July 25, 2014

Friday night live at Transistor: Beyond Luck and Phraim. Sound by Jon Monteverde.

Beyond Luck, the Chicago-rooted collective consisting of DJ Moppy, Radius, Keter Darker & Lailah Reich, openly define their "style" as Beyond Genre Music, expressing their common love for jazz, house, prog rock, hip-hop, dub/reggae. The group's production setup includes but is not limited to Moppy on Technics 1200s and effects, Radius on the MPC1000 and Korg Kaoss pads, and Keter Darker & Lailah on vocals.

Says Radius: "Our sets are live, electronic, improvised production sets, plus vocals: free cosmic beat jazz. Keter Darker comes with a fire and flavor of a Gil Scott-Heron & Amiri Baraka with Afro-futuristic elements, and Lailah sings adding layers like a wind or brass instrument would. Live looping, sampling, scratching, drum programming, synths, etc, from DJ Moppy and me."

Also available: a previous Beyond Luck Transistor performance from January 24, 2014.

Also available: previous Radius Transistor performances from November 2, 2012 and October 12, 2012.

Hailing from Chicago's South Side, Phraim wields a host of eclectic and tonal production chops one gets from being a world sojourner. He prides himself on being native to a city that is filled with savvy and schizophrenic music makers, self included. And what better outlook for a musician? With influences ranging from jazz and soul to rock and electronica, his brand of hip-hop weaves together sampled elements, melodic arrangements and pulsating drum programming to marry the gritty with the tantalizing. His latest full-length release, "Kasbah Moments," is a versatile thematic labor of love comprised of hypnotic rhythms that any filmmaker would kill to have as their score. At the heart of his production/performance setup is the Akai MPC 2500. He relays the sampler into Ableton and/or Logic, his current choice of DAWs, which is then controlled primarily with Novation midi keyboards.

Visit Phraim on Bandcamp and Soundcloud.

Also available: a previous Phraim Transistor performance from October 25, 2013.