You could easily call both of these artists godfathers of the modern lo-fi hip-hop movement. Both have been producing instrumental beats for decades at this point. Over the years, Fat Jon and Kabuki have refined their craft following the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, which is about seeking continual improvement and eliminating defects and can be attributed to both arts and crafts.

These two production wizards got to know each other many years ago, when Fat Jon moved from his native Cincinatti, Ohio, to Germany in the early noughties. He has released his first instrumental album more than 20 years ago, as a side project to his work with the rap group Five Deez. Since then, he’s been staying active releasing many solo albums and collaborative works, most recently his newest instrumental album »Plaything: Cipher« (2022), and currently resides in the Frankfurt area.

Kabuki, on the other hand, is an artist, producer and modular synth wiz from Frankfurt with deep roots in the international electronic music scene. In the past decade, he’s been moving effortlessly between instrumental hip-hop, sound system infused beats, ambient jazz and electro-acoustic composition. His solo albums »Meditations« (2014) and »The Crucible« (2021) show his dedication to an update of the classic boom-bap formula he learned from the »holy trinity«: Pete Rock, DJ Premier and J Dilla.

The two veterans had been wanting to team up for a joint release for some time – but as the proverb says, good things often come a long way. The four tracks that constitute their first collaborative EP »Healing Through Sound« are »like secret ninja techniques, but for beats«, Fat Jon states with a smirk. »The tracks are named after ‚healing techniques’ we use by channeling different types of elements, energies and forces such as clouds, dreams, light and gravity.«

A creative way to express musical ideas in this project, each song represents a different type of remedy. The concept of healing through sound and music is something that is well alive in many spiritual traditions. Even if we might not necessarily understand all the science behind it, we have probably all experienced the healing power of music in our life.

The tracks on »Healing Through Sound« combine Kabuki’s knack for thick synth bass lines with Jon’s ear for floating textures and melody lines. Both producers have contributed drum programming and samples but it’s the special way that they make analogue instruments work in harmony with synthesizer sounds, even on the same track. Dreamy melodies float over fat boom-bap drum tracks, driven by saturated bass lines and peppered with interesting harmonic ideas.

This is clearly not »lo-fi« hip-hop, as every single element is carefully chosen and then engineered to maximum impact. This is mindful headphone music for lonely city dwellers and solo train trips to the countryside, hiking your way back into reality.

Words: Stephan Kunze