- Aside from a sunny biography here on RA, there's not much information to be found online about Hakimonu. Whoever he is, the Israeli artist has been taking a uniquely lush, laid-back approach to house music for only a few years while already producing more than a dozen EPs, primarily on the digital Hakimonu imprint. At the very end of 2011 he put out Cadences & Framework Techno Sketches - EVER, an exceedingly pleasant collection of material pulled mostly from prior releases.
EVER is bookended with vaguely unsettling soundscapes, starting with the strained configuration of beats and vocal loops on "O," but it's the blissful warmth spread across the album's other tracks that grab the most attention. "Cadence 1 - A" simply boils over with endless melodic cascades, while both its counterpart "Cadence 1 - Native A" and "Cadence 13 - Nobody'severybody" lazily reach into the ether with tendril-like synths and strings. To make sure we don't get completely lost in that haze, "Cadence 2 - Slow" offers an unexpectedly jazzy reprieve late in the album.
There's nothing on EVER that will burn up a dance floor, but while most of the material here is oriented around mellow percussive shuffles, the album does have its tighter, more urgent selections. Take the swinging groove of "Cadence 10 - Move," for example. That one thumps along under the command of a few shimmering vocal samples, and it's certainly a standout along with "Cadence 12," whose dubbed-out glitches further reveal a keen eye for detail.
The journey ends with the foreboding vibe of "Cadence 2 - Teva Helav," but for me the album's best moment is the penultimate "Talk About You," one of EVER's newest and most uplifting tracks, which softly erupts into a storm of swirling, feedback-laced drones. It helps wind down a perfect hour-long introduction to Hakimonu's hypnotic methods. Save this one for the early morning hours, and prepare for the best sort of seduction.
Tracklist01. O
02. Cadence 1 - A
03. Cadence 13 - Nobody'severybody
04. Cadence 10 - Move
05. Cadence 1 - Native A
06. Cadence 2 - Slow
07. Cadence 12
08. Talk About You
09. Cadence 2 - Teva Halev