#469
rap79 opens wide and mellow with Le Motel and The Cat's Miaow before things start getting weird with Portishead's "Half Day Closing," a deliberate tribute to the 1960s psych band The United States of America. Sonic Youth's "Antenna" from their fifteenth and final studio album The Eternal slides in to shift the sonics of the room.
Lee Morgan's "Carpa Black" on Blue Note and Pete LaRoca's "Love Planet" take things deep. That LaRoca track comes from a 1967 session he led with John Gilmore on tenor sax, Walter Booker on bass, and Chick Corea on piano, originally released as Turkish Women at the Bath on Douglas. In 1973, Muse reissued it as Bliss! Chick Corea, with LaRoca's name still on the cover but in small print below the title. LaRoca, by then a practicing attorney, represented himself in court, won, and had the records recalled. One of the stranger footnotes in jazz history.
We land back in post-punk with The Sound and Modern Lovers before Four Tet and Billy Woods & Kenny Segal close it out with "Hangman" off their critically acclaimed 2023 album Maps.
KEMS goes straight for the free jazz jugular with The Contemporary Jazz Quintet's "Action A," one of the only songs we know with a musical saw solo. That's followed by Don Cherry's "East Part 2" on BYG, originally a Japanese-only release from 1974 that saw a reissue last month for Record Store Day 2026. KEMS couldn't say no. Hard pivot into underground hip-hop: J Dilla, De La Soul, People Under The Stairs, Visioneers, and the absolutely classic Danny Brown cut "Grown Up." Something we are not.
rap79
Le Motel - The Universe is a Rabid Creature (Balmat) The Cat's Miaow - What Time is it There (World of Echo) Portishead - Half Day Closing (Go Beat) Sonic Youth - Antenna (Matador) Meril Wubslin - Un Calme (Bongo Joe) Booker Stardrum - Third Nature (WeJazz) Jasper Van't Hofs Pork Pie - Transitory (Part 1) (MPS) Green Cosmos - Kalimba Walk (Fredericksburg) Wildflower - Fire (Wildflower Music) Lee Morgan - Carpa Black (Blue Note) Pete LaRoca - Love Planet (Muse) Oaagaada - Suite Tuli (Part IV) (WeJazz) Phillip Ottechbach - Malarkeys (Music From Memory) The Clientele - Lamplight (Merge) Modern Lovers - Girlfriend (House of Hits) The Sound - Judgement (Korova) Four Tet - Three Drums (Domino) Billy Woods - Hangman (Backwoodz Studioz)
KEMS
The Contemporary Jazz Quintet - Action A (formalibera) Don Cherry - East Part 2 (BYG / Charly) Danny Brown - Grown Up (Reservoir) Nosaj Thing - How We Do feat. Kazu Makino (Innovative Leisure) Push Button Objects - 360 feat. Mr. Lif, Del & DJ Craze (Chocolate Industries) J Dilla - Nothing Like This (Stones Throw) Shay Hazan - A Walk In Dir El-Assad (Batov) People Under The Stairs - Talkin' Back To The Streets (Piecelock70) De La Soul - The Package (Mass Appeal) J Rawls - Far Away feat. Mr. Complex & Apani B Fly (groove attack) Visioneers - Runnin' (BBE) Omega One - Still Cambodia feat. Lodeck and Jak Progresso (Nature Sounds)