Sunday Selections #6

TOKiMONSTA (toki means rabbit in Korean) is a Korean-American record producer and DJ from Los Angeles that has collaborated with artists like Anderson Paak and Zhu. One of the things I appreciate about her the most is how her own music is just as good as her remixes. You know how some artists are just good at creating remixes but their own music isn’t just that great? Well, she’s killer at both.

It’s especially inspiring to know that she completely lost her ability to speak or let alone create music after she underwent surgery from being diagnosed with Moyamoya (a rare disease caused by blocked arteries at the base of the brain), yet continued to make music. This album, Lune Rouge, was produced after she’d recovered.

Here’s an example of one of her remixes. I like this version more than the original. She nails this remix by one of my favorite artists, George Fitzgerald (more will be on him in a future post).

Nosaj Thing (pronounced “no such thing”), who gets his name from spelling his first name, Jason, backwards, is another Korean-American record producer from LA.

I remember watching an interview he did where he said his music style was influenced by classical musicians like Bach. I thought that was interesting because his music is heavily synthetic.

Although it’s not as syntenthic-sounding as his other songs, Aquarium is one of the earliest songs he released that is also the most played. This was the song that got me into him, but my favorite is his album Drift and the The XX’s Islands remix. Also, here’s an amazing live session he did on KEXP 9 years ago.