First Look Friday: DB2 - 'Tears.Signal.Flow Vol 1' EP
Its Friday again folks. Which means aside from being 8 hours aways from drowning your week away in a tall glass of whiskey, we get to bring y'all some of the most compelling young guns on our radar. Today's First Look Friday features the dynamic talents of DB2; a recent graduate of the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at NYU who does just about everything under the sun when it comes this here music thing. On his debut solo EP Tears.Signal.Flow Vol. 1, DB2 (Daniel Bazan, Jr) can be found singing, producing, arranging, mixing, and even mastering on an impressive freshman release.
Thus far, Daniel's known for his collaborations with Najee The 1 on last year's Settle For Greatness EP, where Daniel strutted his production chops on the bulk of the tracks. On how the two met (and Okayplayer's inadvertent role), Daniel explained:
"At the time, Najee was looking for a great producer, and I was looking for a hip hop artist to produce, and believe it or not, the three of us (their shared manager Marat Berenstein) met for the first time at the Okayplayer office in Brooklyn. I played Najee some of my music and we started exchanging ideas for beats, songs, and hooks, which all ultimately led to Najee and I collaborating on his album called Settle For Greatness."
His left-of-center brand of R&B is drenched in formidable hooks, deep harmonies and incredibly sound drum work on his production chops. The stand-outs from the effort include the synth and trap-drum laden instrumental "Made For This," a head-bopper that'll give your neck some work and "Games", a sweet, Neptunes-esque groove that bears all the hallmarks of this young producer's repertoire. After a vouch on Solange's Saint Heron blog and dropping an ethereal new single with "Unconditionally (Reimagined)," DB2 seems to have people talking on all ends of things. So what's next for the young quintuple-threat? We had the opportunity to ask the man himself:
"2014 will be the year when I will execute my ideas. More music, better shows. I started off as a church piano player who later got interested and majored in jazz, who then decided to make hip hop beats, while also learning how to be a sound engineer. Now, I'm fortunate enough, to work with producers and collaborators like Felix Snow, Gnyus and Den-Z, and collaborate with the likes of Kiah Victoria and Najee The 1. 2014 will be my year.
DB2 will be performing in NYC over the next few months. You can catch his solo set at Ella Lounge this Saturday the 14th or watch him throw down with the band on January 30th at Piano's. Its a promising start for the young gun and we can't wait to get our ears on some more from him. You can listen to "Unconditionally (Reimagined)" below as well as the Tears.Signal.Flow Vol. 1 EP. Don't sleep, cop it via iTunes today.
Daniel Bazán, Jr. - Unconditionally 2.0 from Daniel Bazán, Jr. on Vimeo.
