A Beat Happening

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B+ & Coleman (Mochilla) Aug 16, 2022

Show notes

We close season 2 with two very special guests, a pair of photographers and documentarians without whom our path in this music thing wouldn't be the same. Brian "B+" Cross and Eric Coleman met in the early 1990s. One was an immigrant from Ireland recently arrived on the US west coast to study, the other was an Angeleno, and they both had a deep love for and interest in the then burgeoning hip-hop culture and the artform of photography. In 1997 they setup Mochilla, a production company through which they've documented beat culture in motion via a series of crucial documentary films, events, as well as ongoing work for artists like Kamasi Washington, Damian Marley, and Quantic. Individually they've shot some of the most loved and memorable hip-hop covers, including DJ Shadow and Madvillain, and have been involved in a wide variety of projects both officially and behind the scenes. But what really makes Mochilla important is that they are elders with a genuine passion and interest in the history that has been unfolding for the past 40 years and the understanding that it deserves to be shared and treasured. We couldn't be happier to wrap up season 2 with them, especially as we've spent so much time in LA this season.

This episode was edited and produced by Laurent Fintoni. Intro and outro music by Duke Westlake. Artwork by Kutmah. Design assistance by Paper Resistance and Brandy Flower. This show is a labor of love and if you enjoy what you hear and would like to support us in being able to continue, you can donate via PayPal at https://paypal.me/abeathappening.

In this episode we discuss...

Cairo trip with Jay Electronica
First meetings and learning to DJ
B's shoot with Eazy E
will.i.am vs Thes One at Dusk's soundclash
Firecracker and Aron's
Hanging out with Doom in LA
Getting to know and hang with Madlib and Jay Dee
Finding that Cortex record
Shooting the cover for Company Flow's Lil Johnny

Tracklist:

Coleman - Earthquake
will.i.am vs Thes One at the Rootdown
Cortex - Huit Octobre 1971
Jrocc - Go!

Links:

Keepintime at Internet Archive
Mochilla portfolio

Daedelus Aug 02, 2022

Show notes

For the penultimate episode of season 2 we welcome one of the kindest and most eloquent proponent of beat culture we have the pleasure to know: Alfred Darlington aka Daedelus. Since the early 2000s, Darlington has been an integral node in the LA underground connecting seemingly disparate scenes and sounds from rave to folk, jazz to IDM. An original dublab 'rat', classically trained bass player, and early user of custom digital control devices, Darlington has released over 20 albums, both solo and in collaboration with Frosty, Laura Darlington, Busdriver and Radioinactive and Kneebody. Equally important has been their role as a live performer, using the monome to take productions outside the studio as well as create mindbending DJ sets that remain some of the best encapsulations of the late 2000s and early 2010s beat scene explosion and its cross pollination with dance music. All of this, as well as their unequalled eloquence of what this music and culture is and represents, has naturally led to a recent role as a faculty member within Berklee's Electronic Digital Instrument program.

In this episode we discuss...

Meeting Justin
Early LA digging days and the city's digging culture
Late 90s LA jazz scene and its links to other scenes
Family building and music
EDM and club nightlife
DJ set approach and international connections
Low End Theory
Hagiography of the LA beat scene
The Long Lost and the Dwight Trible album

Tracklist:

Daedelus - Experience
Live on KEXP
Daedelus - Hrs:Mins:Secs
The Long Lost - Woebegone

Links:

dakim Jul 26, 2022

Show notes

On this week's episode of A Beat Happening we welcome a producer from Detroit who rarely gives interviews but whose music has been an inspiration to those in the culture with keen ears for over a decade: dakim. Coming to the attention of many in the late 2000s, when he relocated to Los Angeles and involved himself in the local scene, and early 2010s, thanks in part to his central role in Gus Sutherland's sadly unreleased All Ears documentary, dak has been a quiet force as a producer unafraid of experimenting with the potentials of beat culture beyond its most obvious representations. As comfortable with sample chops as he is with jit rhythms, drones, and layered compositions, dak's music traverses internal universes. he has released primarily via his own ddust label and matthewdavid's Leaving Records, and has taken on aliases such as Saafron and Peoplemover to represent different sides of his output or creative approach. Based out of San Francisco since leaving LA, he is a true producer's producer and we are very grateful to have him on the show to discuss his career, creative process, and perceptions of beat culture.

In this episode we discuss...

Audo pilots project
Coming up in Detroit after the '90s era
Discovering Slum Village and electronic music
Seeing Mike Paradinas live and being inspired to get an MPC
Working with different machines/processes
The importance of dancing for creativity
Spirituality in the creative practice
Beat archives and samples
Improvisation and live vs recorded output
Relationship with jit culture
Connections with Baatin, Black Milk, and Akh
Meeting Kutmah, Ras G, and Sacred at Project Blowed
Lessons on the MPC

Tracklist:

Extract from The New Dance show
Saafron - Saffron
ddustbin archive joint
Peoplemover - jitterbugs
Sterling Toles - 11/19
ddustbin archive joint

Links:

Nobody Jul 19, 2022

Show notes

This week we welcome to the show the only DJ to hold a residency at both Sketchbook and Low End Theory: Elvin Estela aka Nobody. Originally from Carson, Elvin fell into the world of hip-hop and beat making via college radio, including Mike Nardone's KXLU show We Came From Beyond, and trips to South Central LA to hear what was happening at the Good Life and soon after Project Blowed. He befriended Omid and others who turned him onto new ideas and eventually parlayed an early beat tape into an album deal with San Francisco label Ubiquity, which released his debut album, Soulmates, in 2000. Taking a cue from the likes of DJ Shadow, Mumbles, and DJ Hive, Nobody made dusty beats but where others leaned on funk and soul he instead focused on psych rock, which at the time was still largely ignored as a sample source. In the following years he befriended Prefuse 73 and learnt to DJ in order to promote his music, eventually ending up as one of the irregular residents at Sketchbook before becoming one of the founding residents at Low End Theory, where a close proximity to the new generation of producers led him to evolve his sound towards the dancefloor both on his own and in collaboration with Low End's host, Nocando.

In this episode we discuss...

LA radio landscape and the importance of college radio
Going to the Good Life and meeting Omid
Making his first beat tape and working with Ellay Khule
Being inspired by DJ Shadow, Hive, Digiak and CVE
Signing to Ubiquity and getting into psych rock
Meeting Justin at Aron's
Meeting Prefuse and the IDM moment
Making RoadKillOverCoat with Busdriver and Boom Bip and the beginnings of Low End Theory
Collaborations with Nocando and Mystic Chords of Memory
Getting into modern rap in the '10s and the EDM crossover

Tracklist:

CVE - KKK/K
Nobody - Green Means
Bonzo Dog Band - Noise For The Leg
Nobody - Porpoise Song (Savath Y Savalas Remix)
Busdriver - Bloody Paw On The Dance Floor
Nobody & Mystic Chords Of Memory - Decisions, Decisions
Nocando - Hurry Up And Wait

Links:

Nobody Bandcamp

Jimetta Rose Jul 12, 2022

Show notes

This week on A Beat Happening we are very happy to welcome Jimetta Rose: a singer, songwriter, and community activist whose radiance and energy has powered the LA scene for over a decade. The South Central native began her career in the late 2000s collaborating with the likes of Shafiq Husayn and Georgia Anne Muldrow, before self-releasing her debut in 2010. She spent most of that decade as a go-to vocalist, working with House Shoes, Blu, Quelle Chris, Quantic and many more. In 2016 she reunited with Georgia for a second album, and just this year she released an album with Shoes' Street Corner Music and the debut from her new project, The Voices of Creation. Inspired by the transformative power of music, The Voices of Creation is a choir led by Jimetta that combines the spiritual jazz, gospel, and soul music that have all been integral to her solo work and now find themselves amplified through community. Jimetta's dedication to the late Ras G, I Met A Mountain, as performed by the choir is a poignant and essential tribute that speaks to the deep spiritual roots that run across the LA underground but are rarely highlighted. A true lodestar of soul music, Jimetta Rose continues to shine a light for us all to follow.

In this episode we discuss...

Sketchbook days
Beginnings and first collaborations
Soul music past and present and its relationship to beat culture
Growing up in South Central
Founding the Voices of Creation and working in the community
Writing I Met A Mountain for Ras G
Collaborating
Los Angeles and creativity

Tracklist:

SA-RA Creative Partners - Glorious (instrumental)
The Voices of Creation - Let the Sun Shine In
The Voices of Creation - I Met A Mountain
Jimetta Rose - Might Could Be Nice
Jimetta Rose - Emerald City

Links:

Dibiase Jul 05, 2022

Show notes

This week we welcome Dibiase to the podcast, a veteran of the Los Angeles underground, the man responsible for that boombox outside Sketchbook, and one of the nicest people we know. The Watts native cut his teeth alongside Ras G at Project Blowed, eventually becoming an integral part of the producer community that flourished around the night's MC showcases and which took full flight in the mid 2000s with dedicated beat showcases. It's also around this time that his name began to spread outside of LA thanks in no small part to MySpace, where his early video game flips gained him worldwide recognition, and to various beat battles he took part in across the USA and Canada. But what separates Dibi from many of his peers is his love of and dedication to the craft of beat making and the idea that it isn't what you use but how you use it: from traditional samplers to calculators, Dibi has shown many that you can use almost anything to make a dope beat. In recent years this approach has led him to work more closely with manufacturers like Roland as well as take on more of an educator role within online communities through Twitter and Twitch.

In this episode we discuss...

Early days at Poobah, Sketchbook, and Juju
The boombox, beat making, and connecting with local heads
Learning to make beats with Ras G at school
Early '90s LA rap scene, rhyming at Good Life and Project Blowed
Beat tapes at the Good Life and Project Blowed
Meeting Jonwayne and collaborations
Sketchbook and the LA club beat battle scene in the mid '00s
Working with dancers
Working with the producer community

Tracklist:

Dibiase & devonwho - Flawless victory
Quelle Chris - LiveAlone.DieAlone
CVE - The Afterlife
Sacred - Grow Your Own

Links:

House Shoes Jun 21, 2022

Show notes

For the first episode of Season 2 we welcome House Shoes. Originally from Detroit, now an adopted Angeleno, Shoes is a DJ, producer, and label head who started working at local record stores in the Detroit area where he befriended a young Jay Dee. Soon after he became host of the hip-hop room at St. Andrew's Hall in the 1990s, setting himself on a path to become an ambassador for his city to the world for the next decade. In the early 2010s, he moved away from beat making to set up Street Corner Music (named after the record shop where his career began), through which he supports new and established talent and acts as an ambassador for dope shit, regardless of origin. Through it all he has remained a DJ's DJ, with deep crates and a deep understanding of the music, and an opinionated commentator of a culture he loves deeply.

In this episode we discuss...

Meeting Kutmah at the Do Over
Detroit's record store culture in the 1990s
Choosing beats over raps
Slum Village, Dez, Jay Dee, DJ Head and Detroit's hip-hop community
Shoes' DJ philosophy and lessons from St. Andrews
Sequencing and choosing records for Street Corner Music
LA - Detroit connections

Tracklist:

House Shoes - The Makings
Camu Tao - Hold The Floor instrumental
Slum Village - Feelin' Good
House Shoes - Time
Dert - Money
The Alkaholiks - WLIX
Jay Dee - Yes I Hold It Down

Links:

Black Monk Nov 30, 2021

Show notes

On this week's show we close season 1 with Chris Cole AKA Black Monk, a producer and engineer from Los Angeles who was an early supporter and collaborator of Ras G. Growing up in the Inland Empire, Monk became involved in LA's music scene through attendance at Project Blowed, where he first met G, and as a studio engineer working with Death Row. He was responsible for introducing G to Poo-Bah's owner Ron, which led to setting up the store's label and its debut beat series in the late 2000s that featured the pair alongside Samiyam, Ta'Raach, Kan Kick, Take and more. Today, he works in film but his time in music and being involved in the early days of the beat scene remains foundational.

This episode was edited and produced by Laurent Fintoni and Will Horrocks. Intro and outro music by Duke Westlake. Artwork by Kutmah. Design assistance by Paper Resistance and Brandy Flower. This show is a labor of love and if you enjoy what you hear and would like to support us in being able to continue, you can donate via PayPal at https://paypal.me/abeathappening.

In this episode we discuss...

Meeting Ras G and Kutmah
Project Blowed and the club scene in L.A.
Early musical years and hip-hop discoveries
Beat making and finding your own style
Leimert Park and remembering Ras G
Bringing G to Poo-Bah's and the early days of the label

Tracklist:

Aceyalone, Abstract Rude, Mikah 9 - Strength of ATU live at Good Life
Black Monk - Apple
Sa-Ra - Timeless Continuum
Black Monk - Hummin in the sun
Ras G - Yea...

Links:

Slugabed Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

On this week's show we welcome Gregory Feldwick AKA Slugabed, a producer who has been cutting a distinctive path through beat culture over the past decade. Starting in the MySpace days as part of the Donky Pitch collective in Brighton, Greg made neon bright and bass heavy beats with simple tools (read: FruityLoops) which caught the attention of Planet Mu and eventually Ninja Tune, where he released his 2012 debut album Time Team. Following this, he co-founded the Activia Benz label with Jake Slee, releasing work by a young Iglooghost, Sega Bodega, and DZA among many. The second album came in 2017, Inherit the Earth for Anticon, refining the early over the top sound towards the current surrealist beat paintings that can be heard on his latest full length, We Have The Window Open At Night.

This episode was edited and produced by Will Horrocks. Intro and outro music by Duke Westlake. Artwork by Kutmah. Design assistance by Paper Resistance and Brandy Flower. This show is a labor of love and if you enjoy what you hear and would like to support us in being able to continue, you can donate via PayPal at https://paypal.me/abeathappening.

In this episode we discuss...

Early days and naive approach
Hip-hop influences and that Kan Kick remix
Creative and stylistic evolution
Anticon album
Sound manipulation, sampling and the Slugabed sound
DJing, Donky Pitch and Brighton
Peter Talisman
Surrealism, ridiculousness and writing your own story as an artist

Tracklist:

Slugabed - Nu Krak Swing
Kan Kick - Say (Slugabed Ruined It)
Slugabed - Ultra Heat Treated
Slugabed - U RIGHT
Slugabed - Donky Stomp
Peter Talisman - A Life-Changing Discovery
Slugabed - This Is A Warning

Links:

King Britt Oct 26, 2021

Show notes

On this week's show we welcome a producer, musician, DJ, and composer with a list of achievements longer than this introduction can afford. A Philadelphia native and proud supporter of his hometown, King Britt has been involved in beat culture since the late 1980s operating across scenes, genres, and roles: He was DJ for Digable Planets during their first album tour; he was one of the co-founders and residents of Back2Basics, an influential weekly that help stir what would become neo-soul; he helped link the US and UK dance music scenes as one-half of E-Culture with Josh Wink; he paid homage to his diverse musical roots as Sylk 130; and as King Britt he's explored beats, hip-hop, and house. But as we said at the beginning, there's much more - techno, ambient, broken beat, jazz... In recent years, King took a position as Assistant Teaching Professor in Computer Music at UCSD and used this to create the Blacktronika curriculum which honors people of color who have pioneered groundbreaking genres within the electronic music landscape.

In this episode we discuss...

Sylk 130 and Grover Washington collaboration
The making of Adventures in Lo Fi and working with Quas
London-Philly connections,
Meeting 4hero's Dego and Marc, James Lavelle, Charlie Dark
Spoken word/poetry scene in Philly and the importance of Black Lily
Delicious Vinyl, Giant Step, and the acid jazz era
Connecting to the LA beat scene, Soul Litchfield, and Saturn Never Sleeps with Rucyl

Tracklist:

Sylk 130 ft Grover Washington - For Love
King Britt ft Quasimoto - Spaces
4hero ft Ursula Rucker - Loveless
Soul Litchfield - Throw Ups

Links:

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