This is ostensibly a post in promotion of a hot new release. The record in question is from Berlin-via-Australia house veteran Jad & The (formerly of the problematic moniker Jad & The Ladyboy). It comes via reliable London wax purveyor SlothBoogie, and is, from top-to-bottom, a well-crafted collection of moody deep house fit for early summer sessions on the Spree.
But the track in question here, in particular, is the release’s A2 remix, courtesy of Istanbul’s Aleksandir. And if you don’t remember that name, now would be a good time to take note.
Operating within the somewhat niche, online-oriented sector of club music that we follow, Aleksandir has been releasing music for a few years, but really hit new heights in 2018 on the strength of his track “Yamaha”. Simply put: the thing was a straightaway hit. The Youtube page accrued 4 million hits, and, like Pepe Braddock’s “Deep Burnt” before it, the video is now integrated into your “Up Next” stream pretty much any time you click on any video related to modern dance music.
[soundcloud url=”https://soundcloud.com/boltingbits/jad-the-matano-trumpet-jam-aleksandir-remix” /]
That success has landed Aleksandir plays on BBC, and accrued him an online following that includes over 60,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Because you are probably friends with him on Facebook and have possibly talked with him a bit, you might be inclined to seeing his success as quaint or as just the well-deserved applause that can accompany a well-timed release (a fluke, really, you might tell yourself).
True, there is certainly a measure of fortune involved with achieving status in an industry as online-oriented as this one; in an industry where algorithms and playlist supervisors can lucrative booking schedules; in an industry where trends happen in a nanosecond, whereafter they are summarily critiqued, admonished, and meme’d.
But we should make no mistake: out of all the young producers cranking away on their laptops at 3am every night, from Tbilsi to Tokyo and back, Aleksandir might in time rise above the lot of them. He might just achieve a rare and indelible status in the world of so-called underground music: that of being remembered.
Dylan
