Features
Mengzy Selects - 021 / March
Mixmag Asia's bass purveyor Mengzy shares her musical discoveries from around the region
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.
Pallaví aka Fijiana & MadStarBase ‘Sanskari Hoe’ (Mutable Mercury Remix)
Three years on from its 2021 release, ‘Sanskari Hoe’ by Pallaví aka Fijiana and MadStarBase has been revived, courtesy of Mutable Mercury. The New Delhi-based producer has flipped the Hindi-English rap about female sexual empowerment into a percussive 140 bop.
Listen to ‘Sanskari Hoe’ (Mutable Mercury Remix) here.
Yung.Raj ‘Onyx’
Yung.Raj dropped his first release of the year on March 1 in the form of ‘Onyx’ and if it’s any indication of what’s to come, 2024 is going to be huge for the young producer. The track builds up from a hypnotic vocal chop into an ethereal melodic climax with driving bass and crisp drums along the way.
Listen to ‘Onyx’ here.
Roska / ONJUICY ‘TYO LDN BROS’
Following 2020’s ‘Get That Juice’, Roska and ONJUICY are back this year with a bigger and badder collab. Judging from the heat on their new three-track EP, the chemistry between the UK funky don and the Japanese MC was just right, in particular on the title track, ‘TYO LDN BROS’.
Listen to ‘TYO LDN BROS’ here.
Cakrawala ‘Api Kecak’
Jakarta-based label Future10 dropped Vol. 2 of their eponymous VA series and it’s all killer, no filler. It was tough to pick a favourite, but we had to settle on the transcendent breakbeats of ‘Api Kecak’ by Cakrawala (Hogi Wirjono) - with the dark Italo psychedelia of ‘Elastico’ by Bernardus Fritz coming in close second.
Listen to ‘Api Kecak’ here.
Cyda ‘Fortunella’
Dischi Vol. 1 sees Cyda debut on Berlin-based label Dischi Autunno, sharing an EP with Brazilian producer Neurotiker, with each artist contributing two tracks. Progressive banger ‘Fortunella’ features a cheeky sample noughties kids will recognise and has already received support from the likes of Perel at Sónar Lisboa.
Listen to ‘Fortunella’ here.
Want to be featured on ‘Mengzy Selects?’ Email promos to [email protected].
Mengzy is Mixmag Asia’s Music Culture Columnist, follow her on Instagram.
