Event Information

Brooklyn label-collective Switch Hit Records curates an evening of performances by boundary-pushing artists. Miss Grit (DJ Set) New York-based musician Margaret Sohn (they/she) created Miss Grit to function as an outlet for their own analysis and expression of self. Called a “polymath” by NME in early 2019, their process is introspective, their vision precise. The project was born in an NYU dorm room in January 2018 with the ’Talk Talk’ EP – while their friends were celebrating winter break with their families, Margaret Sohn, was behind locked doors, screaming into a mic through their guitar pedal board and out their lifier. The powerful, melodic, and intricate tracks of Talk Talk EP, which the band released in January of 2019; featured two singles (“Talk Talk” & “The Bride,” which was highlighted by Spotify as a standout track) and was hailed by NME as an “explosion of creativity” and “a truly awe-inspiring first work.” After the success of Talk Talk, the band went back into the studio to record more tracks, including “Running Slow” which was released by Cigarettes After Sex’s label Spanish Prayers Records. In February 2021 they released a follow up EP, Imposter, about which Pitchfork said: “On her promising, impressively self-produced six-song EP, Sohn addresses youthful self-doubt with flair and polish.” In September 2022 they released ‘Like You’, their first single since signing with the legendary Mute Records, and the first taste of their debut album Follow The Cyborg. Released on February 24th 2023, Follow The Cyborg was self-produced by Sohn entirely in their home studio, and mostly in solitude with several guest collaborators joining: Stella Mozgawa of Warpaint, Aron Kobayashi Ritch of Momma, and close friend and fellow songwriter Pearla. The album is a communication from the cyborg to its human; at times gentle and sparse, at times volatile and explosive. Occupying a sonic world of electronic experimentation and stirring electric guitars, our cyborg moves at first timidly, and then at full force towards its own actualisation. Lollise Lollise is a musician, visual artist and fashion designer from Botswana, currently living in NYC. Using sound, color and movement, Lollise tells stories of real and imagined worlds, multidimensional and nuanced, historical and futuristic. After many years of recording and touring with Akoya Afrobeat, Underground System and the FELA! band, Lollise shares her own bold Afro-futurist pop sound, rich with analog synths, layers of percussion and gentle waves of ambient noise. She self-released two EPs before completing her debut full-length album. Working closely with drummer/producer Morgan Greenstreet, Lollise creates a hybrid Afro-futurist pop sound for this moment, taking influence from the music she grew up with - Setswana and Kalanga folk songs, '80s and '90s South African electronic bubblegum and kwaito - and the music she has been exposed to in New York, including Fela Kuti’s Afrobeat and gritty new wave and art-pop. Dressed in her dazzling original attire designed and crafted by hand, Lollise performs with a potent energy and striking commitment to the music, in body and in spirit. Lollise has performed extensively in New York, including: Public Records, BAM Cafe, Little Island Festival, Sultan Room, Elsewhere and Symphony Space. Her music has been featured on Okay Africa, Bandcamp Daily and New Sounds with John Schaefer on WNYC radio. Slowspin Slowspin is the stage name for US-based Pakistani artist, Zeerak Ahmed. Through sound she explores notions of identity, memory and longing. She produces voice-based sculptures, meditative installations and uniquely fragile sound collages. Slowspin has a distinct sound practice grounded in North Indian classical vocal traditions, dream-folk, ambient and experimental-electronic music. Poetry and melodies in her mother tongue(s)—Urdu, Farsi, Purbi and English—build new textural soundscapes. Exploring new ways of listening, composing and performing the sounding body, she addresses critical immaterial art. With the release of her first EP, “Nightfall’s Reverie” (with Mooshymoo) in 2013, she became a formative member of the independent music community in Karachi, Pakistan. Frequently moving between Pakistan, Germany and the U.S., she released six EP's and performed, exhibited and curated art shows at a number of international venues. Notable events including the Re: Sound New Music Festival Cleveland in 2022-2023, CONTEXT ART MIAMI, Art Basel 2021, Artist Platform - International Coproduction Fund Berlin 2018, Lahore Music Meet 2017 and Dosti Music Project U.S. Tour 2016. After the completion of her MFA in Creative Practice, she served as the Assistant Curator for the Inaugural Karachi Biennale 2017 and began teaching as Associate Professor for Studio and Liberal Arts the following year. In 2022 she began teaching at the Cleveland Institute of Art and later that year she received the Akron Museum CAN Triennial Prize. She is now based in NYC. Slowspin's latest album, TALISMAN, presents the spatial richness and complexity of the contemporary South Asian voice. The collaborative album hosts contributions from a stellar line up of NYC-based musicians including Shahzad Ismaily (Executive Producer), Grey Mcmurray (Co-Producer), Aaron Roche and Greg Fox. TALISMAN opens a world of Slowspin's uncanny and heart-wrenching refrains, delivering a balm for the migrant's journey into the unknown: the abyss of love, loss and longing. Saint Mela Saint Mela began in the summer of 2013 as a long distance exchange between vocalist/lyricist Wolf Weston and producer Steve Dewey. After Weston started returning demos to the tracks Dewey was sending, a creative partnership solidified into an eclectic body of work. Dewey’s proclivity for dismantling and rebuilding samples immediately resonated with Weston's propensity for genre-hopping and experimentation, and in 2014, three songs, their first EP was released. Not long after, Weston, an accomplished performer, couldn't wait to try out new material where she was most comfortable: the stage. They moved back to NYC, building an audience step by step, playing everywhere that would let them. They recruited long-time friend Josh Rollin, a talented multi-instrumentalist who, similar to Dewey, grew up experimenting with sound creation and recording while also studying a number of more traditional instruments. Years of playing built a vibrant community who flocked to their energetic live shows and turned into dedicated listeners, demonstrated by the success of their debut album, first bloom (2018), a stunning combination of spiritual lyrics and chopped vocal samples over a bed of found-sound pop production. Pitchfork hailed first bloom as “a shot of adrenaline” while praising Weston as a “dynamo singer.” Since releasing first bloom, Saint Mela has returned to their smaller, more experimental origins, taking care to craft a 4-part series of EPs. A sense of a collaborative community permeates the band’s core ethos, and these EPs underscore a love for partnership and dialogue with other artists. 2020's all for this strange baptism and 2021's a well for my ego features collaborations from Sebastian Ade, Fielded, and Rah Rah Gabor. 2022's EP, i have no fantasies to sell you, featured Raia Was and Moor Mother as guests. Tap in for yourself! With a penchant for innovative sounds, inventive melodies, and a wide range of influences, Saint Mela aims to keep listeners dancing, feeling, and engaged. Switch Hit Records In defiance of the notion that the music industry is hopelessly inscrutable and inhospitable to independent artists, Switch Hit Records announces itself as a new, musicians-run cooperative record label committed to giving artists 100% of the profits from their work. Switch Hit is the new home for visionary, community-oriented musicians making genre-defying music in an industry increasingly run by the algorithm. Named for the player who can change up a baseball game with sheer prowess and adaptability, Switch Hit is a collective of multi-hyphenate artists: producers, instrumentalists, composers, musical directors, and business owners. Founding members Arthur Moon (NPR Tiny Desk), Cale Hawkins (Charli XCX, Quincy Jones) and Raia Was (Autre Ne Veut) draw on a decade of collaborating with each other on and off renowned stages, including WNYC Soundcheck, Lincoln Center, and Barclays Center. Switch Hit Records x The Sultan Room Presents This is a 21+ event