D.K. Electronic & Dance 4 Artikel

Is another EP from D.K. about to land on Antinote while the first one has been announced only a month ago? Well, this looks very much like a series and – spoiler alert – Riding For A Fall EP is the second installment in a trilogy.
With a BPM crossing the 120 line on 2 out of 3 tracks, there’s little doubt that this second 12” is also meant to be played in a club environment. The 9:37 min long Voices sprawls over the whole A-side. Like many productions stamped “D.K.”, the structure is linear only in appearance: it winds up and down between fantasized exotic landscapes, digital plug-ins mimicking “far east” instruments that are barely recognizable. It gets even snakier with the Samurai Showdown-inspired Shoubuari (Battle): pixel swords brushing past our ears, martial drumming and menacing synths (D.K., were you the kind of kid who owned a Neo Geo?) - it’s pretty obvious that we’re in the world of SNK’s legendary fighting game.
Things calm down with Riding For A Fall: less button-mashing, more concentration as we’re witnessing the sacred martial art known as Street Fighter’s quarter circles… But enough with these video game metaphors! No need to be a pro-gamer to enjoy this piece of music. It’s sad & slow house music with a cinematographic quality – and, perhaps, the most moving moment in this series of 12”. To be continued…

Distant Images is D.K.’s fourth release on Antinote and we can say quite safely that Dang Khoa Chau fueled a few identifiable obsessions over the years – for those familiar with his work, it probably won’t feel like uncharted territory when they’ll hear a somehow well-known guitar in the background of the title-track.
.
What time spent collaborating with D.K. also showed us is how much his sound magnified itself and its textures sharpened for the past three years. We now know for sure that his music only seems versatile on the surface as Distant Images confirms that the Paris-based musician has been, in fact, digging deeper in the same direction; each new record working like a diaphragm, always more precisely adjusted to capture his inner vision. It feels, for instance, like D.K.’s music is constantly trying to reach a higher level of vanescence from one record to an other, a process which possibly accelerated after a visit from Suzanne Kraft – who he recorded an album with, earlier this year (coming out on Melody As Truth).

With Distant Images, D.K.’s sound also took a step further into reality – the most attentive ears will hear seagulls on Distant Images while rain is softly falling on Leaving – and slightly departed from the digital universes that his
previous records seemed to set in motion. From the most abstract songs – like the Steve Reich-ian Shaker Loops – to the most evocative ones, the five compositions on Distant Images are like stained glass, gently filtering natural light. It is therefore no coincidence if, of all the senses, the titles of the songs mostly refer to Sight: close your eyes while listening to the cinematographic Days Of Steam and visions of an industrious city might appearbefore you.

The beauty that emanates from Distant Images is of a diaphanous kind and the record a collection of kaleidoscopic moments.

4 tracks, 2 bangers: D.K. starts a new season in the Antinote league with a 12” 100% dedicated to the dancefloor. There’s a perfume of jungle (not the genre, the one from Donkey Kong Country, in case someone has still not made the connection between Nintendo’s #1 gorilla and the French producer) emanating from the whole record. The Parisian producer has also been taking a peep on some early 1990’s rave records (but who isn’t at the moment?), as demonstrated by the two first songs, Mystic Warrior and perhaps even more flagrantly Elements – with its emotional pads and sad mock Jon Hassel-like trumpets.
Worries In The Dance, and Earth People are more of a warm up business – so to speak, in the language of the club. D.K. takes a step back, BPM-wise, only to allow a deeper exploration of the surroundings – namely shamans with bamboo flutes circling around you, monks meditating under a cascade, others ringing a prayer bell – that have more to do with Age Of Empire or any 1990’s adventure game set in a fantasized Asia than anything that actually exists IRL (probably a distinctive signature of the French producer). Anyway, there’s a Bruce Lee sticker on the sleeve that says it all, in a much more concise way.

Music From Memory’s sister label Second Circle returns with their first release of 2018, this time with a 4 tracker EP from French producer and Antinote via Melody As Truth affiliate D.K. aka Dang Khoa Chau.
Titled ‘Mystery Dub’, this new record features two percussive house cuts on the A side with two more evocative compositions on the flip. Recorded in his studio in the 11th district of Paris, the release showcases a wide yet characteristic palette of sounds and textures the Parisian artist has been sharpening over the years: atmospheric/hypnotic strings, warm pads, dreamy landscapes and spacial rhythms.