The songwriter, pianist, vocalist, and producer Raia Was has become known for her dark art- and alt-pop. She was raised here in New York, and some of the city’s darkness, risk-taking, and energy flow through her songs which may oscillate between brooding intensity and cathartic euphoria. [“You Are" was featured in HBO’s Euphoria.] Raia Was has just released her second record, called Captain Obvious, on a new cooperative record label called Switch Hit Records, and it brings her and her dream band of collaborators play in-studio.  

Set list: “What It Feels Like” “Any Evil” “So Close” "Easy To Force It”

Watch "What It Feels Like":  

Watch "Any Evil":

Watch "So Close":

Watch "Easy to Force It":

The 2018 release from American pop band Speedy Ortiz, Twerp Verse, speaks smartly to political and social situations of the present from a feminist perspective of truth-telling and is designed, on purpose, to make us uncomfortable lyrically and musically. With songs that airdrop aggressive, unpredictable chord progressions and disorienting rhythms behind enemy lines, this record is music for popping out from the cover of safety, armed with teeth and claws. Speedy Ortiz plays some of these tunes, in-studio. (From the Archives, 2018.)

Son Rompe Pera started as a street band in Mexico City, but the marimba-playing cumbia punks have spent the past six years honing an electrifying and buzzy mix of modern cumbia, tropical dance beats, hard-hitting punk, psychedelic guitars, traditional Mexican and Colombian rhythms, horns, and a pinch of dub and hip hop, (Kennedy Center program notes.) Their 2020 record Batuco, named after the band’s marimba player father, leaned more toward a folkloric, traditional sound by way of nine covers. However, their 2023 record, Chimborazo, delivers 12 originals that really bring the marimba to the mosh pit, including a song where the title is a Chilean expletive and is based on a dream about an alien abduction. Son Rompe Pera slays, in-studio. (-Caryn Havlik)

Set list: "Selva Negra", "La Muerte del Amor", "Chucha"

Watch "Selva Negra":

Singer, rapper, and writer Dessa is a member of the long-running hip hop collective known as Doomtree, though hip hop is just one part of what she does. She has also performed concerts of her songs with the Minnesota Orchestra, published well-received books of essays and audio plays, and hosts the podcast Deeply Human. Dessa, along with harpist Aviva Jaye and saxophonist/keyboardist Joshua Holmgren, play new songs from her 2023 album, called Bury The Lede, in-studio. 

Set list: "Hurricane Party", "Blush", "Tell Me Again"

Pianist Pascal Le Boeuf’s background is in both jazz and electronic music, and he has established himself as a sought-after composer of contemporary classical music. His work communicates tension and release, leaves space for improvisation, and explores the limits of a continuous high-energy work lasting as long as possible. There’s also a lot of trust and collaboration built into the process.

Le Boeuf performs in what might otherwise look like a classic jazz trio – piano, bass and drums – if it weren’t for the additional strings playing with them. Then, he also manipulates the strings inside our piano, and beats the outsides of the piano as well. Pascal Le Boeuf and his band play music from his 2023 album, Ritual Being, in-studio.  

Set list: “Transition Behavior”, “Wanderlust”, “Obliquely Wrecked”

Pachyman is a one-man dub band; that one man is Pachy Garcia, and though he’s based in LA, he grew up in Puerto Rico, at a time when Jamaican music – especially dub reggae - was having a big impact on the island’s music scene. Pachyman’s new album is called Switched On, and is an homage to the era when musicians first began manipulating synthesizers to emit gloriously off-kilter bleeps, bloops, and whooshes - think Switched On Boleros and Switched On Bach. The new record brings Pachy and his dub-drenched sound system from another dimension to our studio.

Set list: "Trago Coqueto", "Lovers", "Switched On"

Watch "Trago Coqueto":

Watch "Lovers":

Watch "Switched On":

Switched-On by PACHYMAN

German singer and actress Ute Lemper’s career defies easy description. She’s a musical theater legend – starring in the original Paris production of Cabaret and adorning the sides of NYC buses when she starred in the Broadway run of Chicago. But she’s also a singer who has recreated the songs of Edith Piaf, Jacques Brel, and Kurt Weill, and sung contemporary songs by Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, and Philip Glass. And in recent years, she’s been writing songs as well, taking inspiration from Hiatus Kaiyote, John Legend, Joni Mitchell, Sarah McLachlan, Annie Lennox, Erykah Badu and/or Robert Glasper. Ute Lemper’s new album, Time Traveler, is a collection of her original works and she’s brought her band in to our studio to play some of them. 

Set list: "Time Traveler", "Envie d’Amour"/"Magical Stone", "The Gift"

CMAT might look like one of those specialized tests you have to take to get into a post-graduate program, but this stage name is actually the initials of Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, a Dublin pop singer whose cleverly-titled debut LP If My Wife New I’d Be Dead was a hit in Ireland last year. With cultural references that range from Belgian football manager Vincent Kompany to Gilmore Girls, (she also loves Patsy Cline), CMAT knows how to take a deep dive down a topical rabbit hole and make it into relatable pop. She distills her maximalist tendencies down to an unplugged, intimate setting, playing songs from her brand-new record, Crazymad, For Me, in-studio. 

Set list: “Where Are Your Kids Tonight?”, “Rent”, “I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby”

Watch "Rent":

Watch "I wanna be a cowboy baby":

I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby! by CMAT

Milwaukee-based blues singer and guitarist Buffalo Nichols, on his self-titled 2021 debut, showed how timeless the blues can be, both musically and emotionally. On his latest album, called The Fatalist, Nichols uses contemporary 21st century sounds and techniques to remind us that the blues have been and are always with us, intimately tied to present-day 2023. Buffalo Nichols plays some of these new songs, in-studio.

Set list; “Turn Another Stone”, “The Long Journey Home”, “The Difference”

Jeremy Dutcher, the classically trained Two-Spirit song carrier, composer, activist, is a Member of the Wolastoqiyik People of the Neqotkuk (formerly known as Tobique First Nation) in Eastern Canada. Dutcher burst upon the music scene in Canada in 2018, winning the prestigious Polaris Music Prize for their debut LP, where Dutcher performed with archival recordings of their Wolastoq ancestors. Dutcher's latest, called Motewolonuwok (People of great spiritual power), continues Dutcher’s exploration of their First Nations roots: celebrating the culture, addressing the endangered language and land rights, and correcting the record. Jeremy Dutcher's trio plays in-studio.  - Caryn Havlik

Set list: "Skicinuwihkuk" (Indian Land), "Pomawsuwinuwok Wonakiyawolotuwok" (The People Are Rising), "Qonute" (Honor Song)

Watch ""Skicinuwihkuk":

Watch "Honor Song":