When Nora featured Chiminyo’s “See Me” back in November, I knew she’s onto something. Today, I get to share with you another beautiful composition from his 2020 nu jazz / jazztronica album I Am Panda.
As a drummer, as soon as I heard the snare, I know this will blow my mind. Then the beautifully thick kick and the crisp rim-shots painted the full picture of perfection. Anything in “Reachin” screams excellence and I have nothing, but utter respect for the North London-based drummer and producer.
Chiminyo is someone you need to experience live. He channels the raw, immediate live sound of percussion and the futuristic timbres of his electronic productions to create his own, daring sonic universe. This reminds me of Shigeto, but in a jazzier way.
He is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting and innovative artists in the space and his work has been praised by curators, radio stations (Worldwide FM and Jazzwise) and live events (Love Supreme Festival and London Jazz Festival). It’s quite interesting to watch him building his tracks. Using software, each of the cymbals and hits trigger different samples or synths. By controlling all of the loops, click and backing tracks, Chiminyo turns into a real life Shiva.
Watch the video. It’s mesmerizing.
About this song
“There is a trap with a project like this, one where the technology is so integral, that it becomes the primary focus. A kind of “look at me with all my fancy techniques” type thing. No-one likes to hear music where this is the focus so going in to this album I tried to pull the focus and really think about narrative and create worlds with each track. Drawing on influences like producers Flying Lotus, Mndsgn and Floating Points and how their sounds instantly put you in their realms. On musicians like Bill Evans and Baden Powell who can make you feel so much with a single chord and (although I’d never site it usually) even reaching to Debussy and Ravel for their ability to tell stories with their music.
I feel I achieved this with this album, although I’ve learnt so much, I know I’ll do it better next time. I would say I potentially disguised the technology too much and anyone listening will never know the level of coding that went into it, but I guess, no-one needs to hear that, and anyone who finds out can have that little extra experience with it all”, shared the artist.