It’s that awesome time of year again when we get to celebrate ancient pagan rituals under the guise of remembering Christian saints, and for most people this translates as just an excuse to expose their inner freak publicly under the protection of masquerade. It’s always been one of my favorite holidays, partly for the shared creativity of coming up with costumes, and partly because I get to play “Thriller” again. Really excited about going up to Nevada City this Friday for a massive bash with my brother-in-beats DJ Nadi, anyone in Nor-Cal looking to rage should meet us there. Then I’ll be back in LA on Sat for my regular grimey get down at The Virgil. I don’t know if I’ll be looking as badass as the homie pictured above, but I hope someone on the dancefloor is! The pic is taken from this great collection “Wilder Mann” by Charles Freger, check it out.

P.S. – not sure why I lost the playlist function, I’m going to try to get that fixed for the next post.

A.R. Rahman ft. Sid Sriram, Sanahmoidutty, Jonita Gandhi :       Mei Nigara

Roosevelt :       Moving On

Pomrad :       Out Like A Light ft. Billie

B.B. & Q. Band :       Dreamer (Kartell Rework)

Jungle :       Julia (Soulwax Remix)

Peligrosa :       Santa Marta (DJ Shades Remix)

Boiler :       Ipanema

Sofi Tukker :       Drinkee (Addal Remix)

Africaine 808 :       Language Of The Bass

Kllo :       Bolide

Jamie Lidell :       Building A Beginning

Happy Tuesday everybody! I’ve been wanting a way to mix this song into my sets, so I had to cook up a remix, and since I don’t like being stingy, I figured I’d let it fly out into the world. Grab the download while it lasts (fingers crossed the soundcloud overlords take pity on me and don’t ban my account). Vibey, tropical, chill moombah-house type of thing. I’m hoping you agree it’s danceable.

So many good records coming out right now, yet still I’m digging up more things from the forgotten past that I feel obliged to share as well. The new Solange record has been my number one on repeat lately, if you haven’t given it a proper listen yet, remedy that quick! Maybe it was being so grateful at hearing her keep the funk alive that made me want to return to some old dusty joints today- from here and abroad. So I’m tipping you off to one other new release by Pegasus Warning, but then taking you into some oldies, including joints from Brazil, Turkey and South Korea (that are mostly new to me). Artwork today comes from the very dope Katherine Bernhardt. Hope you dig!

Here’s something a lil different than what you may expect from the typical Captain Planet sound. A few months back I was approached by the good folks at Coterie to remix this epic folky opus, and given a pretty tight deadline, but as someone who always likes a challenge I dove right in. I could tell from their previous compilations that they were looking for a bit more of the contemporary urban electronic vibe, so I tried to steer away from my tropical/Caribbean leanings. I’m happy with how it came out and proud to be a part of this really high quality line-up of talent that they put together. Even though this collection is only officially available to Coterie attendees, I’ve made a download link for all my Mixtape Riot familia. Cheers!

Had a badass weekend unplugged on a secluded lil beach on Catalina Island with a crew of homies. Only labor on labor day was building a bon fire, snorkeling, and paddle boarding, so I’m feeling extremely refreshed. I highly recommend this cheap quick getaway for anyone else in the SoCal area. No particular theme to this week’s playlist, just some solid recent additions I’ve had in repeated rotation. I start things off with top notch reggae roots from the recently released Frightnrs album (prod. by Ticklah), which comes to us just months after the very tragic passing of their lead singer Dan Klein. I highly recommend the entire album to all fans of vintage Jamaican sounds. Up next we travel into some cumbia courtesy of El Búho, the first single from new LA act Wear Patterns, Michael Kiwanuka getting remixed by Osage, and another smoothed out joint from Mac Miller ft. CeeLo. Artwork today comes from the talented Jason Stopa.

I’m feeling the effects of that late summer slow down, when going anywhere other than the beach feels like a little bit of a struggle. It’s hot and hazy here in Los Angeles, and I’ve been trying to turn all my recent DJ gigs into sonic portals to the Caribbean. With a steady stream of good new dancehall, reggaeton, afrobeats & soca, this teleportation technique actually works wonders. Seems like Jamaican dancehall riddims have once again officially overtaken pop music (see: Beiber, Drake, Sia, Rihanna) and I’m not complaining, because even the unschooled in the crowd seem a little more open to hearing dembow. I’m having flashbacks to 2003 when Beyonce and Alicia Keys were doing reggae joints and Beenie Man was rapping on Neptunes beats on commercial hip hop radio. Again- not mad about this. Today’s playlist includes a bunch of the recent bangers I’ve been slipping into rotation lately. Some smoothed out bass heavy tropical pop music from Jamaica, Trinidad, Colombia and beyond… Enjoy! Artwork today comes courtesy of the extremely talented Brock Lefferts, check his site out for more trippiness.