This special edition of Apple Music’s Early Hours DJ mix series, commissioned for Native American Heritage Month, was helmed by the experimental Wisconsin trio Bizhiki, which fuses traditional Native American music with modern electronic influences. Although many Early Hours editions cater to hazy, post-club gatherings, the vision for this clear-eyed mix was uplifting music for waking. “I imagined someone starting their day in a chill way,” Joe Rainey tells Apple Music. His bandmate Sean Carey, who also plays drums with fellow Wisconsinites Bon Iver, agrees: The vibe is “a cortado or two, the couch, and sunlight peeking in.” Beyond any mood or scene-setting, Bizhiki sought to create a mix that represents their cross-cultural roots. “[We wanted] to showcase [bandmate] Dylan [Bizhikiins Jennings] and my Ojibwe culture and the songs and artists that centre us as musicians and performers,” Rainey says. Among their favourite tracks: Keith Secola’s “Zogipoon”, which is sung entirely in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Ojibwe nation, as well as Mali Obomsawin’s “Pedegwajois” and Nataanii Means’ “Drowning”, both of which sample field recordings and snippets of dialogue in indigenous languages. And finally, there’s the billowing, Auto-Tuned piano ballad “PDLIF” by Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, who asked Rainey to collaborate during quarantine. “I remember cutting those vocals in my daughter’s room after being mad about politics,” Rainey says. “After hearing the finished product, I realised this was a song to encourage us in a time of uncertainty.”