Rad Obagam
The world might not end in 2012, but Gilles Peterson’s stint on BBC Radio 1 will. And my world, and hundreds of thousands of other faithful listeners will be a slightly worse place for it. Because without Gilles we might never discover people like Rad Obagam--which would suck.
Rad Obagam is a producer from L.A., and boy is he a producer from L.A. He learnt his trade from one of the city’s underground legends, Daddy Kev, and while Rad Obagam might not be directly affiliated with the Low End Theory or Brainfeeder scenes, he shares their vision of good beats, a mash-up of styles and a innate desire to do things differently.
According to the man himself, the EP is about freedom. His freedom to concentrate on music after an aborted 9-5 existence, his freedom to make music irrespective of trend or genre and the freedom that we experience when listening to it. Well, it works on all three counts. “Twisted” comes as hard (if nowhere near as frenetic) as anything that Flying Lotus or Gaslight Killer have done, while “Chew Your Food” has a lightness of touch and a spring in its step that’ll get heads bobbing in delight. Rad Obagam EP pulls in a myriad of directions, mixing moods as fluently as it does styles. Sometimes it’s thoughtful and poignant, sometimes it bumps hard, almost all of the time it’s very good indeed.
However, Rad Obagam isn’t there quite yet – a couple of the tracks could be a bit tighter and a little more focused but all in all it’s a highly promising debut. As this EP is due to be followed by a couple more, and full length LP, later in the year, I suggest you hit up his Bandcamp to get acquainted with someone who’s most definitely one to watch in 2012.
-Will Georgie
