By Sean O | December 26th, 2012
By now you may have heard of Samir Alikhanizadeh, aka Happa. He’s a 15-year old house/techno producer based in Leeds, UK. I wrote back in July that Happa had “an unprecedented knack (in my humble opinion) for turning sparse, sprawling beats in to something much more. Kudos to him for shining a funky light on some of the dark crevices of the future garage and techno caverns.”
After listening to “Freak” several times, I stand behind what I said about the young beatmaker. Happa’s approach reminds me slightly of what Jamie xx delivers with his DJ sets — minimal, dry house. Jamie usually includes some tropical cuts, which is not what Happa’s known to deliver. I can just sense his influence there. Then again, who isn’t Jamie xx influencing these days?
Happa’s tracks sometimes disappear off SoundCloud, so I’d enjoy this one while you can.