Whether he’s working with artists like Freddie Gibbs, MF Doom or Erykah Badu, collaborating with the late J Dilla, or working under one of his own aliases, like the drugged out party creature Quasimoto, Madlib has carved out his own idiosyncrat

Can's Damo Suzuki

Jun 17th, 2019 1h 4m

Damo Suzuki left Japan in his late teens and busked around Europe, attracting the attention of Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit of the band Can. Suzuki became their lead vocalist from 1970 to 1973, writing and singing on the band’s most endurin

Transcendent pop star Robyn

Jun 10th, 2019 1h 12m

Robyn’s career reads like a film script: Swedish star tops of the charts, sidesteps pop for a more personal sound, ends up self-sufficient and even bigger than before. This second chapter has included five Grammy nominations, appearances on Sat

Essential French DJ Laurent Garnier

Jun 3rd, 2019 1h 3m

One of the forefathers of French electronic music, Laurent Garnier had an older brother who would sneak him into nightclubs. He caught the disco bug and moved to Manchester, falling under the spell of house music at the famed Haçienda nightclub

Pan Daijing: Sound, Performance, Emotion

May 27th, 2019 1h 1m

The Chinese experimental artist Pan Daijing's attention to granular detail makes for a deeply absorbing listening experience. Since being an RBMA participant in Montréal in 2016, she's released her acclaimed debut album, Lack, on Berlin label P

Detroit techno originator Kevin Saunderson

May 20th, 2019 58m 7s

While Juan Atkins and Derrick May are known as the originator and innovator of Detroit techno, respectively, Kevin Saunderson is known as the elevator for bringing it to the mainstream. In the late ’80s, his group Inner City topped UK charts wi

Sound engineer Susan Rogers

May 13th, 2019 1h 52m

Susan Rogers dropped out of high school to teach herself sound engineering. By 25, she worked for Crosby, Stills and Nash at their Rudy Records studio. Rogers spent five years working for Prince, a relationship that would change her life. She n

Funktion-One's Tony Andrews

May 6th, 2019 45m 22s

Tony Andrews has been building PAs for decades. Today, the soundsystems made by his company Funktion-One are preferred by the world’s best clubs. Their speakers are more iconic than you might expect something so technical to be – a testament to

Cellist Larry Gold: From MFSB to "The Boy Is Mine"

Apr 29th, 2019 54m 17s

Philadelphia native Larry Gold has worked on countless hits over the past four decades. He was a member of MFSB, helping shape “The Sound of Philadelphia" via classic recordings on Philadelphia International. By the late ’90s, Gold was the go-t

Rap mainstay No I.D.

Apr 22nd, 2019 1h 28m

A pivotal figure in the ’90s Chicago rap scene, producer No I.D. is responsible for the bulk of Common’s early output. He went on to manage a young Kanye West and work with Jermaine Dupri and Jay-Z. He's been one of the top A&R men at Def Jam a

Sun Ra Arkestra's Marshall Allen

Apr 15th, 2019 1h 14m

Marshall Allen is the third man to helm the Sun Ra Arkestra. The alto saxophonist joined the group in 1958 and led its reed section for over 40 years. For this episode, Allen was joined by Danny Ray Thompson, a bassoon player and saxophonist wh

Club and pop music polymath Jam City

Apr 8th, 2019 46m 42s

The roster for UK electronic label Night Slugs is stacked with talent, so it’s no small praise to say that British producer, songwriter and DJ Jack Latham, AKA Jam City, is one of the label’s most prominent artists. Though he's lauded for his d

Singular rapper Pusha T

Apr 1st, 2019 1h 19m

Born in the Bronx and raised in Virginia Beach, Terrence LeVarr Thornton, AKA Pusha T, is one of the most influential rappers alive. He and his brother No Malice formed rap duo Clipse, whose Neptunes-produced albums are accepted masterworks of

Definitive American composer Philip Glass

Mar 25th, 2019 53m 21s

Philip Glass' compositions transformed the world of classical music and, eventually, popular music in general. Time spent in Paris set Glass on a course toward the repetitive, dramatic and conceptually rigorous style that has become his tradema

Teki Latex on his musical evolution

Mar 18th, 2019 38m 27s

Teki Latex is a progressive presence in the French electronic music scene. He got his start as a founding MC in Parisian hip-hop act TTC, along with collaborators including DJ Orgasmic and Para One. He co-founded the influential Institubes labe

House music legends Masters At Work

Mar 11th, 2019 53m 44s

"Little" Louie Vega and Kenny "Dope" Gonzalez have spent more than 20 years shepherding dance music down new paths. With remixes being their specialty, their treatment has been given to artists from Madonna, Debbie Gibson and Lisa Stansfield, t

Mixpak's Dre Skull

Mar 4th, 2019 45m 13s

Raised on the East Coast underground freak-punk scene, Dre Skull perceives urban music culture as a holistic affair. After lacing beats for heavy hitters such as Beenie Man, Popcaan and Pusha T, the mighty Major Lazer asked Dre Skull to co-prod

Ben UFO on joining the dots as a DJ

Feb 25th, 2019 47m 17s

London’s Ben UFO started out on pirate radio station Sub FM in 2007, playing alongside friends, producers and DJs Pangaea and Pearson Sound. After being sent new music every week, the trio started the Hessle Audio label, through which they join

Pop radical Planningtorock

Feb 18th, 2019 47m 7s

For Jam Rostron, the multimedia artist who performs as Planningtorock, subversion – in gender, sexuality and politics – has driven their creativity for almost two decades. After the melodramatic pop of their debut album and 2013’s anthem “Patri

Piano adventurer Chilly Gonzales

Feb 11th, 2019 44m 31s

Pianist, composer and entertainer Chilly Gonzales is no ordinary musician. Originally from Canada, he scored a Grammy for his contribution to Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories and seamlessly switches from working with Boys Noize to Feist to Dr

Drummer and hitmaker Sheila E

Feb 4th, 2019 45m 28s

Sheila E is a world-class drummer and percussionist who's worked with some of the most acclaimed artists of all time, including Marvin Gaye, Beyoncé, Herbie Hancock and Diana Ross. She was Prince’s drummer and musical director during the period

Montréal engineer Howard Bilerman

Jan 28th, 2019 47m 11s

Grammy-nominated Howard Bilerman is a former member of Arcade Fire and the engineer for the band's breakthrough album, Funeral. Throughout his prolific career he has worked with over 400 artists, including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Handsome

Berlin icon Gudrun Gut

Jan 21st, 2019 1h 6m

Gudrun Gut has been at the forefront of Berlin music for decades. She cofounded Einstürzende Neubauten and went on to play in bands like Malaria! and Mania D. In the ’90s Gut founded Moabit Music and Monika Enterprise, exclusively releasing the

Canadian composer Kara-Lis Coverdale

Jan 14th, 2019 41m 8s

Kara-Lis Coverdale became organist and composing music director at a local church in Ontario at 14. After studying musicology and composition, she moved to Montréal and befriended Tim Hecker, playing on his albums Virgins and Love Streams. In 2

Minimal Wave's Veronica Vasicka

Jan 7th, 2019 35m 58s

Veronica Vasicka has unearthed countless gems and revived a subgenre with Minimal Wave, the label she founded in 2005. Vasicka’s sound was partly cultivated via online radio station East Village Radio, where she was the station’s first program