The second dawn city completed by Fukuo, [Mild Dawn City Vol. 2]

/ Kim Bong-hyeon (hip-hop journalist)

Hookuo is an artist currently affiliated with 8Balltown. He is actively working as a session for his own albums as well as the works of his fellow artists. I enjoy listening to Fukuoka's music. Fukuo always embodies the sensibility I want with a full sound. My favorites these days are 'I had to do it then' and 'Why'.

Apart from 8 Ball Town's activities, Fukuo released a beat tape. [Mild Dawn City] was a beat tape that portrayed the dawn of the city with sound. This piece was both Lo-Fi hip-hop and a beatmaker's tape, and it was an album based on heavy sampling, but with real performances everywhere. And now, about a year later, Fukuo is back with a sequel to the series.

[Mild Dawn City Vol. 2] is literally the second beat tape in the series following [Mild Dawn City]. This time, a total of 16 tracks were prepared. First of all, it is the same as the previous work in that it depicts the dawn of the city with sound. In addition, the use of the Roland SP-404 machine in his own way to obtain the exact texture he wanted can be seen as an extension of the previous work.

[Mild Dawn City Vol. 2] is that the proportion and operation of the vocal samples stand out a little more. After pressing play, you can find tracks with vocal samples flowing one after another, such as 'iWnaLUVu' and 'nevercan', 'J1ve' and 'woo wha'. 'ThazEnough4Me' should not be left out. This track, a recreation of Patti Austin's 'That's Enough For Me', is definitely fun to listen to and compare to the original.

In fact, whether it's vocal sampling or chipmunk soul, various approaches are possible for tracks recreated using the vocal parts of old music. You can also talk about the style of each beatmaker in the beat scene, and if you look at it from the point of view of mainstream hip-hop, you will have to go back to the production of Kanye West or even Rza.

Let's see 'ThazEnough4Me' again. Fukuo samples the chorus vocal part of the original song, but in his track, he does not use this part as the chorus or the center of the song. Instead, it gives a new life by giving the song opening and closing roles. In addition, the three-dimensional effect was also created by layering the samples. It can be seen as Fukuoka's original method.

Also interesting is 'iWnaLUVu', which brought the hit song 'I Wanna Love You' by Jade, an R&B (+ New Jack Swing) group that was active in the early and mid-90s. I borrowed only Jade's voice and put on a new sound to make it a completely different song. As mentioned earlier, 'I Wanna Love You' is a modern R&B and hit song that was released after the 90s, so there are many people who like hip-hop at the same time. And to them, this song is imprinted in its entirety (unlike the soul of the 70s and 80s, which were not encountered at the same time). In this context, 'iWnaLUVu' brings a unique pleasure. “I know that song too well. But you changed it like this?”

The producer of this album told me that this album is more mellow than the previous one. I think I understand what it means, but on the other hand, I also think about whether it is a work that can be defined that way. [Mild Dawn City Vol. 2] will remain in my mind as a slightly different work. In my case, it was because listening to this piece reminded me of 9th Wonder in the early days of Little Brother (which probably wasn't Fukuo's intention).

As in the previous work, it is up to each person to decide where and how to listen to these 16 beats. However, I would like to listen to it on a turntable in a quiet room around dawn if possible. Only then will this 'Dawn City' be completed.

Beat by Hookuo (hookuo.bandcamp.com)
Vinyl Mastered by Jaesoo Yi (Sonority Mastering)
Cover Art by Ae Shoong (aeshoong.com)
Design by YP

SLP-0006 (C) 2022 Hookuo (P) 2022 SSE PROJECT

[LP Specification]

* Limited production of 500 copies, Czech pressing
* 180g Translucent blue color half, single jacket
* Vinyl mastering Lee Jae-soo (Sonority mastering)
* Hip-hop journalist Kim Bong-hyun Liner note