Listen to a megamix of all the best music from the Bay Area in 2021
A minimal desert rock gem by Tommy Guerrero and Josh Lippi; Chicago house legend Derrick Carter remixes Nate Manic; Constellation Tatsu's ambient winter batch
Well, here we are. 2022. Same as it ever was.
It’s déjà vu all over again with events being canceled and no one knowing whether to make plans or not. I guess we always have our virtual platforms and online mixes.
Speaking of, we’re hyped to be rolling into another year of monthly shows over at Lower Grand Radio. White Crate hosts a show every first Thursday at 8 PM PT, featuring music across genres from Oakland, San Francisco, and the entire Bay Area. Usual programming includes mostly new releases with a few classics thrown in. Plus, we have some exciting plans for live performances.
The last two shows featured all the best releases from 2021, and now you can hear them both in one spectacular megamix: Kicks off with hip hop, moves into soul, jazz, and dance, descends into a downtempo, ambient comedown, emerges into a cumbia, country folk, and rock jam, and then annihilates itself in metal. We hope you enjoy it.
Peace,
ronny
THAT NEW NEW
“Redolent of the ancient yucca trees and ocotillo that dot the remote hills of the high Mojave.” Recorded over the course of five days in a one-room house just outside of Joshua Tree National Park, West Winds is the new full-length from SF professional skateboarder and guitarist Tommy Guerrero in collaboration with LA-based artist Josh Lippi. With each of us all too familiar with the incessant noise of modern life, this minimal desert rock gem may be the perfect thing to welcome in the new year.
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Less than a month after releasing timate—an irresistible EP of juke, garage, and hard house—Oakland producer bastiengoat returns with TORQUE, a four-track EP that goes all in on high tempo and abrasive noise. Hard house and techno for maximum fist pumping.
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"Music for meditation and relaxation.” Originally recorded between 2013-2019 but only released this past Christmas Day, Early Stages by Faber Morrow is 25 minutes of peaceful ambient music, described by the artist as an exploration of the relationship between nature, music, and self.
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WITHOUTYOU.BT. is a new nine-minute instrumental hip hop mix from heru, featuring soulful, jazzy productions reminiscent of the best work from Knxwledge. For more great beat tapes from the past couple weeks, check out:
BAGGAGE by Baghead
More Sketches by DJ FLOW
Time Gems 08-15 by T-Venom
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Like the Guerrero mentioned earlier, Peregrino de la Tierra Extraña was improvised and recorded in a remote location over the course of a few days. But instead of keeping it light-hearted and chill, the Ivonne Van Cleef Orquesta and Caleb R.K. Williams (hailing from San Jose) creep into dark ambient territory, communing with the ghosts of the west through brass, drums, and synthesized sounds.
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Legendary Chicago house DJ and producer Derrick Carter joins Guillaume and the Coutu Dumonts (Montreal), Justin Cudmore (Brooklyn), and Lindsey Herbert (LA) in remixing tracks from the self-titled debut by Oakland producer Nate Manic. Check out Remixes Pt. 1 for four very tasty and unique club-ready techno and house tracks.
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Late Nights, Early Mornings is a new 20-min EP of R&B and hip hop by East Oakland’s Rayven Justice, featuring Trinidad James, Drenesse, and Bizzy Crook. As the name implies, this isn’t for the heat of the night, but rather those low-key hours ripe for introspection or intimacy.
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SF death metal group Succumb, whose album XXI made our list of the best metal from the Bay Area in 2021, released a cover of “Plague Rages” by Napalm Death. Armed with more massive production power than the original had in 1994, Succumb’s version is finely performed and a fitting explosion of rage during our actual real-life plague.
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Field recordings, improvisational piano, nostalgic synthesizers, and lo-fi tape frequencies—a bundle of ambient joy. Oakland label Constellation Tatsu released its Winter Batch 2022, featuring works by artists from around the world:
Resolve by Melbourne artist Alex Albrecht
Same Place, Another Time by Tokyo artist Soshi Takeda
Paisajes Imaginarios by Oslo-Santiago duo Julia Gjertsen & Nico Rosenberg
MOTHERSHIP
Afrofuturism is a lot of things. It’s the past, present, and future reimagined through a Black cultural lens. Visionary, spiritual, and generative, it is art, music, literature, and cinema that expresses a just future where Black people and Black ideas thrive.
Last week I paid a visit to the Oakland Museum of California to view the special exhibition Mothership: Voyage Into Afrofuturism. Opening with quotations from and art inspired by science fiction writer Octavia Butler, the exhibit features a wildly eclectic and yet cohesive variety of works across a wide range of media.
In addition to visual art and experimental films (like the one in the photo above), there is plenty on view for music lovers—from a huge UFO suspended in the middle of the exhibit beaming up George Clinton performances to an entire section dedicated to extraterrestrial jazz legend Sun Ra (who also served as inspiration for SMARTBOMB’s recent afrofuturist mixtape LIGHT BEINGS #3). I also learned that Sun Ra directed and starred in a film called Space is the Place, which was filmed in Oakland and Berkeley.
Pay the museum a visit, enjoy this fantastic 14+ hour playlist curated by DJ Spooky, and remember to always support Black culture.
REST IN PEACE
It doesn’t matter who you are, where you came from, what you look like, or how much money you make: If you went to a party in the Bay anytime between 2005 and 2010, you know this song. And you probably lost your mind.
Traxamillion, born Sultan Banks, died on the second day of the new year. In addition to “Super Hyphy” by Keak da Sneak, Traxamillion produced a bunch of booming, bassy tracks in the 2000s that ended up defining hyphy, one of the Bay Area’s most signature sounds. Some of his biggest hits include “Glamorous Lifestyle” by the Jacka and Andre Nickatina, “San Francisco Anthem” by San Quinn with Big Rich and Bod Banga, and “The Sideshow” featuring Too $hort and Mistah F.A.B. May he rest in peace.
Remembering Traxamillion, Whose Beats Defined the Bay Area Sound - KQED
SHUFFLE ON
Listen to a megamix of the best music from the Bay Area in 2021.