For years Anishinaabe DJ and producer Les Boulanger — known by audiences as Boogey the Beat — has toiled behind the scenes, laying the sonic foundations for other musicians’ anthems. As a longtime lover of hip-hop and rap, collaboration is his comfort zone. He’s worked with the likes of The Halluci Nation (formerly a Tribe Called Red) and Snotty Nose Rez Kids, and played stages across Turtle Island including the Indspire Awards and myriad music festivals. 

Now, that collaborative spirit has taken a new form. Boogey the Beat’s debut EP Cousins features an ebullient crew of co-conspirators, among them Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Sebastian Gaskin, and Lightning Cloud. 

Cousins began long before the pandemic. When lockdown orders struck, Boogey hunkered down in his Winnipeg studio, revisiting his recordings to methodically perfect them. Over many months, he crafted a comforting promise of togetherness during a time of unsolicited solitude, each soundscape imagining a future when crowds and communities can gather again. To prepare the album for live audiences, Boogey reworked his songs hundreds of times, masterminding an astral merger of electronic beats and traditional Anishinaabe sounds. The result is an exhilarating new chapter of pow wow step.

“I wanted to push myself forward as my own artist,” says Boogey, who ideated, produced, and mixed the album in its entirety. “This is the first project I can truly call mine.”

On “Higher,” featuring Sebastian Gaskin, Boogey combines soca-influences and dreamy reverb to create a classic — glistening with the thrill of a night that’s still young. “Tapwe,” featuring Drezus and PJ Vegas, is a tantalizing banger you’ll want to loop until dawn. 

Boogey began learning music production in high school, and has been at it ever since. As a teenager his friends wanted to be rappers, so he happily assumed the role of producer. Today, he sees the beats he makes as a voice unto themselves, telling audiences to find joy and have fun while remembering there was a time when Anishinaabe artistic traditions were banned. 

Raucous “The Sage is On Fire,” featuring Snotty Nose Rez Kids, offers a reviving jolt to those who’ve been daydreaming of dance floors since the pandemic hit, before resolutely repeating “We just want clean water let that motherfucker burn,” referring to the crisis of water advisories across First Nations reserves. “I aim to make party records, but these issues are always there. They’ll always be in my music,” he says. “There’s no getting away from it.”

In homage to the sounds of a sundance, Boogey builds each song around a percussive heartbeat, then adds vocals and other instruments, letting the drum lead the way. He remembers walking up to one of his first childhood pow wows and hearing the big drum, a guiding force that stays with him today. 

While he hopes his music will resonate with revellers from all walks of life, he beams at the thought of Indigenous youth hearing pow wow and sundance songs for the first time at one of his shows. 

“It’s important to not forget that at one time it was illegal for us to sing these songs, play these drums, and go to these ceremonies,” he says. “Now it’s a time for celebration, and for us to take over the main stage.” 

Cousins reminds us better times are coming.