♫♪  AJA - “Tuck It, Tape It”

Whenever I throw these little paragraph-or-two-long Chocolate Grinder quips out into the world, I wonder: what’s the most I can do for the featured music with the space allotted for my words? A lot? A little? Somewhere in between?


The funny thing about music writing, I’ve found, is that most the time half of it is untrue. The trouble, though, lies in deciding which half that is. Thus, the reader (i.e., YOU) is faced with a choice: to read or not to read?
It’s that moment when you’re standing in front of some modernist painting in a museum and you have to choose whether or not to read that little plaque next to the work explaining the major themes of the work, the artist bio, etc. You think: Should I stare at the piece and let it absorb me no strings attached…Or should I read the blurb to understand the context of the art?
Have you made it this far? You’re a reader, then, I suppose. A person who likes to spice it up with a little…background info. And I think that’s a good thing! So it’s time for some context, and all that jazz! Or should I say, all that abrupt noisy aggressive abstracted soundscape (and the tautologies associated thereto)? Because below, you’re gonna stream a single from AJA’s upcoming self-titled release on (TMT-fave!) Opal Tapes. AJA has been busy collaborating with designer LU LA LOOP and running sound-art workshops dedicated to elevating the presence of women in electronic music, but luckily has cleared her schedule enough to put out this debut, which will be out in full on cassette and digital May 2. According to Opal Tapes’s PR release, “It is in within the context of transgressive art, sexual identity/politic and grass roots teaching that AJA’s work is elevated into a neo-punk.” I’m here for it!! Stream below.

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

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