RAS G Vinyl & CDs

Review: Prolific Los Angeles beat scene producer Ras-G finished this last ever collection shortly before his sad passing in 2019. For the first time, it was presented to the world as the legendary artist intend on Raw G Day, 04/04/2020, and now makes it to vinyl. It is another work crafted with his chosen tool, the Roland SP 404, and is packed with his signature boom-bap, lo-fi aesthetic and crisp instrumentals. There are woozy numbest that draw you into a late night world of debauchery next to classically tinged soul cuts and darkly hypnotic loops that will keep you coming back for days.

Review: Ras G, or Gregory Shorter Jr as he's known around the Los Angeles county, has been active since the late 2000's, and he's stuck close to both Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder family, and also the Stones Throw-related Leaving label. The latter has put out the majority of his material, and Ras G is back on the imprint with a hot n' heavy new LP in his familiarly odd strand of electronic outsider hip-hop. The album is more bass than beats, with "Disciple09-1" unleashing a swarm of low ends onto an ocean of side-stepping percussion and eerie melodics. The following tracks take on a similar form - one that never steers too closely to any one genre - but Ras G keeps on twisting and turning, morphing his tunes into bonkers and heavily improvised jams. This is probably the sort of tip that Dilla would be on these days, one that's deeply infused with the rough style of house and electronica that swoops us daily. Beautiful and recommended, through and through.

Review: The now firmly established beat-institution, Stones Throw, is simply never out of ideas. The latest ace up their sleeve comes in the form of a much-needed vinyl reissue of US artist Ras G's Raw Fruit series, a compilation of funky-as-hell, sample-laden tracks which have only previously been out on cassette and digital formats. Teaming up with Leaving Records, the original home of the series, they have compiled both volumes into one hell of double vinyl release. Imagine J Dilla after a heavy night on the town and you're not even close to what this guy's capable of. Tracks like "GMO Hoes" and "Hyksos Invaders" are as nutty as they are seductive, combining the more rigid formats of jazz fusion together with electronic improvisation and deranged looping. This is one of our favourite Stones Throw dug-outs in a while and comes warmly recommended.

Review: Los Angeles-based Ras G, a contemporary of Flying Lotus, has long sounded like a refugee from another planet; a kind of electronic devotee of Sun Ra with his head firmly in the cosmos. Despite being called Back on the Planet, this latest full-length excursion is every bit as out-there and intergalactic as previous releases. For the most part, it sounds like it was beamed down from the far reaches of the universe, offering an unusual blend of alien electronics, acid-fried jazz, other-wordly ambience, twisted African rhythms and hip-hop beats from another dimension. It's inventive, unusual and constantly entertaining. Ras G is a genuine one-off, and Back on the Planet proves that conclusively.