(Chop Suey) Last year, after the young rapper, producer, and music teacher Katie Kate shared some of her new and released beats with the staff of this paper, we decided to nominate her for a Genius award in music. She’s that good, and her first album, Flatland, was one of the five top 206 hiphop records of 2011. What do you hear in her music? A fearless, cool, intelligent, urban, materialistic (not in the Madonna sense) woman. A woman whose eroticism is like a star: bright but cold. With Double Duchess. CHARLES MUDEDE
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(Moore) Any outfit with the nerve to name themselves the "Masters of Percussion" better have the chops to back it up, but Zakir Hussain and co. do not disappoint. A "tabla virtuoso" hailing from India, Hussein generates epic, tightly choreographed yet still spontaneous grooves filled with jazzy fills, rhythmic detours, and all-out dance jams, backed up by a second tabla player and a sitar for melodic counterpoint. Not that it's needed: the way Hussain plays the tabla is reminiscent of the way Hendrix played guitar or Miles played trumpet: the sounds he creates don't seem possible coming from one man with one instrument. He also manages to sneak in some funny stories about modern life in India amid the technical wizardry. KYLE FLECK
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Tonight, Magma Festival showcases mostly local hiphop with an empowered political focus. Among the acts, local artist Rogue Pinay's lyrics highlight "third world womyn and their resistance against imperialism and class exploitation, stories of forced migration, violence against women, downbrownqueerwomanism and revolutionary change." Important things! Twenty-year-old Minnesota transplant Dex Amora also shows an aptitude for verbiage on the single "Who I Be," from his latest mixtape, HerbsPenSoul, and confidently undertakes Seattle's underground hiphop scene with a politically poignant honesty. For those seeking jazz (*opens the flood gates*), Seattle quartet Industrial Revelation's well-executed compositions are supercharged yet smooth, effortlessly building something that spreads over you like a marshmallow pillow of highly refined jazz fusion. This talent-packed night is held across two conjoined and excellent venues, Hollow Earth Radio and 20/20 Cycle, and marks one of the last chances to support a fiercely independent non-profit radio station—Hollow Earth—by attending Magma Festival this month. Hollow Earth Radio and 20/20 Cycle, 7:30 pm. BRITTNIE FULLER
