XL Recordings

Off The Record compiles four new EPs by Makaya McCraven:

• PopUp Shop
• Hidden Out!
• Techno Logic
• The People’s Mixtape

Internationally acclaimed drummer, producer, and sonic collagist Makaya McCraven returns to announce four distinct yet interconnected EPs - Techno Logic, The People’s Mixtape, Hidden Out!, and PopUp Shop - to be released on all music platforms October 31st. The four EPs are also compiled on a 2xLP and 2xCD physical release titled Off the Record. Together they mark McCraven’s first recorded offerings since 2022’s In These Times (“McCraven’s most ambitious set of music” -GRAMMY) and a deep return to the signature “organic beat music” approach that Makaya first debuted on his 2015 album In The Moment and further developed across subsequent releases Highly Rare (2017), Where We Come From (2018), and Universal Beings (2018). Built from live recordings, the music is later reshaped by McCraven via extensive editing, overdubs, and post-production at his home studio in Chicago.

Hidden Out! is built off recordings from McCraven’s June 2017 residency at The Hideout in Chicago, where he improvised weekly with a revolving cast including bassist Junius Paul, Tortoise member, International Anthem labelmate, composer and guitarist Jeff Parker, and SML co-leader, GRAMMY-award winning producer and alto saxophonist Josh Johnson.

The OFF THE RECORD vinyl LP and CD compilation is not just a collection of these recordings, but a tactile document celebrating creative, communal, IRL moments of musical gathering.

Speaking on the record, McCraven says, “In a time where we’re increasingly connected through phones, in a virtual world where you can’t really tell what’s real or what’s fake, there’s something special where we come together and share space, there is something special where we are sharing music, art. I want to create an energy that amplifies the magic in the underground moments where we come together and we experience something wild, different, off the cuff, human. What I’m trying to present is a dreamlike alteration of that energy, which only exists in the recorded realm. But to actually have been there, in real life, is the special thing.”