DRAAAKKKKEEEE?! No disrespect to Drake & 21 for their fake NPR Tiny Desk promo but if anyone deserves an actual performance on that show, it would be our very own, Baby Aztro. But, rather than wait around for the powers that be to call upon him, Aztro took it upon his creative self, with a little help from the good people over at Friends of Sound, to put together his own NPR set. A lot has changed since his last time utilizing this iconic record store to promote a project, the last one being his 2020 release “Now It’s Getting Gloomy After Sundown”. We seemingly made it through the pandemic so Aztro thought now would be a good time to bring his fans back together for this intimate set, marking it as his 1st headlining performance, as well as his 1st with equipment used to dub this live performance over to then unleash in extremely limited quantities.

Just like the selection of songs that were sequenced exclusively for the occasion, Aztro had a clear cut, organized sequence of events for the night, starting off with a little Pre-Production, SoundCheck, crate digging, mingling, just to prepare for everything to come & I gotta say, that alone is better than any sort of typical meet & greet, where everyone goes up a line, one by one to meet Aztro. He was actually there within the mingling to personally engage with his supporters. You gotta respect it. Then once everybody & everything became settled, it was time for the full on Production! Hearing Aztro speak to the people is damn near as powerful as the records themselves, so to get to witness him add more context to the meanings behind these records on his latest “False Idle” LP was a treat, in & of itself. We’ll just call it the “Director’s Commentary”, he even hints on that record his intentions with this set, “maybe dig for records, chop it, cut it & dub it!”

Aztro did this for each selection of his from both sides of his latest opus & sure, I could waste my time reiterating every powerful statement said beforehand the records but, you just had to be there to hear it straight from out the horse’s mouth, whether he was asking the crowd how they spend their idle time or explaining the dissolution of “The Bijou”, etc etc, Aztro just has this way of easily connecting to the working class people, he is a true blue collar worker after all. This entire performance was shot & edited by the almighty Devin De Leon, as if the cassette recording wasn’t enough for fans but that too is appreciated cause now if you weren’t there, you’ll soon get to witness that intimacy I was talking about. Lots of beautiful people in attendance, be it the Wavez, the fans, hell, even the Tree Team popped up to show Aztro that support. Bolde.hu even came through for the Post-Production to put on a magic show for his xxxtended play of “ABRACADABRUH”, with some additional rabbit in hat tricks & let me tell you my friends, it was pure wizardry.

All this greatness then culminated into the Distribution portion of the night, where supporters were able to purchase the freshly dubbed recording of the night’s performances & at an affordable price no less. If you were one of the lucky few to grab a physical copy of the live performance then kudos to you cause we all know how Aztro be doing when it comes to the packaging of his products. There of course was a boat load of other merchandise to purchase as well. Damn near 2 years of hard work, dedication & just experiencing life led up to this release & as Aztro stated, it’s important that we continue to take the time to really sit with this LP & allow him to pull us that much more deeper into the intricacies of productivity & self reflection, as he puts it.

Watch This: An NPR event by Baby Aztro