VI.BE

For this project Belgian-Japanese artist Aili has joined forces with Belgian producer Transistorcake. The pair has been working through lockdown to record their debut single Dansu. Effortlessly bringing together elements of Kosmiche Musik, Acid House, Electronica, Disco & Leftfield Pop, the track is as easy on the ears as it is hard to categorise.

“We had been batting our musical ideas back and forth whilst locked in our flats earlier this year trying to get the music right. At one point I started singing over the top of ‘Dansu’ in Japanese, I’m not really sure why but it just came out like that and everything started to click,”Aili explains.

“I left Tokyo for Belgium when I was 7 years old and in many ways my Japanese stayed at that level. When I sing in Japanese it put me into this naive, almost childlike mindset that allows me to express what I feel right away. You don’t need to understand the words just the feeling that they convey.”

Dansu is a hymn to dancing the night away, made more poignant being written and recorded as Brussels’ club sat shut. Over a taut Motorik rhythms Aili’s hushed vocals blending perfectly with lambent washes of synths to create a hypnotic, languorously funky, track.