"I would tell your grandma it sounds like apple pie injected with gasoline," says producer Lord RAJA of his RAJA RADIO Sacred Space mix. The collection is released on the back of his remarkable debut album A Constant Moth, a dense 12 tracks of jerky breakbeats and heady aesthetics that range from glitch to footwork to house, released last month on Ghostly International. As his sound pulls you into stratospheric soundscapes and beyond it's clear from both the mix and the album that you're listening to someone operating totally outside of convention."It's probably best for geeks to listen to alone on their monitors or in the whip and be like, 'nice…' to themselves," he explains. "The mix was originally just my own most recent material sort of strung together, but then my manager asked me to throw in some material from other people as well. Since the album came out I got some cash and started building a seductive hardware setup so a lot of the sounds in the mix are just from recent experimentation."Barely out of university, RAJA's already had the unique honor of releasing on Sufjan Stevens' eclectic Asthmatic Kitty imprint in addition to his current forays with influential dance label Ghostly International. "The Asthmatic Kitty opportunity was a one time sort of thing which thankfully fell into my lap at quite a young age. I think it helped me understand all of the processing, planning and promoting that goes into putting out an LP," he explains. "It Definitely helped establish a balance of comfort and precaution."Despite the differences between the musical direction of the two labels, RAJA's output is so wholly unique that it works in both contexts. "I didn't have to really shift perspectives or anything. I try not to get too focused on the label or distributors or any of that," he says. "With both Asthmatic Kitty and Ghostly (so far) I've turned in material that was made during my school career. I'm looking forward to turning stuff in from here on because I'm finally done with all that shit and I can really zone in."Find Lord RAJA on FB // Soundcloud
Lord RAJA's A Constant Moth is available here.
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Lord RAJA's A Constant Moth is available here.