Tag Archives: Bitchin Bajas

Mixtape #163

03 September 2024


A restless and forward-thinking artist, with the technical ability and versatility to back it up, Ben Lumsdaine is a force to be reckoned with. The LA-based composer, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist and producer has a long list of credits as a live performer and studio musician on numerous recordings. As a producer/engineer/mixer he has shaped records for a cavalcade of artists including International Anthem labelmates Daniel Villarreal, Jeremiah Chiu, Anna Butters and Bex Burch, and many others. Last year he released his debut solo record, Murmuration Without End, a mesmerizing and magnificent collection of rhythmic compositions that saw him step out of his comfort zone and swap his primary instrument for modular synthesizers to create a record unlike anything he's ever done before. Worthy of repeated listens, we still haven’t been able put it down. So we’re ecstatic to share the superb mix he put together for us, featuring, as he puts it, “a pretty wide ranging selection of tunes that have impacted me in some lasting way over the last decade or so”. Press play!

  1. Joe Meek – Valley of the Saroos [Triumph]
  2. Colorlist – Montreal [Serein]
  3. Chris Cohen – Heart Beat [Captured Tracks]
  4. Jeff Parker Trio – Mainz [Delmark Records]
  5. Bitchin Bajas – Circles On Circles [Drag City]
  6. Lennie Tristano Sextet – Wow [Proper Records]
  7. Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano – Wednesday [ECM Records]
  8. Loren Connors – The Departing Of A Dream Pt. 2 [Family Vineyard]
  9. Bitchin Bajas and Natural Information Society – Anemometer [Drag City]
  10. Sonny Sharrock – Who Does She Hope To Be? [Axiom]
  11. Madlib – Freeze [Stones Throw Records]
  12. Idris Muhammad – Could Heaven Ever Be Like This [Kudu]
  13. The Manhattans – There’s No Me Without You [Columbia / CBS]
  14. Waylon Jennings – Waymore’s Blues [RCA Victor]
  15. Ultimate Painting – Kodiak [Trouble In Mind]
  16. Motherlode – When I Die [Buddah Records]

Bitchin Bajas share video for ‘2303’ and announce European tour

02 February 2018

Bitchin Bajas released their latest album Bajas Fresh last November and now they are taking it on the road. The Chicago trio have announced a string of lives dates in the US this month before heading to Europe for several shows, including a stop at London’s Cafe Oto on May 15th.

A divine double record, which made it to our Picks of 2017, Bajas Fresh spans 80 minutes of music in 7 tracks. The album features their longest track to date, the twenty-three minutes and three seconds ‘2303’. Meditative and serene, ‘2303’ boasts a sense of peace and purity, pulling us into its depths. Bitchin Bajas have unveiled a visual pairing for the track, created by the band’s own Rob Frye. Let yourself get carried away.


Bajas Fresh is out now through Drag City

Bitchin Bajas announce new album Bajas Fresh

23 October 2017

Let Bitchin Bajas drift you away into a tranquil, cosmic and hypnotic landscape of sound with their new single ‘Circles on Circles’. Three years on from the release of their eponymous album, and following last year’s collaboration with Bonnie Prince Billy, the Chicago trio have a new record coming out next month. Entitled Bajas Fresh, it arrives on November 17th through Drag City.

“Next-man expansions of the walls and bridges of our sonics universe, synthesizing amidst a separate but also growing ecosystem”, reads their accompanying blurb. “Not enough ‘sh’s in Fresh to convey what we’re trying to say”.

Now immerse yourself in ‘Circles on Circles’.

Bitchin Bajas set to kick off European tour, first UK shows later this month

11 October 2015
Photo: Jeremiah Chiu

Photo: Jeremiah Chiu

Chicago’s experimental trio Bitchin Bajas are about to embark on an extensive European tour, starting this Wednesday 14th in San Sebastian, Spain. This tour also marks their first ever performances in the UK, with a handful of shows taking place, including a London date on October 26th at Cafe Oto.

Bitchin Bajas’ latest musical explorations saw them joining forces with fellow Chicago based band National Information Society. Automaginary is the fruit of this perfect collaboration, a full-length album released last August via Drag City. As the label described, “the exploratory sonics of these two groups emerge from different, yet occasionally parallel paths to meld into a psychedelic, ambient and jazz-fried coalescence – yet their sum is equal to none of these things in particular, either, arriving on an astral plane unique and of its own.”.
Listen to Automaginary‘s opening track ‘Anemometer’ and straight after let yourself be absorbed by ‘Pieces of Tape’, taken from Bitchin Bajas’ 2014 eponymous album.


Bitchin Bajas share new cut from upcoming somophore album

05 August 2014

Bitchin Bajas - BueuWe’re only three weeks away from the release of Bitchin Bajas‘ eponymous second album, following their 2013 excellent debut, Bitchitronics. Now a trio with the addition of Dan Quinlivan and Rob Frye, Bitchin Bajas started as the side project of CAVE’s Cooper Crain nearly five years ago. Whilst we wait for the forthcoming record to drop. relax and enjoy the first transcendental and calming cut, ‘Bueu’. The track comes with a video created by Nick Ciontea. Watch it now and grab Bitchin Bajas when it drops on August 25th via Drag City.