Red is Part I of The October Series, a trilogy of themed mixtapes from prolific 19-year-old New York producer RAJA (formerly known as InfinitiRock) to be released here over the next 48 hours.
Red is roots music: a classic hip-hop beat tape overflowing with jazz and soul samples and, as such, a deeply respectful nod to the origins of contemporary beat music in Madlib and Dilla. Featuring guest appearances from Brainfeeder’s Jeremiah Jae and Starchild of RAJA’s Guns of Kingston (GOK) collective, this tape bespeaks RAJA’s natural ability to bring creative individuals together in the pursuit of musical greatness.
After dropping breakout 40-track beat tape 17Years as a high school student under his ‘InfinitiRock’ alias, RAJA (real name Chester Anand) released Music for Primordial Recollection LP earlier this year on Sufjan Steven’s label Asthmatic Kitty. Anand is currently working on an EP with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist and fellow GOK member Bean under the moniker Slowlight. Download their first single, ‘Copper Mirrors,’ via our friends at Yours Truly.
Tomorrow morning we’re dropping Witch, the next beat tape in The October Series. Color‘s on Tuesday. All together we’re releasing 77 RAJA tracks this weekend. To our knowledge, a series of free releases of this scale is unprecedented. It flies in the face of just about every music business convention we can think of. But this is Astro Nautico, not the music business. Thanks to Chester for his magnanimity. It’s about the music now…
RAJA on
