Lo-Fi Sundays 043 - Solrakmi
Solrakmi consistently cranks out boom bap style trip-hop and jazz knocks. The producer will dabble in stripped-down, four-bar lo-fi formats although he sounds more at home getting down and layering effects on a wild set of hi-fi samples. Solrakmi appears at first enigmatic online, that is to say Solrakmi aka Karlos Henriques lets his music does all the talking. He doesn't appear to collaborate with other producers, although he did start a promotional channel Chill Select, and resides in Banbury in the United Kingdom.
Very recently Solrakmi's tracks have appeared on Combustion from an outfit called Retro Jungle, and Solstice from Dust Collectors. In each case, you can spot the Solrakmi songs among the bunch if you listen for the big, blustering, highly-compressed boom-bap drums. His color-saturated samples are recognizable, too, but Solrakmi's real calling card is his love of the low-frequency oscillator or LFO, which he applies masterfully (hear the wobble in the sample at the end of "We Got This", or "Just Enough".
There's a vital essence in Solrakmi's music that's instantly apparent. Most if not all his cuts project it. His chops are truly top notch, and the breadth of his sampling - he'll pull from anywhere - is exceptional. It's not his technicality or beatmaking prowess that captivates most, though. It's the strange alignment of samples that sends a quick chill down your spine, or makes you turn your eyes to the sky in perplexed gratitude. Karlos Henriques, the man behind the Solrakmi project, appears to be a humble yet talented man who does it all for the love of beats.