Stare at the hand-sewn sleeve for Bajas Fresh long enough and you’ll wish it was an actual rug—something to spread across your living room floor and sit on, legs crossed, as 80 minutes of mostly calming music fills the air courtesy of Chicago’s Bitchin Bajas crew. With songs that stretch on for as long as 23 minutes (the especially serene “2303” would hold its own as a standalone EP), and slight detours into stormy dream sequences, jarring avant-jazz, and Sun Ra (“Angels and Demons at Play”), this one’s in it for the long haul. But more importantly, it’s never boring, something that’s lost in translation with far too many of today’s ambient efforts.
