About

A TAV Essential Listening Album.

The official debut album from LA female beat maker TOKiMONSTA. Born and raised in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, TOKiMONSTA (Jennifer Lee) was an unfocused pupil of classical piano. However, she has come to use this background to create vast textural soundscapes by utilizing live instruments, percussion, digital manipulation, and dusty vinyl.

Her music is rooted in hip hop rhythms fused with classic soul, traditional percussion, avant-garde jazz, experimental electronica, psychedelic rock, and everything in between. Through the creation of beats, she is able to fuse vintage styles with progressive sounds into something unique.

Though distinctly known as being one of few female producers in her sphere, her music has come to represent itself. Toki has been featured regularly on various programs on BBC Radio 1, as well as numerous national radio stations around the world. – Amazon Music

“As sun-kissed as this album is, it belongs to the nocturnal sect. Bringing to mind any nondescript smoke-filled jazz club, Midnight Menu takes that concept and flips it on its head, just to see what might shake loose. TOKiMONSTA's borrowed heavily from the template of L.A. sound, but almost purposely lost most of it in her own translation. Midnight Menu is music that's been let loose to play, nurtured and been given the chance to grow and stretch its legs. It’s retained that futuristic and cosmic sound that's become the standard for any affiliate of the Brainfeeder time travelers, but it’s much more concerned with digging its toes into the sand than entering into orbit.

The most captivating aspect to Midnight Menu is the amount of character TOKiMONSTA imbues in her music, just how organic the binary has become. A track like 'Madness' works so deliriously well because of its almost reflective silent narrative, allowing the strings and distant guitars to penetrate the looped beats. 'Bready Soul' ups this by throwing in trumpets and finger clicking as the anchor, the remnants of her jazz club pilfering. She synthesizes her sound from varied and assorted genres like r&b, soul and funk to create this almost cathartic music that illuminates all it touches, like a dawn ride home through a sleepy skyscraper filled city, the sun just starting to work its way through the maze.” – Sputnik Music

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