Making music that not only borrows from your influences, but on first listen, can sound nearly identical to them, can be very dangerous. You stand to sound like an inferior copycat and risk being forgotten to the recesses of time. But as we know, every artist has direct influences and they need them on to keep creating music.
Zack Slavkin is a Colorado-based trip-hopper, producing hypnotic downtempo beats under the alias Kinack. Ondas, his debut LP, is an organically driven project, drawing inspiration from established downtempo/trip-hop acts.
Kinack is one talented artist. He cites his inspirations ranging from Emancipator, Quantic, Bonobo, Nujabes, Massive Attack, to Thievery Corporation and you can definitely hear some of them in his music. Yet the artist adds his unique style to make the perfect blend between inspiration and influence.
He has been growing and improving upon his natural flowing instrumental style. Featuring live instrumentation as well as sampling and MIDI, this young musician is sure to be noticed in the Trip-Hop, Chillout and Downtempo scene.
The sounds and textures employed on this album are warm, encompassed by floating string and great deployment of harpsichord, sitting on beats that flirt with complexity yet keeping it all calm and relaxing
The album:
Mossback:
While some sampling and instrumental performances can be heard on certain tracks in Ondas, in this particular song we can hear that the consistency of these instrumentals is generally lacking. Certain string sections, sound thin and computerized, making it clear that they were created with a synth. The piano, in some instances, sounds relatively flat and lifeless, which is a symptom of countless electronic piano patches.
Ondas
This song functions well as both background music and for dedicated listening sessions, just like the entire album. It’s difficult not to draw comparisons to other artists in this song… though at times he does a great job distancing himself from those same inspirations.
Solid and Organic Trip Hop.
7.5/10
Track Listing
1.Mossback
2.Nym
3.Idea for a Brand New World
4.Hard Travel
5.Pisa Cero
6.Ondas
7.All From Nowhere
8.Cliffhanger
9.The Tempest
10.Those That Were Made to be Broken
11.Free Dance
12.Downswing
13.Invierno
14.Stop Motion
Related Links:
Kinack on Bandcamp
Kinack on Facebook