Tracklist:

YoYoYo (intro - PopUp Shop)

Venice

Imafan

Los Gatos

Sweet stuff

Battleships

Away

Dark Parks

Awaze

News Feed

Braddas

Gnu Blue

Technology

Boom Bapped

Prime

Strikes Again

Choo Choo

The Beat UP

What A Life

Lake Shore Drive Five

Internationally acclaimed drummer, producer, and sonic collagist Makaya McCraven with a 2LP of four distinct yet interconnected EPs - Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop - a deep return to the signature “organic beat music” approach that Makaya first debuted on his 2015 album In The Moment . Built from live recordings, the music is later reshaped by McCraven via extensive editing, overdubs, and post-production at his home studio in Chicago.

The source material from each EP is drawn from moments of pure improvisation, recorded live in performance, shaped as much by the room and audience as by the musicians themselves.

Techno Logic features Ben LaMar Gay and Theon Cross, and draws from performances in London (2017), Berlin (2024), and New York (2025), showcasing nearly eight years of developing rapport between the three musicians, starting with their very first session at Worldwide FM’s former North London studio.

The People’s Mixtape has its foundation in a live recording from Brooklyn’s Public Records in January of 2025, where McCraven celebrated the 10 year anniversary of In The Moment with an intentional return to the improvisational language he developed over that album’s sessions. For the occasion, McCraven played with bassist Junius Paul and trumpeter Marquis Hill, as well as vibraphonist Joel Ross and synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (marking the first occasion for McCraven to play with the SML co-leader and International Anthem labelmate).

Speaking on the record, McCraven says, “In a time where we’re increasingly connected through phones, in a virtual world where you can’t really tell what’s real or what’s fake, there’s something special where we come together and share space, there is something special where we are sharing music, art. I want to create an energy that amplifies the magic in the underground moments where we come together and we experience something wild, different, off the cuff, human. What I’m trying to present is a dreamlike alteration of that energy, which only exists in the recorded realm. But to actually have been there, in real life, is the special thing".