Song of the Day: Lea Porcelain - A Year From Here

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on The Morning Show with John Richards, is "A Year From Here" by Lea Porcelain from their 2017 debut LP, Hymns To The Night, self-released on Lea Porcelain Recordings.

Lea Porcelain - A Year From Here (MP3)

It's a good sign that a band has really nailed their sound when there's no shortage of adjectives that critics use to describe them, and since the release of their debut EP last year Lea Porcelain have garnered more than a few. Atmospheric, cinematic, quixotic, entrancing, dreamy, melancholic are a few ways to describe the London-by-way-of Berlin duo's first LP, released last month, but it's no doubt that techno producer Julien Bracht and independent recording artist Markus Nikolaus have created a special and unique post-punk-leaning sound. Many songs, like the albums opening tracks - "Out Is In" and "Bones" - are anthemic, John Hughes soundtrack-esque heart-wrenchers. Some tracks recall the dark wine-soaked potency of The National, others the stark vulnerability of Majical Cloudz. Today's featured song, "A Year From Here", is unique among a fairly diverse set of songs, as it's on a backbone of a drowsily strumming ukulele that the ominous synths, pounding rhythms, and brooding vocals build. "A Year From Here" - it's a song that will remain in your thoughts long after its poor narrator will remain in his current admirer's, just as you won't forget Hymns To The Night when you're compiling your annual list half a year from now.

Currently, Lea Porcelain has only select UK and European dates this summer, but hopefully they'll bring their delightfully moody sound to the States now that the new LP is out. Until then, check their website and Facebook page for updates, and be sure to watch the new video for today's featured song, in which the band hopes to convey "the feeling that is just a human emotion and these days that seem dark - when everything you see is black and white - are the days in which it is also important to make progress, to recapitulate and to change your life if it needs changing."