You’ll want to come back and eat at every single one
As the curators of Time Out Market Miami’s chefs—a collection of the city’s top talent spanning all manner of food genres—we humble Time Out Miami editors are pretty confident in our skills. When it comes to curating day-to-night playlists as crowd-pleasing as Time Out Market’s food, or as sleek and effortlessly cool as its setting, we admit we needed some back-up.
RECOMMENDED: Guide to Time Out Market Miami
Cue Lauren “Lolo” Reskin, owner of the local indie music institution Sweat Records and music programmer at Soundry, the only boutique background music company based in Miami. She came on board with Soundry as a professional playlist-maker in 2013, but Lolo’s been shoring up the local music scene for decades. Tapping her to set the mood at Time Out Market was a no-brainer, especially considering she’s already working with several of its chefs at their restaurants around the city, including Michael Beltran (Ariete), Jeremy Ford (Stubborn Seed), Matt Kuscher (Kush, The Spillover, LoKal) and Giorgio Rapicavoli (Glass & Vine).
We nabbed a few spare minutes out of Lolo’s busy schedule to ask her about Miami artists we should know, advice for aspiring music curators and exactly how she and Soundry put the sonic cherry on top of Time Out Market.
Can you talk a bit about your thought process with the playlist for Time Out Market Miami and how you went about executing that?
First off, for us it’s always a treat to work with a creative team who have a real vision for the space they’re creating—and realize the importance of music in the whole experience. We program our playlists completely by hand and use our music knowledge to bring that vision to life, doing rounds of samples and feedback. Another important step is that we test the playlists in the space itself pre-opening to make adjustments, and then further edit during the opening weeks to see how the playlists fit within the trading tempo of the day.
Is there a song that no Miami playlist is complete without?
The Spam Allstars are basically Miami’s house band, so we had to include several of their tracks! For a nice intro, check out “Campanario 64” or “Fiesta De Los Feos.”
Just in case someone isn’t quick enough with their Shazam, who are some of the under-the-radar bands on this playlist you think folks should check out?
Some Soundry staff favorites that appear in the Time Out playlists are Helado Negro, Richie Hell, Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, Reyna Tropical, Khruangbin…There’s a lot of good stuff in there!
The Time Out Market playlist is broken up into morning, day and night. How do you go about making that transition feel natural on a playlist?
We don’t take shortcuts when selecting tracks and work to find really specific songs that evoke the feeling of the times of day, like choosing tracks with a sense of rising energy for the mornings. We then introduce BPM filters and overlays leading up to the change of the day-parts so the transitions feel organic and evolutionary.
Any advice to amateur aux cord DJs out there trying to make the perfect Miami playlist?
Listen widely! It’s great to be an expert in particular genres, but bringing in other sounds and throwing curveballs to your listeners keeps things interesting. Also, do your homework and dig into the roots and history of the current artists that you love.
