EKHO Sonic Chill #15

Thievery Corporation. Rob Garza and Eric Hilton, out of Washington, DC. They met at the Eighteenth Street Lounge in 1995 and built a globe-spanning downtempo sound from dub, bossa nova, Indian music and jazz. 'Beautiful Drug' is track 9 on their fifth album, Radio Retaliation (ESL Music, September 23rd, 2008), with Jana Andevska singing. Garza told NPR in 2008 that a Brazilian singer who tours with the band introduced them to her. The album went to number 1 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart.

SBTRKT. That's Aaron Jerome, an English producer who performed in masks inspired by ceremonial masks, so the music could speak for itself. His self-titled debut (Young Turks, June 2011) mixed UK garage, bass music and soul, made the UK Dance Albums top 10, and was DJ Mag's Best Artist Album in its Best of British 2011 awards. 'Wildfire' was its second single, out May 23rd, 2011, sung by Yukimi Nagano of the Gothenburg band Little Dragon. Drake put a verse on a remix, and that remix became the single's B-side. He came back with The Rat Road in 2023, his first album in nine years, then EPs in 2023 and 2024.

Zero 7. Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker, a London duo who met as engineers at RAK Studios. 'Futures' opens their third album, The Garden (UK May 22nd, 2006), and was its first single, out March 13th, 2006, sung by Swedish singer-songwriter José González. The Garden reached number 4 in the UK and got a Grammy nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2007. In 2024 they co-wrote and produced Swim Surreal's album In the Half Light.

DIIV. Out of Brooklyn. Zachary Cole Smith started it in 2011 as a solo project, and now it's him with Andrew Bailey, Colin Caulfield and Ben Newman. Watery, krautrock-driven guitar dream pop. 'How Long Have You Known' is off their debut, Oshin (Captured Tracks, June 2012), with a video by Grant Singer in May 2012. Smith named Malian guitarist Baba Salah next to Nirvana and C86 bands as influences on Oshin. Their fifth album, ZIRP!, produced by A. G. Cook (Charli XCX, Caroline Polachek), came out Friday, October 30th, 2026 on Fantasy.

The Smiths. Out of Manchester: Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce, together from 1982 to 1987. Marr's chiming guitar under Morrissey's wry, literate lyrics. 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' came out as a single on Rough Trade on May 21st, 1984, and peaked at number 10, their first UK top-ten single. Marr wrote the music in a New York hotel room on January 2nd, 1984, on a red Gibson ES-355 that Sire Records boss Seymour Stein bought him that day. The title nods to Sandie Shaw's 1969 single 'Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now'. It was the first Smiths session engineered by Stephen Street, who went on to co-produce the band, and it later turned up on the compilations Hatful of Hollow (1984) and Louder Than Bombs (1987). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists it among its 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Broken Social Scene. The sprawling Toronto collective founded by Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, an incubator for Feist, Emily Haines (Metric) and Stars. 'Lover's Spit' is the six-minute track 11 on You Forgot It in People (Arts & Crafts, October 15th, 2002), produced by David Newfeld, and the album won the 2003 Juno for Alternative Album of the Year. The song turned up in Showtime's Queer as Folk and on its season three soundtrack, and in the film Wicker Park (2004). And get this: Lorde name-checks it in her 2013 song 'Ribs'. Their latest album, Remember the Humans, came out May 8th, 2026, with new collaborator Hannah Georgas.

Beach House. Baltimore dream pop, a duo: Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally. 'Lemon Glow' was the lead single from 7, out on Sub Pop February 15th, 2018, with a checkered visualizer. They recorded it in 2017 at Apple Orchard in Baltimore and Carriage House in Stamford, Connecticut, and produced it with Sonic Boom. A strobing, metallic synth line runs right through it, and it stops dead at the end. The Fader called it what might be their danciest single to date.

Goodbye. Out of Brighton, England, a five-piece dream-pop band: Megan Wheeler (vocals), Sarah Ryan (guitar, synth, vocals), Alfie Beer (guitar, vocals), Jake Smith (bass) and Elik Eddy (drums). Their debut single, 'Meat', came out in December 2025, and in March 2026 they supported Lime Garden on tour. '13a' introduced their debut EP, These Things Take Time, out March 26th, 2026. Wheeler says the song's about a close, emotionally intimate connection, treasuring those moments while admitting the need to let go.

The Glitch Mob. Out of Los Angeles's bass-heavy beat scene in 2006, and now the duo of edIT (Edward Ma) and Ooah (Josh Mayer), after Justin Boreta left in 2023. Their debut album, Drink the Sea (Glass Air, 2010), reached number 15 on Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart. 'Between Two Points', sung by Swan, later got an animated video. Their remix of 'Seven Nation Army' was used in the trailers for G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Battlefield 1. How about that? In 2026 they composed the soundtrack for Skybound's fighting game Invincible VS.

Yppah. That's Joe Corrales Jr., a producer out of Long Beach, California. He started out in rock bands and turntablism, then folded shoegaze haze and psychedelia into warm downtempo. 'D. Song' is track 2 on Eighty One (Ninja Tune, April 2nd, 2012), his third Ninja Tune album. It and 'Film Burn' were both singles with Seattle artist Anomie Belle. They met on a tour with Bonobo, and she went on to play guitar, keys and violin and sing in his live shows. And get this: 'D. Song' turns up in Netflix's Altered Carbon, season two, episode two, 'Payment Deferred' (2020). His latest album is Sunset in the Deep End (Future Archive, 2020).

Eels. The band of Mark Oliver Everett, known as E, formed in Los Feliz, Los Angeles, in 1995. Bittersweet, melodic rock that swings from lo-fi tenderness to fuzz, from Beautiful Freak (1996) and Electro-Shock Blues (1998) through Blinking Lights and Other Revelations (2005). 'Numbered Days' was written by E and guitarist Joe Gore. It's track 11 on Shootenanny! (DreamWorks, June 3rd, 2003), recorded in about ten days with Lisa Germano on violin. 'My Beloved Monster' is on the Shrek soundtrack, nine Eels songs are on the Yes Man soundtrack, including 'Man Up', written new for it, and 'Fresh Blood' is the theme of HBO's The Jinx (2015). Their latest album, Cookie Happened, came out October 16th, 2026.

Beck. Beck Hansen, out of Los Angeles, three decades jumping from slacker folk-hop to funk to heartbreak balladry. 'Don't Let It Go' is track 8 on Morning Phase (Capitol, February 2014), the hushed, string-washed companion to Sea Change (2002). Nearly all the same players, and orchestral arrangements by his father, David Campbell. Much of it was cut in Los Angeles in about three days in early 2013. It debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 and won Album of the Year at the Grammys in February 2015. How about that? His latest album, Ride Lonesome, came out on Capitol on September 18th, 2026.

Love Spells. That's Sir Taegen C'aion Harris, out of Houston, Texas. Swooning dream pop and bedroom pop with a floating falsetto. 'The Illness' is track 5 on his six-song EP The Love I Showed You Was Yours To Keep (Loveless/ADA, May 22nd, 2025). He's said writing it felt like a confession, and the song is his therapy. The same EP has 'Bones And All', made after one of his favorite movies of all time, Luca Guadagnino's Bones and All. He worked with Kevin Abstract on Abstract's 2025 album Blush and supported Sharon Van Etten and The Attachment Theory on their North American tour. His debut album, Love Is the Law, came out on RCA on July 24th, 2026. He says he made it to feel like home in Texas.

Babehoven. Out of Hudson, New York. Songwriter Maya Bon with producer and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Albert. 'Pockets' is track 8 on Light Moving Time (Double Double Whammy, October 28th, 2022), their first full-length. Bon wrote it, Albert produced it and Bon co-produced. Water's Here in You followed in 2024, and their third album, I See Them, I See Me, came out September 18th, 2026.

Acopia. Trio out of Naarm/Melbourne, Australia: Kate Durman, Lachlan McGeehan and Morgan Wright, making music together since 2018. Restrained, atmospheric dream pop with trip-hop shadows and minimalist electronics. 'What I've Been Looking For' is track 6 on their self-titled second album, self-released November 24th, 2023. The band wrote and produced it, Morgan Wright mixed it, and Lachlan McGeehan's on drums. Blush Response followed on London's Scenic Route in September 2025.

Massive Attack. Out of Bristol's Wild Bunch sound-system scene in 1988, led by Robert '3D' Del Naja and Grant 'Daddy G' Marshall, and they defined trip-hop across Blue Lines, Protection and Mezzanine. 'Group Four' is track 10 of 11 on Mezzanine (Circa/Virgin, April 20th, 1998). Eight minutes long, 3D's voice and Cocteau Twins singer Elizabeth Fraser's rising together over a long build into guitar noise. Here's the thing: Fraser's a credited co-writer, alongside 3D, Daddy G and Mushroom. Produced by the band with Neil Davidge, mixed by Mark 'Spike' Stent. In April 2026 they put out 'Boots on the Ground' with Tom Waits.

You'll Never Get to Heaven. Dream-pop duo out of London, Ontario: Alice Hansen, a classically trained pianist and violinist, and studio tone-sculptor Chuck Blazevic. Hushed vocals, echo and reverb. For Images, Alice says they were hugely inspired by ambient and minimal music, and Chuck names old piano recordings of Debussy and Ravel and early-'60s girl-group 45s. 'Beyond the Clouds' is track 7 on Images (March 24th, 2017), released by Yellow K Records. They almost didn't include it on the album, but it was a lot of fun to play live on tour. Their latest album is Wave Your Moonlight Hat for the Snowfall Train (2021).

Dumbhead. Trio out of Naarm/Melbourne, Australia. Founder Maayan Barnatan on beats, guitar and programming, jazz-trained singer Billie Raffety (three years at the VCA) on lead vocals, and Zach Salmon on programming and live dub effects. Trip-hop, IDM and experimental jazz with a haunting, operatic choral edge, and trumpet from Henry Rawling. Barnatan started it alone, making beats in his bedroom. He met Raffety at a bar and asked her to sing, and she was a way better singer than him, so she took the lead. 'Problem Dog' was the first single (October 2024) from their self-titled second EP (Crossing House, October 30th, 2025), where it's track 5. Debut EP Stop Motion came in 2023. They name Massive Attack, Portishead, Björk, Radiohead and Acopia among their influences.

Herbert & Momoko. That's British electronic producer Matthew Herbert with drummer, vocalist and composer Momoko Gill, who cut her teeth in South London's music scene and has played with Alabaster DePlume, Coby Sey and Tirzah. 'Need To Run' is off Clay (Strut, June 27th, 2025), their first full-length album, and it was one of the singles, alongside 'Babystar'. The album moves between the dancefloor and the moods of the early hours, built partly from found sounds like Japanese koto and basketballs. Herbert's the found-sound producer behind Around the House, Bodily Functions and the One trilogy. He programmed tracks on Björk's Vespertine and scores films, including the Oscar-winning A Fantastic Woman. The two first worked together on the 2024 single 'Fallen'.

Thom Yorke. Singer and main songwriter of Radiohead, out of Oxfordshire, England. Solo, he made The Eraser (2006), Tomorrow's Modern Boxes (2014) and Anima (2019), which came with a Paul Thomas Anderson short film. He also fronts Atoms for Peace, with Flea and Nigel Godrich, and The Smile. 'Hearing Damage' is an electronic track he wrote as a new song for The Twilight Saga: New Moon soundtrack in 2009. It's track 3 on that album, and the album went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200. How about that? He's kept working in film since: the Suspiria score (2018), 'Daily Battles' for Motherless Brooklyn (2019, shortlisted for the Best Original Song Oscar) and songs for Peaky Blinders (2022). In 2025 he put out Tall Tales with Mark Pritchard.

TYSON, Coby Sey and Nosaj Thing. A three-way single, out June 23rd, 2026 on Ladies Music Pub Records. TYSON is singer Tyson McVey, Neneh Cherry's daughter. Coby Sey's a Lewisham, London musician and NTS Radio host, behind the acclaimed solo debut Conduit (2022) and collaborations with Tirzah and Mica Levi. Nosaj Thing is Los Angeles producer Jason Chung, and he produced it. His albums run from Drift (2009) to Continua (2022) and Verses GT with Jacques Greene (2025). Saxophonist Sam Gendel and Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio are in the writing credits too. Sey premiered it on his own NTS show in June 2026 and called it 'a collaborative song from TYSON, Nosaj Thing and I.'

PebbL. The solo project of Gina Tratt, who also makes music with the alt-pop band Pocket Sun. She wrote and produced 'Space Travel', a single on the Nice Guys label from March 15th, 2023, and it opens her first EP, Moonbeams (May 26th, 2023). Before it came the single 'Why Don't You Come Over' (2020). 'Fading Away' followed on April 21st, 2023.

The Starseeds. Formed in London in 1995: singer, lyricist and composer Regina Dannhof and composer Alex McGowan. Their first track, 'Behind The Sun', produced by Duncan Bridgeman, opened the Waveform Records ambient compilation Two A.D. in 1995. Their debut album was Parallel Life, and the band say it was used in the HBO series Six Feet Under. 'Where Time Is Not' runs six and a half minutes, off their second album, recorded at Universal Feedback studio in Fulham, London. Their second album was first titled There Is Enough For Everyone, and Dannhof revised it and renamed it Strange Planet in February 2025. She's been reissuing the catalogue since 2024, including the Parallel Life Deluxe Star Watch Edition on August 10th, 2026.

Ivy. Dominique Durand on vocals, a Parisian who moved to New York to study English, with New York musicians Andy Chase and the late Adam Schlesinger. They formed the trio in 1994. Lush, breathy dream pop. 'The Best Thing' opens their second album, Apartment Life (Atlantic, October 6th, 1997), and it was the lead single. Guests on the album include Lloyd Cole, James Iha, Dean Wareham and Chris Botti. And get this: another song off it, 'This Is the Day', is in the Farrelly brothers' There's Something About Mary (1998) and on its soundtrack. Schlesinger died in April 2020. Chase and Durand finished Traces of You (2025) from archived material.

Field Division. A duo out of Des Moines, Iowa: Evelyn Taylor and Nicholas Frampton. They started working together in Nashville in 2013, and they're based in Los Angeles now. They call it 'folkwave', and their own description is Laurel Canyon tinged psychedelic folk rock and dream pop. 'Hollow Body Weather' came out as a single on September 23rd, 2014, and it's track 3 of their debut EP, Reverie State (October 28th, 2014). Recorded in Nashville, co-produced with Konrad Snyder and Benjamin Kaufman, mastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound in New York. Their debut album, Dark Matter Dreams (2018), came out on Bella Union, the label founded by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie of Cocteau Twins. They recorded it in Denton, Texas with Midlake drummer McKenzie Smith, who co-produced it.

Song of the show on Episode 15 · pick 15 of the EKHO Sonic 25

Vanishing Twin. Singer and multi-instrumentalist Cathy Lucas, formerly of Fanfarlo, formed the band in 2015, with drummer Valentina Magaletti (Tomaga) and bassist Susumu Mukai, who records as Zongamin. Psychedelic, Brazilian-tinged art pop that's drawn comparisons to Stereolab. 'You Are Not an Island' runs seven and a half minutes on their second album, The Age of Immunology (Fire Records, June 7th, 2019). Pitchfork gave The Age of Immunology 8/10. Since then: Ookii Gekkou (2021), Afternoon X (2023, universal acclaim on Metacritic) and Archives (Fire, October 2nd, 2026).