Posts by Jakub

Artwork by Michael Cina

My name is Chester Raj Anand. I’m from Upstate NY. I’m 20. I grew up in a small town called Red Hook. My brother got me into production at a very young age. By second grade I was used to experimenting on computer programs like Acid and Fruity Loops. I remember telling my 2nd grade teacher that Aphex Twin was my favorite.

It got to a point where I would lock myself in the basement everyday after school and make like 5 or 6 beats a day on my PC computer on fruityloops everyday until college. I’d mess with Indian tapes and records and keyboards. I never really knew about a beat scene at all. I didn’t even think that other people were doing the same thing or that this would become somewhat of a culture. I discovered people like Dilla & Dabrye and Madlib and it all blew my mind.

I decided to make my music public on my 17th birthday. I released an experimental beat tape called “17 Years” which got the attention of people at Asthmatic Kitty and Astro Nautico. And then I did some releases for them and changed my name from InfinitiRock to Lord RAJA.

Music has always been the biggest part of my life. I have always loved experimental and electronic music. I think I liked the idea of communicating with sounds rather than lyrics since a young age because when I would hear Indian music in the car I couldn’t understand the words. I just focused on the instrumental loops and saw that as a new form of expression or reflection. I was obsessed with records and all that. I like to mess with film also. I like to mess with everything.

via FactMag

I’m seeing a lot music apps lately that have amazing potential but this one has a uniqueness to it thats built in. Soo happy to see a label like Ninja Tune grab the bull by the horns and drive deep into the musical making experience, my only worry is that it gives the younger generation the mindset that they might own a song that they made with other artists samples, just sayin’.

head over to createdigitalmusic for a great Q&A about the app.

When’s the launch?

Today! April 11th, 2013
How much is the app?

It’s free to download and comes with 1 free tunepack (Beats and Pieces 3). You can purchase single tunepacks for a launch price of £0.69/$0.99, or “EPs” of 4 tunepacks for £1.99.
What tunes and artists will be included at launch?
Coldcut – Beats and Pieces 3 (comes free with the app)
Mr Scruff – Wobble Control
DJ Food – Dark Lady
Coldcut x Hex – Timber (Seiji Remix)
Two Fingers (Amon Tobin) – Fools
Bonobo – Eyes Down
Falty DL – Atlantis
Martyn – Masks
Starkey – Blood Roses

via CDM

I’ll always be a sucker for “Cold War Design” its usually the color then the paper that does it for me. Makes me want to tear down walls in old Polish apartments to look for printed patterns on decaying dry wall.

via present&correct

Photo by: Will Calcutt

Kuhrye-oo plays around with a D’n’B hybrid rework of Beacon’s recent hit single, download it here for free.

Thom Yorke seems to have a great way to add energy to the live sets, I wasn’t expecting this stage plot or this sort of excitement from him, totally in love with it, everyone with controller and/or laptop just looks sort of anti-charisma now.

This is the first glimpse of Zomby’s LP on 4AD, seems to be pretty settled down but wow i’m ready for all of it. With this though summer seems to be sort of a dark moody summer music wise.

One of the best purely sample based disco edits i’ve heard since early Mark E coming to us from Poland, really proud of these guys.

Bouncing in and out of genres almost like he doesn’t want him to label his sound, Travis pieces together energetic and cosmic monster for the dance floor that will melt your brain.

Konstantin Sibold sounds like the name of an old European king, this song even has horns so the visual in my head comes in even more clear. This single Madeleine is part of Innervisions impressive growing catalog of perfect dance floor tracks that combine drive / builds / fullness gorgeously.

The last of winter rolls in with this single from Balam Acab, at one point it sounds like Burial remixing an old Sigur Ros song.

Soo many beautiful announcements happened for Jacob and Thomas from Beacon, first off they just announced the preorder of their debut LP along with a sugar based sculpted record holder limited to only 20 pieces. Before that they shared a new mix and some spring tour dates, all of it is here in one place along with the process video of the making of the art edition record frame.

About the artist:

Fernando Mastrangelo has exhibited nationally and internationally for the last decade. Mastrangelo uses materials such as sugar, coffee, corn, gunpowder, human cremated ash, and other more controversial substances. He often addresses social, cultural, and political issues with unconventional timely works. His works are included in numerous private collections around the world, as well as the Brooklyn Museum of Art, where you can currently see his 2008 sculpture “Avarice,” a rendition of the Aztec calendar cast entirely from White Mexican Corn.

Order Art edition (ltd to 20)
Pre-release Vinyl/CD

Deluxe Art Edition Details:
Edition of 20 + 3 APs
Includes signed and numbered certificate
Dimensions: 13″ x 13″ x 2″
Weight: 10 lbs
Materials: Sugar, Epoxy
Limited dusty rose vinyl + download card included

Lukid – Snow Theme
Tornado Wallace – Always Twirling
Bambounou – Challenger
Tiger & Woods – T&W Lab File #07
Unknown Artist – What You Need (Coat of Arms Remix)
Marcus Mixx – Special Creme (Rub It Mixx)
S.K.A.M. – Outside The Box (Homework Perspective)
Shams – Wasted

Many have already bought it but I felt like it was still necessary to stream the Bonobo LP, I’d love YOUR thoughts on this one.

UK producer Simon Green, who works under the moniker of Bonobo, is an artist tailor-made for KCRW. He is a master of downtempo, silky-smooth trip-hop, a sound that the station has savored for decades. He’s a bassist who knows the value of a solidly built spine to drape his smart electronic touches upon. And he’s a savvy judge of talent, having recently helped singer/songwriter Andreya Triana with her debut album and featuring her on his own records.

With The North Borders, his 5th full-length album, Bonobo demonstrates all of these skills in one nicely rewarding package. Effortlessly groovy, but just as much elegant and sweeping, the album features a series of talented vocal guests, including the incomparable Erykah Badu on one of the album’s highlights, “Heaven for the Sinner,” as well as some fairly recent UK newcomers Grey Reverend & Szjerdene, not to forget hotly-tipped Swedish songstress Cornelia. It’s a seductive package that has already been a Top 10 charting record, proving that over ten years since his debut Green still hasn’t lost his touch.

Track List
1. First Fires (Featuring Grey Reverend)
2. Emkay
3. Cirrus
4. Heaven For The Sinner (Featuring Erykah Badu)
5. Sapphire
6. Jets
7. Towers (Featuring Szjerdene)
8. Don’t Wait
9. Know You
10. Antenna
11. Ten Tigers
12. Transits (Featuring Szjerdene)
13. Pieces

via KCRW

Mount Kimbie has always made an effort to make weird attractive to the ear, with their new single Made To Stray off their upcoming LP. They invert the pop angle by slow pairing odd hisses and filters in the intro to getting to the soft hooky vocal at the end.

Cascine have done a great job finding remixers for their artists and this one for Wildarms’ Clear Eyes EP is no exception. Octo Octa carries out a intricate and warm dub rework that hints at the sounds that made labels like Dial what they are today.

There was only 75 made copies of this vinyl and I had 2 in my shopping cart, i’m talking about this new single from The Juan MacLean, for some reason I didn’t press buy quick enough and waited too long, still kicking myself for that one.

The smooth and catchy beauty is coming back to Kompakt and I couldn’t be happier, they led the way of making techno attractive back in the day, so glad Coma is getting the love they deserve for this new single.

Tomorrow night 1015 Folsom/DJ Dials Present GHOSTLY INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE

FRIDAY MARCH 22nd, 2013
10P-3A
21+ ONLY

COM TRUISE
ADULT.
SHIGETO
MUX MOOL
DAUWD (DJ Set)
HEATHERED PEARLS (DJ Set)

Come say hello, i’ll probably be DJing early and you know the rest of the roster is worth it. I’ll try to be giving out some of the new Ghostly stickers on this beautiful half satin matte finish. Sadly I don’t think Scott will be able to make it, maybe he’ll drop in, here’s hoping.

TICKETS HERE

I’m late to the Octo Octa game, i’ve been digging up what I can find and this gem has my ear, I like that its pretty true to the originators of this sound.

Marius Vareid never fails to nail that dreamy end of daytime disco, sometimes it steps out from the dancefloor reaches to rejuvenating some untouched 80’s sound.

Some people might hear Cocteau Twins instrumentally to compare No Joy but its too rushed and the drums definitely are recorded differently, its hard to love someone trying to make this sound because the influencers wrote too personal of songs. Either way its still worth hearing and hoping for some commitments to this sound from the band and it not just being fashionably a good choice to make this music.

Rustie might be beyond anything that I can appreciate by now, I really loved him but now its getting too Euro ringtone for me meets a Japanese Sega game theme song that never reached the States in 1995.