In 2019, the underground is taking over in full force. The most recent attention has been shifted to FLY and HMU who are both artists well worth getting familiar with. Los Angeles representative FLY is certainly causing a ruckus with his latest release ‘Pavilion‘ which had a place on Sounds From Below Vol 5, as well as his recent collab ‘Splitter‘ with Toadface. Consistently adding to his catalog, he has released a total of six tracks this year with many more on the way.
HMU is a Chicago raised artist now based out of Los Angeles and is known for running the successful collective Don’t Die At Work where he blends his eye pleasing graphic design work with ear pleasing production. The collective has provided a community for boundary breaking artists such as Adiidas, thook and yojas. In his latest effort, he has teamed up with FLY for ‘Icaro’. With this release they continue to prove why they are worthy of having their music played out on only the best of speaker systems and why artists need to have their tracks in their festival sets and playlists.
Listening to ‘Icaro’ on a poor speaker system is like watching a 3D movie without the glasses. It is absolutely necessary to give all frequencies presented a maximum volume level. In today’s times the word “icaro” is commonly used to describe medicine songs performed in vegetal ceremonies to induce a profound state of healing, awareness, or amazement. These feelings are also portrayed in this track, with the intro creating an ominous feeling of comfort and a slight sense of tension. It slowly builds with tribal like drums before the subtle amount of silence opens doors to a field of percussion. The bass tones are thick and bounce around freely, avoiding an interference with other sounds sampled. In the second drop, there is an emphasis on sound structure and using minimal layers to create the heaviest impact. From beginning to end ‘Icaro’ is a masterpiece that will shed proper light on these artists and help catapult them into well deserved positions among the forward thinking bass community. Grab the free download here and listen below.
