Formed 2010

Bitchin Bajas is a Chicago trio formed in 2010 by Cooper Crain, guitarist and organist of Chicago krautrock band Cave, who began releasing music under the name as a solo project before expanding it to include Dan Quinlivan on synthesizer and Rob Frye, also of Cave, on flute, saxophone and guitar. Their music combines analogue synthesizer drones, layered acoustic woodwinds and slowly evolving melodic figures into extended instrumental pieces that sit in the territory between minimalism, ambient music and krautrock. Moving to Drag City for 2013's "Bitchitronics," the group built a prolific discography across full-lengths, cassettes and collaborations. Their two albums with Natural Information Society, "Automaginary" (Drag City, 2015) and "Totality" (Drag City, 2025), place them in direct creative conversation with Joshua Abrams's Chicago guimbri ensemble, the two groups' respective acoustic and electronic approaches occupying compatible territory around long-form modal drift and collective layering. Their 2021 "Switched On Ra" is a synthesizer-based tribute to Sun Ra, processing the Arkestra's harmonic and melodic vocabulary through the Bajas's own textural approach.