 'After the Last Sky'Enjoy the show? Share it with a friend and leave us a review on Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. Questions, comments, suggestions or feedback of any kind always welcome: [e-mail] Hear the songs in the All Songs Considered playlists in Apple Music and Spotify.See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Well, Tom Hisinga, welcome to all songs considered the world's greatest podcast. I've decided I'm going to manifest. I'm going to say it enough that it's just going to become true. It is the world's greatest podcasting. Well, Robin, thank you for having me as a guest on the world's greatest podcast. I'm so honored to be on the greatest podcast in the world. It's been a minute since you've been on the show. We should just do a wellness check here.

Sure. How are you doing? How are you holding up? Poorly, I would say. Not enough wine in the world to soothe the nerves at this point. I know that you love your wine and you did a dry January too, so you've got a lot of catching up. Moist January. Oh, it was a moist. It was a damp January. It wasn't entirely drunk. And February is now a deluge. The floodgates are open. Right. It's just wine is just sloshing down.

Me and my good friends, Chardonnay and Cabernet. No, but Robin, how about you? I'm doing all right. You know, I've been spending a lot of time with family and friends, which I'm not always very good at. I find I can go an extraordinarily long time without speaking to another soul and be just fine with that. But it's been very recentering for me. Yeah. Highly recommend it.

Just get away with family, friends. Well, this whole idea of family and friends is actually the very thing that drew me to the first song that I want to play today. But real quick, as always, if you like the show, share it with a friend. Leave us a review in Apple or wherever you listen to podcasts. And speaking of finding your happy place and recharging, be sure to stay tuned after the last song on this episode plays. For your weekly reset, the special closing segment we started doing this year, just to help take you away your weekly reset.

All right, the song I want to start us off with is from the French artist known as OK Liu. And she just put out her debut album. It's called Chok Enough, and we can talk more about it after we hear the cut that I want to play from it. The song is called, Appropriately, Family and Friends. Oh, man, there are so many songs across this whole album from Okaloo. I love and could play, but I actually went with this one because I thought, Tom, you know, as our resident classical music curator, I thought you might kind of like the more contemporary orchestral sounds in it, but curious what you think. There is a lot going on there for sure. I mean, starting with this oscillating marimba riff that this kind of like reminds you of Steve Reich or something and then these feathery synths that are stand-ins for strings and there's even a little sense. flute that makes a cameo appearance before the second verse and just a lot of interesting sounds

in there all kind of interleaved together and how she processes her voice it's kind of sounds like a vocal order but which I've never been really a fan though but she just kind of dusts it doesn't lean on it too heavily yeah I mean that's it's sort of like auto tune for me I don't like it when an artist goes all in on auto tune and completely turns their voice into this robotic sort of of synthetic sound, but just a little flourishes here and there, I think it's really nice. But the one thing about the song that may be having a hard time with, actually, she sings, Is It Even Real at the end of the chorus? Yeah.

And that's that one line that sticks with me, because everything is so meticulously crafted via electronics that, and electronics that often imitate acoustic instruments. You know, it makes you kind of question reality. Is this music, I'm asking myself this too. It's like, is this music like too perfect for me to really fall in love with? I mean, I get it. There is almost an iciness to it. But I think I'm having the exact opposite reaction that you are.

I hear that iciness and it makes me like it even more. I like those lines kind of being blurred between the organic and the synthetic worlds. And it plays into the theme of the song, which is, I think, she has found herself, Okay, Lou, in some sort of existential, I don't know if it's a crisis, but she's definitely questioning reality. So when she asks, are you even real? I think she's asking that of herself as much as anyone or anything else. Okay. Okay, Lou, I mentioned this is her debut album. Again, it's called Chokenough, and that song was Family and Friends. It's a song, I should say, that actually came out last fall, and I completely

missed it, but the album that it is on just came out in February. And you know, we were speaking of flutes earlier, that little synth flute in that song, well, I've got some music for you now that has some real heavy-duty flutage.

Heavy duty is not the way I would ever think to describe flutes. Well, you know, there are some very big flutes, and in this next track by the Icelandic composer Anna Thorvald's daughter, there is the bass flute played by Claire Chase. There are several flutes even larger than that, but let me set up the song a minute. It's actually from a 50-minute piece called Ubiquet.

For two pianos, a flutist that plays three different flutes, and two cellists and some very subtle electronics. And if you don't know Anna Thorvald's daughter's music, you're in for a real treat. I mean, if you had to create a soundtrack for like geologic plate tectonics or the lifespan of dwarf stars and galaxies and black holes, you might go to Anna Thorvald's daughter. She's concerned with big blocks of sound and textures, and here this small group of instruments really sounds much bigger than it is. She has described it as living on the border between enigmatic lyricism

and atmospheric distortion. And so here we go with part five of ubiqu by Anna Thorvald's daughter and the flutist here is the amazing Claire Chase. I cannot tell you how badly I needed to hear this piece of music. Tom, the first time I heard it when you shared it with me ahead of us getting together here, I just felt everything disappear. Yeah, this movement to me is almost like a prayer. But it also is that fabulously strange sound world

That can only be Anna Thorvald's daughter She has such a singular style And economical too It's like even as it feels Like it's really blooming and expanding It's actually very minimal Yeah So Claire Chase playing the bass flute there

With Seth Parker Woods And Katinka Klein On cellos and Corey Smythe piano Tell me more about these massive flutes here talking about because I've certainly heard of a bass flute, but what gets bigger than and deeper than that? Well, let's listen to some because there are two flutes that go deeper than that, and one of them is here on the record on part eight of ubiquay, where Claire Chase plays the contra-base flute, which has about nine feet of tubing, and it stands about six feet tall. The special effects include

the tongue ram. And Claire described it to me as where you, basically you jam your tongue into the whole of the ambusher of the flute so that it stops the air going through there. And then her furiously fingering the valves of the keys of the flute, which makes it sound like we're in some underground cistern where birds are flapping their wings.

It's very, very atmosphere. Sounds almost like a didgeridoo or something. Yeah, it does have that very airy, yeah, and percussive quality to it. Yeah. So, Anna Thorval's daughter, Ubiquet is the name of the piece, and that is spelled UBIQ-E-E like Ubique, but ubiquue. And that's not out yet, right? That is coming out the 28th of this month, so soon. So Tom, at the risk of harshing whatever mellow people are in after hearing Anna Thorval's daughter,

I want to play a cut from the new clipping album. Oh, yes, please. And if you don't know clipping, it's kind of an experimental hip-hop group. They're from L.A. Some of their stuff can get pretty harsh, a little abrasive, a bit chaotic. But overall, I think the grooves and the ideas,

you know, sort of the sonic world and the poetry and the observations at the heart of these songs from clipping, they run so deep. They've got a new album coming called Dead Channel Sky. and the song I want to play from it is called Keep Pushing. And even if you don't know clipping, careful listeners will recognize the voice of DeVee Diggs, better known to some, for playing Thomas Jefferson and Lafayette and Hamilton. And he is the emcee, the rapper in this piece. Yeah.

When it all fell down, God bless the weight, inflation went ounce. Must have just eight because then became pounds. Didn't hesitate them break themselves down. Like them was late. Couldn't wait to get out them. Spread all around the world, the fiends found them. Hop in the pot and beg to get drowned them. Wanna be sick, them bitches munchaus in, so let it whip.

Living at the top of the syndrome, placebo get you repoed and the thin gold. Ain't worse shit when the skin gone and it been cold. And making money off of the impulse, ain't nothing but sinful, but that need faith in. Where they do that at? The world is a wasteland, the state is a rat trap. Cheezing load to pack under the hood of the hatchback

before you get snatched back. Uh. And everywhere you go, just keep on pushing dope. However hard it's been, get up and push again. When it all went numb, they all followed suit, the juice was too dumb. It's all up to you, young blood, they knew none. About what you do, the truth is you finna be one of them ones. History is so funny, it's only ripped with ink that's on money.

So take a drink and hit the track running. Don't need to think the shit's in your bloodstream, uh. Try to keep a pulsing the tempo just because it's automatic don't mean that it is simple A pimp don't ever panic when a hole is an info you put so many keys that it's resembling Gitmo remember that place nobody else does they like the pasty race so they could get buzzed making a dash today only the next plug with enough cash to buy him out of the business and everywhere you go just keep on pushing dope however hard it's been get up and push again When it all got killed, saw all the faces gracelessly tilt, saw all the places laced with green wilt,

What a disgrace for all that they built? Well, what that got to do with your millions? If it ain't gold, get out of your fillin' street got beef, that's why you put grills in, show em them teeth, then shoot up their buildings, that's what to do. Living at the end of the sentence, you run on with the commas and they won't even mention, the Polican proposes, semi-in intervention, it split the colon and keep the cola roll in perfection. Break the law well to work gotta stretch then ain't gotta sell the soft give the work in erection Then gotta get it off or end up in correction get it to every jerk in the section And everywhere you go just keep on pushing dope however hard it's been get up and push again

And if you're feeling hurt just keep on pushing work wherever you may roam just keep on pushing oh What a great pivot to those strings at the end. It's almost like it's become some sort of, I think they're being a little ironic, but I mean some sort of 40s or 50s musical, you know? I'm glad you mentioned that because that frilly little string code just kills me. It's very smart move.

It's very pretty and provocative at the same time. And I'm glad you brought the irony up because it does seem to me to be some kind of commentary and what we've just heard that all that came before that as if they're trying to say, like, very tongue-in-cheek, you know, like wrap this portrait of a meaningless, nihilistic society song up in a nice, tidy, beautiful little bow by putting that little string coat on the end. Yeah. Yeah. Now, it's very dystopian overall, and I think the song, more or less, it's broken down into three parts.

The first is the very top when he references a kind of societal collapse when he says, when it all fell down. When it all fell down. Bless the weight inflation went ounce. You know, and he talks about inflation and making money off the exploitation of others and dealing drugs and that sort of thing. And then it's when it all went numb. Right, that's part two. When it all went numb. They all followed suit.

The juice was too dumb. Like, we're not even feeling any of this. He makes a particular dig at how bad people are sort of remembering history, the idea that we're doomed to repeat it. And then the third and final part is when it all got killed. And there's this CELL, Saw all the faces gracelessly tilt Saw all the places

Laced with Greenwill What the disgrace For all that they built And there's this picture That he paints a rampant crime And a police state And you know The prisons are packed

With everyone who was sort of desperate enough to break the law But then they come to the strings At the end And the ultimate sort of Parting message When he says Don't give up

And if you feel Just keep on Well, yeah, keep on pushing dope. Well, yeah, keep selling dope. Or it could be pushing dope, or it could be keep pushing just forging ahead. Right. But I mean, there are multiple layers and multiple ways to read this whole song. There's so many moments like that.

I know. I love how the refrain works against the words. You know, the refrain is so light and breezy with airy little keys, and you wouldn't expect the lyrics to be what they are, which you know, and everywhere you go, just keep on pushing dope, however hard it's been, get up and push again. You kind of answer my question because I was kind of thinking, you know, after all of this at the end of the song, where does this get us? Like, the world is a tough, ugly place, so let me wrap it up in a little bow for you,

like tongue-in-cheek-wise. But, yeah, when it all comes down to it, you have nothing else left to do, but keep on pushing or give up. I think this is some of the best stuff that clipping's ever done. The record again is called Dead Channel Sky, and that song was Keep Pushing. Another thing I love about that track is all the intricate kind of little percussive things that go on. And I don't know if they're sample, I'm sure, probably, but you never know. So now I've got some music that has, you know, real straight-ahad percussion music.

You know, I think we're living in kind of a golden age of percussion ensembles. Just even here in the U.S., there are all of these great groups out there now, including... Dollworts like So Percussion and Mantra, and then there's Third Coast percussion. And now this group's sandbox percussion, that is really making a name for themselves. They have a brand new record out called Don't Look Down. And I thought we'd hear the opening track from it, which is called Hammer Space, which is part of a suite of percussion music. And the music is by Christopher Sorone, who was a Pulitzer finalist in 2014. He wrote this during COVID, and the title, Don't Look Down, I think we should just explain for a minute for you cartoon fans.

It actually comes from an article by Paul Krugman, the economist, who was referencing the Wile E. Coyote cartoons where, you know, the coyote looks down and all of a sudden realizes, oh, you know, he's falling off a cliff or whatever. And he's falling into this. And that's the moment he falls, yeah, by as soon as he realized. So we'll hear the opening movement of the suite, and then we'll let it slide into how the second movement starts, because there you get this poof, and you can hear where he's fallen off the cliff. That's when the T&T goes off, or the anvil falls on him, the Acme Anvil. There it is. We've fallen off the cliff. You have got to tell me what all we're hearing. as someone who writes a lot of music and does a lot of music notation and everything,

I kept picturing all the little dots all over the paper that had to be written and all the parts that had to be assigned to all of those different instruments or whatever you want to call them, different sounds, and it made my head spin. Well, I don't know exactly how they're doing, but what we just heard, the beginning of the second movement called the Great Empty, where you fall off the cliff, then they're actually taking monofilament line and threading that through the strings of the inside of the piano, and that's called a bowed piano technique

where you have one hand on one end of the string, one hand on the other, and you're actually bowing the piano strings. Right. But before that, in the main part of the piece we heard, which is called Hammer Space, the opening movement from a larger piece called Don't Look Down. There's a piano hammering away,

and the high strings of that are muted with Puts. There's a traditional drum kit in there. Also, the swoosh of a bicycle pump, and there's a block, and there's sandpaper. But, I mean, that's the beauty of the percussion world, because, you know, you can beat on almost anything to make a sound. And actually, just a little interesting footnote, those of you who are Tiny Desk fans, we invited Sandbox Percussion in, and their Tiny Desk will be publishing late in March. So you can see kind of all the weird stuff that they bring to the table with this. But this is a lovely album, and the piece we just heard, Hammer Space, really is cooking.

Tom, when you were talking about the Anna Thorval's Daughter, you said something like the geological... Plate tectonics. Plate technonics. Yes, yes. Geological elements. Well, I want to play something from the artist Lucretia Dahl. And one of the many things that's very interesting about her and her work, is that she, in fact, studied civil engineering and worked at a geotechnical company before turning to music.

That's right. I did read that. Yeah. In fact, she has managed to work references to geology in some of her music over the years. And she is also an extraordinary storyteller. She has this incredible new piece called Kosa Rara. This new one, she says, is about two lovers who are so into each other, you know, and their passion is so off the charts. that they create this powerful magnetic field that disrupts reality itself. This is a wild little cinematic gem of a song, really. And if you listen at the end of the song, you're going to hear the English musician David Silvian

in this great spoken word part that closes out the song. What a What a What a Rolland Desquarting Rewn You have

And it's What a killer Last line Oh my God The walls are thin My nerves are shot I'm vulnerable and I know it Is that door locked?

And did you notice that David Sylvan's whole, that whole part comes after a car crash? Right. To me, it just has this very, you know, distinct, breathy, leathery-loathery-voiced Leonard Cohen-style delivery, you know, very central. I mean, the whole song is kind of sexy and creepy all at once. And the first thing that came to mind when I heard this song, especially the car crash that happens three quarters of the way through, Are you familiar with the David Cronenberg movie called Crash? That's so funny. You say that as soon as you started to say, the thing it made me think of, and I thought, I wonder if he's going to say David Cronenberg.

If you don't know, it's a film from the late 90s, a David Cronenberg movie where James Spader and some other people are in it. Holly Hunter. Yeah, it's this group of people that are sexually aroused by car crashes by, like, being actually in them. Right. Yeah. So weird and so wrong. But the bigger picture is, I think, Lucrezia adult, you never know what you're going to get with her. And it's always so interesting.

And this is so cinematic that made me think first, even before Cronommer, I thought, wow, she could have made a great collaborator with David Lynch. Oh, totally. That was the other possible reference I had in mind when you were when you were about to ask me that. I thought, maybe Lynch. It's very lynchian. You know, I talked about how much I love the Sonic universe that, OK, Lou creates in her music. That is definitely one of the things that draws me to the Grisha Daltz music as well. She is from Colombia.

She's a composer, a sound designer, a singer. Really, really incredible piece, Kosoara. Just a one-off single for now, but it's been a few years since she put out an album, so hopefully maybe we'll get one later this year. Okay, Tom, I know you've got one more absolutely incredible, beautiful piece of music that you want to play. Yes, and this is music by the Tunisian. Eugen player Anwar Braham, who's made like, I don't know, 10 albums for ECM. He's got a new one coming out in March called After the Last Sky.

And the song that I'd like to play is called the Eternal Olive Tree. And it is an improvised duet with just Brahim on Ud, which is a Middle Eastern member of the Lute family, if you don't know. and then Dave Holland, the super versatile jazz bassist. And it's just so beautiful how Braham makes the Ood really sing and how the two players kind of finish each other's phrases and thoughts, as it were. And the album is really inspired by the terror and destruction of the Hamas-Israeli war. Braham was very hit very hard by that. and the album kind of unfolds as a suite of meditations on it,

although it's not all dark and depressing music. There are moments of celebration, of joy, and probably the brightest ray of hope is the eternal olive tree. So we'll go out on this from Anwar Brahim, and be sure to stay tuned after this beautiful piece for your weekly reset. All right, thanks so much as always, Tom, hanging out on this very frigid afternoon in our nation's capital and sharing some great tunes. Thank you, Robin. And for NPR music, I'm Robin Hilton. It's all songs considered.