Nana’s Sunday Jams: Existential Bread - Yung.Raj

Published on 2020-10-04 00:00:00 by Nana Fani-Kayode

Banner a_rtwork by the majestic Trav, all of Nanas jams are gathered in_ this playlist.Yes Yes Sunday Jammers. Welcome, welcome, welcome. Hope you are well, hope the surreal life hasn’t turned too many things upside down, most of all hope the tunes are helping to keep you steady and maintain some kind of balance.So, this is the last of the label walk around but will return to it in the New Year with a new theme. This week’s choice is a bit of a cheat, but I have so much love for what this outfit is doing makes it worth mentioning twice – full disclosure it might happen again.It’s a rewind to the label of last week’s offering: 4NCY. The artist is Yung.Raj, his arsenal includes Beatboxing, Production and Beatmaking. He hails from Hyderabad in India and is a recognisable, well respected talent with a solid collection of work under his belt and a clear sense of his artistic sensibilities. He combines a love of sonic abstract tinkering with melody making and beats to make you move.Last week I talked a little about the impetus behind the label, this week I am thinking about its objective; to create a platform and networking forum for underground global artists. This chimes so heavily with me as a lover of music from so many genres, spaces and places. I am always excited to engage with any outfit, artist or movement that embraces outwards rather than remaining insular, even more so is actively committed to promoting artists from around the world and not using lazy, singular terms to categorise them. What labels like 4NCY prove is the universal nature of music as a connector, its ability to travel and bring people together creating communality but still allowing room for culture and experience to make an imprint. Musical forms such as Hip Hop, Electro, Drum n Bass, Dubstep etc have made the world smaller benefitting from the use of technology and social media to send them hurtling round the world highlighting what connects us rather than the superficial things that seem to divide us. The sweet centre at the heart of a well curated, forward thinking label.So, I offer you the EP Knoxxville which dropped in August, the track for our Sunday Jam is ‘Existential Bread’, a tingle inducing, sharp and melodic slice from an album couched in beats and abstract whimsy. This is one of those tracks I would sneak off into a corner to listen to without interruption. It combines so many of my loves; cool trip hop, weighted percussive drumbeats that could be traced to the door of drum n bass/jungle, then comes this almost acid jazz melody, slipping over the top. It takes me to a familiar place but is by no means predictable or over referential, just adds new colours onto the spectral wave.I nominate Yung.Raj as my fantasy DJ to play my post pandemic party, not a post lockdown party, the big one, the one that shouts ‘Apocalypse over, you may hug, kiss, shout loudly into each-others ears over heavy basslines and wile the hell out’. He would have free range to disrupt sonic boundaries, lay down beats and push the bass. Happy Sunday, Jammers.