CHANNELSURFER is the fractured, hypertextual brain child of Sohn Jamal and Roiju.
Equal parts mutant beat tape, diary entry, and sonic kaleidoscope, the album emerged during a single, feverish month five years ago—a moment charged with the electric potential of a nascent, lifelong friendship. What began with shared psychedelic revelations, emotional whiplash, and manic highs soon crystallized into a singular vision.
The duo’s creative frenzy came to a halt as the pandemic paused time, forcing CHANNELSURFER into stasis. Now, five years later, Sohn Jamal and Roiju have chosen to release the project untouched, preserved like an amber-encased relic of their youth. Processed through the warm, lo-fi grit of an SP-404, the album carries the physicality of its origins, a kind of sonic palimpsest etched with moments too personal and chaotic to neatly quantify.
Stylistically, CHANNELSURFER is a love letter to beat-tape culture, splattered with the irreverence of leftfield experimentalism. The album is meant to feel like flipping through late-night TV channels on fast-forward, with melodies, rhythms, and textures shifting unpredictably every few bars. The result is an immersive listen that resists categorization—a hazy, collage-like journey where every sharp turn reveals a new dimension of the duo’s restless output.
It’s an album that wears its imperfections proudly, a snapshot of friendship forged in chaos, and a reminder that even the most fractured moments can hold unyielding beauty. CHANNELSURFER is a time capsule, an experiment, and a testament to the messy, magical act of creation.
W&P by John Small and Justin Roig
Equipment used:
SP-404SX
Roland SH-201
2 Korg Minilogues
Roland TR-8
Casio SK-1
Yamaha PortaSound PSS-270
Ableton Push
linktr.ee/Roiju
linktr.ee/sohnjamal
