This year has already seen the release of albums by The Life Force Trio (Living Room), Nobody (Revisions), Mai Doi Todd (La Ninja: Amor And Other Dreams Of Manzanita and make sure you check out the latest Hectic Mix to hear her excellent version of ‘Norwegian Wood’) and Dublab’s In the Loop#4.

Allen Avanessian and Joe Marougi’s label has constantly been at the forefront of experimental electronic hip hop beats since the very start in 1994. It seems most appropriate that they are releasing a series called The Sound Of LA with Volume 1 compiled by Carlos Niño.

Cut Chemist does his thing on ‘Coast To Coast’ and it’s one for the roots breaks heads of funk but the stand out track for us is Daedelus who fans his dreamy beat on ‘The Beat Laid Bare’. The hot news this week is that there’s a massive collection of Deadelus remixes on the way. While the b-side is ambient electronica the SA-RA crew get all spaceways (where’s the album folks?).

Other releases to look forward to on Plug Research are the albums But This Chicken Proved False Hearted from new signing Samamido (Appalachian Folk), Ola Podrida (cinematic composer) and an instrumental hip hop album 1983 by Flying Lotus. Flying Lotus will also be appearing on Vol. 2 of The Sound Of LA along with a track from Eric Coleman (Keepintime/Mochilla).

Carlos calls this venture “avant garde soul music” but whatever the tag, Plug Research is constantly the place for your cosmic electric foltronica from the West Coast and more besides.

Reviewed: V/A — The Sound of L.A. Volume 1 (Plug Research) Cat. No. PLG 065EP Release date: 2006

Tracklisting:
A1 Cut Chemist — Coast to Coast
A2 Jermajesty — Nothing Like Bomb Music From The West
A3 Daedelus — The Beat Laid Bare
A4 Sacred — Grow Your Own
B1 SA-RA Creative Partners — Timeless Continuum
B2 Georgia Anne Muldrow — Hello
B3 Dntel — Rock My Boat
B4 Poly — He Is At The Discotheque

Links:
www.plugresearch.com
www.plugresearch.blogspot.com
www.myspace.com/daedelusdarling
www.mochilla.com
www.oneweektolive.com Issue 50 6-12 Nov p34: Plug Research