Oakland, the late nineties, a rave at 85th and Baldwin, and DJ Dan and DJ Bone working three turntables between them. Aldo Giovanni De La Cruz walked out of that night and bought decks and a synthesiser, which is how these things tend to start.

The synthesiser part took an unexpected turn, landing him in post-hardcore bands through the early 2000s before he and bandmate Patric Fallon set up Pish Posh of North America, a Bay Area label that began with East Bay house party artists and ended up putting out Lazer Sword, Ghost On Tapes, Casy & Brian and All Teeth & Knuckles, with those acts turning up at 222 Hyde, Arrow Bar, Rickshaw Stop and Mezzanine alongside the likes of James Murphy, The Juan MacLean, CSS and Jamie Lidell.

Then the label folded, and he stopped. Years of silence followed, until Marshall Applewhite and The Friend stumbled across the new project on SoundCloud and told him what he had apparently been making all along was ‘sludge’. He had never heard the term.

Joel Dunn, otherwise Applewhite, sent over a batch of his own material, then offered a slot on his label JUNTED, and that was that. De La Cruz is straightforward about what the project does for him: music as therapy, tied directly to his mental health and his sobriety. His own summary of the situation is hard to improve on, describing himself as a sober bloke making music for people to take drugs to.

Since then the records have gone out through Clan Destine, Dead Channel, Up North, Phage Tapes, Idlestates, Popgang and plenty more, including a 2021 split album with TNDR PNK. Longer-serving readers will know Clan Destine as the home of LDWG's Violent Structures, which took our album slot earlier this year, while the Thee Alpha And Thee Omega compilation series has put him alongside L/F/D/M, whose Stalk Eyed Flies we premiered a few issues back.

Support slots have taken in All Your Sisters, Zanna Nera and Nezzy Idy, plus Bay Area nights with C.L.A.W.S., Oso Feo, Topazu and the late Kitti Von Paige. He takes the decks at number eighteen.

Tracklist