Le Domestiques - Cooking up delights

Le Domestique - Irrelevant Answer & One Minute Muffin
both from the EP Jewish Delights on ??? (200?)

Le Domestique is Dori Adar from Tel Aviv, Israel. That's him on the left up above and on the right is this great tree sculpture thing I saw when I was Tel Aviv on a completely non-Le Domestique related quest. There is a lot of violent and angry things going on over there currently, but sadly that's not new news. I hope Mr. Adar is okay. I got hooked into this EP because a dear friend was a participant at the Red Bull Music Academy with Le Domestique. It seems like a crazy amount of talent flowed through there so for the beat makers out there reading this it would be worth your while to give it a look.

Anyways, Le Domestique has done some production work and guitar playing for different bands, and this is his first (I believe, very little web presence) solo joint where he's doing the writing and producing. It is a little haphapazard overall, and split about half and half for purely instrumental hip hop/downtempo (like the two songs featured here) and similar but less complex beats with female vocals. Despite the unevenness there is a lot of promise and I've been enjoying these tracks immensely.

The first "Irrelevant Answer" reminds me a bunch of Blockhead (NOTE: I would consider this a great compliment) with his solid sense of melody, the big pulsing beat, and especially the cheerleader style chant. It's fun and childhood nostalgia inducing while still being a compelling rhythmic listen. Next is "One Minute Muffin," which slows the beat down considerably and delicately places some piano scales and guitar strums to give a languid summery day feel. The strings and flute at the midpoint really strengthen the track and give it a foreign (to American ears) feeling that provides a nice personal feel. I love this beathead, downtempo stuff, but it is extremely difficult to do well and very easy to do poorly.