Buku Late Ft. G Ri Z Feat. Pres Hall Brass, Ryan Hemsworth & More!

SOLD OUT! BUKU Music & Art Project Presents... BUKU LATE ft. GRiZ feat. a rare collaboration with PresHall Brass Ryan Hemsworth Suicideyear Will Brennan 18+ SET LIST: Will Brennan: 12:00AM-1:00AM Suicideyear: 1:00AM-1:45AM GRiZ w/ PresHall Brass: 2:00AM-3:00AM Ryan Hemsworth: 3:00AM-4:00AM **GRIZ** Today at age 24, GRiZ (or Grant Kwiecinski, to his mom) is already being hailed as visionary. This spring, he’ll release Say It Loud (via his All Good Records imprint), a follow-up to its more funk-step predecessors, Rebel Era and Mad Liberation. With assists from rapper Talib Kweli, Afrobeat-group Antibalas, the L.A.’s Children’s Chorus, and others, his new full-length finds a golden mean between an abundance of brass instruments, liberal use of soulful vocals, and shimmering, synth beats. Modern gadgets may bring his creations together, but GRiZ is, at heart, a time traveler. The name Say It Loud is an homage to James Brown’s funk-soul spirit and pioneering messages of equality. The horns throughout the album shout-out to GRiZ’s favorite albums, Miles Davis’ masterpiece, Sketches of Spain. And GRiZ’s outsize live shows at local DIY spots such as Scrummage University not only earned him his name and convinced him to drop out of college—it referenced a legacy of Detroit dance pioneers from the Belleville Three to the Detroit Techno Militia. (“They created the opinion and the space for me to be able to come and do my own thing,” he says, respectfully.) More than a year-and-a-half of his life went into writing and recording Say It Loud. GRiZ began, of course, in Detroit, then moved to a remote cabin upstate with Exmag to escape the trappings of city cacophony and cell-phone service. From there, he landed in Brooklyn at Daptone Records’ studio, collaborating with Antibalas. And he hit Los Angeles just to work with the Children’s Chorus on the album’s opener, “The Anthem.” The change of scenery is necessary, he insists, “Because seeing a different place, you catch the different vibes, feeling of that place.” Finally, late last year, he dropped the funk-fuzz single “A Fine Way to Die” (cowritten with singer-songwriter Orlando Napier) to tease his newly evolved sound. “That song was the atypical GRiZ song. It was the heart and soul of the album and gave you a little of everything: the bass stuff, the rhythm stuff, the horns, the vocals,the guitar,” he says, adding: “It is a wild, interesting song with movements to it.” “Stop Trippin,” co-written with vocalist Jessie Arlen, advances that sonic dialogue with his fans. “That song is basically where I am right now,” he says. “I want to write better songs. I want to write contemporary funk songs. I want to produce an album that kind of has the new James Brown singing on it. You know what I’m saying? Something that sounds like it was made at Muscle Shoals.” If GRiZ sounds wiser than his years to you, you’re not the only one. “I remember first meeting Mike Avery who sang on ‘The Anthem.’ When I met him in person, he was like, ‘Holy shit, man, I thought you were going to be a 40-year-old dude! How do you come up with these songs?” As ambitious as Say It Loud may seem, this is a natural next step for GRiZ, who thrives on bending genres. “I could’ve sampled everything. Most of my music is created for a live experience,” he notes. “But now, I really want a body of work that is 100% my own.” **RYAN HEMSWORTH** Ryan Hemsworth is a young producer from Canada with a remarkably productive output in the past two years and a totally unique approach to hip hop and R&B production. With an early background as a singer and guitarist, he quickly weaned off rock into hip hop and more software oriented music, diving whole-heartedly into drum loops and samples. In 2011, his first release No Plans was featured on SPIN magazine’s Top 20 R&B albums of 2011 and he quickly followed up with A Way and Kitsch Genius, which got him increasingly noticed for a singular sound attracting a number of music critics and artists from across the country. He soon began cultivating relationships online and became a go-to producer for MCs like Main Attrakionz, Shady Blaze, and Deniro Farrar, helping craft a sound sitting somewhere between chill wave and trap rap. Hyperbolic Chamber Music, a collaborative project with NYC clothing brand Mishka, saw him at the helm of a 22-minute posse cut featuring 26 different rapper from across America, and his remix treatment of Grimes, Frank Ocean, and Danny Brown have kept his name spreading in the past year. With his first label release, the Last Words EP released through Wedidit Collective, Ryan Hemsworth continues his sonic collages and explorations, digging even deeper into unexplored genres and delivering his finest work to date. **Suicideyear** James Prudhomme, better known as Suicideyear, is a young producer hailing from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The 19-year-old rose to popularity in 2013 with the release of Japan, a convergence of hip hop and mid- late century American minimalism that turned more than a few heads. Pulling influences from Heavy and Lil Boosie to Jay Reatard, Suicideyear has affection for melodies and depth that stems beyond catering to vocals. He is credited with production for the likes of Yung Lean, Rome Fortune, Main Attrakionz, Ethelwulf, Pepperboy, Little Pain and Antwon. Drawing the attention of several publications and tastemakers, Suicideyear’s sound continues to reach ears around the world. Fader Magazine named him one of the four “Producers to watch in 2014” and later called him “arguably the year’s most influen- tial producer without a major label placement.” His ability to combine elements of pop and punk have allowed for an audience beyond the landscape of Hip Hop. With a profound ability to work with different artists, no one is off limits when it comes to remixing as we’ve seen his take on Future and Drake to Bruno Mars and Britney Spears. Suicideyear will release his Software Recording Co. debut EP, Remembrance, in September of 2014. James’ experiences of reflection and resolution led to the vivid, emotionally charged production that makes up this upcoming EP. Alive with an idiosyn- cratic sense of melodic space, his repertoire eschews topical palettes for a personal aesthetic that offers a visceral love letter to minimalist abstraction. Prud- homme references both forms we know to exist and speculates on how they can be newly realized.