Los Angeles is marching to a different beat. While the hard rock and metal that traditionally characterise SoCal have all but dried up, and hip hop makes the last arrangements to finally disconnect itself from the legacy of gangsta rap, a community of producers and their leftfield beats have been selling out shows and eating up column inches.

Your week in Los Angeles isn’t complete without a trip to Low End Theory on a Wednesday night with perhaps Flying Lotus, Dibiase or Gaslamp Killer DJing. And if there’s a more potent beatmaker than Madlib doing the rounds right now, we’re yet to hear of him in this part of the world.

Right at the centre of a nascent LA beats scene just five years ago was Ras G. And he remembers fondly nights spent at a soundclash event called Sketchbook, which once a month would take over The Little Temple on Santa Monica Blvd. “I think it was essential to the development of the beats scene,” Ras says. “There was no other place doing anything like that at that point in time – at least in Los Angeles. I mean, whoever heard of a bunch of unknown bedroom producers hanging out, smoking weed, listening to each others’ beats and supporting each other? There were various styles and sounds, all with a simple goal of trying to get better. Sketchbook did it! Shout out to Kutmah,” he says, in reference to the original curator of the nights, whose eventual deportation turned him into something of a martyr for the scene.

Ras’ own beatmaking began in earnest a couple of years earlier. Underground LA music impresario Carlos Niño tapped him for legendary jazz vocalist Dwight Trible’s acclaimed experimental album, ‘Love Is The Answer’. The subsequent buzz surrounding the Trible record sent Ras on his way. “It was a good look on Nino and Dwight Trible’s part. I was just a lion in the den banging on an MPC; it helped in letting me know that my peers as well as an elder of the Leimert Park jazz community felt that the beat I did was official enough to make it on that release. It was motivating, to say the least.”

But it was a choice by Niño that made a lot of sense. Ras had grown into adulthood spinning the records of renowned jazz composer and philosopher, Sun Ra. Ra’s mysticism and progressive approach to music had a deep effect on Ras, and in his opinion the entire creative scene in LA.

“Ra has discipline and precision in the music, and a spiritual consciousness that’s free from all earthly matters or fleshy ideas,” he explains. “That’s what I strive to demonstrate in my music. I think the Los Angeles creative music scene is very inspired by Sun Ra, in both ways known and unknown, which is very Sun Ra-esque, in a sense! If you know about him, you probably own one or two of his records or maybe some of his documentaries, and if you don’t know him you’ll find yourself saying, ‘How didn’t I know about him?!’ And then the doors start opening. Ha!”

Queensland has always had a strong connection to Southern California, so perhaps it’s no surprise that Ras G and his contemporaries have had quite an impact on the local scene. This coming month will see Ras return to local shores for the first time since mid-2010, and he’s looking forward to landing at Woodland Bar and expanding some eager minds

“The people wanted me back,” he laughs. “They called for me to bring the Alkebulan Space Program and the vibe of [album] ‘Spacebase Is The Place’ to Australia. I want people to leave their expectations at home. I’m gonna do my thing. l can say it will be a very bass-heavy, musically enlightening experience.”
And the rest of 2012? Releases on Brainfeeder, Leaving Records, Poobah and All Music are in the pipeline, as well as trips to Japan, Europe, India and Uganda. Oh, and there’s also a little project with Madlib, which Ras very cannily keeps schtum about. It’s all in a day’s work for an LA beatmaker....

RAS G AND THE AFRIKAN SPACE PROGRAM HIT WOODLAND BAR THURSDAY FEBRUARY 23.