The Plug’n Play: April (‘22)
April 30, 2022
You can listen to the full playlist on Apple Music, Spotify, or Tidal
Below are some of our favorite songs from April and a bit about why we love them! The first 15 songs were selected by Kevin, and the last 17 songs were selected by me, Stanley.
Stanley: Samora Pinderhughes — Holding Cell
In the aftermath of the summer of 2020, there was an explosion of what many were calling “protest music.” The idea was that artists, more than ever in their respective lifetimes, had heeded the call of a collective cry, and a sound that could embody the desperation of the times. (Some of the music was interesting, thoughtful, and revelatory, others not so much.) Now, some two years later, while the “protest music” has subsided, the moment of desperation has not vanished.
Eight years ago, Samora Pinderhughes — a composer, filmmaker, and interdisciplinary artist — embarked on what he calls The Healing Project, an attempt to “speak directly to the many damages that our society’s systems of prison, detention, and structural violence do to people, and to the many beautiful, different and deep ways that people figure out how to heal themselves and others from the things that they go through, in spite of it all.”
Designed in different phases, which includes, amongst other things, interviews with over 100 incarcerated or formerly incarcerated persons, films (long and short), and photography, Pinderhughes released his album Grief, the sonic companion. Beautifully, in all areas, Pinderhughes sees this work as a means to communicate his abolitionist vision. It’s a special and necessary album.
Stanley: Nëither — I Like It
In August of 2012, I got my first assignment as a residential advisor (RA) at Morehouse. That year, I was assigned the third floor in the Living and Learning Center (LLC), a freshmen hall on campus. On my floor, I met a then freshman engineering major from the DMV, who played the violin, and like me, had a passion for music named Nëither. (Frank Ocean’s Channel Orange was all the rage at the time, which we particularly bonded over.) At the time, Nëither was a songwriter and producer, often spending hours in studios across Atlanta, but he didn’t have much interest in being a front-facing artist at the time. Now, some 10 years later, and Nëither’s blossomed into a wonderful artist: singer-songwriter, visual artist, designer, and so on. After performing on NBC’s American Song Contest, Nëither’s released his latest single, I Like It, a tune that melds Pop, R&B, and classical musics — it’s the quintessential song for Nëither and an exciting moment for him as an artist.
Stanley: St. Lucia — The Golden Age
I first came to St. Lucia’s music on accident. I happened to be watching Live on Kimmel on a somewhat random night in 2013. They were performing music from their album, When The Night Comes. I was immediately drawn to the synthesizers and drum programming — I was also going through my own personal fascination phase with 80s-Pop adjacent tunes, so there’s that as well. But St. Lucia stuck for me, and here I am 10 years later still talking about them, delightfully! On April 29th, the band released their EP, Utopia I , a wonderful soundscape into their world. Titles like Seperate World, Another Lifetime, and my personal favorite, The Golden Age, all lay out their utopic world of synthesizers and drum machines.
