Under the Stars is a quasi-weekly column that presents new music releases, upcoming shows, and a number of other adjacent items. We keep moving with the changes, thinking outside the margins.
But first … it’s a really weird time in the world. And I know you are, in all probability, saying to yourself, “You mean weirder than it’s been, friendo?”
Welp, here’s some of the larger trends we’re dealing with: Music festivals are starting to put their pants back on, heading in for work. SXSW, Movement Music Fest in Detroit, the Black-owned Sol Blume R&B-soul-hip-hop music festival in Sacramento, Treefort Music Fest in Boise, and our own Noise Pop here in San Francisco (taking the stage Feb 21-27).
Meanwhile, an older generation of artists keeps tossing their fingers at shoddy corporate dealings. “Not on my watch” was the call from Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, Brené Brown, India Arie, David Crosby, Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, Roxane Gay, and others pushing to remove their content from Spotify.
While the Joe Rogan controversy was the impetus for Young’s opening shot, the long-standing, slow-burning truth of how little the platform pays artists have cemented the mass exodus. Spotify has lost $4 billion and counting in market value, a new lesson on why maintaining your offline music catalogue is a good practice.
Note to Rogan and Spotify: Hippies know some shit—quite a bit more than your snide asses think. Cheers, Uncle Neil!
Ok, let’s get it!
KAYSOUL, FREQUENCY RAYS OF ONE COSMIS EP (DIRT CREW RECORDINGS)
DJ and producer Katlego Matseke aka KaySoul still remains the first DJ to reach out to me — it was back in 2020 — and ask how to get a mix mentioned. (Thx KaySoul, it was a huge compliment.)
Matseke started his career in 2010 in Johannesburg’s East Rand area. That impactful South African scene has produced house and techno talents such as Black Coffee and Culoe De Song. After a decade-plus of sublime mixing and solid-form tastemaking, his debut EP on Berlin’s Dirt Crew Recordings is called Frequency Rays of One Cosmic. It showcases a refined touch by way of glossy, measured arrangements that can still kick up a sweat at peak dancefloor moments.
With three tracks and a remix by Clive From Accounts, you hear reference to Larry Heard and Fred Everything, but also stout bassline nock, carmelized keyboard hooks, and just the right amount of punch to feed your sway, incentivize your get-down.
Listen, if you’re having a day that requires that musical redirection to take the edge off, let Kaysoul work his subtle house music nobility on you.
Pre-order it here.
TORO Y MOI, MAHAL (DEAD OCEANS)
Sometimes you have to double down on the truth in order to get it heard. Here are some of my words from last March here in 48hills, that I stand by as pertaining to Toro y Moi:
“What For? was my gateway record to Toro y Moi. I just dug it, in spite of the critics, purple pants music journalists, and people in general talking out the side of their neck, piling all these labels—chillwave, garage pop, electro R&B, alt pop—on top of this guy and his music. So in turn, he moves away from the R&B section, straps on a guitar, and in 37 minutes, runs through Beach Boys and Big Star harmonies like it’s nothing. Toss in some alternative ’90s buzz and ’70s AM radio blue-eyed rock ballads. It’s a quick, crisp, very familiar meets you have never heard this before type record. Flipping the bird in the most polite manner to all the inside the box thinkers. I became an immediate fan.”
So now Toro y Moi, aka Chaz Bear, has a new record called MAHAL dropping April 29th via the Dead Oceans imprint. The cover art features his Filipino jeepney, the Golden Gate Bridge peeking through The Fog, and his funky self. Toro y Moi is the 12+ year project of South Carolina-reared, Bay Area-based Chaz Bear. Across nine albums (six studio releases as Toro y Moi, along with a live album, compilation, and mixtape) with the great Carpark label, he has explored psych-rock, deep house, UK hip-hop, R&B, and the well-beyond without losing that rather-iconic, bright, and shimmering Toro y Moi fingerprint.
As always, MAHAL is a textbook move. You don’t know exactly what Chaz Bear has cookin’, but it’s never stale. He’s constructed a successful métier forged by what may seem, weirdly enough, like chance. But having logged successful collabs with Tyler The Creator, Flume, Travis Scott, HAIM, and Caroline Polachek, nothing is a coincidence. He’s a Bay-Area avatar for kooky-funky acumen, the type that revels in jumping off into the deep end of WHOA and achieving success, with a head-scratch.
Pre-order here.
WAYNE SHORTER AND ESPERANZA SPALDING’S …(IPHIGENIA) AT ZELLERBACH HALL
Jazz luminaries Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding, who have 15 Grammys between them, will bring their fully staged new opera …(Iphigenia), to Cal Performances at UC Berkeley on Sat/12 at 8pm in Zellerbach Hall for a long-awaited, very much sold-out West Coast premiere. (You can still get on a waiting list for tickets here.)
Its music was composed by 11-time Grammy-winning composer and saxophonist Shorter, and its libretto by four-time Grammy-winning bassist, composer, and vocalist Esperanza Spalding—who also stars in the lead role. This production’s reading questions the misogynistic and militaristic overtones of the original story by instead posing the query, “What if Iphigenia doesn’t play along, and resists being sacrificed?” It’s an updated pirouette on the tragic Greek tale of the titular character, the daughter of King Agamemnon, who offered Iphigenia up as a sacrifice to appease the goddess Artemis on the eve of battle.
Conducted by Clark Rundell, …(Iphigenia) is performed by the Berkeley Symphony, along with three members from the acclaimed Wayne Shorter Quartet: pianist Danilo Pérez, bassist John Patitucci, and drummer Brian Blade, plus a cast of 16. The opera is directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz, with set design by the iconic architect Frank Gehry.
More info here.
FLORA PURIM, IF YOU WILL (STRUT RECORDS)
One of the best to ever do it, period. You don’t get called “The Queen of Brazilian Jazz” for having a microwave time-span of a career. Flora Purim, the go-to vocalist for Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, George Duke, and don’t let me forget her husband Airto Moreira, studied and was influenced by United States jazz divas like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan. But those trailblazing Black women, while quite fierce, did not possess Purim’s six-octave voice.
Purim remains an army of one. She is returning with her first studio album in over 15 years, If You Will, a celebration of her music and collaborations. It explores new compositions, alongside fresh versions of Flora’s favorite personal songs and positive lyrics from across her ongoing career. The release’s title track reprises a song from her inspired collaborations with George Duke: “You will find … good love, real joy, so much peace of mind if you will …”
Recorded primarily in Curitiba and Sao Paulo, If You Will brings together many of Flora’s closest circle of musician peers, including Airto Moreira, guitarist José Neto, her daughter Diana Purim on vocals, and percussionist Celso Alberti.
If You Will will released on Strut on April 29th. It can be pre-ordered here.
