One of the great things about running a site like Joyzine is that you never quite know what weird and wonderful sounds await every time you log in to your inbox. Ok, there’s always a fair helping of blokes with guitars who sound a bit like Oasis, pantomime metallers and incessant dance tracks whose sound is akin to what I assume suffering a migraine is like, but every now and again something comes through that opens a musical window that was previously closed to you, and Oan Kim‘s ‘Mambo’ fits firmly into the latter camp.
The new single from the French photographer, documentary filmmaker and saxophonist is a heady melange of classic jazz and latin with a touch of the wonky atmospherics of Tom Waits and some uncanny wooshing sounds buried beneath the more traditional instrumentation. Musically it draws on both his studies at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and the Bill Evans Piano Academy and his fascination with contemporary music and the indie scene in which he played with electro-rock duo Chinese Army and rock band Film Noir. After a slinky, low-key introduction, ‘Mambo’ really blooms into life once the dramatic vocals and gentle hi-hat join the party, before snaking its way off again on a weaving trail of woodwind.
It comes accompanied by a mesmerising contemporary dance video, directed by Kim, which sees a couple sizing one another up as they tussle and intwine on the streets. He explains he wanted the video to show ‘where a couple is gaging each other, getting closer, pushing back, pulling closer, embracing, controlling the other, or falling into each other’s arms’, whilst also keeping the urban settings of dance similar to in the film Pina by Wim Wenders.
We’re delighted to bring you the first chance to see it here on Joyzine today.
‘Mambo’ is taken from the upcoming album Oan Kim & The Dirty Jazz.
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Introduction by Paul Maps
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