San Francisco drummer and producer Kush Arora introduces his new project, Only Now.

Arora has been releasing music for over a decade now, drawing from dancehall, dub, industrial and more. He describes Only Now as a place where “cyberpunk aesthetics and spacious explorations into cinematic synthesis collide”, with this release taking particular influence from African rhythms.

Arora has been inspired by the worlds of zouk, gqom and afro-house for some time now – they’re combined with dancehall vocals on his past releases with Jahdan Blakkamoore – and tells us that although he’s still got things to learn about those sounds, “I want to try and bring something new to table for those guys as well – instead of purely imitating sounds from Lisbon, Luanda, and South Africa.”

“On this record”, explains Arora, “I’ve used many of those niche African dance music patterns as templates but replaced it with my own sound design and style without forcing the juxtaposition of the genres. The process began when I worked with Pyramind Studios SF to create a custom percussion library featuring Nappy G, Baba Deru, and Enrique Padilla who are some of the most notable percussionists in the afro latin space, with Baba Deru playing percussion in the original Herbie Hancock Headhunters ensemble. After a few years of contorting the results of these sessions Only Now was birthed.”

Only Now’s self-titled debut EP will be released through Record Label Records, available as cassette tape or digital from Bandcamp (the cassette comes with a bonus track, ‘Utter Chaos’). We’re streaming full audio of the release below, and there’ll be a launch party this Saturday in San Francisco with Joe Nice, Seven and others. For more on that, head here.

Tracklist:
1.Mid Riot
2.Needs
3.Inside The Mineral Room
4.Only Power
5.No Escape
6.Dante

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