"Sometimes I feel like my main “koan” or paradox with music is the fact that I am goal oriented and project oriented - but still have to completely separate myself from that while I create. It is a challenge I have had for years and is something I constantly have to practice." In Zen Buddhism, the term koan denotes an enigmatic riddle, story or saying used to challenge the thinking and faith of students. Used primarily during meditation exercises, koans are used to provoke self-growth and a deeper understanding of the world's universal truths. For Burlington-based producer Es-K, these paradoxical…
All posts in “2018”
Ask any Millennial or post-Millennial and they'll tell you: going to college and university no longer guarantees success. Chillhop producer and visual artist RudeManners — born Dalton Mannerud — had exactly that experience. He pulls no punches about his disillusionment with higher education: "I personally hated college." A multimedia artist since childhood, he found that the coursework and dull rigour of academic life stifled his creativity — both as a producer and as a visual artist. Feeling cut off from his creative outlets took a personal toll on him and when a family emergency came up, he knew the time was right. He…
Devaloop keeps a low profile. The industrious Austrian beatmaker — born Fabian Pfitzer in Salzburg — eschews most social media; besides his Soundcloud, Devaloop maintains only a bare-bones Instagram page and a small Facebook page. This may not appear noteworthy at first glance, but it is. As the beat community has expanded online and gained increasing attention, many producers have become just as extraverted on social media as rappers and singers — two groups that have always tended to be heavy self-promoters. An extensive social media presence for producers is now no longer an exception; it's essentially the norm. But Devaloop would rather…
Irish chill-hop producer ᴄʙᴀᴋʟ has been on our radar for some time now. In the past year, his profile has risen significantly due to his frequent collaborations with UK underground artists and producers, as well as his soulful beat tape “Hopeless”, which he dropped via Exhume Music. He’s also been featured on our latest Spotify playlist. He’s currently living in Leicester studying music technology, and working on a slew of new releases for the coming year. ᴄʙᴀᴋʟ caught up with us recently to break down his latest single “Tighten Up”, his production techniques, and his new projects for…