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Two hours of low end theorising from the hip hop and electronic label, and spiritual home of LA's deeply influential "beat scene". Featuring music from the breadth of the label's roster including Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Ras G, Kamasi Washington and many more. Selected by NTS.

https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/brainfeeder-17th-november-2022

NTS Guide To: Brainfeeder - 17th November 2022

'Somewhere along the line Coltrane’s soprano sax runs out of steam. Now it’s McCoy Tyner’s piano solo I hear, the left hand carving out a repetitious rhythm and the right layering on thick, forbidding chords. Like some mythic scene, the music portrays somebody’s - a nameless, faceless somebody’s - dim past, all the details laid out as clearly as entrails being dragged out of the darkness. Or at least that’s how it sounds to me. The patient, repeating music ever so slowly breaks apart the real, rearranging the pieces. It has a hypnotic, menacing smell, just like the forest'

Music, and specifically jazz, has always featured heavily in the literary imagination of Haruki Murakami. In this radio special, NTS lays down two hours of jazz records as featured throughout Murak... 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-jazz-in-murakami-novels-21st-november-2024

NTS Guide to: Jazz In Murakami Novels 211124

A two hour overview of the distinctive blues and rock sounds from North Africa, a loose assimilation of artists and styles often dubbed "Sahara blues" or "Desert blues". The music is frequently associated with (but not exclusively) the nomadic Tuareg peoples who made the music famous around the world.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-sahara-blues-14th-march-2025

NTS Guide to: Sahara Blues 140325

An hour of Ryuichi Sakamoto's piano focussed compositions, in memory of the legendary musician's passing.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-sakamoto-piano-works-28th-march-2025

NTS Guide to: Sakamoto's Piano Works 280325

A snapshot of a short-lived microgenre, created by a niche network of producers in New York, fusing two of the dominant sounds of the city in the mid 2000s – the ostentatious, trunk-knocking drum programming of Diplomats beats, and the euphoric big-room trance sounds spilling from the city's clubs. Dipset Trance.  
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-dipset-trance-8th-april-2025

NTS Guide to: Dipset Trance  080425

The LA Beat Scene emerged in the early 2000s as a loose community of producers pushing instrumental hip-hop into new territory. Built around live nights like Kutmah's Sketchbook, and later Low End Theory, it created space for new kinds of sampling, strange drum programming and a DIY approach to sharing music. This mix brings together artists central to the scene’s development - Flying Lotus, Ras G, Teebs, Samiyam, Knxwledge, and others who shaped its sound from bedrooms, basements and backrooms across LA. 
Find the full tracklist and related episodes on NTS: https://www.nts.live/shows/the-nts-guide-to/episodes/the-nts-guide-to-la-beat-scene-13th-may-2025

NTS Guide to: LA Beat Scene 130525

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NTS Guide To: Brainfeeder - 17th November 2022

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