Matt Gonzales is a busy man. When he’s not playing guitar for local fusion-soul group Anya and the Getdown or for hip-hop cumbia duo Raul y Mexia, he’s producing beats for his own solo Latin dance project, Philthy Dronez.

Gonzales has been performing as Philthy Dronez consistently here in the South Bay at the monthly Sonido Clash neo-Latin dance parties every first Fridays at the Pagoda Lounge. Now, Philthy Dronez is reaching for a larger audience with his debut EP Wepa Life, which will be released on Arizona label, Global Bass Experience. The release show is Friday November 1st at the Pagoda—the final show before the venue switches formats under new management.

Wepa Life is a short listen with seven songs in about fifteen minutes. It has a nice blend of Philthy Dronez’ style, which contains some classic cumbia beats with some modern dance, trap and electronica. His first single, “Don Sandia”, is one of his more traditional cumbia tracks. The content however is not so typical—it’s about a watermelon that gets all the ladies. The “watermelon” (or rather Gonzales’ friend in a watermelon outfit) made his debut during Sonido Clash’s portion of the Music in the Park. “Don Sandia” features guest vocals by Jazmin Lopez (aka Jazzy Drone).

One of the heaviest dance songs—and the farthest removed from classic cumbia—is “Ratcheta,” featuring vocals by Mexia from Raul y Mexia. “Mira Como Mueve” is the best representation to the “nu-cumbia” sound that is growing increasingly popular. Wepa Life is also strung together with a lot of clips from various radio programs and commercials. One of the best of them is the old Frito Bandito commercial for Fritos chips which closes the EP.

Philthy Dronez plays the final Sonido Clash at Pagoda Lounge on Friday November 1st with Los Macuanos. More info.

Kaytranada’s beats immediately bring to mind the L.A. scene that blew up a few years ago with Flying Lotus, Free the Robots, Daedelus and the Glitch Mob. The diversity of these artists created a sound that pushed the boundaries of instrumental hip-hop at its intersection with electronic music—precisely what Kaytranada is doing now.

Though never part of the L.A. scene, the 21-year-old producer, performing at Pagoda Lounge on Oct. 18, remains connected with a production style that fuses hip-hop, house and R&B into tight, progressive beats—and through his L.A.-based label Huh What & Where. Meanwhile, he’s gaining momentum among his peers Tommy Kruise, Rami.B(izzle) and Hesk in Montreal.

This past year he released the Kaytra Todo EP on HW&W to positive reviews. Soon after, French electronic label Bromance took an interest after hearing his remix of Danny Brown’s “Lie4” and approached him about releasing the single “Free Things in Life” (his update on Janet Jackson’s ’90s hit “If” is required listening, as well). He’ll release the Hilarity Duff EP on Oct. 16 with HW&W while he works on a full-length instrumental release.

“The last six months have been great for sure,” Kaytranada says. “I feel like I haven’t even blown up yet; I’m definitely not satisfied.”

Kaytranada had plans to release a full-length instrumental album this year, but it was pushed back to 2014 to allow for more production time. He doesn’t want to release anything prematurely.

“I’m finding it more difficult because people are watching me, but the process hasn’t changed,” he says. “I’m busting my ass to make instrumental songs. If it needs vocals, I usually don’t release it, that’s why I have so few originals out. I’ve got tons of instrumentals that need vocals hidden away,” Kaytranada says. “With Hilarity Duff, there was no direction. I made that beat when I was high, thinking of a dark music video like ‘Stressed’ by Justice.”

As with most electronic music, the goal remains to get people dancing, but with Kaytranada and the artists affiliated with him in Montreal (as well as the L.A. beat scene producers), dancing remains a secondary goal to the act of manipulating sound and creating subtly complex and unique soundscapes.

“They can dance or not dance to my music,” Kaytranada says. “Songs are danceable nowadays, but a bit forced. I want to make people dance naturally.”

Kaytranada performs at Pagoda Lounge on Oct. 18. More info.

“Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out” was Mayer Hawthorne’s first foray into modern soul music. The red, heart-shaped 45 released on Stones Throw in 2008 caught fire in year of forgettable singles, propelling Mayer Hawthorne’s career into the stratosphere. Four years later, he’s revisiting his roots on October 26 at the Pagoda Lounge.

With its doo-wop touches, minimal sound, and undeniable catchiness, fans of hip-hop and soul were instantly gripped. The record soon became a hard-to-get collectors’ item and Mayer took off on world tours shortly after. With his thick-rimmed glasses, vintage suits, and bowties, the rapper-turned-DJ-turned-singer has pushed his success further than ever imaged.

Mayer’s now a regular on the late-night TV circuit and plays huge international music festivals; he’s even collaborated on tracks with Snoop Dogg of all people. Not too bad for an indie-rapper who almost retired when “underground rap” began losing steam in the early 2000s. He’s since worked with modern dance troupes like SebastiAn while many of his songs have been used on major TV shows like Ugly Betty. And while he cites Curtis Mayfield and the late J Dilla as influences, he’s also performed with more modern, commercial acts like Foster The People and Bruno Mars. His latest release, How Do You Do, showed more of a focus on funk and modern R&B than the Motown vibes that marked his first album. Mayer’s undeniably strong songwriting keeps him busy regardless of genre.

In between official albums, Internet-only releases, and wild collaborations, Hawthorne sticks to his guns too, making one-off DJ appearances to the surprise of many fans. His DJ chops aren’t bad either, as he’s played alongside turntable maestros like Jrocc of the Beat Junkies.

Though his career is in full stride, he seems to always return to his roots. Everything will come full circle when Hawthorne returns to San Jose for a rare, live DJ set. After all, he has San Jose’s own Peanut Butter Wolf to thank for putting him on Stones Throw to begin with. His stop in San Jose also marks the two-year anniversary of the “Live at the Pagoda” series at the Fairmont Hotel, which has brought acclaimed acts like Adrian Younge and Toro Y Moi to the San Jose.

For a city that struggles year in and year out to foster a vibrant local music scene, the SVSX festival—which featured over 20 bands in 9 venues—was a success. Mike Huguenor, who opened the Pagoda Lounge lineup, took a moment during his set to comment on what an incredible event SVSX was turning out to be.

“I’ve lived most of my life in San Jose, and until very recently it seemed absolutely impossible for art to get any kind of foothold in this sprawling, vastly economically imbalanced city,” he said. “A festival like this seemed unthinkable until very recently, and I’m extremely happy to be a part of it.”

His band, which included Bob Vielma (Shinobu) on bass and Hank Richardson (Yulia) on drums, gave his solo material a driving rock edge. Yet, unlike Huguenor’s work with Shinobu and Hard Girls, these songs were notably mellower, while still holding true to his trademark blend of thoughtful lyrics and offbeat chord arrangements.

PHOTOS: 10 Photo Highlights of SVSX

The largely college-aged crowd slowly trickled in as Huguenor played. By the time Fierce Creatures went on, the Pagoda boasted a nice amount of attendees, all ready as Fierce Creatures soared through several of their lush, indie-rock, soul-inspired tunes.

The hip hop lineup at the Blank Club showed a diverse cross-section of rap styles. Antwon and Memphis rapper Cities Aviv were major highlights. Cities Aviv is gaining some buzz music blogs all over the web right now with his fresh, unusual interpretation of rap. As innovative as his album Digital Low is, live, he was on a whole other level of strange. He mixed atonal music, bizarre electronics and outer-space beats with rapping that was heavily processed and mixed at a volume barely above the music, which made for a surreal experience that fell somewhere between neurotic, spastic hip hop and avant-garde performance art.

Antwon took the stage afterword. His music and performance, while not as out-there as Cities Aviv’s, is totally distinct from anything happening in hip hop right now. He’s falls somewhere between nerd rap, stoner rap and hipster rap, yet not fitting into any of these already conceived models. The audience couldn’t decide if they were with him or not. Despite being local, he rarely gigs in San Jose, yet he’s developed an impressive following in the East Bay, San Francisco and all over the Internet (he has +120,000 views for his “Helicopter” video on YouTube).

Dirtbag Dan at The Blank Club // Photo by Alex Stover

Local favorite Dirtbag Dan, who was accompanied by Skylar G and DJ Ichy the Killer, put on one of his best, hard-hitting shows to date to an enthusiastic audience. It wasn’t long ago that Dan toiled in obscurity locally—even while being one of the biggest names in battle rap all over the world. Headlining the SVSX festival to a packed house was a monumental moment for Dan.

Before his actual set, Dan had DJ Ichy the Killer perform a solo DJ routine—the same routine that got him into the DMC online DJ competition finals. He flawlessly mixed different genres, popular songs and obscure beats, using crazy spinning tricks and strange rhythms into six mind-blowing minutes.

With nine venues total it was hard to see everything that was happening, yet there was more than enough people to go around. Johnny V’s was packed, so was San Pedro Square Market and Mezcal restaurant. The other venues did well, too, and the pub crawl element of the SVSX festival was a nice touch. Walking from venue to venue and seeing so many people enjoying good local music—rap, punk, reggae, indie rock, folk—was a nice feeling.

The complex backdrop of Mexico City—a town full of ancient architecture and modern technology—is a fittingly the home for Camilo Lara, the man behind the Mexican Institute of Sound, a leading act in the budding Mexican electronic scene. His music epitomizes the crossroads of old and new, organic and synthetic, traditions and progress.

Unlike American electronic music, Lara—and contemporaries Nortec Collective, Turbo Sonidero Futuristico and Kinky—mixes a lot of the older folk music of Mexico (Mariachi, Cumbia and Cha cha cha.) Lara, in particular tends to sample mostly from Mexican music from the 1920s to the 1960s, homaging his heritage, yet redefining it. His songs can be instrumental, feature an MC or just contain little spurts of spoken word.

Mexico Institute has been creeping into the homes of mainstream American via the television. His songs have been featured on such shows as Californiacation, Ugly Betty, Pride and Glory and even as part of a Dos Equis ad campaign. People may not realize it, but they are already acquainted with Lara’s innovative approach to electronic music.

Mexico Institute of Sound plays on Saturday September 15th at 10pm at the Pagoda @ the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. Tickets are $5.

Boston electro duo Sonnymoon generated a lot of buzz when they played San Jose in June, and left a lot of people who missed their show at the Pagoda chomping at the bit to see them. That explains why tickets are already being snapped up for the group’s return on Friday, Aug. 10.

The announcement of Sonnymoon’s show comes as a surprise for a couple of reasons. First, the East Coast band seemed to getting to the South Bay about once a year, with more excitement around their arrival each time. But Anna Wise, one half of the founding duo along with Dane Orr, is from NorCal, and the group has been spending more time in California. Secondly, the show, which brings them back to the Pagoda, is actually part of San Jose Jazz’s Summer Fest this weekend, and is being billed as “Jazz Beyond.” The show is free with festival admission, but even the separate, non-festival tickets are going fast.

After the Sonnymoon show (which begins at 8:30pm), the Pagoda will host a second Summer Fest-related event, “After Hours at the Pagoda.” Julius Papp and The Selector DJ Kirk will perform from 10pm-1:30pm. Tickets are also free with Summer Fest admission, $10 without. On Saturday, the Pagoda will host another “After Hours” show, this time featuring top San Francisco DJ J Boogie.

Anyone whose knowledge of Detroit hip-hop begins and ends with Eminem would do well to study up on Slum Village. The story of this crew is one of the strangest in modern hip-hop, a sprawling saga that begins in the same world of Motor City battle rap that 8 Mile made famous, and winds up in a bizarre implosion of schizophrenia, mysterious death and one man left to carry on the legacy.

Spoiler alert: that last rapper standing is Elzhi, who performs at Pagoda Lounge in San Jose this week. He had maybe the hardest job ever in Slum Village—replacing J Dilla, arguably the greatest beatmaker of his generation. Some might have thought he was set up to fail, but what Elzhi did with that double-edged opportunity took the group to whole new level.

Born Jason Powers, Elzhi was only 12 when Slum Village was formed in 1991, but as a teenager he saw the trio of rappers behind the group—Dilla, Baatin and T3—battling at open mics like the one hosted by Proof at the Hip Hop Shop on Seven Mile Road (dramatized in 8 Mile and immortalized on Proof’s debut album, I Miss the Hip Hop Shop).

Over the course 1996 and 1997, Slum Village recorded Fantastic, Vol. 1, which was as underground as underground gets. Officially, it never even saw the light of day for eight more years, but with bootlegs everywhere, the Detroit scene went crazy for it. This was almost entirely due to the production from Dilla, who recorded the album in his home studio. It also put the group in the odd position of releasing volume two of Fantastic before they had officially released volume one.

To make things even weirder, they used an alias (J-88) to release Best Kept Secret. Both Fantastic Vol. 2 and Best Kept Secret featured re-workings of songs from their unreleased debut.

Maybe they would have stayed Detroit’s best kept secret if it wasn’t for Dilla’s breakout success as a producer. He was on A Tribe Called Quest’s production team and the group opened on Tribe’s farewell tour, linking them in fans’ minds with the De La Soul/Tribe alt-hop movement.

This was a fair enough assessment sonically, as they had a similarly soulful sound with completely unique beats. But as MCs, they couldn’t touch the depth of Tribe or De La—they just didn’t seem to have much to say.

That’s where Elzhi came in. In 2002, Dilla was focused on his solo career, and Elzhi was brought in to more or less take his place. His lines and rhymes were more complex and interesting, a better match for the always-impeccable production. This single “Tainted” became an underground hit.

Sometimes Aaron Aquino can’t believe what passes for a live show from beatmakers. If it’s some guy fiddling half-heartedly behind a laptop for the whole set, the man better known by his DJ handle Squareweezy is not impressed.

“Is he checking his email, or performing for us?” Aquino says he has to ask himself.

Though he’s best known as part of the tight-knit San Jose crew the Bangerz, Aquino’s been mixing it up lately with quite a few solo gigs. And forget hiding behind a laptop, you’re just as likely to find him writhing on the edge of the stage, wrestling with some bizarre electrical instrument he’s pulled out of his bag of tricks.

Expect the same energy when Squareweezy performs at the Pagoda Thursday, as part of a “Night of Live Beat Performance” that will also feature B-Dot, Professor Panson, Sesshins and Dranal.

For Aquino, it’s all a lead up to the release of his upcoming EP, which he tentatively plans to drop in September.

“They’ve been constantly evolving,” he says of The Weezmatic EP’s bass-heavy songs. He’ll be playing several of the new tracks at the Pagoda show, and even those who’ve heard their earlier incarnations live are likely to be surprised.

As for the live sets, he just likes to practice what he preaches. “When I play, I can’t help myself. I try to bring the art of performance to the show,” he says. “When my name is on the bill, I want to keep it unpredictable.”

SQUAREWEEZY performs an 18-and-over show at the Pagoda in San Jose on Thursday, July 19, 9pm; $5.

Anya and the Get Down’s first EP got the local scene buzzing, its Amy Winehouse-type confessional rock blendly effortlessly with dubstep, reggae and hip-hop—not to mention the revelation that was Anya’s vocals. Their new, still nameless second EP, which will be released in conjunction with a headlining show at the Pagoda Saturday, should be no less impactful.

“I think there’s a little bit more soul on this one,” says Anya. “It’s coming from a deeper place.”

The new EP features three new songs—“Maybe,” “L.A. Woman” (not the Doors song), and “Gotta Be Got.” It also includes her first single, “Gone Baby Gone,” and a remix of “C’est La Vie” from the first EP, done by the Bangerz’s Cutso.

“He’s a good friend of mine, and I just told him, ‘I think this track could use your touch,’” she says. “He kind of electrified it up. It worked out—obviously, because it’s Cutso.”

The band’s been taking a break from playing live to work on the EP, and their first album, which is due sometime this summer. This will be Anya’s first show ever playing the piano with her band, even though she is classically trained and it is her primary instrument. There are plans to move the Fairmont’s grand piano in for the show.

It’ll also be Anya and the Get Down’s first time headlining the Pagoda, though Anya considers the spot a good luck charm after her first show there, opening for Talib Kweli’s Idle Warship.

“I actually had lost my voice that night,” she says, “but I magically got it back. It turned out to be one of the best shows we’ve ever done.”

Anya and the Get Down perform at Pagoda Lounge in San Jose on Saturday, June 30, at Pagoda Lounge in San Jose, 9pm; $10-$20.

Peanut Butter Wolf works in mysterious ways.

The South Bay music legend pioneered sophisticated production in San Jose’s underground scene in the early ‘90s, before founding the Stones Throw label and signing hip-hop revolutionaries like Madlib, J Rocc and J Dilla. And he’s still engineering musical mini-movements, as Boston band Sonnymoon learned when they first arrived on Wolf’s current turf in SoCal last September.

“He came to our show when we played with Teebs in LA,” says Dane Orr, one half of the Sonnymoon duo. “That night, Wolf was like ‘This guy Jonti’s coming to LA, you guys gotta link up. That was the first time I ever heard of Jonti. Which is kind of funny, since now we’re on tour together, but it’s really cool.”

That tour comes to Pagoda Lounge in San Jose this week, with Jonti and Sonnymoon headlining a show lined top to bottom with forward-thinking, sometimes nearly unclassifiable electro and hip-hop acts like Portland’s Devonwho and San Jose’s own B. Lewis. Knxwledge and Mndsgn are performing at other stops on the tour.

That Wolf’s dropped hint would turn out to be prophetic is surprising since Jonti and Sonnymoon seem so outwardly different. Jonti, an Australian multi-instrumentalist who released his first album, Twirligig, last year, is one of the most fascinating signings on Stones Throw; at the time Wolf described it like this: “I understand the pop references because his music is so catchy, but the arrangements blew me away. I couldn’t figure out how the hell he did what he did. That he did it all on his own at such an early age kinda scared me. I knew right away I needed to add him to the roster.”

Jonti’s music is generally more introspective and despite its intricate, catchy beats, solidly based in a singer-songwriter tradition. His remarkable talent for beatmaking somewhat obscures the fact that in many ways he’s a Nick Drake for the 21st century. Sonnymoon’s ambient brand of electronic music has an epic, cosmic feel that pushes at outward boundaries of sound.

And yet, there are, at a deeper level, a lot of similarities between these artists. Both Sonnymoon and Jonti represent a new kind of experimentation in the ever-more-blurred boundaries between electro and guitar-based rock and folk, between digital and analog. They both reject the retro (mainly ’80s-based) nostalgia that has been the trend in electronic music for several years now—an artistic decision that is not to be taken lightly, as Sonnymoon discovered.