The inaugural mix comes from (my friend) Mike Petillo, one half of D.C. production team Protect-U, and it reps D.C. with cuts from local producer Ben Jenkins and a handful of releases on District imprint Peoples Potential Unlimited.

Extended Family promises a fresh mix on the fourth of each month, with the larger goal of promoting D.C.’s diverse electronic music scene. From the project’s website:

Despite the cumbersome red tape that binds Washington D.C., the city has managed to cultivate a rich and long history of music that has grown organically, insistently. It has now become abundantly clear that a cluster of electronic musicians in the District of Columbia are responding to influences of house, techno, and experimental electronic works with open ears and a fresh delivery. Extended Family is a mix series that gathers these voices into a cohesive project: a chronicle of the vibe.

Let the chronicling begin. Stream Petillo’s moody mix, “Frog in the Coffee Pot,” below, and keep up with Extended Family at extendedfamilydc.com.

Photo via Flickr user kev-shine used under a Creative Commons license.

DJ and producer Sami Yenigun is one of the label’s founders. He and former Subterranean A residents Eric Tilden, Joyce Lim, and friend Dawit Eklund—who makes music with Yenigun as aLamont—started the imprint as a means “to explore our own sound,” Yenigun writes in an email. “Joyce, Eric, and I started saving up money, Dawit started getting crazy in the lab, and it all took off from there.”

But the label’s debut release—heard for the first time on the Fader this week—comes from an artist with no official tie to Subterranean A. He’s an Ethiopia-based producer named Mikael Seifu, and he’s a good pal of Eklund, Yenigun writes. “Dawit and I have been listening to his stuff for a while now, and when the label started up, we just knew we had to get him on board. He’s one of these people who has been honing his craft for years, but has never released any of it.”

Eklund’s music was going to start off the label, but “his laptop lost a fight to a glass of red wine,” Yenigun writes. So Seifu it was. Not that it was a tough choice, Yenigun points out. “We plan on putting out a lot of Mik’s work,” he writes, “and [we feel] really lucky to have him start us off.” (Seifu’s 4-song EP, “Yarada Lij,” drops July 1, and it’s available for preorder now.) Beyond that, the label plans to dabble in techno, house, more “Ethiopian electronic,” as Seifu calls it—and whatever else its founders feel like.

Given Subterranean A’s short stint as a low-key spot to see lesser-known electronic music, 1432 R serves as an homage, of sorts. But it won’t necessarily be as format-fluid as the basement haunt, which also booked indie rock and underground comedy. “For me, Subterranean A was a place where music was free to roam into whatever territory it pleased,” Yenigun writes. “1432 R is its own thing completely, and will likely focus more on electronic and dance music than Sub A did… But it’s an important place to us, and the name reflects that.”