There are several things I enjoy about this line of work – introducing you, friendly reader, to music that’s worthy of your time and your love is a critical aspect of what I do. But as it happens,people put me on to artists – sometimes it’s an artist personally reaching out to me through Twitter or through email; in other cases, a Twitter follower will direct me to someone of interest.

So a few days ago, one of my Twitter followers – @Neeenz, hits me up on Twitter and is like “hey my homies were on Okayplayer. I think you might dig them.” And she was right. On “Know Thyself,” off their Record Breakin’ Music self-titled EP, Extra Medium’s sound is reminiscent of J. Dilla, Pete Rock and CL Smooth, and the Roots – with slick and spacey keyboards, and horns played through reverb, the track is not just souful, it has the warmth and friendliness of analog recordings. And we have to add emcee’s actually saying something that’s positive and deep.