BBC's star DJ Mary Anne Hobbs (aka “the first lady of bass”) has just broadcast the most recent installments of her insanely influential radio show from our fair city. The tastemaker has been a cheerleader for the L.A. beats scene for quite some time now, making a point of coming over last year specifically to check out all the hugely talented artists from the area that she was hearing about in the U.K. She has called Los Angeles “the most exciting electronic scene on the planet.” Hobbs has been playing shows in California and around the U.S. for the last month, since the Icelandic volcano situation complicated her return to the U.K.

L.A. WEEKLY: You've been one of the biggest advocates in the U.K. of the West Coast scene and sound.
Absolutely. I heard quite a lot about this incredible family of artists operating out of the West Coast and I made it a mission to come over and investigate the scene in January 2009. That was the first time that I played the Low End Theory and I have to say that experience completely changed my life. It really radically affected the whole trajectory of my BBC show.

I put together a special called West Coast Rocks for the BBC live show and also made a film to accompany that program. The response to the show was completely overwhelming.

What was shocking was that, in that one night in January 2009 at Low End Theory, I found more phenomenal music and absolutely incendiary young artists in that one evening than I had found in the previous six months looking all over the rest of the world.

I've become an advocate and evangelist for the whole Low End Theory family, the whole Brainfeeder crew, and I guess, you know, the whole community of beat-builders in Los Angeles. They've become very dear to my heart and it is the best place in the world to become a refugee right now.

After they couldn't schedule me on any reasonable flights, we thought it made sense to celebrate the fact that I'm a refugee in this incredible city. I couldn't be stranded in a greater place.

Mary Anne Hobbs will be deejaying at the “Los Angeles Unified Aesthetics” Launch Party with Tokimonsta, DLX, Primal Luxe and others at 3100 Club, 659 S. Westmoreland Ave., L.A.; Fri., May 14, 10 p.m.; $15, 18-plus, launified.blogspot.com. Hobbs will also be one of the “secret” guests at the Do-Over jam at Cranes Hollywood Tavern, 1611 El Centro Ave., Hlywd.; Sun., May 16, 2 p.m.-10 p.m.; thedoover.net.

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