For over thirty years, DJ Design has spun the neglected, overlooked sounds into gold. The Bay Area hip-hop producer was in on the ground floor of the legendary L.A. label Stones Throw. While primarily a beatmaker, Design is also a visual artist. He illustrated the equally-legendary Lord Quas, the yellowish, monster-like cartoon version of Madlib’s alter ego Quasimoto, and you can also find his design work on Peanut Butter Wolf’s My Vinyl Weighs A Ton. Now, Design calls Round Rock home, and you can often find him trawling record stores for sample source material and demonstrating his beatmaking technique on Instagram. Later this year, he’ll release a new album called Survival Web Vaults on the Dutch label Below System.
This week on My KUTX, DJ Design is our guest DJ, offering up one of the most obscure setlists we’ve ever had on the show. That’s because these are all songs that languished in dollar bins until they captured Design’s ear and imagination. From vintage ’60s pop to ’70s “Jesus music” choral groups, he is passionate about those rare finds, and that passion is contagious. Hear DJ Design’s My KUTX on Saturday, June 29 at 6 p.m. or listen anytime right here.
Playlist:
- The Michael Dees Affair – “Don’t Stay”
- The Association – “The Nest”
- Richard Harris – “Interim”
- DJ Design – “Claude Chabrol”
- Paul Kantner, Grace Slick, & David Freiberg – “Across The Board”
- 2nd Chapter Of Acts – “I’ll Give My Life Away”
- Ferrante & Teicher – “The Best Is Yet To Come”
- Prelude – “Driven Me Out Of Your Mind”
- John C. Williams – “The Height Below”
- Paul Johnson Voices – “The Valley Of Despair”
- DJ Design – “You Are A Child Of The Universe” (feat. Fashawn)
- The Horizons – “Look What You Have Done To Me”
- Jane Olivor – “Manchild Lullaby”
Episodes
