Mengzy Selects - 018 / December

Welcome to ‘Mengzy Selects’, a monthly video column which features five recently released tracks by producers and labels in Asia and across the Asian diaspora. Your host is Mengzy: a Hong Kong-based DJ and producer, PhD in musicology, music journalist, and co-founder of Feed the Dragon.

To watch the video version of this month’s column, click here.

Elle Shimada’s remix of ‘Lucky’ by MadStarBase and Killa P came out this month on New Delhi’s boxout.fm Recordings. Updating the 2021 single, the Melbourne-based producer and violinist crafted a dancehall-into-drum ’n’ bass rework with marimba, vocals, and strings.

Listen to ‘Lucky’ (Elle Shimada Remix) here.

Transfiguring broken beat electro into dembow-inflected UK funky - that’s what TREKKIE TRAX co-founder andrew pulled off with his remix of ‘Plexus’ by NirBorna. One of nine tracks on the ‘Plexus’ remix EP, andrew’s stands out as the most melodic and rhythmically joyful.

Listen to ‘Plexus’ (andrew Remix) here.

Hong Kong-based Fauve Records celebrated its 6th anniversary last week by dropping ‘Make Dream House Great Again Vol.2’. ‘Cubic Zirconia’ by label head Romain FX is a peak-time throwback straddling trance and Italo while another favourite from the VA is Lone Saxon’s ‘Mio Tempo’.

Listen to ‘Cubic Zirconia’ (Piano Mix) here.

Yuhina’s stunning vocals and emotive soundscapes shine on ‘Brave’, the downtempo opener of her recent EP, ‘MNEMONIC’. The release is the Bangalore-based artist’s debut on Krunk Kulture and it’s a project that we hope gets a remix treatment in the near future.

Listen to ‘Brave’ here.

And to send you off into the new year with positive vibrations, our last December pick is Taro Nohara’s remix of ‘Beams Of Love’ by British new age duo Seahawks. It’s a beautiful ambient journey led by saxophone above shimmering chimes and cascading harmonics.

Listen to ‘Beams Of Love’ (Taro Nohara Remix) here.

Mengzy is Mixmag Asia’s Music Culture Columnist, follow her on Instagram.