Ear Dr.Umz & T-Bone Steak Nick Johnson EP Volume 1

Limited vinyl edition!

In 2004, while DJ T-Bone Steak, was visiting Ear Dr.Umz and Seattle from Japan, the two artists did a lot of record digging. One spot they frequented because it was so close to the apartment at the time, was the now-extinct location of Easy Street Records.

All of the jazz vinyl that they'd gravitate to had this mysterious signature and extensive custom liner notes tagged on the front and back covers. Once they fed these mysterious "NJ8" tagged records into the MPC's to chop, they finally knew something more than a competitive inside joke was brewing...

More than years have since gone by, and many more "Nick Johnson" records have been unearthed, and many more beats have come of it.

Sadly, with the closing of the Queen Anne Easy Street location in 2014, it felt like a fitting time to share this project, which hopefully serves as a homage to all independent record spots in Seattle to worldwide that risk being pushed out by big bank business.

Nick Johnson was in fact a jazz radio DJ at the former Seattle listener-supported FM station KRAB, and hosted programs under the moniker of "Captain Baltic." Nick in turn was enthusiastic about the project and gave his blessing via email:

"Glad to see some of the old LPs are actually being used/heard...I'm not much into the sampling and remixing thing, although when well done (as yours is) I do find it interesting, and if my joints weren't so old and bad I'd probably be up dancing instead of sitting here tapping my feet and mentally swinging....Consider your project blessed by this long-time music lover - it is, as we used to say, really in the groove!" – Nick Johnson

Don’t sleep on these massive jazzy instrumentals digged from these crates! TIP!!!