Hey, it’s Under The Stars, babe. A quasi-weekly column that presents new music releases, upcoming shows, opinions, and other adjacent items. We keep moving with the changes and thinking outside the margins. We’ve been doing this for five years… Talking about San Francisco music: past, present, and future. Thanks for the hang… We know… It’s rough out there. So spend some time with us.
KAMM, LET THE LIGHT IN (ELBOW GREASE)
What started with a six-song EP from a Berlin-based mini-supergroup of techno, house, and upper bpm heroes nine years ago, now, after the passing of one the founding members, has become a sonic expression of mourning, loving and letting go through audible flavors.
Dave Aju’s Elbow Grease label, a West Coast LA-based underground imprint, will release the final KAMM album, Let The Light In, on April 25. It follows the sudden, tragic death of core member Alland Byallo, a former San Francisco techno stalwart, last year.
As I stated at the time surrounding his death, “Alland—who passed away suddenly last month after growing ill at his Berlin home—was a doer, a giver, a grinder. A joy-maker. Matter of fact, he made shit happen, big time. But never acted Big Time.”
Aju, aka Marc Barrite, has informed 48 Hills that he, along with surviving bandmates Kenneth Scott and Marc Smith, chose the inspirational higher ground, finishing off what they had begun with Byallo before his passing, resulting in this touching musical love letter of an LP.
Commenting on the closing track, featuring a grand finale chorus of Byallo’s best friends and fam from around the world joining in the “Let The Light In” chant, you hear Byallo on trumpet, and it just hits dead in your chest and in all the feels.
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“That last note stopping short drives the transition point home in unheard ways,” Aju said.
Pick it up here.
LOS PIRAÑAS, UNA OPORTUNIDAD MÁS DE TRIUNFAR EN LA VIDA (GLITTERBEAT RECORDS)
Anybody who reads this little music column knows I have a thing for power trios. They have the uncanny ability of cutting to the point and eliminating all the hot air. Colombian group Los Pirañas makes groove-based, dream-like arrangements that grind up cumbia and folk songs, with bold stretches of psychedelia, dub, minimalism, and West African highlife.
Guitarist Eblis Alvarez, bassist Mario Galeano, and drummer Pedro Ojeda push arrangements to the fringes, and just when you think it can’t get better, things get shot through reverbs and delays just to make this already joyful cosmic slop that much more attractive.
We missed them at Rickshaw a couple of weeks ago, and if you look at their Bandcamp page, you will see this vinyl album is sold out. But let Una Oportunidad más de triunfar en la vida, which translates as “One more chance to succeed in life,” be your gateway to something special from Bogotá’s thriving underground music scene.
YUKIMI, FOR YOU (NINJA TUNE)
It’s hard to believe that Little Dragon has been around since ’96, but as soon as you heard the voice of Yukimi, you always wondered when the solo joint was gonna come.
2025 brings For You, which writes and cashes all those checks we banked on that jazzy, uplifting, not quite neo-soul, not quite dance music—but always soul-filling arrangements from this contemporary voice.
With 13 pleasant songs under 40 minutes, it feels like an audition, which is a weird cause after 30 years in the band—well, she got the part.
For You is a nice-sounding record overall, but I expect if there is a second solo joint, fingers crossed, we will get something we can dig our feet in the sand to. Kudos to Yukimi for. flying her flag.
Grab it here.
FLYING LOTUS, ASH (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK), BRAINFEEDER
There it appeared all up in my text messages without a note attached.
One of my closest friends—I call her my Big Sis—is a published author, and I think the world of her. She’s also the first, second, and third person to criticize my writing, which I appreciate, sometimes.
Years ago, on a DJ night of mine or somebody else’s, I played “Do The Astral Plane” by Flying Lotus, and she lost her shit, in the most positive of ways. “What is that?” It’s Flying Lotus, Alice Coltrane’s great-nephew, I responded. Ever since then, she’s been locked in on that track and the blood, spiritual connection.
For me, though, it’s been hard to keep up with FlyLo now that he’s scoring and making films. He hasn’t lost his fastball; I just haven’t updated my mental hardware to properly clock it. So I’ve kind of fallen off the Flylo train. But when she texted me the Ash soundtrack, his most recent release, I decided to give it a shot. I mean, I write about music, right?
I am told the soundtrack features his music for his “visionary” new directorial project, a sci-fi horror thriller starring Eiza González and Aaron Paul. Immediately off the opener “Oxygene,” I’m impressed with the upfront “John Carpenter dread” crossed up with Flylo’s synthy 21st-century creeper funk. I’m with it; it makes sense. So I flip through some tracks, and they’re carrying tension, almost a nice, more like appropriate soundtrack for what is happening in The White House right now.
And then it happens: “GREEBLES.”
Still have not seen this film, but dammit, FlyLo somehow manufactured some burning melodic, bleepy, shifty quasi-Detroit minimalism that for sure could turn out a damn dancefloor while at the same time make you peer around the corners of your house with a large flashlight.
Kudos. Bruh still got it. Thanks for the reminder, Big Sis!
Grab it here.
RAF REZA, EKBAR LP (TELEPHONE EXPLOSION)
Bangladeshi-Canadian producer Raf Reza is fascinated and damn-well obsessed with everything dubwise, soundsystem culture, and how it’s been used to advance ideas in numerous cultural perspectives. On his first proper album, he veers away from the previous exploits of low-slung boogie and house experiments and charges on with half-time dub, jungle, and drum and bass fever dreams, along with other things that jump at you without genre-compromised names. Ekbar is a trip, especially for those who love that low-end bass talk.
Pick it up here.
SOULEANCE, KEBAB DISCOTHEQUE (HEAVENLY SWEETNESS)
The duo Souleance has returned with a project that fuses Turkish funk, psyche, and disco, “echoing the great Sylvester.” No matter how they choose to spread the groove in words, “Kebab Discotheque EP” is a ride that swings, using cowbells, drum fills, handclaps, and the right spirit to move asses all night. Made as a tribute to the “Oriental” music that Souleance has loved since their beginnings, it’s in the giving spirit of the dance, spinning those synthy daydreams up against the basslines that take us all deep into the next morning.
Pre-order here.
STEVEN JULIEN, TIME EP (APRON RECORDS)
It’s the night of the ever-living New Jacks. That’s what’s been riding through my brain since last year’s Steven Julien classic, real fussy hand-clappy DJ KICKS mix. Formally known as Funkineven, Julien has returned those late ’80s R&B new-jack concoctions to the keyboard rack for his fun rip of a Time EP.
With his development as a “let’s go and tackle that genre” type producer, he’s not afraid to reach out and work with other adventurist artists—you can add Mos Def, aka Yassin Bey, and DāM FunK to that list.
Here on this EP, James Messiah gets in on the breaky-string laden “ULTRA,” which throbs along like a futuristic theme just asking for a Ryan Coogler visual. The Uber house vibe on “UP,” featuring Yung Ethernet, would be right at home, dead center of a Jayda G DJ set. And the closer instrumental called “Ballad” slinks out like some Al B Sure! walk-off music because Julien is obsessed and consumed with ’80s R&B. I can’t help but think of Tony! Toni! Toné! on the opener here, “TIME,” with that ever-present nu-jack double and triple knock.
That is until Julien gives a playful rhyme and that British accent gets floated by the kick-drum click and clash. It really is the night of the ever-loving New Jacks.
Grab it here.
SF PUBLIC LIBRARY BAY BEATS CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
Attention bookish music lovers and bands alike: Submit a recording for Bay Beats, San Francisco Public Library’s free streaming music platform featuring the wide-reaching, variegated sounds of Bay Area musicians.
Selected artists will receive $250. The deadline to submit is May 31. Music lovers will be able to stream music on Bay Beats and download albums with an SFPL library card…all for free! Grab more info here.
PARIS BLUES AT THE 4 STAR THEATER, SUN/27
If the great Duke Ellington were alive and thriving in today’s musical landscape, I believe he’d be a cross between Jeff Mills’s accuracy and Theo Parrish’s creativity. Ellington, the composer, pianist, and bandleader who lived through Jim Crow and saw the evolution of the art form, jazz, that he laid the groundwork for—from Mingus to Miles to Sly and Stevie Wonder—collaborated on a record with the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, created nearly 2,000 compositions, and appeared in more than 20,000 performances around the world. Ellington and his orchestra broke racial barriers, performing in hotels and theaters that once barred Black artists. He became a cultural ambassador for the State Department as a result of his world tours.
His music exemplifies a profound exploration of contrasts—characterized by its dramatic and personal nature, as well as its blend of traditional and innovative elements.
In celebration of his Black excellence, The 4 Star will be screening a 1961 classic film containing one of his most iconic scores—Paris Blues. It features a storyline that involves American jazz musicians Ram Bowen (Paul Newman) and Eddie Cook (Sidney Poitier) living and working in Paris and falling in love with American tourists Lillian (Joanne Woodward) and Connie (Diahann Carroll).
Grab tickets here.
SARAH AND THE SUNDAYS AT BRICK & MORTAR MUSIC HALL, SUN/27
In a short period, Austin band Sarah and the Sundays have taken their indie and alternative rock roots to explore humanity at its most natural state—drenched in emotion, expressing sensations of love, grief, anger, sadness, and joy. With a scruffy guitar tone, propulsive timbre, and lyrics expressing humanity, Liam Yorgensen [lead vocals, guitar], Brendan Whyburn [vocals, guitar], Quinn Lane [drums], Miles Reynolds [keyboard, guitar], and Declan Chill [bass] offer indie rock that stays with you after the stage show is done.
Grab tickets here.
EXPENSIVE $HIT AT BOTTOM OF THE HILL, 5/3
The tagline goes like this: When he’s not drumming in Thee Oh Sees, Paul Quattrone moonlights as Expensive $hit—a groovy aural assault of samplers and analog drums.
But music heads will see two things off top.
One, the group’s name is taken from a landmark Fela album, which means Quattrone is not f*cking around. You don’t take a Fela title and then sink it.
Two, Quattrone is the drummer in one of the most adventurous indie-rock bands that have recently moved into synthy waters that are slappin’ real hard. Expect a great night filled with music that crosses boundaries, fueled by masterful drumming.
Grab tickets here.
