𝐈 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃! 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐨, T҉r҉a҉n҉s҉c҉e҉n҉d҉

𝐈 𝐒𝐄𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃! 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐨, “҉T҉r҉a҉n҉s҉c҉e҉n҉d҉“҉

Aired 01.26.23

Featuring music from Lauren Auder, Alice Coltrane, FKA Twigs and more. Listen on Spotify and Apple Music.

I first made this set as a test run for the Listening Party events I wanted to do at UIC’s School of Design. With the intention to play it right after students got out of class, I chose to begin with “in god’s childlike hands” by Lauren Auder. Which I first heard play in Virgil Abloh’s last show for LV. This song builds up perfectly, the instruments slowly building up, mimicking an almost alien like forest coming into view, (reminds me of Bjork’s Utopia). I found it fitting that the ‘siren’ that starts around the 2:30 mark almost resembles a police siren, seeing how UIC is in the city.

The next 3 songs, are a part of what I like to call a ‘run,’ where I let the songs play without introduction. “Hyperballad” by Bjork, “Cicada,” by Sega Bodega and “How Does It Feel,” by Pharrel Williams. These 3 songs have very similar beats, where it almost sounds as if it’s reverbing in on itself (In my head I picture it as the sound bounces off the walls of a narrow hallway). They transition into each other pretty well despite the difference in genre and overall sounds.

Originally, “White Willow Bark” by MF DOOM was meant to be an interlude to allow me to explain the set’s overall theme, I did in fact forget when it came to the actual show. However, this interlude does serve to help cut into a different sound. While choosing the music for the set, I kept in mind, what “transcend” meant to me in terms of music. It could mean synths, psychedelia, techno, jazz, hypnotic or grandiose. Listening to “Windowlicker,” specifically A.G Cook’s cover, I was immediately impressed at the level of complexity it’s made with (Hypnotic techno, smells like sangria). I knew I had to incorporate it somehow. From 4:50, the song is so chaotic it’s amazing how it doesn’t get muddy; A.G Cook is. a. genius.

The next run in this set is quiet long, “home with you,” by FKA Twigs, “Love’s the Only Way,” by Cage The Elephant and “Journey into Satchidanada,” by Alice Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders. The perfect example of the beauty that is the Spotify Crossfade. There is no way I would have ever come across this if it hadn’t been for my friend’s suggestion of Cage The Elephant, it was almost by mere coincidence that the 2 were together in the early draft of the set. “home with you” has these beautiful flutes playing at the end that call back to “in god’s child like hands.” The way it ends and transitions to “Love’s the Only Way,” almost makes it sound as if it were the same song for a moment. If it hadn’t been for the collaboration between Online Ceramics and Alice Coltrane, I would have never been introduced to the world of psychedelic jazz that she had created. Her music is incredibly immersive and has a world-building quality to it.

The final run, is made up of “Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds,” by The Beatles, “For Sale?,” by Kendrick Lamar and “Frosti” by Bjork (again, yes). Transitioning from Alice Coltrane into The Beatles seemed incredibly fitting, both songs are gorgeous examples of immersive psychedelia, (and both have long titles, jeez). I remember sitting in my 7th grade health class and hearing “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” for the first time, reading the lyrics and having a discussion on LSD right after and its effects. I don’t remember much of the discussion, I do however remember going home and listening to the song over and over again. “For Sale,” being placed right after “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” the groovy synths and the reverb in the song, along with the references of Lucy over and over, it sounds as if Kendrick is talking about the same Lucy The Beatles sing about. The chime that plays at the end perfectly transitions into the music box that plays in “Frosti,” which comes from Bjork’s album Vespertine which serves as an interlude. Two interludes placed right after the other, who would have thought they would work so well?

The final 2 songs, I feel, serve as a conclusion, restating the sonic themes from the set. “Bliss” by Yung Lean and FKA Twigs (yep, again) and “Falaise” by Floating Points. With the repeating guitar, the chime, layered with Twigs’s ethereal vocals, along with the lyrics “and I’m seeing sounds.” “Bliss” was the perfect song to close the show. However, there was still time left for me to play 1 more song. I discovered “Falaise” on a random Spotify playlist one day. It became 1 of my favorite songs (It wasn’t until later I would learn the Virgil also used this song in his FW 22 show in Bangkok). With its hypnotic rhythms, filled with flutes resembling Auder’s “in god’s childlike hands,” the song ends the set with a grandiose transcendental finale.