Kowloon – The Sun

Spring 2022, you press play on your streaming platform and you start listening to The Sun from Kowloon… That same sun is shining outside and there is a cool but warmish breeze in the air, you breathe it in deeply and you realise, once again, life is beautiful. Simple things. So put your headphones on and fill your lungs!

According to his bio, Kowloon is a musician and filmmaker from Los Angeles whose real name is very protected as I’ve been spending the last three hours trying to find it without success. So I propose we stick to Kowloon, which is probably the will of the artist anyway.
Kowloon has a very specific universe and style musically, half groovy-funky-happy and half melancholic-nostalgic-sad. A bit like these sweet and sour Chinese dishes, or the hot and cold showers, or… ok you get it. The Sun, for instance, has a nice shiny xylophone fill at 2:46 and a sparkling synth solo at 3:04, however, Kowloon hides a depression and/or having-a-rough-time serious dark theme in the lyrics.

I’ve been feeling let down
but not by you
And I’ve been broken up
and torn in two
When I needed you
you had a hand for me
I hope that you know, darling
You’ve got my heart
lock and key

You are the sun
that shines so bright for me

The sound of synths from the 1980s, the 1970s disco bass line and guitar strums, and the laid back vocals, gives The Sun a vintage charming touch. We are just missing the bandana, the quad roller skates and the rubik’s cube. The same “back to the 80s” design can be found on the single cover.
Kowloon explained recently to the Luna Collective: “The world that we all grew up in is so far removed from the one we inhabit now — due to social media, the ubiquity of the internet, Amazon, etc., etc. In a way, I feel like we are all refugees from our own past and our own memories. I think that is part of the reason that art of late so often engages with cultural memory, nostalgia, retro-cool, and what have you.”

Retro or not, I find Kowloon and his work super cool. I was also surprised to find a reference to The Talking Heads, Peter Gabriel and Sly Stone in his bio. I’ve been reading lots of bios of indie artists lately and they rarely list artists from that era (60s/70s/80s). I believe I felt a tear on my cheek as I absolutely loooooove that period. So for the youngsters, here is a bit of homework:
– Listen to “Psycho Killer” from The Talking Heads. Yes, the French part too.
– Regarding Peter Gabriel, listen to “Sledgehammer” (with Tony Levin on the fretless bass and Manu Katché on the drums!)
– For Sly Stone, one of my favourite funk pioneers, what can I say? My phone ring was “If You Want Me to Stay” for years! By the way, listen to the bass on this track, you’ll definitely find similitudes with The Sun bass line.

Oh that was good… back to 2022 now. Put that chair in the sun, prepare that tea or coffee you like, get those sunglasses and headphones and “chillisten” to Kowloon…

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More information

🎧 Released in 2021.
🎧 More from Kowloon: https://spoti.fi/36hBDKr
❤ Follow Kowloon on https://www.instagram.com/officialkowloon

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📷 Background image: Photo by Ramiro Pianarosa (thank you!)
https://unsplash.com/photos/i3BhEENy0EA

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About headphonik

We are musicians and to help unknown or “less” known artists to promote their art, we became curators, so we curate and explore the web to find what’s really good and probably underrated in independent music.
Enjoy and take care.

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