DJ/musician/vinyl junkie, Buscrates hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Since childhood he has always gravitated to the myriad of sounds coming from the stereo system of his father, who did some DJing in the early 80s. Anything from Roy Ayers to Steve Miller to Gil Scott-Heron could be heard at home on a Saturday morning. A very young Crates (neé Orlando Marshall) had his first experience behind a set of turntables in the summer of 1986 when a local DJ at a party let him get on the turntables while doubles of Cameo’s “Word Up” 12-inch single spun on the Technics 1200s. Although he has a wide range of inspirations, the most influential are the drum machine and synth heavy grooves of early-mid 80s boogie and the sample laden, neck snapping MPC sequences of early 90s hip-hop.

In addition to his vast knowledge of music, he has lately become known for being an analog synthesizer aficionado. Buscrates home setup includes a Rhodes, Clavinet D6, several Moog synthesizers, and many others, a quantum leap of sorts from the minimal setup on which he began producing tracks: an Ensoniq EPS sampler, an off-brand DJ turntable, and stacks of records.

A deeper exploration of funk began as part of East Liberty Quarters, a trio consisting of Bus and two of his close friends Geeman and Nice Rec. They released 2 EPs on Rotating Souls Records and performed for the first time as openers for Dam Funk in 2011 at the now defunct Shadow Lounge in Pittsburgh. Buscrates continued this exploration as a solo artist on his 6-track electro funk EP The Spectrum (Omega Supreme, 2014), which also features his ELQ cohorts. During this time he also had a grasp on his more hip-hop and soulful side, which can be heard in works with oft collaborator Mecca:83 from the UK, his production with Ian Wallace under the name Extra Medium, a solo all instrumental cassette tape release Home Again(Thrash Flow, 2017) and most recently on the joint effort with Portland based MC Libretto Eternal Ridin (Liquid Beat, 2019).

In 2015 he got his first international gig at Walla P’s Voyage Funktastique party in Montreal. Soon after he began traveling more in the States, doing beat sets with his Roland SP-404SX and DJ sets in various cities, most notably Los Angeles’ Funkmosphere party in 2017 with Dam-Funk. In 2018 he was a part of the very first 7” single release on Walla P’s Voyage Funktastique imprint, releasing the A side “You Got Me” featuring Laura Benack, with whom he had worked on some tracks for the second ELQ EP. The song is one of his most known and a favorite of many. Later that year he was selected to attend Playlist Retreat, an artists playground at the home of legendary DJ Jazzy Jeff. Last year he had a co production credit with Nice Rec for a track on Wiz Khalifa & Curren$y’s 2009 album (Jet Life / Atlantic, 2019). He is currently gearing up to release his first ever full-length LP on Bastard Jazz Recordings.