Sounds like the smooth glissando of a harp, a metallic cough, the hollow echo of a bouncing ping pong ball. Complex melodic, harmonic and rhythmic elements fit together as easily and smoothly as the layers of a wedding cake. Final song, “Galaxy Into Janaki,” conveys ambition and commitment found rarely anywhere in music.

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Mary Anne Hobbs does for electronica on her BBC Radio 1 show what John Peel did for everything, and for years now she has been delivering L.A.’s best beatmakers to the world. When she first came to L.A. as a girl, she wore a glitter bikini and drove a motorcycle to Hollywood bars to drink with Megadeth, but tonight she’ll be doing a special DJ set at Low End Theory. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

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We caught Rosie Flores playing an air show. With planes whizzing overhead, the guitarista has her two feet on the ground, strumming the strings in the inimitably passionate style that got a day dedicated to her in Austin. Everyday can’t be ‘Rosie Flores Day,’ but if you have a few thousand dollars to spare, she can put out Janis Martin’s last album! This interview by Daiana Feuer.

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On the follow-up release to last year’s The Basta EP, Rainbow Arabia goes way beyond—themselves, their influences, the music they’ve put to record so far. The band obviously respects the experimental, but their balance of post-punk with world music styles sets them apart from the rest of the Manimal roster and at its best elevates the duo above other L.A. bands doing something self-consciously “different.” Here it’s an exercise in escapism—a band seeking adventure in exotic landscapes. Danny and Tiffany Preston blend club beats and dance rhythms gleaned from America to Africa, sliding continents under each other like a gambler shuffling cards.

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