Los Angeles Producer/Composer/DJ Carlos Niño is known throughout the LA area and beyond for his eclectic music tastes. As host of the Spaceways Radio show on Los Angeles’ KPFK for 20 years, he played a wide range of music from psychedelic to hip-hop and everything in between. The show was also renown for its frequent live performances. If an act made good music and passed by the LA area, there was a good chance they would appear on Spaceways.
It’s in the spirit of Spaceways Radio that Niño crafted Carlos Niño & Friends—Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening!. The project is composed of original compositions from Niño and a bevy of LA-based artists, including producer Madlib, saxophonist Kamasi Washington, and multi-talented musician Dexter Story.
The first track released from the project is “It’s All Happening!”, a transfixing instrumental crafted by Niño, Madlib, and multi-instrumentalist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson. The first half of the track consists of crispy drums and a heavily EQ’ed, warped sample that gives the track an otherworldy vibe. Atwood-Ferguson’s soaring strings soon drop in and steal the show, before the rug is pulled from the original melody and the song dives into the abyss.
The second half of the track is an outré smorgasbord of wind chimes, jungle sounds and other ambient sound effects. The coalescing textures sound like the perfect theme music for entering an unknown territory—or planet. Maybe that’s why as the selection is concluding, Niño proclaims, “here we are man it’s all happening….wow!”
Carlos Niño & Friends—Flutes, Echoes, It’s All Happening is set to be released April 22 on Leaving Records. Stream “It’s All Happening” below.
