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Protest Tunes Looks Back

DJ General Strike looks back at the Top 40 (not that Top 40!) protest songs of 2022. These are Molotov hot tracks!

  1. Adeem the Artist – Heritage of Ignorance – White Trash Revelry- Four Quarters Records (folk/country)
  2. Dropkick Murphys – All You Fonies – This Machine Still Kills Fascists – Dummy Luck Music (folk/country)
  3. Ezra Furman Lilac and Black – All of Us Flames – Anti (folk/country)
  4. Miko Marks – Trouble – Trouble – Redtone Records (folk/country)
  5. Shaina Taub – Tikkun Olam – Songs of the Great Hill – Atlantic (folk/country)

  1. Coco Peila, Aima The Dreamer, Ryan Nicole – I Am Jane Roe – I Am Jane Roe – Miss Behave Records (hip-hop)
  2. David Strickland – Stand Up – Spirit of Hip Hop: Elements – MNRK Music Group (hip-hop)
  3. Gabriel Teodros – Coffee & Sage – Coffee & Sage – Gabriel Teodros & Third Eye Bling (hip-hop)
  4. Lecrae – Still in America – Church Clothes 4 – Reach Records (hip-hop)
  5. Linqua Franqa – Wurk – Bellringer – Ernest Jenning Record Co. (hip-hop)
  6. Nas – Don’t Shoot – King’s Disease III – Mass Appeal (hip-hop)
  7. Propaganda – Soil is Sacred – Terraform: The Soil – RMG (hip-hop)
  8. Robert Glasper – Black Superhero – Black Superhero [Feat. Killer Mike, BJ The Chicago Kid & Big  R.I.T.] – Loma Vista (hip-hop)
  9. Architects Deep Fake – the classic symptoms of a broken spirit – Epitaph (Metal/Hardcore)
  10. Rise Against The Answer – Nowhere Generation II – Loma Vista (Metal/Hardcore)

  1. Stray from the Path III – Euthanasia – UNFD (Metal/Hardcore)
  2. Voice of Baceprot – Not] Public Property – [Not] Public Property – 12WIRED (Metal/Hardcore)
  3. Anne Beretta – The Real America – Rise – Bully Me Now Music (punk)
  4. Anti-Flag – Laugh. Cry. Smile. Die. – Laugh. Cry. Smile. Die. – Universal (Punk)

  1. Newtown Neurotics – Climate Emergency – Cognitive Dissidents – Cadiz Entertainment (Punk)
  2. Petrol Girls – Fight for Our Lives – Baby – Hassle Records (Punk)
  3. Rebelmatic – Walk on Water – Walk on Water – Coffee Grind Media (Punk)
  4. Special Interest – Concerning Peace – Endure – Rough Trade Records (Punk)
  5. Ben Harper – We Need to Talk About It – Bloodline Maintenance – Chrysalis Records (R&B/Funk/Soul)

  1. Bitch Polar Bear – Bitchcraft – Kill Rock Stars (R&B/Funk/Soul)
  2. Fantastic Negrito – They Go Low – White Jesus Black Problems – Storefront Records (R&B/Funk/Soul)
  3. Hurray for the Riff Raff – Precious Cargo – Life on Earth – Nonesuch Records (R&B/Funk/Soul)
  4. Taina Asili – Abolition – Abolition – Taina Asili (R&B/Funk/Soul)
  5. The Suffers – How Do We Heal – It Starts with Love – Missing Piece Records (R&B/Funk/Soul)
  6. Captain Ska – This Is A Warning – La Isla Del Brexit – Captain’s Records (Reggae/Ska)
  7. JER – Decolonize Yr Mind – Bothered/Unbothered – Bad Time Records (Reggae/Ska)
  8. Sizzla – Stop Destroying the Earth – Stop Destroying the Earth – Na Lef Ya Muzik – Reggae/Ska

  1. Soom T – Big Bad World – Good – Renegade Masters (Reggae/Ska)
  2. Danceland – Not Without a Fight – Pink Lem – Pinkfoot Music (Rock)

  1. Midnight Oil – We Resist – Resist – Sony Music Entertainment (Rock)
  2. MILCK, Autumn Rowe, BIANCO, Ani DiFranco – We Won’t Go Back – We Won’t Go Back – Tone Tree Music (Rock)
  3. Muse – Will of the People – Will of the People – Warner Music UK (Rock)
  4. P!nk – Irrelevant – Irrelevant – RCA (Rock)
  5. The Last Internationale – 1984 – 1984 – The Last Internationale (Rock)
  6. The Snuts – Zuckerpunch – Burn the Empire – Parlophone Records (Rock)

Road Songs Looks Back

Our host of Road Songs (and Night Train!), Rus Thompson, looks back at 2022 with a few of his favorite albums of the year. Catch Road Songs every Tuesday from 9:00 PM to 11:00 PM.

“The mark for me of a memorable album of songs is that I end up playing all of them at some point on Road Songs. And what makes a memorable song? Personal and piquant writing, with imagery that evokes the heartbreak, happiness, and trials of everyday life, especially life on the road. Here are my five most memorable albums of 2022:”

Zach Bryan/American Heartbreak/Belting Bronco Records

Plains/I Walked With You a Ways/Anti

Laura Benitez and the Heartache/California Centuries/Copperhead Records

Chris Canterbury/Quaalude Lullabies/Rancho Deluxe Records

Ian Noe/River Fools and Mountain Saints/Lock 13 Records

Sunday’s Hornpipe Looks Back

Our host of Sunday’s Hornpipe, John Gibaut, looks back at 2022 with a few of his favorite albums of the year and reminisces about an early album that might surprise you! Catch Sunday’s Hornpipe every Sunday afternoon beginning at 3:00 PM. 

“I started collecting albums in the late 60s / early 70s. In my first 20 or 30 albums were several that I still occasionally play during Sunday’s Hornpipe. Artists like The Chieftains; The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem; The Boys of the Lough; Alan Stivell. Other artists like Jethro Tull and The Moody Blues also accounted for a large proportion of those early albums. Not such a great surprise I suppose, reflecting the music of the era. 

However I have one album from those early days that I often have playing in my head. The chance of it ever popping up in a Sunday’s Hornpipe playlist is probably way beyond ‘extremely remote’!

I bought Zero Time, Tonto’s Expanding Head Band’s first album, the year after it was released in the early seventies. The band were Malcolm Cecil, Robert Margouleff, and TONTO (The Original New Timbral Orchestra). TONTO was instrumental in bringing synthesized electronic music into the mainstream. Many well known performers used it in their work, most famously Stevie Wonder. No one in the Celtic genre has ever been tempted!   

Cheers and happy holidays”

-John

Top 20 Albums

Brighde Chaimbeul, Ross Ainslie, Steven Byrnes – Las – Great White Records

Eabhal – Aisling – Eabhal

Goitse – Rosc – Goitse Music

inni-k – inion – Green Willow Records

Ruth Keggin & Rachel Hair – Lossan – March Hair Records

Beinn Lee – Deo – Beinn Lee

Padraig Mac Aodhgain (Paddy Egan) – Tobar Gan Tra – Padraig Mac Aodhgain

James Duncan MacKenzie – Fibhig – James Duncan MacKenzie

Kenneth I MacKenzie – Glendrian – Caberfeidh Music

Rory Matheson & Graham Rorie – We Have Won The Land – Rory Matheson & Graham Rorie

Moynihan – Black Brook – Moynihan

Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl – Heal & Harrow – Heal & Harrow

Muireann Nic Amhlaoidh & the Irish Chamber Orchestra – Roisin Reimagined – MNicA/DOC/KAF/ICO

Niteworks – A’ Ghrian – Comann Music

Cathal O Currain – Cosan Ceoil – Cathal O Currain

Rura – Our Voices Echo – Rura Music

Talisk – Dawn – Talisk Records

Teada – Coisceim Coiligh – as the days brighten – Gael Linn

3 on the Bund – Frenzy – 3 on the Bund

Ye Vagabonds – Nine Waves – River Lea Records

 

Giant Steps Looks Back at 2022

Our host of Giant Steps, John Pai, looks back at 2022 with a few of his favorite albums of the year! Catch Giant Steps every Monday night beginning at 11:00 PM.

King Britt and Tyshawn Sorey, Tyshawn & King, The Buddy System

Nala Sinephro, Space 1.8, Warp Records

Vijay Iyer, Uneasy, ECM

Helen Sung, Quartet+, SunnySide

Ill-Considered, Liminal Space, New Soil

City Soul Looks Back at 2022

Friday nights at 9:00 P.M. J-Justice presents a kaleidoscope of soulful electronic sounds, City Soul connects the dots between modern club culture and its past influences from around the globe. Check out a few of his favorite albums from 2022!

  • High Pulp – Pursuits of Ends – Anti
  • Sonnyjim- White Girl Wasted
  • Hagan – Textures – Python Syndicate 
  • Barbie Bertisch – Prelude – Love Injection
  • Mr Fingers – Around the Sun Pt. 1 – Alleviated Music
  • Malayan McCraven – In These Times – International Anthem
  • Space Ghost – Private Paradise- Pacific Rhythm
  • Nu Genea – Bar Mediterrano – NG Records

Flotation Device Looks Back at 2022

Recovered Voices and Radical Music

by Michael Schell

December is the season when a DJ’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of…the year’s best albums. And when your corner of the world is as variegated as the cutting-edge creative and improvised music we feature on Flotation Device, then there’s a lot to choose from! One of the most remarkable items to cross our desk this year is about to be showcased on our December 11 show: A House of Call, My Imaginary Notebook, by the German composer and recovered rock-and-roller, Heiner Goebbels.

Goebbels has a penchant for juxtaposing dissimilar kinds of music. In A House of Call, voices from old archival recordings are accompanied by a live orchestra in unexpected ways. The excerpt we’ll be playing uses the solo voice of a Namibian native, captured on a wax cylinder in 1931. Goebbels garnishes it with fractured big band music that suggests a Trinidad night club—which seems innocuous enough until you consider that the source recording was made at a German-owned cattle ranch in southwest Africa at the height of the colonial era.

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Although Goebbels hints at his ideological stance in the title for this section, Wax and Violence, he nevertheless presents his material dispassionately. What’s conveyed here, and throughout the album, is a disorienting ambivalence—perhaps a nostalgia for lost voices and myths, but also a reminder of the tenuous cohesion of human memory, and how deeper meanings often lurk beneath the surface of things. At a time when much contemporary art seems calculated to deliver political messages to already-convinced audiences, Goebbels demonstrates that music often communicates more profoundly when things are left ambiguous.

The idea of accompanying a recorded song with live musicians originated in a work by Gavin Bryars that coincidentally was premiered exactly 50 years ago this Sunday. It’s called Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, named for a hymn tune sung by a homeless Londoner, a recording of which Bryars fashioned into a tape loop that plays continuously throughout the performance. And like Goebbels he deploys an orchestra to interact with the lonely voice. But there’s a twist: the man sings in tune, but slightly off-rhythm. So the live musicians tend to falter a bit trying to stay in sync with him. In Bryars’ treatment the man’s deprivation and optimism both come through in his voice, like an old Beckett character laughing at his suffering. Nowadays the piece is considered one of the great masterworks of musical minimalism, and we’ll sample it on our program via two different recordings, including one that features Tom Waits.

I can’t help but admire the pluck and resilience of these beleaguered voices, refracted and amplified by contemporary musicians. They epitomize the impactful and far-reaching sounds we look for every week on Flotation Device—music below the radar of commercial broadcasters, and even most jazz and classical stations. It’s the kind of programming you’ll only find on KBCS, and I’m pleased to share it with you Sunday nights from 10 to Midnight!

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Bellevue College Global Leaders Music Picks

Du Dinh 

Hi guys, my name is Du Dinh. I’m currently one of the Global Leaders at Bellevue College. This is my second year here and my major is computer science. I love playing sports, video games, listening to music and throwing Pokemon games on YouTube. Today I would like to share one of my favorite songs with you guys. The name of the song is called “Có Đâu Ai Ngờ.” It is a Vietnamese song by a Vietnamese artist, Cam. This song is about love and the melody and it’s really slow and cute. I hope you can enjoy it and have a nice day!

 

Jemima 

One of my favorite songs is “Tout Seul” by Gally and Heritier Wata. It is one of my favorite songs because it is a mix of emotions. It is quiet and at the same time deep. It’s a song that I discovered when I went to Canada to see my brothers and sisters and I know it was one of the favorite songs of my brothers. So every time that I listen to it, I just remember summer there and a lot of memories. I feel just quiet, calm and happy. Even if it’s a sad song – I don’t know how, but I feel happy, because it also relates to a lot of stuff that has happened in my life before. I hope you enjoy it!

 

Julia 

Hey guys, my name is Julia and I’m one of the Global Leaders at Bellevue College. I’m from Taiwan and I’m studying Business. I want to share this song called “If Only” by Ozi. He is a Taiwanese singer. This song is basically about rewinding time, and what he would do if he could talk to his grandma. I hope you like the song!

 

Kelan

Hi, my name is Kelan and I come from China. This is my third year in the U.S and my second quarter at Bellevue College. I’m studying Digital Media Arts. I’m also a singer and songwriter. The song I’m going to introduce is actually a song that I released six years ago. It’s called “Flower”. This was one of the few songs that I wrote when I just started songwriting on guitar. Writing songs to me is like writing journals. I like to document my thoughts with melodies, and this song is one of the examples. A flower is a metaphor for thoughts that come and go and never settle for anything. It doesn’t belong anywhere. A flower is free. It could go to any place, just like your thoughts. This song was awarded the top 20 singles by the Singapore Freshmusic Award in 2017. Please enjoy and I hope you like it!

 

Myo Han Tun Kyaw

Hello everyone, my name is Myo Han Tun Kyaw and I’m one of the Global Leaders from Burma. I’m currently a computer science student at Bellevue College. Today, I would like to share a song from my country called “Yone Kyi Yarg” by Lay Phyu . Although the song was very popular in 2010, it got popular during the protesting stage of the Spring Revolution, when we protested against the military government.
So the reason why this song holds so much meaning for Burmese people, is because it tells us that we have to believe in what we are doing. And although we might have regrets and losses we still need to keep going to reach the final goal. In this song, people are literally sacrificing their life for this thing called “belief”. It is relevant during the protests, because people are dying on the streets due to the military government.
Those people are fighting for freedom and we all are. So it helps us not to give up easily on our rights and freedom. The song is motivating and it’s not only for protesting, you can listen to it anytime to get you motivated. It’s a really good song. Enjoy!

 

Nada and Leda

Nada: Hi everybody my name is Nada.
Leda: Hi everybody my name is Leda.
Nada: And we are from Italy. I’m currently studying at Bellevue College for my bachelor’s degree in digital marketing. I love this song called “A Te” because it truly reminds me of the bond I have with my family.
Nada and Leda: In Italy, the family “La Famiglia” is really important.

KBCS Bids a Fond Farewell to Larry Lewin

For over three decades, KBCS DJ, Larry Lewin, chronicled a history of recorded folk music. Each week was a fresh page. Now the book is complete. On May 28th, Larry will step aside from Our Saturday Tradition, the Saturday morning folk music program he has hosted since 1988.

“Larry is exactly as you hear him, genuine, humble, warm—devoted to the music and the craft. He never misses an opportunity to learn and grow or to contribute toward the greater good. It’s difficult to imagine KBCS without his gentle, steadfast presence.” – Patrick Whalen, KBCS Program Director

A native New Jersey, Larry moved to Seattle in his 20s and embarked on a long career as a Boeing engineer, where he was involved in developing state-of-the-art fighter jets.

Drawn to KBCS by his long time interest in folk music he soon earned a slot on air. KBCS listeners have spent many a Saturday morning with Larry, his forthright and enthusiastic presence a reliable touchstone.

“It is bittersweet to see Larry move on. His work over the last 30-plus years provided us all with solace, comfort and enjoyment. He epitomizes the best of the Seattle folk scene and the values of Northwest Folklife. Thank you, Larry!” – Benjamin Hunter; musician, Creative Cultural Advocate, Artistic Director of Northwest Folklife.

Behind the scenes, Larry devoted countless hours to preparation, dutifully listening to every new release, taking careful notes, and scouring the vast KBCS folk CD library for songs living deep in his memory. There is a hand-written playlist for every show, filed carefully within an ever-growing set of three ring binders.

“Larry’s dedication is unsurpassed, especially when entering the brave new world of producing remote radio during the pandemic. With over three decades of hosting folk shows on KBCS, he is a trove of knowledge of all kinds of folk music. But putting together a good show takes so much more than just knowledge alone; it’s Larry’s taste in carefully choosing selections that made his shows filled with ‘sweet sounds.’”  Thank you, Larry, for all your years of bringing us great music!” – Jean Geiger, KBCS Folksounds host/producer

Please join us in celebrating Larry Lewin.

Notes of appreciation may be sent to dj@kbcs.fm or KBCS, ATTN Larry Lewin, 3000 Landerholm Circle SE, Bellevue WA 98007

KBCS Mourns the Loss of Doug Paterson

We are deeply saddened to learn of the death of Doug Paterson, our beloved host of The Music of Africa. He was 72 years old.

For 30 years at KBCS and Bellevue College, Doug volunteered his time to showcase the very best in African music. His dedication was an extraordinary act of service to his community and we are all better people and better listeners for having known him.

Doug grew up in Puget Sound and fell in love with the burgeoning PNW rock and roll scene at a young age often recording live shows off his radio using an Ampex reel-to-reel machine. Some of his tapes include early live performances of The Sonics!

Doug studied cultural anthropology and earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in 1972. He was then invited into the graduate program at UW to study African languages and linguistics. He was awarded a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Washington in 1984. During a break from his studies in 1974 Doug traveled extensively throughout Eastern Africa where he became immersed in the African music scene and that was to become one of the great passions of his life. In Kenya he would also meet his wife Annah.

Doug’s love of music was of a giving sort. He was driven beyond spinning the albums of the music he loved and worked on many records and compilations, including Kenya Special and Nairobi Beat, to name just two. He also wrote extensively about East African music during his lifetime.

In 1991 he hosted his first radio show at KSER in Everett. In 1993 he came to KBCS and started The Music of Africa show, which he hosted twice a month every Thursday ever since. Doug was also a long time employee at KUOW where he engineered numerous recording sessions. 30 years is a long time to give to community radio, yet somehow as listeners and fans it wasn’t even close to being enough.

We send our love to Doug’s family, friends, and fans. We are forever grateful.

Enter for a Chance to Win Vinyl From Hi-Voltage Records

Thanks to our partners over at Hi-Voltage Records in Tacoma, we’re giving away an LP every hour from 12-7pm today! Donate now and you’re automatically entered into all of today’s drawings including a vinyl box set grand prize.

There’s no donation required to get entered into the drawing (see full contest rules). However, your support today during our Fall Fund Drive will help KBCS keep its unique mix of Roots, Rock, and Soul going strong.