Anthony Valadez's love for an eclectic range of music was fostered by listening to KCRW, a public radio station based on the campus of Santa Monica College. Raised in the San Fernando Valley, he eventually got into DJ'ing at clubs and later took radio gigs at California State University Northridge's KCSN, Los Angeles' listener-supported KPFK, and KCRW. In 2004, he ventured into remixing and producing by working with
Carlos Niño's
AmmonContact and
Nick Rosen. After he connected with the Record Breakin' label, he released a 2008 single (on which he was joined by onetime neighbor
Flying Lotus) and a 2009 album, Audio/Visual: Sounds Inspired by All Things Visual. He then moved to Plug Research, the label for which he had remixed
AmmonContact, where he released
Just Visiting (2012) and In Search Of (2014). Mostly relaxed, off-center fusions of R&B and rap, the albums featured guest appearances from the likes of
Damon Aaron,
Miles Bonny,
Jimetta Rose, and
Belleruche's
Kathrin deBoer. ~ Andy Kellman