Track Of The Day HATIF
Born in 2020 in Stockholm, as a short distance collaboration (sharing ideas and files) of Markus Majdalani and Johan Eckerström, the Swedish electronic duo Hatif (Arabic for a voice that can be heard without one’s discovering the source) have just dropped their debut single “Pool”, soon also available on CD, the first taste from their forthcoming debut album via ScentAir Records.
Amidst nods to mid/late ’80s wistful and somber synthpop with modern technoid undercurrents, “Pool” is an intoxicating blend of seemingly cold Northern electronics with darkly turbulent low ends, soul-stirring bright synth, warm Middle-Eastern suggestions and steady punchy rhythms, laced with a strong, distinctively Scandinavian, melodic flair.
Poetic lyrics use metaphors of earthen decay and the changing of the seasons to evoke feelings of isolation, despair, and fear
Hypnotic, murky mechanical beats stir propulsive bubbling and undulating, acid-flecked, intermittently syncopated, bass lines surrounded by the sparkling airy winding eddies of arabesque synth chords and emotive strings, rambling with profound sorrowful intensity around nostalgic heartfelt male croons digging deep from an emotional well of melancholy and despair into a swirling intoxication of forlorn passion.
Heady and serpentine alchemy of modern electronic music, familiar ’80s heartfelt synthpop, and exotic atmospheres, the rhythmic patterns not enough crisp, energetic and industrialized, as the band would pretend, implement a devotional feel instead of a real dance-inducing punch, somehow following the relentlessly dark and cryptic lyric strains. A promising debut nevertheless.
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Photo by © Daniel Kwon
