Yao: Plaintain is Public

With an eclectic, densely-layered soundscape featuring everything from re-mixed 70s-era funk guitar over 90s beats to ominous and weird Kool Keith-style sounds, Oakland-based DJ Yao is very much a product of his generation—in the very best of ways. His recently-released debut album, Plaintain is Public, is a seamless trip through different moods and genres, "each track a vignette or short story," according to the press …

The Finches Giveaway

Embodying the perfect marriage of subtle skill and charming sincerity, The Finches thankfully deliver on the promise of their 6-song debut EP, maintaining that release's spare instrumentation and generally subdued tone on their latest, titled Human Like a House. The duo of Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs and Aaron Morgan thankfully resist the temptation to weigh down their songs with excessive overdubs and overblown production, relying instead …

The Kings of Reggae

The latest in the series of DJ-curated (but not mixed) compilations from BBE Records, The Kings of Reggae, is one of the best yet. Like the other seven “Kings of†double CD or vinyl LP comps, the tunes on each disc have been handpicked by a notable DJ and record collector in their field of expertise, in this case, London’s David Rodigan, and New York’s …