If a podcast had a bb with your entire iTunes library on Shuffle it would be MIRROR TALK. Hosted by South Central LA-based contemporary hip hop poet Def Sound, each episode includes a spectrum of cultural conversations and innerviews w/ artists and culture workers from around the world. Frequent the frequency every 4th Monday.

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FREE THE ROBOTS:
Chris Alfaro is Free the Robots; the musician, beat maker/ DJ, known for his ability to jump in and out of other worlds, creating a unique signature sound that hints at electronic, hip hop, jazz and psych, while remaining un-genre-fiable. His free flowing imagination, and tendency to go out of bounds keeps his productions and DJ sets constantly moving forward; away from robotic monotony, ultimately freeing the robots.

Based out of Los Angeles, CA, Alfaro has spent over a decade taking his craft to audiences around the globe. He is known as one of the pioneering artists to come out of LA’s beat movement, and continues on building his line up of original recordings in unpredictable directions. The energy and technical skill behind his live performances have landed him a place among the greats, sharing stages with the likes of Flying Lotus, DJ Shadow, DJ Krush and Afrika Bambaataa.

Aside from his work as a solo artist Alfaro has put focus on an array of different projects ranging from classic-future Rap with Opio (Hieroglyphics/ Souls of Mischief), global duo beat experiments with Lefto (Studio Brussels, WorldwideFM), reworks of recordings for the legendary band GRAY (feat. Jean Michel Baquiat/ Micheal Holman), to rare sessions yet to be heard with the late great Ikey Owens (The Mars Volta/ Jack White Band). His general love and respect for music and its origins have him constantly digging deep in crates for a better understanding of cultural evolution through rhythm and sound. As an avid global wanderer, Alfaro constantly challenges himself drawing inspiration from everything in his path. Whether he focuses on the collection or creation of music, he is naturally evolving with the freedom to do so. There is no telling what the Robots will do next.

DATU

On October [], 2019, Los Angeles-based artist Free The Robots will release his next full-length album, Datu. The new record was created through FTR’s desire to unearth the lineage of his ancestry. A yearning for self-acknowledgment that he’s felt robbed of from the erosion of his people’s legacy over the last few centuries. Aside from added drums, 100% of the melodic and rhythmic samples used across Datu are sourced from native Filipino albums and field recordings. FTR blended his compositions around these sample frameworks, creating a singular sound within today’s landscape of instrumental music. Applying a compass point to the knowledge he sourced, FTR then named each track according to the samples used and the many languages of the Philippines.

Ahead of the release in October, Free The Robots offers the album’s lead single, “Magarib.” Devoid of towering synths or vortex-like transitions, the rhythm section is blanketed with a saturation of indigenous tribalism, rooted vamps, and unfiltered soul. The fusing of original drum work with a montage of percussion samples is transfixing and hypnotic, flowing with the life of his ancestors and the landscape of the modern beat scene.
The road to Datu’s creation goes back almost a decade, with the first seeds planted during a tour in Manila. Since then, he’s has been going down wormholes trying to learn the history of a culture so foreign and stripped away from the 21st-century viewing lens. Fast forward to 2014 and FTR would have a powerful psychedelic experience that led to the inspiration behind Datu.”I watched as my body vaporized into another dimension,” FTR explains. “Like a cannonball, my consciousness shot through my bloodline and I found myself amongst an indigenous tribe in a rice field/jungle where I was able to spend time communicating with strangers who may or may not have been my actual ancestors. Without words, what I took from the experience, I can’t explain.” An impactful moment in his life, FTR moved to the island of Siargao, Philippines four years later, staying there for a few months. Datu was then conceived in a hut across three days, utilizing a barebones studio set up with the beach right outside. A surrealistic environment to create an album, the natural landscape further helped solidify the sonic direction he would take the samples collected.

Datu is the name given to the ruling head of a clan or tribe during ancient, pre-colonial times of the Philippines. Colonization, cultural amnesia, and the reshaping of Philippine culture throughout generations have me and countless others almost completely disconnected from our roots. With no knowledge of what stories exist in the physical reality of my bloodline, the concept behind this album is my way of reconnecting with my ancestry in the spiritual realm of the creative flow state. – Free The Robots