Beginning in 2009, rural South New Jersey-raised Filipino-American producer Ringgo Ancheta aka Mndsgn [pronounced 'mind design'] put out a handful of excellent solo and collaborative EPs and mixtapes before signing with renowned L.A. label Stones Throw Records in 2014. His debut studio full-length 'Yawn Zen' was released that same year. This month he dropped his second studio album 'Body Wash' consisting of 16 tracks, including the superb "Cosmic Perspective".
Two accompanying videos have been published, both of which include frustratingly familiar aspects of Los Angeles: homelessness and wacky gurus. However, by adding a sci-fi theme and plenty of camp, the clips become more than palatable. They were directed and edited by Eric Coleman. (Mndsgn co-created and co-produced along with girlfriend Alima Jennings and Shane Sakanoi.)
A few shows are coming up next month: October 14 in Denver and October 20 in Philadelphia. (Also on the bill in Denver is Stones Throw Records founder Peanut Butter Wolf aka Chris Manak. The label celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/body-wash/id1139902432
https://soundcloud.com/mndsgn
http://www.songkick.com/artists/3746546-mndsgn
https://www.facebook.com/MNDSGN/
http://mochilla.com/coleman/
http://www.a-mi.la/
https://twitter.com/ssakanoi
VIDEO UPDATE December 2016:
It's every music blogger's worst nightmare and it sadly happens quite often: returning to an older entry and discovering that the video posted has been made "private" by the account holder on YouTube, either the label or the artist/band. This is sometimes due to copyright issues, but whatever the reason, it utterly sucks. And in this case, it's not one, but two videos.
I could delete the entire entry, but I'm choosing in this case to leave it up as food for thought.
