NEW MUSIC | DAVID D’ANGELO & MAYDAY DEBUT HYPNOTIC “PRICELESS COMMODITY”

While many up-and-comers look at the world like it’s their play­ground, Dav­id D’An­gelo sees it for the para­dise it is, and you can hear that. The San Fran­cisco based pro­du­cer and multi-instru­ment­al­ist lays down hyp­not­ic, elec­tron­ic sound­scapes that trans­port the listen­er — and people are pay­ing ser­i­ous atten­tion right out of the gate. His debut EP Born in Para­dise – which lead­ing New Zea­l­and pub­lic­a­tion NZ Musi­cian called “a sur­pris­ing, well-con­struc­ted groovy set of tracks” — shot up the North Amer­ic­an Col­lege & Com­munity Radio Elec­tron­ic and Top 200 Charts, tak­ing the #4 spot in Elec­tron­ic. He’s opened for major Elec­tron­ic and Jazz artists such as FKJ and Grammy-nom­in­ated Chris­ti­an Scott among oth­er not­able tal­ents, hop­ping between packed clubs in New Orleans while still in col­lege, and major fest­ivals down in New Zea­l­and. The seeds for that kind of ver­sat­il­ity as a musi­cian just might have been planted at a very young age. His upbring­ing saw him exposed to a range of genres in the home: clas­sic­al music from his moth­er and tra­di­tion­al Per­uvi­an styl­ings from his fath­er. He’s grabbed from his bag of g‑funk-inspired hip-hop pro­duc­tion, smooth neo-soul piano, funky synths, and plucked out a dark, low-end groove for Durham, NC rap­per May­day on their col­lab “Price­less Com­mod­ity.”

The first single off of Dav­id D’Angelo’s upcom­ing EP In My Own World is a right­eous, omin­ous know­ledge drop, a warn­ing to all that we’re stabbing the Earth in the back. With a barely-restrained intens­ity just this side of crazy, May­day weaves words liken­ing the Earth’s rap­idly-dwind­ling resources to an MC’s ideas run­ning dry: once it’s done, it’s done. D’Angelo switches between dense, spacey synths and plink­ing, tip-toe piano, son­ic­ally hint­ing at a not-so-wel­com­ing future on the hori­zon. May­day drops triplets over a slow and steady kick/snare, one minute ref­er­en­cing Rick & Morty, the next get­ting dead ser­i­ous and lyr­ic­ally on his game:

These fossils we fuel­ing might have us all crash­ing
Shock­ing, we cling to some­thing, that just seems so stat­ic
Man-made mon­sters, creatures of habit
Smoke in the air, why am I gasp­ing

“Price­less Com­mod­ity” is 2020’s slow-burn banger anthem about sac­ri­fi­cing one kind of green for anoth­er, and it’s arriv­ing just in time. Water scarcity is a major glob­al issue and to help address that, 25% of all pro­ceeds from “Price­less Com­mod­ity” in the first year will be donated to Grav­ity Water, an ini­ti­at­ive provid­ing inter­na­tion­al com­munit­ies with rain­wa­ter fil­tra­tion sys­tems.

It only makes sense that the pair are releas­ing the video for “Price­less Com­mod­ity” on Earth Day. This is the year to do it, as most of us will be sep­ar­ated from nature, and might feel the mes­sage more deeply than ever. May­day stalks the woods solo, like a Big Cat lay­ing claim to his ter­rit­ory, tak­ing humanity’s con­stant dis­respect toward his Moth­er Nature per­son­ally. Fig­ures in the now all-too-famil­i­ar masks dance under a blind­ing Sun out in the desert and the hills above LA. They swing jugs of water, look­ing to the sky, exhort­ing the Heav­ens. Dir­ec­ted by D’An­gelo & Shay Sti­fel­man, who also filmed and edited the clip, “Price­less Com­mod­ity” invites us all to take a look at the World and inside ourselves, and ask which side we want to be on. And an invit­a­tion this hooky is impossible to refuse.

More Dav­id D’An­gelo online
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Rishma Dhaliwal

Edit­or / PR Con­sult­ant at No Bounds

Rishma Dhali­w­al has extens­ive exper­i­ence study­ing and work­ing in the music and media industry. Hav­ing writ­ten a thes­is on how Hip Hop acts as a social move­ment, she has spent years research­ing and con­nect­ing with artists who use the art form as a tool for bring­ing a voice to the voice­less. Cur­rently work­ing in TV, Rishma brings her PR and media know­ledge to I am Hip Hop and oth­er pro­jects by No Bounds.

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