We’ve got an elementary understanding of what all the buttons on that console do, but TOKiMONSTA clearly has it under control. The sounds from space she’s looping and mashing were hand-picked by her classically trained brain, so there’s some real logic beneath the piles of tantalizing noise. It still sounds like good old fashioned cruising music to us. In some of her songs, the funky hip hop drive is in the forefront. “The Word” on her myspace page runs over an especially clean break slowed down just enough to make the vocal sample cry. Since TOKiMONSTA’s debut full-length album “Midnight Menu” dropped the airwaves have been filling up with footage from her live performances.

J Dilla would have been proud to know that his drum beat format is alive and growing tentacles in the care of producers like TOKiMONSTA. With wide bass drums that you feel more than hear keeping a stuttering, staggering rhythm in time, this chick from LA has mastered our favorite permutation of new school hip hop instrumentals.  In the style of fellow Angeleno Flying Lotus, TOKiMONSTA’s tracks have lo-fi texture, making even the most synthetic sounds feel organic (think Boards of Canada).