[Music Ninja Radio] Episode 105: Eclectic Selections

Music Ninja Radio is a weekly podcast recorded and broadcast live on San Francisco’s BFF.fm  from 4-6PM PST every Friday. 

Music Ninja Radio
Episode 105: Eclectic Selections

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This week’s episode featured some serious ketchup across a wide range of sub-genres in indie, hip-hop and house. Highlights include Beach House‘s flawless latest single, Paul Cherry‘s slacker pop, MGMT‘s synthpop anthem “Little Dark Age,” Makeness‘ genre-defying jam, SOB x RBE’s relentless hyphy flows and Crackazat’s jazzy house monster.

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[Event Preview] One Love Festival – Lake Perris, CA – 10/20-10/22

It’s tough to keep up with the seemingly endless supply of festivals. With only a limited amount of disposable income, it’s a challenge to pick and choose which ones are worth your time. The heavy hitters are always a good route, whether it be Coachella or Lollapalooza, but those come with a hefty price tag, and an endless sea of people all jockeying to get closer to the stage.

Lately, we’ve been checking out a few festivals that fall into the “Transformational” space. Aside from offering up a solid line up, they have a little more too offer — yoga, bonding ceremonies, healers, live painting, and more.

In a few weeks, we’re going to head out to Lake Ferris, California, which is about two hours outside of Los Angeles, for the One Love Festival. It covers all the bases mentioned above, delivering programming that goes well beyond music. Not to say that we’re not excited for a few of the acts playing — Moby, Mark Farina, and Alex Cruz are a few that we’ve highlighted. But, the thought of a deeper meaning to the festival experience is something we’re excited about, especially after hitting so many that are just about the music over the years.

To switch our usual routine up even further, we’re going to skip the camping, luxury hotel packages, and the AirBnB rentals, instead opting for a completely unique experience. It’s called the Lost Hotel, and it’s unlike anything that we’ve ever heard of.

You set the scene – each cube tent is a blank canvas. At the Lost Hotel we take an expansive notion of the word art. Surprise us. Shock us. Illuminate us. Do it however you please, and the floor, or at least one square cube of it, is yours. We’re specialized at vacation de-programming and, if needed, can help co-create a new story tailored just for you.

If you’re feeling lucky, or if you’d just like to help out with a great cause, our friends at Cadence & Cause have a handful of ways to get into the festival and support Fuck Cancer, a charity that helps with prevention, early detection, and emotional support for those battling breast cancer. From artist experiences with Alex Cruz, to the ultimate festival experience for four people, you have a chance to have the time of your life, all while helping something that affects us all.

While you’re checking that out, feel free to jam on the little playlist we’ve curated below, and get amped for your time out at Lake Ferris.

’Mark Farina & Homero Espinosa – Mistreated (Original Mix)’
’Xavier Rudd – Follow The Sun (Alex Cruz Official Remix)’
’Alex Cruz – Rubberband (ft. Tania Zygar)(short edit)’
’Rocket Heart Ft Katie Gray’
’Moby – Porcelain’
’Washed Out – All I Know (Moby Remix)’
’The Polish Ambassador, Mr. Lif, Ayla Nereo – Terra Bella – 01 Shine Bright’
’Karma Fields
’Liquid Love Drops and An
ten
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[Event Preview/Playlist] The Underground Music Showcase – Denver, CO

The 17th anniversary of one of Denver’s most storied music events, The Underground Music Showcase, is just around the corner. What began as a one-night performance featuring just four bands, The UMS has steadily exploded into to a four-day music and art festival featuring hundreds of performances. As the time draws nearer to what will no doubt be another incredible weekend pf performances, it’s time to get our readers familiar with this year’s crop of (mostly) burgeoning artists spanning a plethora of genres and sounds. While this recent slate of participating artists is the second wave, we can assuredly expect one more run of performers to be added to this year’s bill, so stay tuned!

This year’s bill features one of the more eclectic, varied lineups we’ve been privy to for a number of years, including a seemingly heavier focus on displaying the myriad talent spread across The Centennial State (that’s Colorado ya yokels). On the top end of things, The UMS features an incredible slate of headlining performances from the likes of Nika Roza Danilova’s influential avant-pop project Zola Jesus,  New Orleans based Benjamin Booker‘s raw brand of blues/boogie/soul/rock, Red Fang‘s primal-yet-refined  stoner-metal, John Jagos’ lofi pop alter-ego and TMN darling Brothertiger, and the smoothly subdued vocal stylings of Esmé Patterson. In addition to the already excellent pallet of headliners, The UMS also will be presenting countless sets from some of our absolute favorite Colorado artists including Flaural, Povi, RUMTUM, Slow Caves & Dragondeer. To get your ears tuned for next month’s festivities, check out our preview playlist below and get your learn on if you haven’t already. Tickets are still on presale, so hop to it and pick up a 4-day pass on the cheap here!

’Benjamin Booker – Violent Shiver’
’Brothertiger – Beyond The Infinite’
’Zola Jesus – Exhumed’
’Esmé Patterson – Green Green’
’Red Fang – Blood Like Cream’
’Slow Caves – Glares’
’Povi – 4am’
’Flaural – Culture Ghost’
’RUMTUM – Coastal Hustle’
’Dragondeer – When I See You’
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[MP3 Playlist] Indie Dojo (April 2017 Round #2)

indie-dojo-music-ninja

Got a case of “the I have no idea what to listen to” blues? Well, you’ve landed yourself on the right page friend. Enjoy an Indie Dojo on us.

’Tipling Rock – A Side / B Side’
’Know Fortune – Help Myself’
’Lex Low – Build Me Up’
’Black Fly – I Don’t Know’
’Antony Left – Evil’
’Drew JH York – How Do I Know?’
’Tasha – Naive by The Kooks (cover)’
’Sydney Robinson –
Alexander’

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Light Bodies – Gravity [TMN PREMIERE]

Light Bodies
Gravity

You hear that? It’s the faintest of rumblings coming over the horizon. It brings with it unadulterated freedom and a worry-free vibe that will wash over you in just a few hours. By now you should have guessed it –it’s the weekend and its charge is being led by a phenomenal collection of tunes from the newly-founded Bribery Corporation. If you’re not familiar just yet, don’t worry. This record label/fashion house is set to make a huge splash, as today’s release will indicate.

Dropping as a free download in partnership with BitTorrent, “Gravity” is one of twelve tunes that highlight the tastes of this Miami-based project. Written, produced, and sung by Light Bodies, who has somehow flown under our radar, it was a personal favorite amongst the mix. If this track is any indicator of what’s to come, we can easily assume that it won’t be long before more people start to catch on.

“Gravity” is a sultry stunner, heavily driven by smooth a thumping, seductive bassline, minimalistic beeps, brooding piano chords, and some otherworldy vocals. It’s alluring, but not overwhelming or overdone–a perfect balance of soul-driven lyrics and gorgeous production sure to incite some goosebumps throughout the ride.

If you’re digging “Gravity,” make sure to grab the full bundle on BitTorrent.

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ROOMS – bahna [TMN PREMIERE]

The burgeoning Miami-based record label and fashion collective Bribery Corporation presents “bahna” by ROOMS, a soaring, progressive, ambient song complimented by an equally powerful and minimalistic music video.

ROOMS is Chris Weisson, a Miami-born, Los Angeles-based producer of Cuban/ Ecuadoran descent whose debut LP, There’s No Noise Here, will release on Bribery Corporation this year. The colorful 4k resolution video, directed, shot, and edited in Iceland by lauded Canadian film-maker Edward Platero (responsible for 2012’s The Drop: The EDM Culture Explosion) is a sight to behold.

I’ve traveled many places in my career, and I will say that hands down, Iceland is the most stunning place on the planet…ROOMS has crafted a sonic masterpiece with this song, and hearing it brings me back to the landscapes that I experienced on the top of our planet.

Indeed. “Bahna” has both the intangible atmospheric brilliance and masterful melodic touch evocative of Tycho, Bonobo, and, to a lesser extent, Flume. A reverberating, innocent synth pad opens the song, reminiscent of Boards of Canada’s “Wildlife Analysis”, only to give way to a collage of erie, discordant voices that are quite challenging to listen to. Then, perhaps with a vague stroke of metaphor, the clamor of voices ceases and the music and magic begins.

At the foundation of the drop and the rest of the movement is an undulating wave bass, the type of super-charged sine wave which we heard throughout 2016 from avant-garde “wave music” to ascendant hip-hop a la Travis Scott. It’s a simple sound with width and depth to fill your spirit, mirroring the size and scope of the rich Icelandic landscape. The rest of soundscape is filled with a swirling stew of ambient glitches, strange, synchronized percussive sounds, and deep, broken bass playing off of measured, high-pitched tones that sound like a dialysis machine, betraying the life-giving essence of this music. The protozoic scenes in the music video and the lyric-less expression of the song synchronize perfectly, giving the entire project a primordial power as if the music is part of the Earth itself.

Bribery Corporation, “The Holy Grail of naked bodies, draped in the finest of silks, paid for with the foulest corruption,” is clearly onto something. We look forward to more avant-garde electronic music from their ranks, as well as the full-length debut from ROOMS, who makes his first musical contribution to the public a magnificent one with “bahna”.

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[Hip-Hop] Charles Jane LaFlare – 50 Shades of Jane

Charles Jane LaFlare
Fifty Shades Of Jane (prod. Johnytiger)

There’s a new wave moving through Miami, a one-of-a-kind cut “50 Shades of Jane” courtesy of a first-class future music odd couple – the braggadocious R&B singer/songwriter Charles Jane LaFlare and the grungy, admittedly anti-social beat architect Johnytiger.

Though their collision on this track is potent, these Magic City natives appear to come from disparate backgrounds. Johnytiger gets out there on production, filtering wrecking guitar chords, 808 drums, and wide, low synthesizers through a grunge aesthetic. In fact, Johnytiger plays guitar with the durable hardcore band I Set My Friends On Fire. We were delightfully surprised to hear him cook up a saucy wave beat for LaFlare, an up-and-coming glamorous R&B cat who can really turn a phrase.

“You know I’m a savage / Why you flexing on me like you think you have it?” asks LaFlare. We’re not, you have it, guy. The back end of the tune gets dirty, with the white noise dropping off and LaFlare rhyming assertively over pure bass and drums, with a sardonic sampled vocal leading the track to its conclusion. I can’t remember hearing high-pitched, higher energy, innuendo-laced R&B rhymes over an electronically constructed quasi-rock song before, but I’m damn glad I heard it today.

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