Underground Sounds with Chad Miller: February 2025
By Chad Miller - Summit FM Music Director
What's everyone been listening to out there? So much new music coming at us, so little time... However, these songs that might fly under the radar to most are what I've been diggin' these past few weeks!
Like what you hear? Please email me at chad@thesummit.fm and let me know what you think!
The Altons "Float"
An absolutely stellar example of modern soul music from the West Coast that, on this song, really revels in creating a low-key vibe, sounding both laid back in the best ways but also quite sultry and seductive as well. From the southeast corner of Los Angeles comes soul revival band The Altons with this stunner of a song off their debut album,"Heartache in Room 14," available now on Daptone Records. Led by two singers, Adriana Flores and Bryan Ponce, this album sees these two really giving these songs a sense of intimacy and tenderness as they weave their voices into music that certainly creates some sort of mystique but also a hint of intrigue and moody vibes almost befitting of something from a spy-action film.
I'm personally loving the Motown and Stax influences of this band while at the same time sounding like exactly where they're from in the multi-cultural city of angels they call home. I'm very excited to see them in concert as well, coming up March 14th at Mahall's 20 Lanes in Lakewood. You should definitely go too.
Cymande "Chasing an Empty Dream"
After a long absence, and by that I mean decades, classic British soul collective Cymande return with their first album in fifty years, "Renascence," out now on BMG Records.
It happens a lot in the music business, where a band can have their fifteen minutes of fame, but you know you've got a lasting impact when those songs continue to inspire and last throughout time to inspire the greatness of other future acts and stick with music followers over time. From their beginnings in the early 1970s in London, this funk group took on all the influences of that time to form a unique blend of shapeshifting songs that drew from the Afro-Caribbean scene they were a part of. They were also quite influential in the creation of the early beginnings of hip-hop, disco, house, drum, and bass that would all take hold by the late '70s as well.
Despite being critically and commercially ignored in their home country, they gained recognition here in the US as the first British band to headline the Apollo Theater in New York in 1973 and performed that year on Soul Train as well. Settle in for this and enjoy its rich funk grooves and sweet harmonies as these greats pick right up where they left off from back in the day.
Jasmine.4.t "Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation"
Are you familiar with those Guy Fawkes masks that are out there? You know, those white masks with the black arched eyebrows, curly mustache, and thin goatee popularized in the film "V for Vendetta?"
It's one of those things where you'll know it when you see it, but it also refers to the annual British holiday on November 5 that bears his name. That all serves as the backdrop for this song from singer-songwriter and trans woman Jasmine Cruickshank who details an awful night she was going through around the time of her divorce and how she got through with the help of a friend. That breakthrough moment in a time of crisis is something she credits to saving her life. The song is a standout on the debut album "You Are the Morning" out now on Saddest Factory Records and the first UK signing to that label owned and operated by Phoebe Bridgers. In fact, Bridgers along with Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, who are also collectively Boygenius of course, all came together to produce this album.
While the subject matter may have come from a dark place, the performances and artistry combined with its collaborative creative process pulled her through to the light by the friends who helped along the way.
Stella "Adagio"
An earworm if ever there was one, I simply keep coming back to this song more and more. Greek indie pop artist Stella returns with this subdued yet infectious title track from her second album,"Adagio," to be released April 4 via Sub Pop records.
An Italian word that essentially means the equivalent of slow, this song effectively communicates exactly that with its message being to slow down and the let the world come to you. In an era of instant everything and the idea of having so much available to us at the easiest of conveniences, it might be odd to pretty much sing a love song to the idea of taking a step back from all that, but I can completely get behind this sentiment.
Maybe it's the old soul in me or the introvert that I am, but I too revel in the idea of an easier pace to life and appreciating life's quieter moments. That being said, this song with its subtle samba percussion and understated yet noticeable hook is irresistible to me having cut through amongst lots of other music out there currently. Have a listen to this song and try not to let it slowly seep into your brain as it has for me the last few weeks!
Valerie June "Joy, Joy!"
Valerie June is one of the most genuine and kindest musicians I've had the chance to meet throughout my radio career. I'm so happy to know that there's new music out there in our world from the Grammy-nominated singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She truly shines with everything she does.
There is always a sense of wide-eyed optimism coming through her songs. This serves as the lead single to her upcoming new album, "Owls, Omens, and Oracles," set for release April 11 on Concord Records. That optimism especially shines through on this song, embracing positivity with an undeniable exuberance while also serving as a foot-stompin' jam. June is an artist and poet who is rooted in a wide variety of music genres and influences that she uniquely makes her own; she always lives her truth by channeling that into everything she does as a person as well.
Regarding this song, June sums it up perfectly, "Everyone has felt moments of darkness, depression, anxiety, stress, ailments, or pain. This song reflects on the hard times we might face: to fail, to fall, to lose, to be held down, to be silenced, to be shut out yet still hold onto a purely innocent and childlike joy."
Well said indeed.