PONDERCAST : SOUNDING OFF

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GET ‘THE SIGNAL’ EXPERIENCE EVERY MONTH WITH ‘PONDERCAST RADIO’ - SPECIAL CONTENT FOR PATREON SUBSCRIBERS

SUBSCRIBE TO GROUND LEVEL - THE NEW PODCAST FROM LAURIE BROWN

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For the latest episode of Pondercast, Sounding Off, we start with a field trip to Laurie Brown’s pond to hear the spring peepers and then head off into an exploration of how our seasons are not sticking to their lane anymore.

The rhythm of the seasons, and of nature itself, has always been a powerful healer for us. But the seasons are turning wobbly, starting and ending in new ways. We are watching it all, and feeling wobbly too. This episode is about grounding ourselves in the drift.

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For Season 5, a few new things are happening while some others are getting their own spotlight. First, the Pondercast team is bringing you something entirely new yet a little reminiscent of times past. Pondercast Radio uses an innovative hack of streaming technology to bring you a once a month ‘radio show’ which you can stream at any time. The show will include a new playlist of music and Laurie’s introductions for your dining and dancing pleasure.  The episodes play out exactly like radio, feel like Laurie’s old show The Signal - and you will get a 2 hour show of new music for you to fall in love with every month.

Pondercast Radio is available only to those who support Pondercast via Patreon at any level. Supporters must also have a paid Spotify or Apple Music account to access Pondercast Radio. If you have a paid account on Apple Music or on Spotify, then you can get our monthly ‘radio’ shows delivered to your inbox.

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The other big news is the new podcast Ground Level which is out now. Pondercast is moving all of their weekly guided meditations to a brand new podcast. So if you have been meditating with Laurie, subscribe to Ground Level wherever you get your podcasts to be sure you don’t miss an episode. Look for interviews and other content to help navigate these strange days. 

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Recently, Killbeat Music partnered with the team at Pondercast to bring you Ponderbeat, a series of special episodes featuring selections curated by Brown from some of Killbeat’s latest releases. The eleventh episode is available now featuring music from Kyla Charter, Donovan Woods, Cassidy Mann, Scott Hardware, The Weather Station, and more.

LISTEN TO PONDERBEAT EPISODE 11 HERE

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LYDIA PERSAUD REVEALS “WORDS FOR HER” FROM NEW LP, OUT TODAY

WATCH / SHARE “WORDS FOR HER” HERE
BUY / STREAM “WORDS FOR HER” HERE

NEW ALBUM, MOODY31, OUT TODAY, APRIL 29, 2022 VIA NEXT DOOR RECORDS

BUY / STREAM MOODY31 HERE

Photo Credit : Joshua C. Rille // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

“Softness in Queerness – Newness within a deeply familiar feeling.” These are the sentiments at the heart of the new single from Lydia Persaud (Per-sAHd) entitled “Words For Her” from her new album, Moody31, out today via Next Door Records. “Saying I love you for the first time, vulnerability within certainty,” continues Persaud. “Sometimes you can’t hold it in any longer as it would be a disservice to the experience being shared. This song came as an  unintentional life sequel to ‘Unsung.’ I did get to sing of the love that I longed to know. A love  that changed me from the moment it started, softening and opening my heart in ways I hadn’t  yet experienced.

“When I wrote this tune, I channeled my love for Nat King Cole. Anything that he sings is  instantly the most lush and romantic sentiment ever sung. I wrote the song and sent it to my  partner but without any words, just melody and chords. Shyly sharing the poem that is lyric  for the song later on, we both recorded a version together during covid, this version ended up  being the duo arrangement on the album. Originally entitled ‘Words For You’, I made it a  little more intimate, a little more Queer and here we are now. Dedicated to my love.”

Filmed at The Great Hall in Toronto with Josh Rille and Ayo Tsalithaba the video for “Words For Her” captures the beauty found in the moment right before saying the words, a moment that many remember all their lives. The visuals reflect pouring over journal entries and multiple drafts of letters to find the right words, with thoughts and papers swirling around. 

WATCH / SHARE “WORDS FOR HER” HERE

MORE ABOUT MOODY31
Moody31 will introduce us to the full spectrum of emotion. Shimmery runs fall alongside precise enunciations that slightly quiver on pitch. A singer with daring range, she stretches words – subtly melismatic, smooth, slantly gospel – to their full emotional capacity. Her sophomore record remodels a multitude of influences into a dynamic and harmonious original. Described by producer Scott McCannell as “Roberta Flack sitting in with Bill Withers' band at a folk festival,” Moody31 recombines jazz, R&B, and folk stylings to create soul music in its most literal sense. 

WATCH / SHARE “I GOT YOU” HERE

It’s tempting to want to deconstruct her amalgam into its distinct parts, tracing each track’s reference points and divergencies. On “Let Me Be There For You” homage is paid to the beautifully haunting background vocals of Motown legend Mavin Gaye, while the ukelele fingerpicking on “Think Of Me” is approached with the lyrical sensitivities of a storyteller. Without fidelity to a single source of inspiration, Persaud’s arrangements are kaleidoscopic: layered sounds that mimic the prismatic moods of the album. It’s here that brokenness, loss of identity, and glorified independence commingle with self-assurance, acceptance and new beginnings. 

“I Got You” is a bouncy love-letter to oneself, while “Words For Her” is fraught with the anticipation of saying ‘I love you’ for the first time in a blossoming romance. This is a summer album, with Persaud’s honeyed tone warming each track, but one that complicates the expected feel-good nature of the season. Imagine riding your bike through the city on a near-perfect July day, on the heels of a recent heartbreak. 

WATCH / SHARE “GOOD FOR US” HERE

The title track “Moody31” is a surprising instrumental strip-down: diminished and major 7-chords fall alongside lush yet anguished vocals. The effect is a deep vulnerability crossed with absolute self-possession. It’s these antithetical desires that cut to the core of Moody31: to love and be loved without losing oneself in the process. 

Persaud met producer and bassist Scott McCannell of Safe Spaceship Music in 2019. “Scott and I shared the same desire to create something new while preserving the classic warmth of the 70s soul and jazz sounds we love.” The two began compiling a collection of demos that eventually became Moody31. “The baritone ukulele was the foundational instrument I used to write the record,” Persaud says. “I would teach Scott a new song, and, to avoid  perfectionism, we would record a rough demo while the song was loose and fresh.” With all the bed-tracks recorded in one room, the songs have a live, jazz-combo quality. Kyla Charter and James Baley’s backing vocals are full of disco-esque call-and-response, while Chino de Villa’s steady drums lend heartbeat from start to finish. 

BUY / STREAM MOODY31 HERE

MORE ABOUT LYDIA PERSAUD
A fixture of Toronto’s music community and a sought-after collaborator, Persaud has had a colourful decade performing to small clubs with her jazz project (2012 - 2016), to crate diggers with The Soul Motivators (2011-2015), to folkies at festivals with The O’Pears (2013-2019), and to rock nostalgics with Dwayne Gretzky (2017-present). She’s shared the stage with Lee Fields, Richard Bona, David Crosby, Gordon Lightfoot, Jackie Richardson, Divine Brown, and Justin Nozuka, among many others. She’s also a member of the Queer Songbook Orchestra, and host of the upcoming docuseries, New World Beat.

“After ten years of playing music, I’m beginning to bring my multiple experiences into what I’m doing. I make music to honestly connect with others who might feel the same way. I hope Moody31 celebrates and validates the human experience in all its contradictions: how new love can be experienced alongside deep loss, how one can crave solitude and connection, simultaneously. It’s beautiful to embrace all of our moods - it’s living.”

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MOODY31 TRACKLIST
01 Good For Us
02 I Got You
03 Think Of Me
04 Moody31
05 Unsung
06 Words For Her
07 Let Me Be There For You 
08 Outro 

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TAMINO RETURNS WITH NEW VIDEO / SINGLE FOR “THE FIRST DISCIPLE”

TAMINO CHANNELS MIDDLE EASTERN SONIC LINEAGE INTO A SURREAL DYSTOPIAN DAYDREAM IN NEW VIDEO FOR "THE FIRST DISCIPLE", PLAYING THE CLASSICAL ARABIC OUD AMIDST RAVERS IN AN ANTWERP WAREHOUSE

WATCH / SHARE “THE FIRST DISCIPLE” HERE
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“Tamino possesses a voice that carries the hypnotic, immediate power of something much more ancient.” — NPR

“With high-fashion kudos and thrift-store panache, Belgian singer Tamino is a pop star for our times” — British GQ

“Using music to convey deeper messages, [Tamino wraps] his ideas in melancholic indie rock and a soaring falsetto” — The Guardian

“[Tamino] brings Arabic heritage into conversation with other musical traditions” — Arab News

Today, Belgian-Egyptian musician Tamino debuts his visual art piece for new single “The First Disciple”. Past, present and future all coalesce within the confines of an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Antwerp. In one moment Tamino is seen playing the Arabic oud, surrounded by the gaze of an army of ravers and a decomposing canvas of graffiti-covered walls, in another he is swallowed by the glitchy lights of the club. 

On “The First Disciple” Tamino worked with Belgian producers PJ Maertens and Jo Francken, the song is an evocative slow-burn mood-setter by this supremely gifted artist. It features long-standing collaborator and friend in Radiohead’s Colin Greenwood on bass and Ruben Vanhoutte on drums. The video was directed by Bastiaan Lochs and Jonathan Van Hemelrijck.

WATCH / SHARE “THE FIRST DISCIPLE” HERE
BUY / STREAM “THE FIRST DISCIPLE” HERE

“The First Disciple” Single Artwork // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

MORE ABOUT TAMINO
Amir heralded the arrival of a musician who despite his young age seemed fully formed and confident in his art. It was a record of great depth and hushed resonance, exquisitely orchestrated and confidently delivered. Media acclaim immediately drew similarities with a young Jeff Buckley, and whilst there’s certainly an intense and emotional fragility to Tamino’s vocal, musically he combines it with orchestral flourishes that pay strong homage to his Egyptian lineage. 

That Tamino’s music is in part imbued with the sound of the Middle East should come as little surprise. His grandfather, Muharram Fouad, was one of Egypt’s most celebrated singers and actors, and it was his old guitar that Tamino was gifted as a child and set him on his musical journey. In Europe, Tamino already plays to sell-out audiences in the thousands including one standout show at the 8000 capacity Lotto Arena in Antwerp, a city he has long called home.  

“The First Disciple” is a fascinating return by this compelling artist. Despite all the early acclaim, you sense his journey has only just begun.

Photo Credit : Jan Philipzen // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES

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