{"id":3624529,"uri":"https://api.kexp.org/v2/plays/3624529/?format=json","airdate":"2026-03-02T21:20:12-08:00","show":66075,"show_uri":"https://api.kexp.org/v2/shows/66075/?format=json","image_uri":"","thumbnail_uri":"","song":"User Manual","track_id":null,"recording_id":"de748a33-3cd8-4b30-8f90-40f2860f076a","artist":"Telephone Exchange","artist_ids":["b7f8afd9-e6b9-4841-993d-16d41fad86ec"],"album":"Maschinelles Lernen","release_id":null,"release_group_id":"c72a7802-7a2e-4a90-b61e-b54d3455687d","labels":[],"label_ids":[],"release_date":"2019-01-05","rotation_status":null,"is_local":false,"is_request":false,"is_live":false,"comment":"“User Manual” reads like a title with built-in irony: the fantasy that there could be instructions for being human, for operating a relationship, for making the right choices in a world that keeps changing the buttons. Telephone Exchange lean into that tension with music that feels engineered and emotional at the same time—clean lines, deliberate pacing, and an undercurrent of warmth beneath the circuitry. The track moves like a system learning itself: patterns repeating, small variations accumulating, a melody emerging as if it’s being discovered rather than declared. There’s a subtle humor in the concept, but the feeling is sincere. A “manual” implies clarity and control; the music suggests the opposite—that we improvise constantly, that we build meaning out of trial and error, that our best instructions are the ones we write while failing. The arrangement supports that idea by staying precise while allowing atmosphere to seep in, making space for reflection between the rhythmic choices. “User Manual” is especially strong in how it invites close listening: the way textures stack, the way the groove holds steady while the details shift, like a machine whose inner parts are quietly rearranging. The result is music that feels thoughtful without becoming distant—an electronic pulse with a human heartbeat tucked inside it. It’s the sound of trying to understand your own operating system, and realizing that the mystery might be the point.\u2028Listen: https://telephoneexchange.bandcamp.com/album/user-manual","location":1,"location_name":"Default","play_type":"trackplay"}