John’s tracks were one of my earliest discoveries in the then newly launched iTunes Music Store, and I now have no fewer than 30 John Tejada singles and one-offs from his work on Poker Flat and his own Palette Recordings label. To this day, I continue to religiously seek them out.

I was able to hear him play live in San Francisco last summer, and he did not disappoint. His music has such an elegant and worldly quality to it, which is no surprise given that he was born in Austria to an opera singer (mother) and a conductor (father), and he moves fluently in and out of so many sub-genres of techno. As for “Bounce,” his Los Angeles roots shine bright as day with its almost hip-hop beat and measured production:

While completely different stylistically, this track is every bit as densely layered and expertly sequenced as my two previous SOTD from Hudson Mohawke and Squarepusher. This is shaping up to be the start of a really good mix…

I was browsing bleep today, and came across Busdriver’s Cosmic Cleavage release on Big Dada. Since it wasn’t licensed for sale in North America, I went searching for more, ended up on his myspace page, and discovered a gem in “Imaginary Places” from his 2001 album Temporary Forever.

You can imagine my delight in hearing this Busdriver track, with its stripped down sound, breakneck beats, massively deep bass, and one seriously spastic flute. I can’t even read the lyrics as fast as he can speak them:

She doesn’t love me cause I don’t have the right hair cut
I’m misunderstood, I just face it, I’m no good
but I will not appologize for anything that I say
My name is Mr. Busdriver
this is the producer Paris
we did not embarass to admit that we were purchasing a bit
of our own imaginary place

I have only bought this and one other song so far, but you can bet that I’ll look for more from Busdriver, and I will definitely have to catch his show the next time he comes through town. I know he toured with Beans the last time around, how did I miss that show?