There’s darkness all around so chill with: Kowie, and Rubus #Chill #ChillHop #Downtempo
A couple of tracks with darkness in their soul seemed totally appropriate for dark winter days enhanced by the coming of omicron and the return of restrictions in England. Musical darkness from Kowie, and Rebus.
Hamburg, Germany’s Kowie offers Dark Days. This is taken from debut EP Ramah, which is Indonesian and means ‘to be friendly’.
Dark Days includes samples from DMX who died this year of a “cocaine-induced heart attack.” Very sad. Such a distinctive voice. The track has a slow head nodding and thoughtful air. Some crunching beats, a few melancholic piano chords, and DMX intermittently appearing from the gloom. It’s all a bit lonesome but profound, especially with the far-off trumpet. And all too quickly over.
Ramah EP
Next, Rebus. He offers that he’s a “Beatmaker and musician based in Finland.” I don’t know if Rebus means anything in Finnish (Suomi) but in English, it means a puzzle (made up of letters, pictures, and symbols whose names sound like the syllables and words of a phrase or sentence). Anyhow, Sometimes After Dark is his new single.
The track rather avoids the blackness of the title. It focuses on warming and fireside charms. It mixes slow guitar with piano and flute. It’s all terribly cosy and snuggled down. It’s a wandering but reassuring track that is about the light that follows the dark more than it is about the darkness itself. The beats are hardly there but give the track an earthed and solid quality around which the other instruments can weave their patterns.
Rebus says, “Sometimes After Dark is much inspired of E. Hemingway’s book; A Farewell to Arms. In my dreams, this is a song of hope and freedom. I was trying to find peace and relaxing harmoný through this beat and now I feel very proud of it!” And so he should be. This is lovely relaxed and relaxing track in which to lose your cares and worries. And we all need a bit of that these days.
ACID TED 