Baron Zen

Created with Sketch.

Peanut Butter Wolf, before making his name as a DJ and Producer and before founding Stones Throw Records, was programming drums for a one-man punk rock/disco army known as Baron Zen. Known, that is, to almost no one, because Baron Zen did not play shows,...

Read More

Latest Releases

Electrick Surgery EP

Strange Woman's Room 12"

Rhythm Trax Vol. 3

At The Mall

Baron Zen News

Baron Zen Spray Painted 12

IN THE STORE Baron Zen - Strange Woman's Room 12-inch Individually spray-painted 12-inch singles in four colors - black, purple, orange, yellow. This is new... Read More

Baron Zen review in LA Weekly's Inches

Written by Chris Martins for LA Weekly, published Dec. 30, 2009 in his blog column Inches. In the strange wake of music's digital rebirth, vinyl... Read More

Baron Zen and Tekblazer EP

IN THE STORE: BARON ZEN & TEKBAZER - ELECTRICK SURGERY EP Baron Zen teams up with long-time partner in musical mayhem Tekblazer for this electro... Read More

Video: Baron Zen + Zackey Force Funk "Ghetty Galaxy"

Baron, Tekblazer & Zackey Force Funk visited a poisonous and condemned power plant and returned with this video for "Ghetto Galaxy" off the recent EP... Read More

Related Artists

Baron Zen

Peanut Butter Wolf, before making his name as a DJ and Producer and before founding Stones Throw Records, was programming drums for a one-man punk rock/disco army known as Baron Zen. Known, that is, to almost no one, because Baron Zen did not play shows, did not release records, rejected all forms of publicity, and above all, rejected the boundaries separating hip-hop, disco, punk rock, and pop. Sweet Steve is the man behind Baron Zen. His recording career as Baron Zen lasted from 1988 to 1992, the best of which is collected on this album – his first and only. He was ahead of his time in the ‘80s, but the times have been threatening to catch up with him. Baron Zen today sounds like the missing link between PIL and DFA ... or suburban punk rock garage bands of the 80s and the DJ culture of today ... or The Dead Milkmen if they had been hip-hop b-boys. Baron Zen is DIY music that wears its pop influence on its sleeve: covers of Joy Division, Gap Band, Katrina and the Waves, and high-energy disco classic “When I Hear Music” by Debbie Deb play along side Sweet Steve’s originals, many of which are odes to Steve’s frustration of being a hip-hop & disco DJ stuck in suburbia.