This week’s Fixation: DJ Frane’s Hi Dusty Stranger

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How do I even begin to describe to you the wizardry that is DJ Frane? Before you continue reading this post I would Highly advise that you listen to the following song as it serves as the perfect introduction to what Frane is all about:

Mixing beats and lyrics sampled from a wide variety of sources, along with his own record scratching and groovy keyboard playing, Frane creates intricate and elegant rhythms that somehow manage to draw you out of yourself and send you swimming deep within your own mind at the same time.

As you might be able to tell from the songs above (the first track on Journey to the Planet of the Birds, and Hi Dusty Stranger, respectively) and the fact that the first thing you see upon visiting Frane’s website is a kaleidoscopic picture of the man himself smoking a pipe, DJ Frane is a big fan of a certain magical herb. There are numerous references to Ms. Mary Jane throughout his albums, in addition to references to several pop (and not so pop) culture phenomena including Sesame Street, Frog and Toad, and The Hobbit.

In Hi Dusty Stranger Frane once again displays his incredible ability to take us on a journey via his music. Where Journey to the Planet of the Birds, his third album, took us deep into the jungle of an alien world, filled with sights and sounds we had never before encountered, Hi Dusty Stranger brings us to the wasteland of the Wild West, where shrouded figures on horseback traverse mountains and deserts in search of true knowledge.

Though DJ Frane does not appear to have made his latest album an official part of Beats to Blaze to — the collective title of his first 3 albums — this does not in any way mean that one should not get a little wiggity with Hi Dusty Stranger. Frane filled this album with sprawling, groovy jams that drop your brain in the middle of the high plain and ride it along in search of some greater answer — or perhaps it is a question that is being sought…

In any case, head on over to Frane’s site, buy yoself a copy of Hi Dusty Stranger, chill out, lean back, and prepare to be hypnotized by Frane’s funky sounds.

See y’all later,

– Zev