D33J

Balenciaga Beats

D33J’s music has always been good, but he only recently settled into his own after putting out EP’s in 2013 that were solid but not always distinguishable from a lot of the sample-heavy, lo fi music a lot of electronic artists were putting out at the time that all seemed to be influenced by the chillwave boom/80sish resurgence that bedroom producers put out in the late aughts and around 2010 and 2011. 

I felt like D33J found his voice on his 2017 album, Death Valley Oasis, which is mostly instrumental with some vocal features from people like Corbin, a 22 singer-songwriter whose music skews towards R&B and emo. More importantly, he used to go by Spooky Black when he was 16. He used to awkwardly wear du rags as a white guy from Minnesota, which is a rabbit hole that’s well worth your time. Death Valley Oasis though seems more focused and consistent throughout. Parts of it feel like he’s laying down the atmospheric emotional guitar-laden stuff that people like Mura Masa just put out this year, which seems to be coming into vogue now.

He’s a member of the WeDidIt Collective that includes a bunch of other good artists like Shlohmo, Swan Lingo and Deb Never, who are all very good too. 

Here’s a couple of my favorite D33J albums, EP’s and mixes with minimal vocals. 

2012 Boiler Room Set in LA - 45 minutes, YouTube

Death Valley Oasis - 38 minutes Spotify | Apple | Bandcamp

1752A - 23 minutes Bandcamp

Tide Songs - 26 minutes Spotify | Apple | Bandcamp

Diplo and Friends Mix - 34 minutes Soundcloud