The Lacking Permanence

With a name that’s quite topical, Ilegales are here to make fresh trouble.

Every early June, I’ll hit the first day of the year where it’s still light when I get to the radio station. It’s a few weeks before summer officially begins, but it always feel like the starting gun for the season. Tonight! We start out with Mhaol, who would just as easily cut you as they would kiss you, and proceed from there.

If you enjoy your cumbia abstracted and your merengue chopped to pieces, Los Pirañas have a dish for you.

Did you know BRONCHO rehearses in a special zero-gravity room filled with disco lights and exotic decorations? They don’t, but they sure sound that way.

Find a seat around the campfire, Sunny War is about to start.

Enjoy a small slice of tragic beauty in the form of Nell Smith, whose musical instincts reach well beyond her perpetually young voice. Tonight I had to park down the block, as The Sauce Boss was visiting the Radio Room all the way from my old Florida stomping grounds.

Tunde Adebimpe gets all three darts inside the bullseye.

An unknown proportion of occult studies and ambient light make up the core of L.A. Witch.

Nothing like the feeling of having a new Broncho album to obsess over, I invite you to join me to, as they say in my native country, “sumérgete en cheddar.” Elsewhere tonight, panic at the discotheque — if you were listening, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

The title is long and descriptive, but it's not enough: this video breaks down the individual samples that constitute a popular track from each year, showing you step by step how the layers add up, and it's a master class in musical transformation.