It’s Friday, which means it’s time for Spark’s music expert and legendary L.A. radio DJ Nic Harcourt to weigh in on what new music he’s got on repeat at the moment. Below, he shares his newest picks added to his Spark Radio playlist and shares a spotlight on his favorite earworm of the week.
Central Heat Exchange: Almost To You
Chrisol: Juliet
Jorja Smith: All Of This (Jorja Smith X Guilty Beatz)
Fred again..,Baxter Dury: Baxter (These Are My Friends)
Mexican Institute Of Sound, Las Dianas: A Ti Que Te Importa – Cumbia Manifesto Pt.1
Duran Duran: More Joy (feat. CHAI): More Joy
Charlotte Cornfield: Headlines
Du Blonde, Paul Smith, Ross Millard: Radio Jesus
Nation Of Language: This Fractured Mind
SadGirl: Goodbye Queenie
Laura Stevenson: Don’t Think About Me
Lilian Hepler: Moody Girl
Torres: Don’t Go Puttin Wishes In My Head
SPOTLIGHT:
Central Heat Exchange: Almost To You
Canadians love their indie-pop supergroup collectives. Toronto-based Broken Social Scene (with at any given time anywhere between six and twenty members) have put out five albums of compelling, often improvisational pop since their inception at the dawn of the 21st Century; And now please meet Central Heat Exchange, featuring members of Living Hour, Varsity and Pool Holograph, (and a whole bunch of additional collaborators, from members of Sun June, Lala Lala, and Fran, to the aforementioned Broken Social Scene,) are readying the release of their self titled debut album on September 10.
I’ve added the single “Almost to You” to this week’s playlist and attached a link to the video below. The song’s writer Santiago RD describes it thus, “It’s about that fleeting period of time when you’re getting to the next stage of knowing someone beyond the surface. It’s that moment when you aren’t close enough to ask them about their secrets, but you don’t feel like just asking about their day really cuts it anymore. I wrote it during a time when I felt eager to know my online friends as well as I knew my real-life friends—there’s this weight that comes with the confidence of feeling like you really could be a good match. You’re already so close in many ways, sharing mutual interests and affections, and yet you’re still strangers in so many ways. In transitioning to the breakdown-esque ending, it begs the question of ‘Do we really, really know the people in our life?’”
For the single’s video, made with Virgo House, the band wanted to match “the choked-up feelings of growing up in a small town with limited resources.” The people you know and the connections you choose to make your life richer can expand our worldview tenfold. “We gathered a rag-tag group of acquaintances and put together a skate team now known as The Oatmeal Crew,” RD continues. “Everything was shot over the course of a day in and around Bertram, Texas, and we got pulled over and questioned by the locals more times than I can count. It was a really fun day-in-the-life of adolescence.”
