The Bakery Mix

This mix is the bakery because we keep serving that freshness. Comprised mostly of rap influences, it spans different tempos, types of rhythms, sound palettes, and moods. We put this together for LA’s Daylight Curfew, a new destination for art, design, and music. Drop by for a full tracklist. (Original artwork by Simon Gardiner.)

Steyels Waer – The Bakery

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Fantasy Thrilla: CS3

Fantasy Thrilla has got an ear for beats and bass. Whether it be the Manhattan-based artist’s own productions or his carefully curated selections, he keeps it fresh. And his mix for Culture System is more live than a five hour energy drink. So whether you’re trying to build up those guns or back up them buns, Thrilla’s got you. From Munchiton and Jersey Club to nextwave juketronika and stateside heaviness, he keeps it knockin. Tracklist after the jump. (Art by Atelier Olschinsky).

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Booted Youth

This is some smacked life music. Face that bottle, bump this, and stay fresh music. Young bols outta Jersey, the New Jersey Rebels like to fuck shit up basically. In a haze of treated reality they trade stories about recklessness. You might recognize this beat from Young Zee’s “Drugs”. You know, the one with that crazy video. But it’s a family affair, because Krash from the Rebels is actually Zee’s son. The track came from their new mixtape that dropped this week and features some production by Nadus. (Art by Sebastian Bentler.)

NJRFSU — “Jrugs Rock N Roll”

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Orbiting The Past

Life asserts it’s dominance as the dashboard crumbles, and a lack of control is embraced. Cocooned in a spiraling satellite orbiting earth’s last day, happy just to have had a chance. Basking in the glow of the navy blue jewel and snow white wisps on one side, soaking up the vibrant glow of humanity’s fire on the other. Flicking through the jpeg album of existence down there, taking the dark side with the bright, feeling both passionately. (Image of the Midwest US with aurora borealis off to the left by NASA.)

Mikey Dubs — “Dub Cult Magi”

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Forgotten Gamelan Horror

Imagine passing a random stoop sale and finding some valuable comic book that a mother is selling for change unwittingly without her son’s knowledge. That’s sort of how we found this song. While trying to download something no longer for sale from a file sharing site, a folder full of Japanese MP3s appeared in our inbox instead. Definitely not the bastardized kuduro that was intended. But gamelan metallophones caught our interest, and it was worth ensuring its intentional use from here on out. Called “Heart of Sword,” this track was masterminded by the Japanese artist Goro Ohmi and featured on an EP never released called Niji Sinden. It’s Halloween music from 1983 that jumps from clasiscal to gamelan to electronic. One of the players featured on the album is named Saptana, a Javanese artist who taught gamelan in Japan during the late 70s and early 80s, according to this study of the music’s life on the island nation. Saptana was also part of one of the first gamelan performance groups in the country, called Lambang Sari. Goro apparently was inspired to write this EP by a comic book of the same name. His interest in animation continued with the anime series Guin Saga, which he wrote and performed the soundtrack for. (Art by Yousef Alshaikh.)

Goro Ohmi — “剣の心 (Heart of Sword)”

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Bootleg Hype

Insanity reaped by dirty drugs and toxic waste provides armies for the wicked with visions of boss status. Scattered attention spans swirl spiraling thoughts that splatter their clips all over animated GIFs. Influence is no longer subconscious, indirect, or passed on through dogma. Cut and paste Kim Jong Ill chops cascade all about the pearly gates of Greek mythology, turning words into stutter rolls, carnival whistles into hypnosis, and radio interference a spiritual medium. Slackaz made this hypeness. (Art by Yousef Alshaikh.)

Aidonia Feat. Foster The People — “Bolt Action Medley (Slackaz Remix)”

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Despite Danger

Life is dangerous but the sun is still on your back. Matter-of-fact street life tales paired with warm rootical riddims. This is Subatomic Sound meets See-I. The track retains much of the original; It relaxes on the same stoop but captures the scene as clouds move, allowing a flood of light. It revels in the little joys like glittering reflections on reverberating surfaces sustained in billowing, smokey delay. The track is a free release from DC’s Fort Knox Recordings and comes just in time for Subatomic’s Sound System tonight with Deep Space at Cielo. It’s the birthday party for the man otherwise know as Emch tonight, so come through and bask in Funktion One sound and toast another year. (Art by Francesco Brunotti.)

See-I — “Dangerous (Subatomic Sound System RMX)”

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Cloudy Ice

Reclined in a leather seat, “Ice” slides over synth fogs that obscure an unknowable deepness below. Depth charge downbeats encase distant bang fills. Subs zero in on sheets of toms. Ice so dry it clouds the mind. Neako prefers that this placeless beat mystify and invites the listener to roll with his mentality. The vocals, featuring Three 6 Mafia’s Juicy J, are more concerned with musicality than substance, consisting of a smooth flow and distortion that matches the rest of the soundscape. The most notable line is, “Time flies when your days are always better than your last, and your joy is in the future and your pain is in the past.” Hailing from Newark, this Taylor Gang affiliate’s latest mixtape The Number 23 [taken offline?] shows a strong ear for beats. This is evidenced by his own production work on cuts like “Ice” and though the selection of others’ music like Flying Lotus and Radiohead. (Image by Aymeric Rouillard.)

Neako – “Ice (feat Juicy J)”

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Living Environs

The intersection of projection art, music, architecture and graffiti is a place that this Polish team is turning into a welcome destination. Nawer vs Temporary Space Design is the pairing of projection mapping VJs with a graffiti writer to become immersive installation artists. The project featured in the above video is exemplary of their approach, where Nawer paints an abstract design that TSD brings to life with 3D mapping and an element of audio responsiveness. Although there is a number of interesting moments throughout, the highlight of the piece comes at about 4:35 when each abstract shape flickers with multiple complementary colors. Nawer has proven their adeptness at transforming spaces with nothing but paint, including the playground below. But with the addition of TSD, they manage to compete with television for a society long saturated by all-encompasing media.

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Amended Promises

Aiko should have nothing to complain about now that Nadus has come along with some different type of beats. Everyone else may be the same while claiming they’re not, but he follows through on the promise with this remix. Taking her tune into garagey territory, the Newark producer brings a subtle East Coast club sensibility to the track. To catch more of this Brick Bandits affilate’s style – which ranges from Jersey and Baltimore club to juke and moombahton – come through to Bushwick tomorrow night for the Thread NY party. (Art by Wojciech Pijecki.)

Jhene Aiko — “Stranger (Nadus RMX)”

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