The Shakeup

If 2018’s THOUGHTFORM was a response to the challenge of reducing ‘whole’ samples within future funk and vaporwave music, then it made sense for the next album to try and push that concept further. University studies took over slightly in the years after THOUGHTFORM was released, and whilst I never stopped making random tracks on the side, most of them laid in private playlists on SoundCloud and didn’t get revisited much, if at all.

However, inspired by artists I was listening to at the time, I began to branch out of the ‘take a sample, add some house drums to it’ mindset, and began experimenting with different approaches to incorporating samples. This resulted in a mix of tracks on the final album, such as the hip-hop ‘Praise’, house-sounding, ‘Romare’-inspired ‘Empty Pocket’, upbeat dance track ‘Come Alive’, as well as a house remix of BUMBLEBEE from the THOUGHTFORM album, titled ‘Bumblebee (Remix)’, featuring an alternative take of the original bassline in a slap-bass style.

The artwork came from an exploration into the ‘Memphis’ style of the 80s, utilising bright colours, shapes and interlocking patterns.

Whilst signed to Japanese netlabel ‘Seikomart Japan’ and with a cassette planned for release, the COVID-19 lockdowns caused this to never materialise, and the album release was dampened slightly as a result. However, it still remains a favourite of mine, and - at least to me - was the furthest I could push the sample-based ‘ookiiani sound’, without it being too derivative of the original samples.