Rusty Santos and Mina Ohashi--aka THE PRESENT-- came together in both a musicial and matrimonial sense under as diverse conditions as possible. Rusty Santos had been hopping between production for artists such as Animal Collective and Owen Pallett and recording his solo work throughout the better part of the last decade when he met Mina Ohashi. Mina was born and raised in Tokyo and beginning in 1998 she began performing under the name Fayray and scored three Top 10 records in her native country.

Formed in 2007 with international gigs supporting The xx and local spots with Panda Bear, the resulting project between the two is a strange but addicting hybrid: loose, footwork-tinged rhythms backing sparse, introspective slow jams. One of the standouts from their last EP Golden Ass, a heater of a tune called "The Ride", was recently given a shimmering makeover by Teklife DJ Durban, who turned the tune from a late night comedown into a synth pop gem without losing the vibe of the original. 

Golden Ass is available for streaming on their SoundCloud.