After a string of successful releases kick started in 2015 with a solo release from Kirik, vinyl only imprint Curtea Veche celebrate their 8th release with a selection of sounds from one of Bucharest’s many talented producers – Guy From Downstairs.
Guy From Downstairs musical career started many moons ago, and to date the Romanian composer has released on a number of renouned labels, including Dilated Records, Tzinah and Phil Weeks imprint Robsoul, as well as his GFD imprint which launched in 2016.
Back in March this year, I was introduced to Victor (Guy From Downstairs) when visiting the city of Bucharest. Our mutual friend Direkt introduced us as we went over to Victor’s place to hang out and play with some hardware before heading over to Guesthouse to see Vincentulian and Molly take to the turntables.
His cosy home studio contained a lot of Hip Hop memorabilia and records, as well as various synthesisers which surrounded the big desk in the centre of the room. Hip Hop is something that has played a big part in Victor’s story, and if you scan his Soundcloud profile you will be able to find some recorded Hip Hop sets that he has played in recent years.
As far as this release goes, both parties have lived up to their high standards. GFD has delivered another sublime release, which also includes a remix from Herck, a close friend of the label who’s 2-Part release ‘Sonetul Noptilor Fecunde’ dropped on Curtea Veche last year, and of course, the brains behind the label have brought it all together and provided us with another outstanding release, sure to be a timeless classic.
We have selected the title track entitled ‘Rodul’ to be premiered here at Trommel. Opening with some glitchy sounds accompanied by some hats, the main body of the track starts to form over the first 2 minutes of the production. A combination of percussive sounds that bounce around the track give more movement.
A sequence of notes from a synthesizer come into play and are a perfect match for the vocal that peers it’s head shortly after. The spoken word vocal is from Guy From Downstairs’ archive, and is a Japenese story telling that fits perfectly with the other elements of the production. Further down the line more sounds are introuced and add some different vibes to the track, allowing it to evolve even more so.
We are super excited to hear this do the rounds at parties across the world. The release has already recieved support from Petre Inspirescu, Priku, Livio & Roby and Floog, as well as many other artists at SW23 earlier this year.
Curtea Veche:
Facebook / Soundcloud / Discogs
Guy From Downstairs:
Facebook / Soundcloud / RA / Discogs
