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Hailing from Vienna, dZihan & Kamien’s debut Freaks & Icons demonstrates the duo’s talent for generating material that pieces together the Hip-Hop and Jazz components of European down-tempo with the varied percussion and strings of traditional middle-eastern music. Even with their outflow of repetitive song structure, dZihan and Kamien produce work that is richly organic and sparks interest from the opening. The dirt and crackle sounds of the down-tempo genre have been replaced with the keyboards of dZihan and the guitar of Kamien as well as skilled guest musicians, and filtered samples for an essential and resonant (dare I say) pop album. Each sound they incorporate is incredibly crisp and intricately orchestrated. From the treated vocal samples and the Latin floor-stompers "Dabudei" and "Just You & I", dZihan & Kamien select only the finest pop elements for the more club styled tracks while their use of Arabic strings, Hip-Hop, and live bass lines make for original and emotional material.
The grime and grit science of Hip-Hop breaks and vinyl samples is always lovely but the live feel of Freaks & Icons sounds remarkably refined and unique. "Smile" features an emotional vocal performance by Savka Jankovic, the bass line on "Where Are We?" is out of control and "Homebase" offers the warm comfort of home with dramatic piano and moody horns. Each of the thirteen tracks takes on a variety of emotions and explores sounds and instruments from all over the world and combines them with modern Trip-Hop, Dance and Funk. In addition to quality musicianship, Freaks & Icons flaunts the studio and programming skills that show great detail to every effect, synth-patch and dub style tricks that are mandatory for this eclectic style.
-Justin Hardison
Track Listing:
- After
- Dabudei
- Streets of Istanbul
- Before
- Homebase
- I Guess She…
- Slowhand Hussein
- Just You & I
- Colores
- Ocean Air
- Smile
- Where Are We?
- Spacewater
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dZihan & Kamien
