I feel lucky today. After a few weeks of feeling like music was going nowhere, and nothing good had come out lately, today I stumbled across a French producer who goes by RIT. He is a 22 year old producer from the Paris suburbs, who, when I wrote him for a bio, was incredibly humble and sweet, and honestly didn’t have much to say about himself. He names his influences as v”arious ambient and garage”, and he just so happens to collaborate with some other artists whom I follow and think are wonderful (nExow, LuQus, Lunova Labs).
His new track with LuQus showed up in my Soundcloud feed today, and unknowingly, I clicked on a positively gorgeous track that they had just uploaded called “Through the Rain (ft. Bijou)” – which absolutely took my breath away. I tend to shy away from tracks that feature a vocalist (especially female), because I am not a huge fan of vocals in general in electronic music – but, if they are chopped up just right and edited perfectly, then can really make or break a track. In this case – RIT and LuQus’ phenomenal selection of vocals and lovely production just made this a hands-down hit. Bijou’s vocals are lovely, beautifully filtered and echoed to the point where they make you feel this distance, this longing for something or someone or some emotion that is unattainable. It makes you forget where you are. This is a song that’s able to draw deep emotions that were probably never even there before hearing it, now that is an accomplishment. THAT is deep.
These two very talented producers seem to gravitate toward slower, more emotional tracks that allow them to build layers upon layers of atmospheric ambiance, melded perfectly with smooth, slow basslines that serve as the track’s heartbeat which pulls the rest of the track’s languid and full body with them.
This track was the intro, and as a I delved deeper, they just got better. His “Zaika – Memories (remix)” pulled me in with its purposeful beat, and its organic breathiness and watery sounds, static record crackle – reminding me very much of the style some of my favorite producers such as Anthony Ellect. Not a bad thing at all – actually, as someone who’s love for music was born in the age of sampling from vinyl and making samples from real life, banging out beats on an MPC…I am so glad to see people bringing this human, analog element back into electronic music.
Superbly produced, with lovely vocal samples, so perfectly placed, made all of RIT’s work just a perfect soundtrack for my day. With only 6 tracks available for review on Soundcloud, his selection was simple and tight, with no filler, no experimentaion. I really can’t even choose a favorite. This is definitely someone to watch, and he did mention that he is currently working on an EP. So stay tuned – this young producer is destined to gain some ground quickly in the music community, and hopefully we will all be hot on his heels.
Marinate Media 