Off The Record

Description

Makaya McCraven unveils Off the Record, a collection of four linked EPs – Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop. It marks his first release since 2022’s In These Times and reconnects with the “organic beat music” approach he introduced on In the Moment (2015) and refined across Highly Rare, Where We Come From, and Universal Beings.

Each EP stems from improvised performances, later reshaped in McCraven’s Chicago studio. Techno Logicfeatures Ben LaMar Gay and Theon Cross, spanning sessions in London, Berlin, and New York. The People’s Mixtape captures a Brooklyn show marking the tenth anniversary of In the Moment, with Junius Paul, Marquis Hill, Joel Ross, and Jeremiah Chiu. Hidden Out! draws from McCraven’s 2017 Hideout residency with Jeff Parker, Junius Paul, and Josh Johnson. PopUp Shop revisits his 2015 Los Angeles debut with Parker, Justefan, and Benjamin J. Shepherd.

McCraven calls the project a document of shared energy: “There’s something special when we come together and share space… what I present is a dreamlike alteration of that energy, which only exists in the recorded realm.”