Dauwd Could It Be

I've got a real treat for you today. I feel like David Hilali might be one of the best discoveries I've made in a while. The two songs in this post have been up on SoundCloud for some time, but they've been labeled as "unfinished," so I wanted to give David a chance to polish them up a bit before I posted them. The finished product is great on both counts as David, or Dauwd as he calls himself, gives us a small taste of some unique production to come.

"Ikopol" is brilliant.  It's got a laid-back atmosphere, subtle build, proper sampling, and groove-inducing rhythm, which is pretty close to the exact formula that is increasingly making its way onto my favorites list lately. Dauwd's added some female vocals to the last quarter of the song since my first listen about a month ago. I think it's a great way to end the climactic element of the track with all of the individual layers coming together, or maybe I'm just a sucker for a catchy female vocal hook. Probably both. [Editor's note: Due to copyright issues, we've had to take down "Ikopol" from the site. The song featured in this post is Dauwd's "Could It Be."]

Dauwd's also managed to interpret James Blake's "Limit To Your Love." It's risky to transform such a beautiful song into a remix but Dauwd proves his worth by creating his own unique twist on the original track with enough attention to detail that the remix serves as a perfect complement to Blake's work.

I hope to see some buzz start circulating around these tracks because I think Dauwd has got a very bright future ahead of him if these are some of his first releases.

Album art image used under Creative Commons license from Flickr user visualpanic.