Boom and bap sit tight in the beat, and the whole thing immediately starts to roll – nicely in the midtempo range, straight ahead, with a stoic grace, yet still playful. The record in question is Yon Adit / Fan Fueng by Pimao. The Berlin-based producer released his first physical format only in 2024. His new album now brings together the two EPs »Yon Adit« and »Fan Fueng«, which he issued digitally in 2025: eight tracks, expanded by two new pieces.
True to their titles, these tracks move along the traces of days gone by while daydreaming the impossible into being – and they do so convincingly throughout. They draw on the rough aesthetic of instrumental hip-hop from the mid-1990s, while setting off by rickshaw from the beach straight to the teahouse without a stop in between. For his signature sound, Pimao samples his way deftly through Far Eastern sonorities, as he already did on the predecessor Duangkamol, locating places of longing far removed from musical mass tourism.
There is drive here, soul and funk. Yon Adit / Fan Fueng even extends its well-aged old-school flavour into turntablism, as on »Sai / Khwa«, with DJs Robert Smith and Whatdatfrog handling the cuts. Do people still say it like that? No matter: as long as it sounds this good, everything is fine.
Yon Adit / Fan Fueng
