Internationally acclaimed drummer, producer, and sonic collagist Makaya McCraven releases four new singles, one from each of his four upcoming EPs – Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop – which will be released on all music platforms on October 31st. The new singles – ‘Boom Bapped’, ‘The Beat Up’, ‘Dark Parks’, ‘Los Gatos’– and subsequent EPs are all compiled on a 2xLP and 2xCD physical release titled Off the Record, which is available for preorder now and in stores October 10th via International Anthem / Nonesuch / XL Recordings.
Listen to the new music here.
Together they mark McCraven’s first recorded offerings since 2022’s In These Times (“McCraven’s most ambitious set of music” -GRAMMY) and a deep return to the signature “organic beat music” approach that Makaya first debuted on his 2015 album In The Moment and further developed across subsequent releases Highly Rare (2017), Where We Come From (2018), and Universal Beings (2018). Built from live recordings, the music is later reshaped by McCraven via extensive editing, overdubs, and post-production at his home studio in Chicago.
LISTEN TO NEW MUSIC FROM TECHNO LOGIC, THE PEOPLE’S MIXTAPE, HIDDEN OUT!, POPUP SHOP NOW HERE
Releasing digitally worldwide Friday 31 October 2025
Techno Logic
cover image by Jacob BlickenstaffListen to new single ‘Boom Bapped’ here
Techno Logic features Ben LaMar Gay and Theon Cross, and draws from performances in London (2017), Berlin (2024), and New York (2025), showcasing nearly eight years of developing rapport between the three musicians. Today’s single from the forthcoming Techno Logic EP, ‘Boom Bapped,’ is an aptly titled piece fit for a golden era Q-Tip verse, built off a loop from the group’s very first session at Worldwide FM’s former North London studio in 2017. With Gay’s ripping cornet lines in the foreground, McCraven filled out the track with keyboard, bass, and vibraphone overdubs recorded in his home studio in 2024.
The People’s Mixtape
Listen to new single ‘The Beat Up’ here
The People’s Mixtape has its foundation in a live recording from Brooklyn’s Public Records in January of 2025, where McCraven celebrated the 10-year anniversary of In The Moment with an intentional return to the improvisational language he developed over that album’s sessions. For the occasion, McCraven played with bassist Junius Paul and trumpeter Marquis Hill (two musicians who are majorly present on In The Moment), as well as vibraphonist Joel Ross (who has been a regular collaborator of McCraven’s since the 2017 sessions for Universal Beings), and synthesist Jeremiah Chiu (marking the first occasion for McCraven to play with the SML co-leader and International Anthem labelmate). The latest track, “The Beat Up,” starts with a percussive polyrhythmic vamp fronted by Paul’s electric bass line over Chiu, Ross, and McCraven’s percussion, before it opens up and Hill’s trumpet lines take the lead for the remainder of the track.
Hidden Out!
Listen to new single ‘Dark Parks’ here
Hidden Out! is built off recordings from McCraven’s June 2017 residency at The Hideout in Chicago, where he improvised weekly with a revolving cast including bassist Junius Paul, Tortoise member, International Anthem labelmate, composer and guitarist Jeff Parker, and SML co-leader, GRAMMY-award winning producer and alto saxophonist Josh Johnson. The new single from Hidden Out!, ‘Dark Parks,’ is a textbook McCraven/Paul drum and bass link-up. McCraven’s heavy, no-fuss beat is propelled by Paul’s double bass thrums and incendiary funk skanks from Parker’s guitar.
PopUp Shop
Listen to new single ‘Los Gatos’ here
PopUp Shop was created from recordings of McCraven’s Los Angeles debut at Del Monte Speakeasy in 2015, where McCraven took part in the King Hippo and Grown Kids Radio produced event RAWS:LA, and improvised with guitarist Jeff Parker, vibraphonist Justefan, and bassist Benjamin J. Shepherd. The latest release from PopUp Shop, ‘Los Gatos,’ is an extended and expanded loop from a dreamy moment of the quartet’s performance. As McCraven shifts to a downtempo, slightly dragged Dilla-like rim-click rhythm, Shepherd’s bass guitar sings with sweetly melodic flourishes, dotted by natural harmonics, as Justefan plays percussively on the pipes beneath his vibraphone, and Parker’s frozen electric guitar notes hover over everything.
The source material from each EP is drawn from moments of pure improvisation, recorded live in performance, shaped as much by the room and audience as by the musicians themselves.
PRE-ORDER THE OFF THE RECORD PHYSICAL COMPILATION NOW HERE
Releasing physically Friday 10 October 2025
Makaya McCraven, who has been aptly called a “cultural synthesizer” and “beat scientist,” has a unique gift for collapsing space, destroying borders and blending past, present, and future into poly-textural arrangements of post-genre, jazz-rooted 21st-century folk music. Profiled in the New York Times, Vice, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, the Guardian, and NPR, among other publications, Makaya and the music he makes today is what Passion of Weiss says “is part of a necessary conversation about the next evolution of the Black improvised music known colloquially as ‘jazz.’ He’s found the threads connecting the past with the present, and is either wrapping them with new colors and textures, or he’s plucking them gleefully like the strings of a grand instrument.”
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