::Budakid – Ringo Bingo::
The masterful Budakid is back on Exploited with two beautiful tracks.
A spellbinding, slow-burning slice of melodic-tinged house music, Ringo Bingo has shades of Todd Terje in its spacious arrangement, rolling groove and gorgeous riffage. An electro arpeggio percolates over the throbbing bass tones; heavily reverbed percussive hits create atmosphere; and nagging piano chords build a tense melodic backbone. The cute lead melody is at once euphoric and melancholy, and a stunning synth solo in the mid-section adds some dazzling freestyle energy that really opens the track.
Ringo Bingo is for me a travel between fusion, club and a glimpse of electronic jazz says the man behind the track. I n the break I asked an old friend of mine Rolf van de Sande, with whom I used to play in a band to come up with a jazzy and extraordinary solo. He totally nailed it. I wrote the arrangement in the end around the solo, and let the groove take over the focus at the climax to get more of a dance feel to it. This is one of the tracks that was a pain in the ass to finish and mix because it was full of harmonies and melodies. But I thought “If Snarky Puppy can do it, I can try to do it…”
Aku Aku goes deeper still, with lush strings decking out a light arrangement where shuffling percussion and dreamy, crystalline chime melodies flit across the surface. The chimes are seamlessly bolstered by live bass guitar, doubling the melody up a treat, with splashes of percussive texture here and there bringing a little extra spice. A few piano chords later on are all that are needed to complete this sublime track.
“Aku Aku” is more of a dubby groove based track where I tried to use only a few elements. A hallucinogenic melody that’s very repetitive, but easy on the ear due to its polyrhythm and harmony. Once a friend listened to it and said “Kevin, this sounds like an old 00’s game”. I totally agreed, so one of my favourite game characters was an inspiration for the name.