Dauwd
Producer, and DJ, Dauwd works meticulously in his own ever evolving world of house, techno, found sounds, ambient, and bass. Detailed and well crafted layers combine sly samples, perfectly produced low end, synths with the sound and atmosphere of deep thoughts, vocal snippets that arrive percussively or as an accentuation of the ambience steadily opening up around you. You could walk or drive neon-urban sprawls for whole nights with Dauwd as your soundtrack.
Dauwd has had plenty of acclaim sent his way, and perhaps most notably early on by some seriously big names on this circuit in the shape of Jamie xx, Gilles Peterson, and Benji B, to name a few. Having toured extensively, DJing from here to everywhere, Dauwd has begun leading his sound in a more international direction than that of the UK indebted sound he began with.
Show Me The Body
Either Show Me The Body dislike genre boundaries to the point they will do anything in their power to not be confined by them, or they’re just completely oblivious to them. Either way, this New York group are not easily pinned down in such a manner as ‘oh, they place (insert genre)’. So instead, I am going to waffle about the genres they do touch upon, or just ramble about the uniqueness of their sound and what plays a part in that.
Their instrumentation for the most part comprises of banjo, bass, and drums, which might sound limiting, but isn’t in the slightest, because this trio manages to make a variety of noises out that combination, whether it be bleakly sparse country twangs, grungey punk, angular noise rock, bass n banjo rap, sludge indie, or whatever disparate things they fancy force breeding.
Bat and Ball
Do you have a brother or sister? What have you done with them lately? Have you lead a five piece band together? Released a particularly well received EP of post-midnight electronica infused indie with sparse tips of the hat to your more-actual-dub, dubstep? No? Me neither, I recently asked my brother if I could lend twenty quid because I’d drunkenly booked a ticket to a Phillip Glass opera version of The Trial by Franz Kafka. I’ve never even been to an opera.
Anyway, where I at the very least have failed in achieving the aforementioned, brother and sister combo, Abi and Chris Sinclair have not. Together, the pair front Bat and Ball and churn out ambient electronic pop-noir that calls to mind the likes the xx, and a late night CHVRCHES or London Grammar. The music is immediately enticing, and Abi’s vocals keep you hooked with an alluring emotion but an underpinned sense of mischief too.
Naked Days
A friend of mine recently shared Naked Days’ Chai Knees album with me, excitably exclaiming it was his personal ‘album of the month’. I gave it a whirl, and could immediately see why, it’s fucking good, it’s fucking really good. Naked Days is the work of its main man Degnan Smith, and that work is a patchwork of styles that sews into its sounds element of lo-fi, indie pop, alt-folk, acoustic-psych, garage, country, shoegaze, old-timey traditionals, and even the thinnest threads of post-rock too.
Suffice to say, I was impressed, and I will also stop throwing genre-centred buzz words at you now, and simply say at any given moment on Chai Knees, Naked Days can sound like any one of those things, or all of them at once. It’s a striking, and incredibly effective style that really hits a chord with you, whether you can understand why or not.
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