The Koreatown Oddity was born Dominique Purdy, and he’s sometimes referred to by the various permutations of his title, among them KtownOdd, Ktown, and KTO. Cinephiles might know him from his work as an actor and screenwriter, having written and starred in films like 2015 dark comedy “Driving While Black,” but he’s also a stand-up comedian and a lauded figure in the Los Angeles beat scene—a purveyor of a unique strain of rap that fuses raw hip-hop with sit-com like piano, musing on daily life and Black life in America.
Purdy found hip-hop through his mother, who made jewelry for rappers like Grandmaster Caz and Ice-T. He began making his own beats at an early age, and shared it strictly on cassette, including collaborations with Ras G as 5 Chuckles and Mndsgn as Vivians. He debuted on vinyl with his first album, 200 Tree Rings, before signing to Stones Throw with 2017’s Finna Be Past Tense.
Purdy’s latest work, available now via Stones Throw, is a true-to-life story about growing up Black in Koreatown, Los Angeles during the ’80s, exploring how the area has changed in the years since. Titled Little Dominique’s Nosebleed, the release also tells the story of Purdy’s spiritual awakening triggered by two childhood car accidents that left him impaired on two fronts with frequent nosebleeds and a broken leg. He released it on Juneteenth, and it serves as a celebration of the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved African Americans in the United States.
At one-hour in length, Purdy’s XLR8R podcast is a window into his mind during lockdown. It’s filled with his favorite music, much of it unreleased, and with little thought or planning. As you’d expect, it’s predominantly rap and hip-hop, but it’s much more varied, laced with smooth R&B, cinematic interludes, psychedelia, and abstract vocal snippets sourced from the web. “Basically just a mix of all kinda flavors that I know no one would put together but me,” Purdy explains.
01. What have you been up to recently?
Shit, I just been chillin’, watchin’ mad Sesame Street and movies posted up. Doin’ more word searches too. Them joints be fun.
02. You’ve just released your new album. How are you feeling about it?
I’m happy to finally be able to let everybody hear it. I started working on it at the end of 2017 so my life has changed a whole lot. When I started I didn’t have a kid. Now I have a one-and-a-half-year-old daughter. Droppin’ it on Juneteenth is pretty big for me, too. It’s a trip that it’s out because I’ve been sitting with it for a minute and just like that it’s out.
03. How has lockdown been for you?
It’s been pretty enjoyable. I really just been straight kickin’ it. My sleep schedule is a little strange though. I wake up usually round 1 pm-ish and sleep around 5 am.
04. Which artists have you been enjoying in the lockdown?
I be listening to all kinds of shit from Diamanda Galas to Evel Knievel. So I can’t really even think sometimes about what I’ve been listening to; sometimes I will forget I heard some shit in a blur of peepin’ a bunch of things in one week. A lot of shit out there.
05. Where and when did you record this mix?
I recorded this mix a little bit on Father’s Day evening and a little on Monday night at my crib.
06. How did you select the records that you included?
Just picked stuff from some homies that I want people to hear if they not hip to it, and some have not been released. I wanted to also play some beats that I haven’t released yet. And a couple joints I never hear anybody play in a mix like the Kool Keith joint. Basically just a mix of all kinda flavors that I know no one would put together but me.
07. What’s next on your horizon?
A million-dollar check.
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XLR8R has now joined Mixcloud Select, meaning that to download the podcast you will need to subscribe to our Select channel. The move to Mixcloud Select will ensure that all the producers with music featured in our mixes get paid. You can read more about it here.
Tracklisting
01. Eddie Griffin “Mommys Gotta Go” 02. Koreatown Oddity “Jiggaboo Time 2020” 03. Moms Mabley “When I was 17” 04. Koreatown Oddity “Safer At Home” 05. Black Magick Chocolate Tears “Cassanova Rock” 06. Koreatown Oddity “Little Dominique’s Nosebleed Outro” 07. Trenttruce “Science” 08. Meingo “mASSh Up” 09. Koreatown Oddity “Koreatown Oddity” 10. CS Armstrong “Alright” 11. Black Magick Chocolate Tears “Glare” 13. Koreatown Oddity “Depressed but Hopeful” 14. CS Armstrong “Makin You” 15. Meingo “24 Hours” 16. Koreatown Oddity “Gov Got $$$” 17. Kool Keith “Professional Photographer” 18. Koreatown Oddity “My name Is Dominique” 19. Coto “Oranges by the Freeway” 20. James Chance and the Blacks “Almost Black” 21. Vivians “Awwwh” ft. Zeroh 22. Koreatown Oddity “Black Willy Wonkas Factory” 23. Koreatown Oddity “Final March” 24. Koreatown Oddity “We All want Something” ft. Anna Wise 25. Richard Pryor “Bicentinnial Nigger” 26. XLR8R Outro
The track is available worldwide through Self Jupiter’s co-owned imprint, The Order Label, with mixing from Kenny Segal and mastering from Daddy Kev. Mr. Carmack plays all instruments, including keys, drums, bass, and horns.
“I was holding on to this track that me and Mr. Carmack made at his studio in Jefferson Park,” Self Jupter says. “It wasn’t until recently with our present state of affairs [that] I felt a sudden spiritual impulse to write something triumphant and sincere with a declaration of victory. So with all rebellions and or uprising you need songs to march to. Hopefully this is one of those. Happy Juneteenth!”
Musically, the single evokes the tonality and rhythms present during Freestyle Fellowship’s most propulsive phase in hip-hop history.
Self Jupiter is the alias of Ornette Glenn, an American rapper from Los Angeles, and a member of Freestyle Fellowship, an alternative hip-hop group, alongside Myka 9, P.E.A.C.E., and Aceyalone.
Tracklisting
01. The Master’s Lemonade
You can order a copy of The Master’s Lemonade, with lyrics listed, from Self Jupiter’s Bandcamp page, and stream it below.
Lafawndah will release her new album, The Fifth Season, on French label Latency.
Inspired by an encounter with author N. K. Jemisin’sBroken Earth trilogy, The Fifth Season pays homage to the elemental, emotionally charged myths of Jemisin’s books. In contrast to the precision-tuned industrial productions of Ancestor Boy, Lafawndah’s debut album, The Fifth Season breathes a different kind of volatility and invites a new degree of spontaneity and freedom into her process. It features Theon Cross (tuba), Nathaniel Cross (trombone), Valentina Magaletti, (percussions), and Nick Weiss (keyboards).
In addition to the Lafawndah originals, The Fifth Season features interpretations of hybrid-folk godfather Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s “Don’t Despair” and acid-impressionist prodigy Lili Boulanger’s “Old Buddhist Prayer.”
“These are torch songs for when it rains ash, creation ballads for when the earth turns inside out,” the label explains.
In 2019, Lafawndah, real name Yasmin Dubois, released Ancestor Boy and Ancestor Boy II, on which she reworked all seven original tracks, both on her own Concordia label. She released Tan, her debut EP on Warp, in 2016.
Tracklisting
01. Old Prayer 02. Don’t Despair 03. You, at the End 04. The Stillness 05. L’Imposteur 06. Le Malentendu (feat. Lala &ce)
The Fifth Season LP is out on September 8 on vinyl and digitally via Latency. Meanwhile, you can stream “You, at the End” in full via the player below.
The project broadly encompasses a vibrant electronic fusion of lounge, experimental jazz, and gritty disco, and its first taste comes in the shape of “Oh Henry!,” featuring innovative polymath Henry Grimes.
Recorded, mixed, and finalized between New York and Los Angeles, the music documents one of the last studio sessions Grimes took part in before passing from Covid–19 in April. It serves a tribute to the legacy he left behind through music, poetry, illustration, philosophy, metaphysics, and education.
Basinski met Henry Grimes and his wife, Margaret, in the green room at The Empty Bottle in Chicago around 2003 or 2004. When Wendel pulled out a slow groove that became “Oh Henry!,” Basinski called Margaret and said he had a track he’d like them to hear to see if Henry would come in on it. Margaret called a few days later and said, “a lotta babies gonna be born to that track!”
When their schedule allowed, Basinski booked Henry’s favorite studio, The Bunker in Brooklyn, with Nolan Thies engineering. Thies recorded five takes of Henry performing upright bass and violin for the track, which Preston edited at Musex International in Los Angeles.
“Henry’s playing is mind-boggling as usual, and we were absolutely blown away,” Basinski recalls. “We are so sad to have lost our friend Henry this spring to Covid-19, and so sorry he never got a chance to hear the finished track. We send our deepest sympathies to Margaret Davis Grimes, the family, and all of Henry’s colleagues, friends and fans.”
“Oh Henry!” has been released on Bandcamp with Temporary Residence Ltd. and is available to stream in hi-definition on TIDAL, via Musex International. You can order a copy here, and stream it below.
Tracklisting
01. Oh Henry!
To learn more about the extraordinary story and legacy of Henry Grimes, please visit here.
The Shorter Family, Ghetto Sci Fi Records, and The Afrikan Space Program have presented Raw Fruit Vol. 5-6, the first Ras G release since his untimely passing in July of 2019.
The prolific Los Angeles beatsmith submitted the final sequence for the latest Raw Fruit entry right before his passing, and it’s delivered in exactly the fashion Ras intended its release.
26-tracks of loop-heavy, sample-based hip-hop music, Raw Fruit Vol. 5-6 is another chapter into the exploratory world of sound Ras G became synonymous with over his 20-year career—one that has roads leading back to the same origins as J Dilla, Madlib, and other prolific beatmakers.
Ras G initiated the Raw Fruit series on Leaving Records in 2013 and has ushered in a staggering collection of music under the banner. The “raw fruit” theme stems from his attention to a raw, vegetarian diet.
Fat Beats has pressed a limited edition 2xLP pressing of Raw Fruit Vol. 5-6 on red vinyl (100 copies). A regular black version can be found at the Ras G Bandcamp page, landing July 3. The release is also available across streaming platforms worldwide.
In conjunction with the album, the Shorter Family, Ghetto Sci Fi Records, and The Afrikan Space Program have released the following statement: “As far as words, it’s pretty difficult to put it into words about the project or my brother. So let’s just say we will keep the bass bumping’! Like he wanted us to!”
Tracklisting
01. De La Soul 02. Cardigan Sweater 03. Beanie Siegel 04. Hump Day 05. Dip 06. Love Was… 07. Snow (Spacebase RMX) 08. Coldwave 09. Greentea Wit The Green Tree 10. Free From That… 11. Right Time Vs Wrong Time 12. Doberman In The Cadillac 13. Whom 14. The Lo Scarf 15. One For KNX (My Naga) 16. Highland Park Hipsters 17. Dirty Cutlass 18. There Are… 19. Boss 20. Black… 21. JD’s Revenge 22. Glasshouse 23. Sentimental Horror 24. Tell Me… 25. Rev’s Conk 26. Nah Im Straight
Raw Fruit Vol. 5-6 LP is available digitally now, with vinyl coming soon. Meanwhile, you can stream “De La Soul” in full below, and order here.
After a brief stint focusing on abstract rhythms and modular synthesizer racks, Bleep Bloop created One Liners with the intention of going back to some of the core rhythms and anthemic structures of his past. We’re told that the EP is produced with little restraint, and that trap beats are given an altered life-form, “splattered with sideways rhythms and gun cocks as each section transforms to maddening states within the blink of an eye,” the label explains.
Alongside the announcement, Bleep Bloop has shared “F12” featuring Def Jam’s Goon Des Garcons, one of the older songs recorded for the EP. On their collaborative work, Goon Des Garcon reflects: “I would call it X-Games mode. Trainspotting music lol. Shit feels like a Monster energy drink when I hear it. I love it. That’s my usual feel I like to go for but being on a Bleep Bloop produced track really makes it hit crazy to me.”
Few have pushed tonality in modern electronic music further than Bleep Bloop, real name Aaron Triggs, who began his career releasing music in the early 2010s, quickly rising on the DJ Shadow imprint Liquid Amber. This is his first release on Dome of Doom.
Tracklisting
01. Hacker 02. Put U 2 Sleep 03. F12 (feat. Goon Des Garcons) 04. Out Here (feat. Gary Paintin) 05. Paying Dues 06. No Roof (feat. Gary Paintin) 07. What Are You In The Dark 08. Chromatin Landscape
One Liners EP is available on July 10 on cassette and digitally. Meanwhile, you can pre-order here and stream “F12” feat. Goon Des Garcons below.
Bandcamp is waiving its revenue share again today, meaning more money from each purchase goes directly to the artists. As much of the world bands together to aid in the Black Lives Matter movement, we’ve curated a list of our favorite releases from Black artists and labels on Bandcamp to purchase from today. We’ve picked from a master sheet with over 1000 artists and labels. A massive thank you must go out to the people behind this list, and we hope our readers will use it as a resource for digging. You can find the XLR8R selection with all the necessary Bandcamp links below.
Editor Note: today, in celebration of Juneteenth, the day that slavery ended in the United States, Bandcamp is donating its revenue share to the NAACP, a legal organization fighting for racial justice in the US. We’ve updated and added new additions to the below listto help you find and support the wealth of great music by Black artists.
You can also check out a crowd-sourced, searchable list of Black artists on Bandcamp here.
Summed up best by its title, Russel E.L. Butler’s latest release is a set of euphoric club cuts for the heads. Kicking off with subdued dub-house, the release flows through trance-like breaks, emotive broken-beat, and stoned dub techno. Highly recommended!
Leaving Records presents Spells, the achingly beautiful debut album from Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and composer Nailah Hunter. Built around the affecting melodies of the harp, Spells is a calming experience full of engrossing textures and wistful atmospheres.
Afriqua’s debut album, Colored, released late last year on R&S Records, is quite simply one of the finest debut albums in recent memory. The LP is “a celebration of the unifying power of Black culture through the prism of electronic music,” and takes inspiration from seminal work by Quincy Jones, Roy Ayers, and Weldon Irvine—these classics served more as archetypes of musical achievement than bases for imitation. Although most known in house music circles, Afriqua’s wide-reaching musicianship is on full-display on Colored, which presents piano-led jazz, house, hip-hop, and more than a handful of indescribable cuts.
A five-track collection of tender ambient from the Brooklyn, New York, artist that weaves in field recordings, hazy instrumentation, and elements of jazz, blues, and noise.
NYC label HAUS of ALTR presents a 27-track compilation celebrating Black electronic music, featuring a staggering selection of cuts from AceMo, MoMa Ready, AshTreJinkins, Galcher Lustwerk, DJ SWISHA, Kush Jones, and many many more. Half of the proceeds will be donated to For The Gworls, Afrotectopia, and Afrorack, with the second half going directly to all artists involved.
Highly-recommended club explorations from one of New York’s most exciting talents. His ability to fuse genres into a singular style is on full display on this EP, his first vinyl release, a world-class collection of frenetic, swinging rhythms and hip-shaking basslines.
Source of Nurture is a fundraising initiative curated and by Chroma and featuring womxn of color in support of various funds and organizations that stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, Undocumented and Immigrant communities, and Essential Workers. The 19-track compilation features a set of exhilarating techno, pop, baile funk, and more from artists such as Lafawndah, Bergonist, and Kelsey Lu.
The Koreatown Oddity, real name Dominique Purdy, has just dropped his new album, Little Dominque’s Nosebleed. The LP gives listeners insight into what it was like growing up black in Koreatown, Los Angeles, in the ’80s, and also finds Purdy reflecting on his spiritual awakening after being involved in two near-death car crashes as a child. It’s a tripped-out listen filled with strange samples, jazzy loops, weird scenarios, and comedy, and featuring guest slots from Sudan Archives, Anna Wise, Baby Rose, C.S Armstrong, and Fatlip.
Inspired by civil rights leader W.E.B. Du Bois’ ‘Darkwater: Voices from Within the Veil,’ an important 1920s literary work on race, Darkwater is a reflective EP of—mostly—synth-led ambient. Across the five tracks, Fofana employs dub-wise techniques to create swelling and living ambient spaces that warrant continued investigation.
Maryland artist BLAKMOTH crafted The Space Between with a custom AE modular system, resulting in a score-like collection that is tense, foreboding, and, at times, introspective and dream-like. A portion of the album sales will be donated to Afrorack.org, a Chicago-based arts organization that teaches modular synthesis and sound design to black and brown youth.
Released by Noise In My Head’s Efficient Space label, Waak Waak ga Min Min is a set of rare recordings of three Yolngu songmen—Bobby Bunnungurr, Jimmy Djamunba and Peter Milaynga (d. 2007)—from Northeast Arnhem Land, working in collaboration with Victorian musician Peter Mumme. The songs are of instruction, story, and ceremony. Waak Waak ga Min Min is a transfixing mix of traditional song and modern production techniques, beautifully realized.
The latest from Maurice Fulton’s BOOF alias. Fulton is a master of house music and this album takes the genre to its further fringes and weirdest and most wonderful places. One Bandcamp user summed it up best, alluding that it sounds like “Robert Hood, Funkadelic, Ray Barretta, and Jan Jelinek decide to meet up, get stoned and have a jam”—enough said!
Released a year ago, Jamila Woods’ LEGACY! LEGACY! is a vital and touching album that pays homage to Woods’ heroes and forebears, important Black icons and pioneers such as Sun Ra, James Baldwin, Betty Davis, Muddy Waters, Jean-Michael Basquiat, and poets Nikki Giovanni and Sonia Sanchez. Pitchfork published an insightful album breakdown by Woods, which discusses Black history and the inspirations for each song. We recommend reading.
Irreversible Entanglements is a free jazz collective formed in early 2015 by saxophonist Keir Neuringer, poet Camae Ayewa (a.k.a. Moor Mother), and bassist Luke Stewart, who came together to perform at a Musicians Against Police Brutality event organized after the slaying of Akai Gurley by the NYPD.
Months later, the group added trumpeter Aquiles Navarro and drummer Tcheser Holmes for a single day of recording, and the full quintet’s first time playing together was captured for this self-titled debut. The tone of each piece is driven by Ayewa’s searing poetic narrations of Black trauma, survival and power. Also check out their new one, Who Sent You?
Yves Jarvis is an alias of Jean-Sébastien Audet, a Canadian indie-pop musician who previously created under the name Un Blonde. The Same But By Different Means is his beautifully haunting new album, released in March last year. Songs on the record range from 14 seconds long to over eight minutes, but they’re all wrapped up in Audet’s experimental, melancholic flame.
Moor Mother and Haram (together 700 Bliss), from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, deliver an EP full of raw, sludgy electronics and fierce spoken-word poetry. Released in 2018 by Halcyon Veil and Don Giovanni.
LA’s Black Lodge resident Force Replacement delivers a word-class collection of melancholic cuts ranging from dubby house to stoned ambient, or as he states, “songs you play on your way home from the rave: bottom-heavy enough to keep you awake but kind of heady and tripped out.”
Heartfelt, experimental R&B from Montreal, Canada. The release invites listeners to a place of self examination, reflecting on subjects of heartache intimacy.
An album “revealing the fate of first users to interface with ÆOS software,” resulting in a collection of rap and outer electronics beamed from another dimension.
Dub techno of the highest order from a Manchester, UK duo. It’s a new mixtape including off cuff new work, cuts, and edits from their NTS ration transmission on May 30, written and recorded in the later/early hours from May 31 to June 3. All revenue will be donated to Campaign Zero and donation splitter. Touches on jungle, dubstep, ambient, and deep house, keeping you in a lush haze.
Joey Anderson’s Rainbow Doll finds him in career-best form and is, arguably, his most singular work. He uses his own vocals prominently across the album, which make his already elusive rhythms and warped melodies even more disorienting—in the best way.
Minimal Detroit Volume 1 was the Detroit’s deep-space voyager’s first album under his given name since 2013’s Badge Of Honor. Digital only and exclusive to Bandcamp.
Sun-drenched beats and soul from Nairobi. Long-time friend, producer EA Wave and vocalist Wanja Wohoro collaborated for the first time, pairing infecting lyric and melodies across two tracks.
The third and final EP in Jaymie Silk‘s Disaporave series strips things back for two impressive groove-led cuts that are introspective and affecting, backed up by two remixes from KG and LYZZA.
Joey Pecoraro will release Sea Monster, his new album, on July 31 via Daddy Kev’s Alpha Pup.
Created during the cold Michigan winter, Sea Monster wells up with “nostalgic emotion” and “kindles an oft-forgotten feeling of childhood curiosity and discovery,” the Los Angeles label explains. The Michigan producer’s lush, chilled-out sound sits comfortably in the lo-fi hip-hop world while shimmering with pop appeal. We’re told that “slow-driving rhythms drift into waking dreams” and “reassuring melodies roll into ear-catching hooks.” Pecoraro plays piano and sings on several tracks.
“Writing this album reminded me of when I was a little kid, at a time when everything I was experiencing felt new and exciting,” Pecoraro says.
Pecoraro released Tired Boy, his last album, in 2019 through Qrates, where artists can create vinyl records on demand directly for music fans. Sea Monster is his first full release on Alpha Pup.
Tracklisting
01. Coming Back To Earth 02. Hello Sun 03. Kaleidoscope 04. The Man From Atom 05. Gummy Bears and Sleeping In Alone 06. Shout In Our Heart 07. Driving On The Moon 08. Lightning (Single #2, Release Date: June 18) 09. Pebble In The Sky 10. The Charming Creature 11. I Think That 12. Malleco 13. It Is All Connected
Sea Monster LP is out July 31 on Alpha Pup Records. Meanwhile, you can stream “Hello Sun” below, and pre-order here.
Across the two-part series, Andrés flexes his blunted downtempo beat-driven side, paying tribute to “red, white, and pink libations.” Each volume features three instrumental hip-hop beats.
MotorCity Wine is the label offshoot of the intimate Detroit club and wine bar and shop, launched in 2017 with MotorCity Wine Recordings #1.
Silvester is a series of tracks inspired by Norwegian black metal band Mayhem’s Deathcrush EP, as well as its direct connection to experimental musician Conrad Schnitzler.
In 1986 and ’87, years before Deathcrush, Mayhem’s guitarist Øystein Aarseth took a musical pilgrimage to Germany to solicit collaboration with one of his musical heroes, Schnitzler. Aarseth sat outside Schnitzler’s house and refused to leave until he was allowed in to talk. His persistence paid off, with Schnitzler surprisingly agreeing to write a piece of music for Mayhem. The piece of music became “Silvester Anfang,” the first track and introduction to Deathcrush.
When Mayhem founder Jørn “Necrobutcher” Stubberud told the story behind “Silvester Anfang” to Bratten at a party, they had the idea that Bratten should rework the track. Bratten started out with a plan to make one remix, but he ended up with a series of tracks inspired by the sounds of Deathcrush, which became Silvester.
Silvester comprises five new tracks and an album unlike anything Bratten has recorded before. We can expect an album of abstract freeform structures morphing elements of kraut, techno, ambient, black metal, industrial, minimalist, and drone. “A perfect fusion of two dystopian extremes of Norwegian underground music,” the label explains.
In just five years, Bratten has established himself as a mercurial and uncompromising figure in modern-day electronics. His last album, Pax Americana, came last year.
