Kutiman - So Long Stay Safe (Siyal)

The Slow Music Movement
Jun 23
1 min read

This is the cover for Kutiman's Dreams In Aspamia EP, depicting an abstract landscape with vibrant colors: pink sky, purple, green, blue hills, and orange foreground, creating a bold visual contrast.

Kutiman is a composer, instrumentalist and producer based in Thailand that sprang to prominence with his Youtube audio visual collages sixteen years ago, and rightly so, they were inventive and groundbreaking at the time, and certainly caught my attention, especially as they featured a friend who was stoked to be included.

Since then he's gradually been spending more time locked in his studio rather than staring at video editing software, as well as honing his multi-instrumental ability and dreaming up new groove based, sometimes cinematic, often microdosed Middle Eastern and outernational vibes.

Kutiman wears a calm expression and a yellow t-shirt, standing by a large rock near the sea, under an overcast sky.

In this world of electronic music production I do like the sound of a contrabass and "So Long Stay Safe" immediately answers my wishes with a tight groove that should please funkateers of all persuasions. Knowing a good thing when it hears it, hand and stick played percussion soon joins in to cement a skittering, fluid rhythm.

Groove set it's time for some vintage synths to start twinkling, and shed their 20th century light whilst the faintest of guitar chops add a subliminal funkiness, but wait for the drop which unleashes some huge, Middle Eastern cinematic strings that will resonate through your brain for days, oh yeah, and why not throw in some psyche synths and effected horns for added mystique. With all the ingredients in the bowl, Kutiman then applies a deft hand, mixing them to perfection to produce a serious slice of evocative library funk that will work wonders on film or the floor.