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THE COZY CREW: Hosker, O’Keefe, and James.

One of the city’s prominent electronic musicians, Tim O’Keefe, is quietly expanding a corner of Providence’s indie rock world. O’Keefe, the creative force behind <tfo>, and co-owners Mike Hoska and Ted James have proudly accumulated a quality roster of innovative sound sculptors on the Cozy Music imprint. The triumvirate function as producers as well as artists so they all get to indulge in all aspects of their musical personalities. 
 
Over the summer, Cozy issued four discs, including a Roedelius compilation and an EP by Joe Beats & Blak. Current releases include one from DJ Flack from Boston, one from Zen Paradox (Australia’s Steve Law), and Ted James’s noise-oriented side project, Risque Bouquet.
 
Here’s O’Keefe’s take on the material Cozy is pumping out: “We want to keep an open attitude about. If we hear something we think is quality, we want to put it out. Our tendency is to release music that’s either electronic, dance rock, indie, or indie hip-hop.
 
“At this point the label’s produced a nice little catalog of releases and moving forward, that catalog will include further work from <tfo>, Mahi Mahi, James, Everett & O’Keefe (EP), Hoska, and Bloodless Coup (full length). “From here,” says O’Keefe, “we plan to spend time developing our PR side, releasing less music, but promoting it more heavily.” In a nice bit of marketing, the label has entered into a deal with Memorex, which released a 4GB mp3 player called iDJ. The device comes pre-loaded with 500 tunes, 10 of which come from Cozy, including songs by Hoska and DJ C and Slouch.
 
O’Keefe, Hoska, and James also do live work. “We host a night on the first and third Thursday of every month at the Cuban Revolution in Olneyville,” he says, of the new Valley Street venue. And O’Keefe’s acclaimed Listening Party has returned. Every Wednesday at Local 121 (121 Washington Street, Providence), O’Keefe hosts and features guest DJs/non-DJs sorting through a multiplicity of styles, genres, and time frames of music. Admission is free and the music spins from 10 pm to 1 am.
 
If you want to get a handful of free samples of Cozy’s roster of artists, hit cozymusic.org. It will also be a forum where the labeloffers Cozy artist/DJ/producer remix work that wouldn’t be “legally” sellable in digital stores. They’re calling it, tentatively, Cozy Radio.