Last week’s radio show, my first back in-studio in a few weeks, was fun. Began with ‘Moroccan grime’ aka the standout track from Fnaire’s (not very good) new album which sounds like it was produced by Wiley in 2005. Check it, and lots more new heat:

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[DJ Total Freedom, Paper Mag]

And this Wednesday, July 18th, we’ll have special guest artist Ashland Mines aka DJ Total Freedom in from Los Angeles!

Total Freedom was responsible for my favorite club DJ set last year – we played together at the Tormenta Tropical 4-year anniversary in LA and it was one of those rare sets were every song was a gem that I hadn’t heard before, exquisitely mixed and sequenced. Sometimes it can be very hard for non-DJ types to understand why (or how) a certain DJ is good at what they do; but on the flip side sometimes you can catch a tiny piece of a musician’s set and that’s enough to be wowed. Plus, when I DJed Wildness back in 2009 and spent a few days digging around the cumbia stores in downtown LA, everybody was like, “oh, you need to talk to Ashland.”

Ashland’s in town for Blasting Voice, his installation-performance-piece at Suzanne Geiss gallery: “on nine nights throughout the show, this stage will be activated by 27 performances — both linguistic and non-verbal, acoustic and electronic — exploring poetic and formal dimensions of amplification.”

From 8-9pm on WFMU this Wednesday, Total Freedom will play some tunes from his upcoming compilation, and we’ll talk about Blasting Voice, what’s going on in LA, thee olde arte of DJing, Monster Energy Drinks, Discos Barba Azul, and more.