An LA native, Laufer grew up listening to "stuff like DJ Shadow, Amon Tobin, M83stuff with some sort of cinematic vision." He started making beats when he was 14, but "didn't really do it with any sort of purpose until I was like 17 or 18. That was also around the time he and his friends, already fans of Flying Lotus, discovered Low End Theory. Shlohmo has rocketed onto our radar screen in recent months with his lo-fi, psychedelic mix of abstract hip-hop, bouncy synth-funk, breezy trip-hop, and what sounds like lost Mo' Wax gems from an alternate future.

His tracks swarm from dirty textures, strange sounds and obscured samples. It's not hip-hop what you hear, but the echoes are clearly there.