Dustee & DSmall honour Vietnam's indie idol Hải Bột with remix of ‘Ong Troi Co Don’
Dusted Recordings continues to nurture the local club scene with crossover sounds
One of the main reasons we set our eyes and ears on Dustee and his Dusted Recordings imprint back in 2020 was because of his ability to bridge western roots of club music with a novel process of tastemaking with Vietnam’s local audiences.
Considered the godfather of the local club scene, Dustee is enamoured by not only young DJs and producers, but also Vietnam’s musical elite including the rock and pop stars of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. One of those is Hải Bột — he is probably Vietnam’s most popular and revered indie-rock artist, and just happens to also be a close friend of Dustee.
Hải Bột’s "Ong Troi Co Don" was a hit song about deep love and loneliness, from a decade ago. Till today, Vietnamese fans will speak in a whispery voice and Hải Bột had also gone on hiatus for a good ten years after that, with only a feature performance on the BBC — check it out here.
"Hải Bột and I have been close friends for many years”, Dustee tells us, “and we share similar tastes in music. Before Hải Bột went on hiatus, he had handed me all of the acapellas of the whole album ‘Duong Ve’, so I could use them as material for my future music productions. But it wasn't until recently that DSmall and I found the inspiration and the right sounds to remix the song ‘Ong Troi Co Don’. Hải Bột has always trusted my ears for music and he truly enjoyed all the versions of the remix from the draft to the final. So, he agreed to let Dusted Recordings release the remix of his original hit ‘Ong Troi Co Don’. It’s a really big deal for us, his fans and for him!"
Essentially, the result is an indie-folk vibe riding off a chunky tech house groove — it fits the current formula for local ears, and now that clubs are back up and running (and borders will soon open for tourism) and it’s got us wondering where Dustee and co will be taking the local scene next.
Hải Bột ‘Ong Troi Co Don’ (Dustee & DSmall Remix) is out now on Dusteed Recordings. Have a listen below and buy your copy here.
