In 2006 a man named Elliot Rashman gave me the opportunity to come to the north of England and produce the Happy Mondays album Uncle Dysfunktional. It would be the follow up to the 1992 album "Yes Please". Its a wild story in its own right. especially right then i had so much to prove and put my whole heart into trying to make a special piece of work. i worked for a while before i evr met Shaun and he became this mythical wild beast from his old image and stories. when i met hime we got on like a house on fire as they say. when it came time to mix the record i asked if i could try and get Howie B to mix it. When i was 12 years old the same Elliot Rashman gave me a pre release cassette copy of SKYLAB 1. it changed me forever. i then met Howie and watched him work once when i was 15 and he was doing a remix of a simply red song, blew my mind again, and gave me a role model outside of the hip hop cats i had been looking up to. got to work with Howie when i was 18 and he came out to mix some pieces that i had been working on with Ry Cooder for the score to the film End of Violence directed by Wim Wenders. over the years i kept in a wee bit of touch with Howie but never really spent much time. i wrote him an email and then he took a train to Manchester and hung with me and Shaun for a night. We stayed up till the wee small hours, listened to our record so faar and record what became "0161'ers northern soul weekender". i went back to LA, finished up some tracks and put Mickey Avalon on "Deviants" (i had been working on his debut album that was about to come out). him and Shaun seemed like they needed to be on a track together....
then i went to London and hung with Howie for a few weeks while he mixed the album. it was one of the best times ive ever had. felt like things had really come full circle from my trip hop boyish dreams, and there iwas spending evryday with Howie B while he mixed these jams in a wild way in a great mix room in Hoxton.
it was the best....
after a bunch of bullshit i was asked to remix it a bit cleare and more "pop"  from Howie's stems. i was really just a kid and didnt have the balls to tell everyone to fuck off and stick with Howies mixes, becasue they really were perfect. i would never let it go down like that now... the record as it was got some love and all but alot of the coolness got overlooked. the fact that its mixed by Howie, has Ry cooder playing gtr ona tune, has Mickey and Shaun doing a very creepy duet, has a cover of "Rush Rush" (a Blondie song from Scarface!) 
no one has ever heard these original mixes, seemed like time to put it up...
it is a crazy record tho, im not trying to act like it aint crazy...

although it was not in fact released on Factory records it was assigned a factory number by Tony Wilson before his death.
FACT500


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"Down To Earth Vol. 2 (The Standard Bap Edition)" World Wide release on Vinyl, Cassette, and Digital formats 12/9/2014

Ras G - Take It Slow

Astronauts Etc feat. Toro Y Moi - Rocket Man

Hardest thing

Zack Sekoff's debut album "Remnants of a Winter Sun" is out January 15th on Alpha Pup Records

In fall 2014, Zack Sekoff was filled with doubt, wondering if he’d just made the biggest mistake of his life. A rising star on the Los Angeles music scene -- with glowing write-ups in Vice, Stussy, and many others, and well-regarded performances at venues like Low End Theory –the young writer-producer-performer had recently left LA behind, moving 3,000 miles away to start his freshman year at Yale University.  What, he wondered, would happen to his music? Would schoolwork take up all his mental bandwidth? Would being disconnected from his adopted family of west coast musicians leave him feeling alone and isolated? Would the brutal east coast winter render his creativity frozen?
 
Hardly. Indeed, the feelings of isolation and disconnection, mixed with the stimulation of his new surroundings, ended up sparking an outpouring of fresh and inventive music.  The result is Remnants of a Winter Sun, his debut Alpha Pup Records album.  Scheduled for release on January 15, 2016, Remnants is a kaleidoscopic journey into futuristic R&B and a work of deep moral intention and reaction. It builds on Sekoff’s reputation for tracks that challengingly navigate the cutting edge of experimentalism and pop – and offers up a wide and complex range of ideas and emotions.
 
The album’s themes and outlook were partly fueled by his reaction to the current political and social state of affairs – and his desire to have an impact on it.  As he puts it: “The song Ride/Riot is really about how I react to things big and small, personal and global. Leaving home for the first time, then having a year where the world seemed to be falling apart: Ferguson, Eric Garner, Sandra Bland, etc. It was kind of me asking my 19-year-old self, “how are you going to approach this unjust and cruel world that you have inherited?” I think a lot of kids in my generation are feeling the same way. We want to run away, but we also are so angry that we feel like we have to fight back.”
 
Conceptually, there is a lot to take in – and sonically, there is just as much. Sekoff put the final stamp on Remnants of a Winter Sun with mastering from Alpha Pup Records founder Daddy Kev. The addition of Daddy Kev holds a special place in Sekoff’s heart and as he describes, “Working with him and Alpha Pup on this album was a dream not only because he is my favorite engineer (he’s worked on all my favorite records) but as an A&R and label head he had nothing but patience with my creative process. By the time I got into the studio to mix with him this summer, I knew that he had given me the rare space to make a record that fully represented what I thought it should be. He trusted my creative process completely and pushed the sonics to where they are now. The record is part lo-fi in that it was recorded on a laptop in a college dorm room and part hi-fi because we mixed on some of the best analog gear in the world (Neve compressors, SSL board). It’s a real mixture of the two aesthetics I love most.”  
 
The album includes a collaboration with Brainfeeder virtuoso Thundercat; other tracks feature two of L.A.’s best kept secrets, Nikko Grey and Def Sound  -- each adding a unique flavor to a truly eclectic record. The rest of the sounds on Remnants all come from Zack himself, an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
 
Zack Sekoff’s Remnants of a Winter Sun is a beautiful, distinctive, and powerful expression from a captivating new artist; it will find its worthy home on Alpha Pup in January 2016.

Preorder

Zack Sekoff "Ride/Riot"

Such a fan of Floating Points' treatment of Milosh and my song, as remixed from 2011's Bespoke. I feel like it should be with you in these days, perhaps to sooth what harshes your mellows.

Tailor - Made (Floating Points Remix)

woke up, spoke up

https://rasgtheafrikanspaceprogram.bandcamp.com/album/stargate-music
out world wide 4/20/2018

"The womb is The Stargate of Humanity” says Ras G, relating to the concept of his latest proper full-length - an astral ode to woman. "Stargate Music is a record that I livicated to the Womb-man...to the Vagina, The Stargate from which beings emanate life on this planet. I gathered these sound pieces and presented it as a reflection of the life cycle of beings on this planet." 

G has always been more to us than an influential L.A. beatmaker, but rather the luminary with an infectiously heartfelt zero-fucks-given philosophy towards raw experimentation in the Los Angeles underground producer scene since the early 2000s. 

"From The Primordial Water Formation we flow thru The Stargate....and one's great journey reconnecting and returning to the sweet nectar that is The Stargate....and this is the soundtrack to the journey." -Ras G

Stargate Music

PREORDER VINYL+DIGI

Ras G & The Afrikan Space Program - The Arrival

This is a cover of John Lennon song, Gimme Some Truth. It was recorded in Oct for Sean and John Lennon's birthday tribute, with eternal love.

Gimme Some Truth Cover

Sunny Levine is a California-based Grammy award winning record producer, songwriter, film composer and artist. Mostly known for his work as a producer for artists including Jon Batiste, Shabbaz Palaces, Happy Mondays, Pete Yorn, Scarlett Johansson, Ariel Pink's Haunted Grafitti, Alekesam, Shaun Ryder, Lenka,  and Hugh Masekela.

Sunny grew up surrounded by music. His father is renowned record producer STEWART LEVINE (Simply Red, Minnie Riperton, Dr. John, Joe Cocker, B.B. King, the Crusaders), his uncle is rap producer QD3 (Ice Cube, 2 Pac, LL Cool J) and his grandfather is QUINCY JONES. It would be safe to say that the boy grew up in some studios….

Sunny spent his formative years between Los Angeles, upstate New York and London.

Photograph

sunnylevine

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