Welcome back to Under the Stars, a quasi-weekly column that stays on message with strong-ass opinions, presenting new music releases and upcoming shows. We keep hustling with the changes, thinking outside the margins. Hop in. And thanks for spending some time with us.
DRUM AND BASS STILL MAKIN’ NOISE
Just after this year’s Noise Pop, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of Goldie’s Timeless in this column, highlighting how that record catalyzed the drum-and-bass boom in the Bay during the ’90s. And then a series of things kept on happening: Belfast-born drum and bass wiz Calibre announced a new album is on the way; remembrances popped up for Everything But The Girl’s singular blend of sullen breakbeats and languishing pop (Walking Wounded gets deserved praise on an electronic music trade platform). Pitchfork gives an expansive “tracks retrospective piece” to Goldie’s hour-long catharsis single “Mother,” the first selection on his 1998 follow-up to Timeless called Saturnz Return.
All of this is happening within the same time frame of two faithful, long-running Bay Area drum and bass parties: Stamina, a free weekly Sunday night party at F8; and SHELTER, a third Thursday party at the Haight Street temple for electronic music, Underground SF.
I’m quite cognizant that our cultural zeitgeist has been experiencing a ’90s revival of sorts, which you can attribute to a yearning for more, less digital “pleasant times” or Zoomers just fiending to wear some baggy JNCO jeans. Both items can be true at once. Yet, the undeniable fact is, drum and bass is not exactly back because it really didn’t go anywhere.
It might have morphed or switched up in production a bit, but the mere fact that seminal label Metalheadz recently announced the return of its classic jazz remix “Blue Note Sessions”—and that a new series of UK events inspired by the groundbreaking nights that helped define the label’s early direction will be making a return this summer in the UK, featuring foundational figures Bailey, DJ Storm, Dillinja, Doc Scott, Ed Rush, Loxy, and Photek playing at “intimate” venues in Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, and such—signals how resilient this music, or better yet, this culture, remains.
It’s a great time to be a fan of drum and bass.
CUBAN MIXTAPE BY DJ KOCO AKA SHIMOKITA (MR. BONGO)
There’s nothing better than a fresh mixtape. Well, maybe a fresh cut from your fave barber. I digress. The ideas, the selections, the DJ tricks, edits, and that raw-jokester energy shooting through your earholes? Puts a skip in your step and makes you view the world in new and different ways. And these days, that’s better than gold or gas for three bucks a gallon.
Playlist? Go kick rocks for a week, fella.
So recently, Japanese DJ Koco, aka Shimokita, applied his tools of the trade to shaping an hour-long mixtape of his favorite Cuban music from the ’70s and ’80s. This Japanese turntablist wizard lights a fire to some of Cuba’s most dancefloor-focused records. He’s a Bay Area fave and well known by DJ Platurn and the 45 Sessions.
From the Afro-Cuban jazz-funk of Grupo Irakere to the psychedelic fusion of Grupo Los Yoyi, the soaring orchestral-infused style of Raúl Gómez to the slow-mo disco grooves of Farah María: This is a prime example of how a great idea in the hands of a knowledgeable and straight-up killer, cut-and-scratch DJ can turn any type of music into an immediate dance party reserved for midnight and beyond. The limited edition tapes are long gone, but the digital track, available on Bandcamp, is already legend.
Get it here.
DEVON PARKIN, NEW BELIEFS ON LAYAWAY (MYSTERYBOX)
Creativity is a mug, right? You can detect it instantaneously, though. It doesn’t even need to be processed as a thought upon consumption; it just moves you. Vancouver, BC-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Devon Parkin plays in a large sandbox, and his forthcoming electronic LP New Beliefs On Layaway shows a producer who works within the trip-hop genre but creates this very-much-so Vinyl Williams-type psychedelia that defies categorization after a while and just registers as a mind-blown emoji.
Releasing on Potatohead People’s new imprint Mysterybox Records, that right there is the connective tissue; expect grand things, bizarre sounds, and funk-awkward moves from this imaginative new talent who could be tagged as alternative art pop, dream pop, hypnagogic pop, indie pop, indie rock, psychedelic, psychedelic rock, or synth, but I’ll just opt for rising star.
Pre-order here.
VISIONEERS, DIRTY OLD HIP HOP 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION
4Hero’s Marc Mac has never cheated the game. As a matter of fact, he’s given so much as a pioneer of breakbeat hardcore, jungle/drum and bass, broken beat, and nu-jazz—he could take a break.
But 20 years ago, he decided to pay homage of sorts to tunes that have been sampled, repurposed, and just straight up loved by DJs, dancers, and beat heads, showcasing his respect for their essence.
Dirty Old Hip Hop, yes, as stated on the Bandcamp page, is considered a “stone-cold classic” for its experimental reimagining of breaks and beats. Mac and co. “re-imagined hip-hop breaks and beats and placed them into grooves that pay homage to the tunes from which those beats were originally sampled.” To me, an American, it feels like an electronic music producer’s mind flipping through his favorite record bins and playing those source samples for his friends.
Make no mistake, the Capitol A shoutout to SF on “Funk Box” is a chef’s kiss, and “Rollin’ For The Ride” is that 4am comedown to smooth you out before heading home.
Listen, this is a 4-hero treatment of beats and breaks; what could be better than that full orchestration treatment used by the British electronic music group? And for anybody who’s a collector of proper records, that’s reason enough to cop this.
Give it a try here.
GUILD THEATRE’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERT SERIES
Are you watching? I’m getting on my soapbox. Back in 2022, we at 48 Hills made Menlo Park’s Guild Theatre a Best of the Bay pick. Why? Let me tell you. The venue is a mere hour’s train ride for us city-dwellers from Fourth Street and King (right across from where the SF Giants baseball team holds court and, well, not this year, handles business.) The two-block walk from the Menlo Park Caltrain Station to The Guild’s front door is as easy as a sheet-pan dinner. And what you get in return is priceless. Top-shelf shows, from Kassa Overall and Tune-Yards to Kamasi Washington, with more than a generous sight line from all angles. Yes, inside this venue that first opened as a movie theater in 1926, the intimate 500-capacity live performance venue feels like a mini Bimbo’s 365 Club, without the hustle and bustle. Plus, and I’ll just say it, sometimes it feels great to leave the city to take in a great show—it gives perspective.
Now, the room is celebrating its 100-year milestone with a 6-month concert series featuring Cat Power, Jon McLaughlin, Buckethead, Margo Price, Neal Francis, Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, The Psychedelic Furs, and more. Originally opened in 1926 as a single-screen movie theater, The Guild served as a beloved local cinema for decades before being thoughtfully renovated and reopened in 2022 as a modern nonprofit performance space. “This series reflects exactly what we want The Guild to be known for: memorable nights, dynamic cultural programming, and artists that feel extra special to see in a room this intimate,” said Tom Hoppa, talent buyer for The Guild Theatre. “We wanted the centennial season to feel celebratory, distinctive, and deeply rooted in the spirit of the venue.”
While season openers The Psychedelic Furs had to cancel due to health issues, The Guild Theatre’s 100th Anniversary Concert Series still includes the following:
June 14: The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Feat. Bawdy Caste)
June 20: Neal Francis (Presented by KEXP)
June 24: Buckethead
July 18: Margo Price
July 30-31: Christone “Kingfish” Ingram
August 6: Bad Nerves
August 17: Cat Power (Presented by KEXP)
September 23: Tommy Emmanuel
October 14: Jon McLaughlin
October 16: Shovels & Rope
November 16: Son Volt
More info here.
