Premiere: bambinodj – august fdm

Music

Written by Annie Parker

Taken from the first VA on TT label since 2014, the enigmatic Berlin producer offers a fiercely forward-facing take on FDM.

The water felt solid like earth beneath his feet as the distance grew between his body and the shore. The horizon seemed concrete to him and he christened it his destination, not stopping until his lips could kiss the sky and ocean’s joining.

The water caressed his feet, and flirted with the lower half of his legs. His mind was occupied, not by thoughts but the sensation of bliss. He breathed in the air. The air breathed him.

This track is one of two contributions by bambinodj to the ‘Performance Enhancers’ VA, compiled by the label co-run by DJ Pitch and Kast. Released as a single last month, ‘lost riddim’ is difficult to decipher. So close, yet somehow so distant to the stylistic tropes commonly associated with the dancehall genre, a suggestion of spectral vocals float above razor-sharp percussion in an exploration of space and depth.

‘august FDM’ sees bambinodj pursue this endeavour. In a way that departs from the standard tropes of FDM (AKA Flex Dance Music, a dark, bass-heavy genre hailing from Brooklyn) Dancehall vocals are subordinated to genre-defining laser-like blips that dominate the track before being swept up by blissed-out arpeggios. Strange and dreamy.