Biography
Vex Ruffin ranks among the most erratic talents with close ties to Stones Throw. Across his productions he has toggled between clattering post-punk and hallucinatory soul, while his Filipino upbringing has molded his outlook so thoroughly that he regards his output as an extension of OPM—Original Pilipino Music, or Original Pinoy Music—a catch-all for countless genres. His deeply personal work has surfaced in many formats, among them the albums Vex Ruffin (2013), Conveyor (2017), and LiteAce Frequency (2020).
Born Ryan Africa and raised between Los Angeles and Manila, Vex Ruffin absorbed music voraciously from an early age. He did not begin producing until his early twenties, after purchasing an SP-303 sampler; from that point he devoted his free hours to obsessive home recording, harvesting sounds from whatever lay at hand. Demos mailed to multiple labels elicited a response from only Stones Throw, which issued “I’m Losing Control” (a postcard flexi) and the Crash Course EP in 2011, establishing the label as his primary home. Before year’s end he also delivered two garage-punk EPs on Black Gladiator, an imprint of Slovenly Recordings, under the billing Vex Ruffin and the Lo-Fi Jerkheads. Following the free digital Eulogy EP and the cassette Same Thing Tomorrow in 2012, he issued his first proper full-length, Vex Ruffin, in 2013; the sessions involved assistance solely from Folerio (aka Stones Throw head Peanut Butter Wolf) and Cole M.G.N., both credited with “additional knob twiddling.”
Shortly before that debut appeared, Ruffin collaborated with James Pants under the one-off alias Krista, and further joint projects filled the interval leading to his second album. He produced most of the Koreatown Oddity’s Finna Be Past Tense, which surfaced in 2017 shortly before his own Conveyor. That comparatively jagged and funky set included legendary artist and hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy on “The Balance,” also released as a single. Ruffin resurfaced in 2020 with the six-track Emilio and the full-length LiteAce Frequency, both featuring dazed, openhearted material.
Born Ryan Africa and raised between Los Angeles and Manila, Vex Ruffin absorbed music voraciously from an early age. He did not begin producing until his early twenties, after purchasing an SP-303 sampler; from that point he devoted his free hours to obsessive home recording, harvesting sounds from whatever lay at hand. Demos mailed to multiple labels elicited a response from only Stones Throw, which issued “I’m Losing Control” (a postcard flexi) and the Crash Course EP in 2011, establishing the label as his primary home. Before year’s end he also delivered two garage-punk EPs on Black Gladiator, an imprint of Slovenly Recordings, under the billing Vex Ruffin and the Lo-Fi Jerkheads. Following the free digital Eulogy EP and the cassette Same Thing Tomorrow in 2012, he issued his first proper full-length, Vex Ruffin, in 2013; the sessions involved assistance solely from Folerio (aka Stones Throw head Peanut Butter Wolf) and Cole M.G.N., both credited with “additional knob twiddling.”
Shortly before that debut appeared, Ruffin collaborated with James Pants under the one-off alias Krista, and further joint projects filled the interval leading to his second album. He produced most of the Koreatown Oddity’s Finna Be Past Tense, which surfaced in 2017 shortly before his own Conveyor. That comparatively jagged and funky set included legendary artist and hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy on “The Balance,” also released as a single. Ruffin resurfaced in 2020 with the six-track Emilio and the full-length LiteAce Frequency, both featuring dazed, openhearted material.
Albums
LiteAce Frequency Remixes
2021
LiteAce Frequency
2020
Emilio
2020
Conveyor
2017
Vex Ruffin
2013
No Escape
2013
Crash Course
2011
Singles
